With his feet seemingly well under the table and his hind quarters well maintained over in Pretoria, Diego Maradona felt comfortable enough to bring his press conference forward 24 hours. Addressing questions and sending a couple of shots across the bows of others, Diego also got fairly descriptive. Scarily so.
Sitting alongside a particularly muted Javier Mascherano (unlikely to get a word in anyway, to be fair), El Diego dealt with concerns about the lack of another warm up match for his team, “I’m not concerned because our practices carry you to a level you might not reach in a match risking injury to one or other (player),” he said.
Maradona and Mascherano, yesterdayWhen asked if he knew his starting eleven for the first game against Nigeria, Maradona got all creative; “The team will come out (of practice games) a few days before (the Nigeria match), I have 23 wild cats prepared to leave their skins on the pitch”. Makes a change from 'giving it 110%' anyway.
“We’re going to reach a level that the shirt deserves . . . Argentines should relax because to beat this team (opponents) will have to put all their beef on the grill,” said Maradona, bringing that imagery back into play again. Presumably there is some sponsorship arrangement with the Argentinean Meat Marketing Board at the back of all this.
A few comments were also thrown in regarding how this squad was better, and more intelligent, than the one that Maradona played with in 1986, before a dismissal aimed at Felipe Melo of Brazil, who had offered the view recently that Argentina would be quaking in their boots at the prospect of playing his team. "I am thinking about my team, the Mascherano, the Leo (Lionel Messi). This type of thing does not interest me. I am of body and soul, thinking about what here I must do for the day only (12th June, Argentina's opening game against Nigeria)".
Felipe Melo; "I'll have the lot of yer"I think that translates roughly as 'We're taking it one game at a time, Brian'.
Getting closer now though eh?
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