Tactics were different, but if anything that just puts it in favor of Maradona. Rio puts it best:
"Diego played when you could tackle round a mans neck & get a stern word no yellow...zero protection....and still had defenders sitting down!"
They couldn't do anything to him, he was that good. Nowadays you touch a player and they're on the ground asking for a Free-Kick, Messi has done that in this tournament but I won't say its only him cause everyone does it. Furthermore the Referees of this tournament are simply awful, they don't ever call the right fouls and one someone makes a good challenge they instead are booked. It's not as physical as it used to be.
This tournament already showed that those rankings didn't mean much. The #1 team got destroyed by Netherlands and Portugal who was I think #4 also got destroyed by Germany. The Swiss were ranked higher than the French and were defeated heavily by them as well. Hitzfield is smart indeed, but the options he had to use at Bayern and Dortmund are much better than what he had at Switzerland. Not really a challenge all that much.
Belgium had another easy group, they weren't really tested and didn't perform that of what was expected of them in the Group Stage. The round of 16 match was against the USA and it took them Over-time goals to win. And Players that perform well at their clubs don't always do well on the international stage. Hazard was nothing special this tournament, and De Bruyne was decent. Lukaku wasn't even first choice over Origi and Courtouis wasn't tested much being that they played such easy group stage opponents. Belgium performed right on the 'Well' Mark. Higuain's volley was also unpredictable in the sense that it was kinda luck. Messi himself use to be a great example of being phenomenal in club and poor for country. He was even going to quit International Football at one point.
Maradona had an ankle injury during the 1990 WC, of course he couldn't perform to his all time high of the '86 tournament but he still helped out a lot especially by creating Chances such as setting up the goal against Brazil. He missed in the SO against Yugoslavia but scored in the very next shoot-out against Host-Nation Italy in the Semis, good way to redeem himself.
It's not just the draws, I read a blog once about how Argentina have the ideal conditions in this tournament. They play games in generally cooler temperatures in good playing conditions/regions of Brazil and usually face an opponent in the next round that have just got done playing in much hotter and weary conditions. They have the advantages in many ways. On the other hand Germany has been playing in generally much hotter conditions, though they were smart and prepared for this by training earlier to adapt to this.
No, its much different meeting Germany in the final than to meet them in a Quarter final. The pressure is bigger on both sides and teams may not play as open as they would in an earlier stage just from sheer tension/stress. Probably why Finals aren't usually large scoring games. And they were going to "meet Germany regardless" as they have not had any real challenge despite an exhausted Netherlands. Germany topped the Group of Death and proved themselves by beating teams like France and thrashing Brazil. Can't quite say the same for Argentina.
Italy and Spain used to be German Killers. Both squads wouldn't stand a chance against this Germany right now. The Italy squad has really gotten worse since 2006 where they were unstoppable to now where they can't get past the group. Spain would've been slaughtered as well considering their strategy is void against a German team. Not in the slightest of bit should've topped the group. I'm not even a German fan and its clear as day that Spain didn't deserve to get out the group. Italy is more subjective being they had more controversy (Red-card, Suarez) but even with that maybe they deserved to just advance. Costa Rica deserved to top the group, they played really well.
Argentina has been considered a One-Man show for the most part and he hasn't score a goal outside his Group Stage where the teams weren't a challenge. Agüero has been pretty shit this tournament. Sabella has no control over what goes on in the locker-room, Messi is the de-facto coach.
Anyways I look forward to this final.
