There are two types of Argentines:
those who saw Diego Armando Maradona lead the team to the World Cup in 1986 with their own eyes, and those who only heard about it.
Adults and young people, two different generations.
Those who saw Diego dreamed that at the tournament in Qatar they would get to experience those moments one more time, maybe for the last time, while those who heard the stories filled that they would get to see it here.
Dream of being part of the experience.
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The semi-final against Croatia last night (Tuesday) was the closest thing to that World Cup in Mexico.
Although the Losail Stadium and not the Azteca, a semi-final and not a quarter, Croatia and not England, but the essence is the essence.
The Argentinians are not looking for a reconstruction of '86 - that is impossible, they just want the aromas and feelings, the moments and memories, this madness.
Until the semi-finals it went exactly that way.
The painful loss to Saudi Arabia, the disillusionment, the exit from the crisis, the first place in the early home, the drama against Australia and the heroic victory over the Netherlands.
Celebrations in Buenos Aires, photo: Getty Images
The Argentinian team moved on the whole range of emotions, fell, got up, fought tooth and nail.
She was good and bad, pleasant and cruel, acting as if she had read the script.
Coach Scoloni put the business together, the players understand the magnitude of the task and the audience sets the tone and soundtrack.
size does not matter
And yet, the fragrances of '86 are produced by one man.
Small, number 10. So, in Mexico, it was Maradona who took the team on his back and here it is Leo Messi.
True, he has a formidable and cohesive team by his side, and he has Julian Albers next to him who is a superstar in the making, but he is doing something special here.
Argentina players celebrate.
Fragrances of 1986, photo: IPA
And this is happening in his fifth World Cup, after in the first he did not participate in the quarter-finals where Argentina was eliminated, in the second he did not score at all, in the third he was stopped in the final after not scoring in a knockout and in the fourth he stole from Kylian Mbappe and France.
And it comes at the age of 35, when the body is bruised and the speed fades.
From this starting point, Messi manages to create the moments that the Argentines dreamed of when they closed their eyes before the start of this tournament.
Albers.
A rising star, photo: AFP
They allowed themselves to imagine how he reaches these stages and sends a deep pass that defies the laws of physics as he did against the Netherlands, how he scores decisive penalties under pressure and how he does what he did in the 69th minute of the semi-final.
His assist for 0:3, in front of future stopper Yoshko Gabbariol, was for Argentina a journey through time.
Not only because the two are separated by 15 years and precisely Messi looks the younger, but because he threw them all to another time - 36 years back.
The movement, the speed, the deceptions, the passing - these are the elements of Argentine football folklore.
The ingredients that created 86, the ingredients that gave birth to Diego's mythology.
It's not over yet, of course.
UNO MAS say the Argentinians, one more game.
Still, "La Albiceleste" and Messi did and are doing something big here in Qatar.
They make dreams come true, they connect generations, they remind forgotten people.
They are in the World Cup final.
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