I watched this game live in 1986... the atmosphere that day, in that heat and altitude they had to play in, even on the little 14" TV we had in our house was palpable. There was something about the quality of the colors, the weather, the camera work, even to this day you can distinguish the video from the '86 World Cup at a glance of just a couple of seconds. It still brings back such amazing memories from my childhood - even though we lost. I collected the Panini World Cup stickers religiously and put them all carefully in the sticker album. I was heartbroken to be knocked out by someone I considered to be a massive cheat, but even so, I can't take away from the brilliance of this goal. It was an incredible run. He deserved the goal. I wish I could've said they deserved the game without feeling that tinge of bitterness.
The heat? I live in Mexico City, it's basically never hot here. That game was on June 22, and according to WolframAlpha that day had a high of 15C. I don't know if that data is accurate, but I can tell you a high of 15C in June is plausible. Even if Wolfram's data is sketchy, I'd bet the high temperature on that day was somewhere between 15C and 25C.
That depends on what you mean by hot: the highest temperature ever recorded in Mexico City is 38C, so my friends from northern Mexico and from, say, Arizona would say that no, Mexico City does not have even a day or two when it gets hot. (Of course, 38C is probably much too hot for comfort if you are playing football.)
But back to June 22, 1986.
I'm pretty sure the Mexican national weather service knows exactly how hot it was on June 22, 1986 in Mexico City, but unfortunately their website doesn't seem to have day-by-day data available for download (at least not that far back). I did find a table of monthly average high temperatures [1], and for June 1986 in Mexico City (see "Distrito Federal" in the table) the average high temperature was 23.6C. The Weather Underground says that on June 22, 1986 the highest temperature was 75F [2], which is 23.9C. (Why doesn't the Weather Underground default to Celsius for visitors from Mexico?)
So it looks like I would have won my (very conservative) bet that the temperature was somewhere between 15C and 25C that day.
> Maybe the TV commentator said it was a hot day.
This is definitely possible!
1. The commentator could have assumed that because the game was in Mexico it would be hot! This happens all the time. I have explained to dozens of people that Mexico City doesn't really get hot, most are surprised. Of course, when I remind them Mexico City is at an altitude of 2.2km they usually believe me about the lack of heat.
2. The commentator could have known it was 25C and still thought that was hot for a football match.
I'm watching the game right now on BBC Sport, the one with English commentators (Emlyn Hughes, Terry Venables etc). All the fans are wearing short sleeve t-shirt, this indicates that the temperature is between 20C-24C. Mexicans are very sensitive to cold, so most of them wear jumpers when it's below 20C.
What's your definition of "being a cheat" in football? Let me remind you that kicking Maradona during a match, trying to break his legs so he can no longer play, is cheating. Punching, pushing, hurting someone on purpose is cheating. Even one of the BBC commentators, Emlyn Hughes, said during the England vs Argentina match: "Oh, that was awful. He deserves a red car. Oh well, looks like we got away with it".
And yes, scoring a goal with your hand is also cheating. Did Maradona scored a goal with his hand? Yes. Did the English team kick and hurt Maradona the entire match. Yes, I saw it with my own eyes.
This is why FIFA invented the concept of Fair Play, to stop players from kicking and hurting others. And why they invented the VAR, to stop them from scoring goals with their hand.
For me, Emlyn Hughes International Soccer is the best football game from the 80s. Was released 2 years after Maradona scored the Goal of the Century against England. I remember that Emlyn Hughes was one of the commentators.
I recall watching it at my granny and grandad's house down in Devon. One of the dogs pissed on the TV aerial, which was run up a rubber plant. The colours went a bit odd after that and there was a bit more static on the screen. The game was electric.
Maradona's contribution for the Argies was absolutely awesome. He had style, class, aggression, a massive swagger and an incredible situation awareness. There were another 22 people on the pitch that day but:
