11/15/2020 21:28
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 11/15/2020 9:29 PM
It was not Diego Maradona's goals against the English in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. Neither were Mario Kempes's against the Netherlands in 1978. However, Javier Mascherano registered -in his own way- his name in the great matches of the National Team in the World Cup.
And two key moments were seen in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Alejandro Sabella's team was mutating its characteristics throughout the tournament.
From the round of 16, he got stronger defensively, with Mascherano as the standard in the middle of the court, and advanced until he reached the final.
The semis match against the Netherlands in São Paulo meant Argentina's access to a very final after 24 years and the
Jefecito
had a barbaric level, with a notorious impact.
In the 90th minute, he excelled with a play that remained in the memory: the dangerous Arjen Robben escaped at speed and, before going hand in hand with Chiquito Romero, he appeared as a great savior, stretching body and soul (
"I opened the anus "
, he would later recognize) to cover the Dutchman's auction.
It was worth a goal, without a doubt.
And already in the penalty shootout, he issued a phrase that remained in history.
With a voice commanding the group, he harangued Chiquito Romero.
"
Today, today you become a hero," he told 1
.
Television cameras got it right.
The goalkeeper was key in those penalties to allow Sabella's team to reach the decisive match with the Germans.
"That was the end of the sentence he told me. He starts by telling me that it did not matter how much I had suffered in the last year, with all the criticism I had received, because I had played little. That it was my moment, that it was the moment in which my story was going to turn, "said Romero.
"And he ends up saying to me: 'From today you become a hero', that phrase that remained. It was a unique moment," the goalkeeper recalled later.
Because of those things of destiny and football, Argentina could not lift the Cup in a Brazilian dream.
But the memory of Masche - specifically for that match against the Dutch - remained for posterity.
Look also
Javier Mascherano and the National Team: a love affair that ended with a record of 206 games played since the youth
Javier Mascherano retires from football after a stellar career