"We still haven't got started," Maradona, who secured
the 1986 World Cup with Argentina, said in a withering analysis of the team's
performances so far at the competition in Brazil.
"They need to get it into their heads that we can't be
'Sporting Messi'. Maybe he can score a great goal ... but if it doesn't come
off for the kid, we can't jump on him tomorrow as if he's guilty of the
Argentine disaster."
Maradona, Argentina's coach at the last World Cup where they
went out in the quarter-finals, was speaking on Venezuelan TV after Argentina's
defeat of Switzerland this week. His comments were broadly reported in Latin
American media on Thursday.
He said Argentina's big name team were playing at only 40
percent of their capability and criticized them for only squealing past
Switzerland 1-0 with a last-gasp goal in additional time.
"Man-for-man, and collectively, Argentina are better.
They (the Swiss) may make good watches but they have few footballers," the
always controversial Maradona said.
Argentina, who were to train behind closed doors on Thursday
at their camp in Belo Horizonte before flying to Brasilia for Saturday's game
versus Belgium, won all three group games before beating the Swiss in the last
16.
Messi has won man-of-the-match in each game, and scored four
of Argentina's seven goals. But the wins have all been by one-goal margins and
have masked some subdued individual performances by other players expected to
make bigger contributions.
"The kid [Messi] is very alone ... The team doesn't
have a change of rhythm, movements in its strikers," added Maradona,
saying the players lacked a give-it-all attitude.
"I feel something very strong inside, like bitterness,
rage, frustration, because Argentina can play much, much better ... The coach
has to impose this." If they do not improve against Belgium, "we're
in trouble," he said.
Argentina have won the World Cup twice and would extremely
love to lift it for a third time on the soil of their great rivals Brazil. Tens
of thousands of blue-and-white-clad Argentines have flooded across the border
to cheer them on.
source: www.cbc.ca