DIEGO Maradona has admitted he is considering his future as Argentina coach after his side were brutally dumped out of the World Cup by Germany.
“I may leave tomorrow,” he said after their 4-0 quarter-final defeat.
“I’ll have to think carefully about it, and talk with my family and the players. There are many issues here.”
Maradona, who led Argentina to World Cup glory in 1986 as a player, said that “whoever comes after me” must follow the team’s attacking style.
But that commitment to going forward was easily nullified by Germany as the Europeans defended with complete commitment before breaking forward swiftly and effectively on the counter-attack.
Argentina striker Carlos Tevez admitted as much, and offered no excuses after a disjointed performance in Cape Town in which FIFA’s world player-of-the-year Lionel Messi was frequently reduced to collecting the ball from his centre-backs.
“There’s nothing we can say about their win,” said Tevez after Argentina suffered their worst World Cup defeat in 52 years. “To lose like that is very painful. We played badly and sometimes when you make mistakes you go home.”
The Manchester City striker added: “We knew it would be complicated and that they wouldn’t let us attack.
“They did what we knew they were capable of doing. We knew they could be dangerous on set-pieces and on the counter-attack.” (BBC Sport)