A week later at the Monumental we beat Venezuela but scored
                   the last two goals in the last four minutes.

                   The two deciding games against Peru were terrible, absolutely terrible! The
                   first in Lima on 23 June was the Reyna episode... I say that and everybody
                   knows what I’m talking about. About that lad who followed me into the
                   bathroom. Absolutely off his head, mate! In one move I landed badly and left
                   the field so the doc could have a look at me. And this bloke followed me to the
                   edge of the pitch! When I was going back on, he came over and stood right
                   beside me, the thermos head.

                   What a genius that Reyna... A ball signed by all the Peruvian footballers got to
                   me in Cuba, wishing me get better soon and, guess whose name was on it
                   too... Reyna! 40 years old and living in Havana and the son of a bitch even
                   followed me there!

                   Then came the qualifier on 30 June in Buenos Aires. Mamita, did we suffer!

                   Luckily enough we pulled it off and qualified for the World Cup in Mexico. Right
                   there, I swear on my mother, I told Skinny Gareca, “This is it. This is the way
                   we’re going to finish the World Cup... Suffering but winning it.”

                   Around that time at Napoli with a goal by me we beat Juventus, every
                   Neapolitan’s dream. Just to set the record straight once and for all, what I said
                   was, “At the end of the day if I have to choose between playing for Napoli and
                   playing for my country, I’ll take Argentina.” That’s what I said but it didn’t stop
                   me running myself into the ground for Napoli when I had to play.

                   When we eventually settled in at América’s team headquarters in Mexico City
                   it clicked that what I had in mind wasn’t just a dream. We were going to be
                   world champions.

                   That’s when we realised it was us against the rest of the world, so we’d better
                   all pull together... And we pulled together all right. We really pulled! I’ve
                   personally always felt smothered by the atmosphere in pre-match build-ups
                   but this time was different ’cause we really opened up to each other and spoke
                   our minds. Everything grew out of that.

                   I scored that really sweet goal against Italy, one of the best in my collection.

                   Later on against the Bulgarians we made a few of the old mistakes but were
                   too well-organised by then. We were demolishing everybody one after the
                   other. We’d reached the quarter finals!

                   La Tota kept saying things like, “What are you eating, lad? You’re running
                   harder than ever!” I was dying to stretch out in the sun but I didn’t want to
                   leave the dining room, the team headquarters, the bedroom... My room! I was
                   sharing with Pedrito Pasculli and every day we’d add something new like a
                   picture, a photo, the odd knick-knack, a letter... We wanted it to be our house
                   for a month, our home till the final!

                   The thing was we’d got so far and nobody was taking us seriously and the odd
                   person asked me if we were happy about being in the top eight... What do you
                   think!? I reminded them of Obdulio Varela’s famous phrase before the
                   Maracanazo, the 1950 final when Uruguay beat Brazil, ’cause I always
                   remembered what he said: “Only happy if we’re champions.”

                   The England game no less was coming up. 22 June 1986. Another date I won’t
                   forget in a hurry. Not as long as I live
 

~Chapter 5

Chapters Index~

Chapter 7~