England were badly afflicted by injuries/suspension by that stage. Losing captain Bryan Robson to a dislocated shoulder and Ray Wilkins, getting stupidly sent off for throwing the ball at the referee were two huge losses from midfield. Chris Waddle picked up an injury as well in the group stage. The big mistake in the Argentina game was holding John Barnes in reserve for so long. He almost rescued the game for England when he came on. Lineker pulled the goal back with 10 minutes to go and nearly rescued it for England at the death when he just failed by inches to get on the end of another Barnes cross after Barnes had terrorised the Argentinian defence again. Hoddle, Beardsley, Barnes (when he got on) and Lineker represented real attacking quality. Shilton was one of the top keepers in the world at that time and Terry Butcher one of the top central defenders. All bar Hoddle featured in 1990 when England narrowly lost on penalties to eventual winners West Germany in the semi final.
Argentina outside of Maradona were no great shakes. Whatever their limitations if England had got past Argentina they had every chance of winning it out. Belgium and two veteran sides in West Germany and France were all that was left.
No football player will ever be better than Maradona was for those few weeks, it seemed there was nothing he couldn’t do, those pitches in Mexico seemed bumpy as fuck as well.
I’m surprised that we’ve got to lunchtime on TFK without a massive spat about the Somme, seems like exactly the type of thing that could divide this place down the middle.
Twas Britain bade our wild Geese go that small nations might be free
But their lonely graves are by Sulva’s waves or the shore of the Great North Sea
Oh, had they died by Pearse’s side or fought with Cathal Brugha
Their names we will keep where the fenians sleep 'neath the shroud of the foggy dew
Foley was a vet in limerick at the time and would with a bunch of west clare men (mostly kilbaha) who ran their own training sessions out in ul. I went along a good few times. He was as hard as nails. The meath training games must have been something else.
