Maradona, Back in Form

LOS ANGELES -- He is running -- darting, really -- in his characteristic manner: head up, chest thrust out, elbows back, thick legs pumping. Oozing arrogance and cunning and verve and utterly willing to do whatever he must. Other players will come into the frame, cleats first, and slash at his lower legs. He will always be tumbling to the ground. But he will get up and coax a curving left-footed free kick into the far upper corner of the net. This is the way we see Diego Maradona when we think of him. We recall him in his prime, in the 1986 World Cup when he was at all times the best player on the field. Opposing players confessed they had moments during a game when they lost track of their own duties and simply watched Maradona operate. No one will care to recall the bloated and out of shape Maradona loitering in the midfield, the Maradona being led away by police after his arrest on drug charges, the insufferable egoist who claims the great Pele is jealous of his skills. Which Maradona, now 33, will we see take the field -- if at all -- when Argentina plays Greece June 21 in their first World Cup match? Would it have been better for the best player of his generation to have truly quit one of the scores of times he claimed to? Or will Maradona, the most diabolical of players, pull off another of his miracles and in his new sleek incarnation play soccer in such a way that we will want to think of him in this way, the way he is now? In order to be a savior, there must be something that needs saving. And in this, the Argentinian national soccer team wrote its own perfect script for the return of a heroic Maradona. The South American giant sputtered and coughed through World Cup qualifying and doomed itself to suffer great shame when it allowed the hated Colombians to beat them at home in Buenos Aires, 5-0. Clearly, in the opinion of the Argentine public, the qualification effort was in serious trouble. Argentina's coach, Alfio Basile, became the convenient monster. Basile dared to leave Maradona off the roster for a key series of qualifying matches, a decision which should have been easily justified by Maradona's diminishing fitness and absent effort. Had it been any player other than Maradona the decision would have been debated, as all soccer matters are in Argentina, but it would not have stirred passions. "I would not play for Basile again if he came begging on his knees," Maradona said. Trapped, Basile had no room to move in order to save face as the entire nation knew he caved in to the demands of Maradona. "Maybe we're just hotheads," Basile said as he and Maradona publicly made up, and no one seemed to snicker at the understated, but apt, description. But Maradona redeemed himself -- not that it was necessary to do much of anything besides pull on the blue and white Argentina shirt for him to win the fans. Maradona worked with a personal trainer, reportedly working out in a field frequented by deer and wild boar in a remote province. He reported to camp 25 pounds lighter and with a sincere desire to help the team. He did, setting up Argentina's goal during the 1-1 tie in the first game at Sydney.When the team won, 1-0, in the final match at Buenos Aires and qualified for the World Cup final the team was all hugs and kisses and arms outstretched to the heavens in the usual emotive fashion of the Argentines. They had won and Maradona had played and it was as clear as anything that there was some inexplicable connection. He was a token and emblem of the team and the country and it simply was unthinkable to go to a World Cup final without him.