WORLD CUP USA ’94 / ROUND OF 16 : Showtime, Starring Maradona : Soccer: Suspension notwithstanding, he draws attention as television commentator.
No, the ghost of Diego Maradona did not haunt the two-time World Cup champion Argentine team Sunday afternoon in the round of 16.
How could it when the body was warm, in the building and fully credentialed as a TV commentator?
The Buenos Aires television station Artea added Maradona as a last-minute guest analyst to its coverage of the Argentina-Romania match at the Rose Bowl, drug suspension be damned. (Must be sweeps week in Argentina). In fact, Maradona was a later-than-last-minute addition, arriving to his outdoor press row seat--with a police escort--with the game already two minutes old.
Maradona arrived as inconspicuously as possible, as is his nature. With two bodyguards and eight stern-looking men in uniform running interference, Maradona sauntered up the Rose Bowl steps in official “I’m Maradona!” leisure-wear: thick black Ray-Bay sunglasses, glittering gold earring and the worst shirt in Pasadena--a red, green, yellow, white and black fiasco that combined photo images of British Beefeater guards and the side of a dairy cow.
FIFA had consented to credential Maradona for the match, but refused to sanction a fireworks display, which was all his entrance lacked.
“Diego! Diego!” chanted the crowd as a surreal scene began to unfold.
On the field below, Team Argentina was playing for a berth in the World Cup quarterfinals without its marquee playmaker.
Up in the stands, it was the sans Diego zoo, with fans rushing the press area for autographs, pictures or a possible handshake, most them thwarted by the purple-bereted security force that has come to be known as “Barney’s Army” by the World Cup media.
By halftime, the crush around Maradona’s seat threatened to veer out of control. So many fans climbed on top of a nearby aluminum bench, straining to catch a glimpse of their hero, that the bench broke. Several people threw expensive cameras over rows of working journalists to an Artea technician, begging him to take a photo of Maradona.
When the technician completed the task for one man, the camera’s owner then suggested, “I’m gonna throw you my girlfriend. Can he sign her, too?”
A blue-and-white festooned fan made a run with a sign that read “MARADONA SOCCER GOD IS INNOCENT. . . . THE THRILL IS GONE.” Seconds later, so was the fan, pushed away by security guards.
Another sign-toter carried a message in Spanish: “FIFA NO TIENE VERGUENZA”--FIFA has no shame.
And another: “DIEGO WE LOVE YOU.”
Along with certain codes of fashion, Maradona broke the cardinal rule of sports journalism: No cheering in the press box. When Abel Balbo scored Argentina’s second goal in the 74th minute, Maradona leaped from his seat, clenched both fists and bellowed, “BALBO!” Maradona’s wife Claudia, presumably issued a companion-of-the-guest-analyst’s pass, shouted, too, and wrapped a bearhug around her husband.
Moments earlier, when Gheorge Hagi scored to put Romania up, 3-1, the guest commentator stopped commentating altogether. For a full 30 seconds, a forlorn Maradona plopped his chin on the television monitor in front of him, staring glumly.
In the 84th minute, Maradona, and the security brigade, could take no more, so they reassembled the escort and headed for the nearest exit.
“I’m going back with the boys,” Maradona said. “I have to return with the team.
“I returned after our failure in 1982. I returned in 1990.
“And,” said MacArthur Maradona, “I shall return in 1994.”
