EalingGreen
19/11/2008, 2:56 PM
With Maradona being in Scotland as Argentina manager at the moment, there has been a lot of talk about him scoring against them as a 17 year old player old at Hampden back in 1979.
However, this was part of a European tour, whereby he has actually made his first appearance in Europe in Dublin a few days earlier.
I remember going down to that game with a mate from QUB. We decided to hitch down to save money and I remember turning down a couple of lifts which were only going part way, before we got one which was going all the way - there was a petrol strike in the Republic at the time and we were scared of being stranded!
Anyhow, for a 0-0 draw, I seem to recall it was quite a good game, with Liam Brady running the show in the first half.
Then for the second half, Argentina introduced this "wonder-kid" we'd heard rumours of. He certainly didn't disappoint! You didn't need to know anything about football to know that this youngster was something special. Even Brady, who was near his pomp at the time, had to play "second fiddle".
Anyhow, in checking the details on www.rsssf.com, I note they say this was "Not Considered a Full International".
http://www.rsssf.com/tablesi/ier-intres.html#3
Can anyone remind me why this should have been?
Edit: While doing some more digging, I see that this game is not listed on Soccerscene's list of (Official) games: http://www.soccerscene.ie/sssenior/matches.php
The Programme cover indicates that it might have been organised by someone at Shamrock Rovers, with part/all? proceeds going to Charity/Unicef?
http://glfp.co.uk/resizebrandimg.aspx?img=sysimages/pro_624_org.jpg
However, this was part of a European tour, whereby he has actually made his first appearance in Europe in Dublin a few days earlier.
I remember going down to that game with a mate from QUB. We decided to hitch down to save money and I remember turning down a couple of lifts which were only going part way, before we got one which was going all the way - there was a petrol strike in the Republic at the time and we were scared of being stranded!
Anyhow, for a 0-0 draw, I seem to recall it was quite a good game, with Liam Brady running the show in the first half.
Then for the second half, Argentina introduced this "wonder-kid" we'd heard rumours of. He certainly didn't disappoint! You didn't need to know anything about football to know that this youngster was something special. Even Brady, who was near his pomp at the time, had to play "second fiddle".
Anyhow, in checking the details on www.rsssf.com, I note they say this was "Not Considered a Full International".
http://www.rsssf.com/tablesi/ier-intres.html#3
Can anyone remind me why this should have been?
Edit: While doing some more digging, I see that this game is not listed on Soccerscene's list of (Official) games: http://www.soccerscene.ie/sssenior/matches.php
The Programme cover indicates that it might have been organised by someone at Shamrock Rovers, with part/all? proceeds going to Charity/Unicef?
http://glfp.co.uk/resizebrandimg.aspx?img=sysimages/pro_624_org.jpg