Maradona is awesome, scores free kicks

Maradona's shot shows he's still impressive

By Brian Phillips

Quem reclamou da Jabulani? Maradona dá espetáculo com bola da Copa!

I can't stay mad at Diego Maradona. The Argentina manager has been taking a lot of flak lately for, you know, running over cameramen, being feisty, and not really knowing how to manage Argentina. But he's also one of the three or four greatest players ever, and somehow, watching him take free-kick practice during Argentina training, all the years of crazy fall away and everything just makes sense. (The groovy French-Argentine muzak probably helps with that.)

He's got great touch for a 49-year-old stomach-stapling veteran, too. I don't know, could he sub himself into some games? With Riquelme off the team, Argentina's missing its usual "completely immobile central midfielder with phenomenal vision" character. All is forgiven, Diego. Let's make this happen.

On the field, NO PLAYER WAS AS GREAT AS MARADONA. The goal he scored when he skipped England 7 defenders was SIMPLY awesome, regarded as the BEST WORLD CUP GOAL. And also the assist he made to Cannigia was after skipping Brazil's 4-5 defenders was even stunning. Brazil, Italy and Germany, had touch tackles on Maradona when he was on the pitch.