Argentina, a team filled with some of the world’s best talent, hiked up into the thin air of La Paz (12,000 ft or two miles high and the highest stadium on earth), and they came down on the losing end of a 6-1 thrashing to Bolivia.

The devastating loss has everyone asking questions.

Story via NY Times

“The air is thin, the heat of the afternoon was appreciable, and Bolivia’s extraordinary tempo was sustained for so long that the ill-prepared Argentines were reduced to exhaustion long before the end.

“I suffered with them,” said Maradona, meaning not only his players, but Argentines everywhere who watched on television. “Every Bolivian goal was a stab in my heart.”

The altitude debate, undoubtedly, will rise again. Two years ago, Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA, the world governing body, had tried to outlaw competitive matches in the Andes Mountains. He was supported principally by Argentina and Brazil, who have to gather their star players fly them to South America between games for their clubs in Europe.

Maradona could not offer that excuse. At the time of the FIFA debate on the subject, Maradona had flown to La Paz to play alongside its president, Evo Morales, in a gesture of support against the ban. “You have to play where you are born,” Maradona said then. “Not even God can prohibit this — certainly not Blatter.”

The perils might be in mind as much as body. Players as renowned as Lionel Messi, Carlos Tévez, Javier Mascherano, et al., looked defeated from the start. Their beating was as severe as many that Bolivia has suffered on foreign fields at sea level.”

Image via Daylife