I think Bulgaria in either 98 or 94 I cannot recollect right now, but that tea had Stroykoff and he had the best free kicks this world has ever seen, it was miraculous.
Wasa is right in a way, Brazil was a power house; Socrates, Zico, Alemao, Gallo, man the talent was endless in that era of brazil. BTW; that was a pretty interesting read. I think that Pele's vanity is guilty of alienating the people that truly love soccer, which is sad, but I still stand behind my opinion.
Maradona did change football as we know it and so have a few players out there. I'm not gonna rant on and on about Colombia so here me out for a bit; During the friendly games of 90 Colombia showed the world a very intricate and beautifull passing technic, it was rare, different and quite unique and things changed quite a bit after that, you could see it in club tournaments in small dosages, but never in a WC level. This was the days when Valderrama did what Kryuff did "You jump when I tell you to jump!" and it worked well, Valderrama will never get that recognition though, but man he was doing this after the "stand" football era when things moved fast, hell it was a crazy pace back in 90, just look at klinsman I think he was the fastest fucker Germany has ever had, so think about that. I guess my point here is that innovators are sometimes ignored in this field.
I also find worth mentioning the Bebeto & Romario duo, it just rocked the house! The thing is that they were backed by a very mediocre team back then, but man that was phenomenal football. Well for the most part the 94 cup was a bit mundane and all the cammera's were on Baggio the most expensive player in the world back then. I guess is just a way of thiking, but I allways felt that team play is more meritable than individualism, I guess because is harder to make sense of it efficciently, but yes, Maradona's 86 victory was just that...his.
Al little recap here; During my childhoodwe used to play a lot of "Metegoltapa!" which only means whomever makes the goal get's to guard the arch, so it was a frenzy 10 or more one man show acts, it was hard and it was intense, 'cause everyone hunted the ball for their own gain, so I can only imagine how hard it must be to battle a whole team which purpose is to take you down. Now, when we played this game in duos things changed for the better and skill was shown at a better pace. Just fond memories of days of old, I guess I felt like sharing that for the hell of it.
NGMVS: I think I can understand that feeling, Iguita was a national hero along with Valderrama, but Iguita fell from grace even harder that Maradona, but if you ask a COlombian who's the best Goal Keeper that ever lived; without a doubt Iguita will allways come up.
I also find very offensive Maradona's gesture against the America Cup which was hosted for the first time in Colombia, I guess the whole Argentinian attitude of not even participating in the final ceremony 'cause of rivalry against Colombia was atrocious and childish, or at least it seemed that way.
You know Colombia was a fragile (and still is) country back then, and wanted to make an effort to show that there's more than violence in there and Argentina gives it the cold shoulder, even worst; after Colombia won the cup Maradona's view on this was that this victory wasn't valid 'cause he wasn't there!
I guess he broke my heart in more ways than one. During an America's tournament we scored a 5-0 against Argentina and his words were "La biblia del futbol esta escrita por los argentinos" (The Football bible is written by argentinians) I mean gosh! WTF!? Everytime Argentina loses Maradona's reaction is...I wasn't there so...
I think highly of Argentinian football and I hold this rivalry on high regard for being a rival with one of the greats is at least a means to a dream.