The 1994 World Cup in the United States was definitely the saddest and most topical World Cup, the year the football kingdom Brazil became the first team to win the cup four times, and the lone wolf Romario won the Golden Boot. However, more interesting than Brazil's victory are the two stars of this World Cup, Maradona and Robert Baggio, who ended in this World Cup extremely imperfectly.
Let's start with Argentine Maradona. The United States World Cup pushed forward 8 years, that is, the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, Maradona single-handedly led Argentina to the top, and left the legend of the "Hand of God". The United States World Cup pushed forward four years, Argentina lacked most of the main players, but in the semifinals against Brazil, Maradona rode through single-handedly, shredding Brazil's entire defense, assisting opponents to score, dragging the remaining team Argentina to the final.
It can be said that in the two World Cups before the World Cup in the United States, Maradona is a frightening existence, especially the sworn enemy Brazil, and there is no way to take him. In the 1994 World Cup, under the leadership of Maradona, Argentina won the first two games of the group stage and qualified early, just when the outside world thought that Argentina would be in full swing and attack the championship, on June 27, 1994, FIFA suddenly announced that Maradona was found to have taken illegal drugs and was banned for 15 months.
The news of Maradona's ban caught everyone off guard, Argentina also lost their absolute core, and in the last game of the group stage, they lost 0:2 to Bulgaria and 2:3 to Romania in the 1/8 final, and the favorites to win this World Cup were out. After the World Cup, the Argentine Football Federation openly protested, arguing that the president of FIFA at the time, Brazilian Avelange, used his position to hack Argentina in order to win the championship.
At that time, Maradona took ephedrine and other diet drugs is not a secret at all, FIFA has been acquiescing to this, but after the start of the World Cup, when Argentina's morale was at its peak, FIFA intervened in the matter, which is too suspicious, the Argentine Football Association believes that everything is Aranvige is making trouble, Brazil's World Cup champion is full of conspiracies.
Next, let's talk about Baggio. Fans all over the world are familiar with the picture above, the lonely back, the melancholy look, in stark contrast to the madness of countless Brazilian fans on the scene, if it were not for this penalty, Baggio's career would be perfect, we can imagine how much pressure he has when Baggio stands on 12 yards, he carries the hope of the whole of Italy, usually 90% of people will make mistakes at this moment.
In fact, the outside world only remembered Baggio's fatal penalty, but did not know that this World Cup, Italy is not the favorite to win the championship, the group stage is only not ranked third, it was 24 teams at that time, Italy with better results in the third group to enter the knockout round, if not Baggio alone scored 5 goals, to bring this residual team to the final, where is the later thing, therefore, Baggio should not be belittled, but should be respected.