Classic World Cup 1990 Clips - Argentina vs. Cameroon - Must Watch

[Paradigm]

Argentina as the defending champions had a very bad opening to Italy '90 tournament, conceded an easy goal in the first game, losing it, and their starting goal keeper was injured as well. They still managed to go all the way to the final against West Germany, while Cameroon was knocked out by England in the quarter finals. I have a few memorable scenes from this match, for example when Maradona started to bounce the ball over his sholder just before the starting whistle, or when the Cameroonian player lost his shoe on the pitch. The first clip below tends to focus more on Cameroon while the second focuses on Maradona's tricks in the opening stages of the tournament. Considering the recent World Cup draw we are in with Argentina, an African team, and an Eastern European team, watching these videos again should add insight to what we could expect next Summer.

[teammelli91]

That first foul by Cameroon should have been a yellow. In fact I think the second foul where the Argentinian player flipped looked more like a red than the first foul. The referee did't officiate the match well in my opinion. But well deserved win by Cameroon.

[teammelli91]

The match was epic. It gives me goose bumps cause we will play Argentina this summer as well

[Paradigm]

That first foul by Cameroon should have been a yellow. In fact I think the second foul where the Argentinian player flipped looked more like a red than the first foul. The referee did't officiate the match well in my opinion. But well deserved win by Cameroon.

Back then the referees did not give yellow and red cards as frequently or as easily. There is in fact a footage of Maradona being fouled 23 times by an Italian defender in 1982 and the defender was not sent off. You'd think at some point the referee's patience should have worn thin... See for yourself:

[Paradigm]

Several noteworthy facts about the Italy 1990 tournament which I looked up a little earlier today.

1) The average of the goals scored was so low that FIFA decided to adopt the "back pass rule" and started to award 3 points (instead of 2 points) to the match winners starting with USA '94. This was to encourage more attacking football.

2) Cameroon was the first African team to reach the quarter finals of a World Cup and as a result FIFA increased the quota for Africa by 1 team for the next tournament. Roger Milla of Cameroon managed to shine for his country by coming out of retirement at age 38 and scoring 4 crucial goals. Milla also used to perform very memorable celebrations after his goals.

3) This was the last World Cup when Soviet Union, West Germany, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia participated as a country... After the year 1990, the geography of Eastern Europe was drastically changed.

4) Argentina became the only country to this date winning two back to back penalty shoot outs in the elimination round of any World Cup. Argentina's starting keeper was injured on the second match day versus USSR so they had to employ their reserve who had been out of action for a whole 8 months. However the new keeper (Sergio Goycochea) performed superbly and managed to win the title of the goal keeper of the tournament.

5) Italy '90 has been the best finish (4th place) for England since 1966. Subsequently England failed to qualify for USA '94.