During the friendlies and group stages of this world cup, I was a quiet supporter of Argentina. The low opinion of the sporting press made it easy to get good odds on the team. Plus point was that Maradona's story of a has-been who is given a 2nd chance in life resonates with the middle aged uncle in me.
That unfortunately all changed after Argentina's flashy 4-1 defeat of South Korea in the group stages. Almost overnight he was transformed into the Hand of God. From a joke, Argentina went on to become the herd favourite. Which meant of course I had to give up betting on that team.
As a coach, I don't think Maradona is bad at all. Argentina looked bad yesterday night as they walked into a carefully prepared German trap. Just when we needed Maradona the creative genius, we got Maradona the cautious conservative who set up a predictable gameplan. I posted some time back that if Germany could read what Maradona was going to do, Germany would grind Argentina up like prime beef. With the benefit of hindsight, I suppose you could have seen it coming in the mind war leading up to the match. Maradona kept talking about how the team was carrying the weight of expectation to win the world cup. From a man with nothing to lose, he suddenly became a man with everything to lose. When you suddenly have everything to lose, then it is only natural you lose your edge and become careful/conservative.
After yesterday, the current German team will now go on to claim the mantle of "invincible" among the herd. They are not of course. Their weakenss continues to be a lack of ability to improvise when things don't go as planned. If they can be suprised, they will fall into disarray and collapse very easily. Among the remaining teams, Netherlands has probably the best chance to do this. Hopefully Germany and the Netherlands will both make it to the finals and I can get a good final bet to end off what has been a very profitable World Cup 2010.