Argentina’s qualification to South Africa 2010, the aftermath, and what I need to say about it.  The following is a translation/recap of the most relevant parts of what Diego Maradona said in his press conference following their 1 - 0 win in Uruguay.

More after the jump

Maradona starts out by thanking the team, the people of Argentina, and his family, and then the fireworks start:

“…..but there is a sector that does not deserve my thanks and they know it very well. It’s all fine, but I have a memory, and now I’m going to remember more than ever before. For those of you who didn’t believe in this team and that treated me like garbage, today we are in the World Cup without anyone’s help, With all the honors of beating a great team in Uruguay, that played for their lives at every moment, and we beat them like men. This is all I wanted to say. To those of you who didn’t believe, please excuse me ladies, they can suck it and they can keep sucking it. I am black or white, I’ll never be gray in my whole life. Those of you that treated me like you did, keeping sucking it”.

He answered a few more questions and then Juan Carlos Pasmar stands up and introduces himself to ask a question and Maradona cuts him off and says “You too Pasmar, you have it inside too” (meaning you take it in the ass). Maradona: “Ask your question” Pasmar: “What, we can’t criticize?” Maradona: “Yes, but not with bad intentions. I don’t think I ever disrespected you”. Pasmar: “I never disrespected you either. I actually think you’re disrespecting me now but here’s my question ‘What did the hug with Bilardo mean’” Maradona “It meant that you can keep sucking it”.

The press conference went on and he said a few other meaningless things, but the damage was already done. He did the damage to himself, to the team, and more importantly to Argentina as a whole. I’ve never felt so embarrassed from what another person has said or done. He represents us as Argentinians to the rest of the world and he is representing us as ignorant, classless, and disrespectful. At a time when we should have been celebrating instead we were talking about what an imbecile he is.

I left work early, like the rest of my family, and we got together to watch the game in hopes of celebrating our qualification. There were about 15 of us nervously watching the game together and when we had finally won we were ready to celebrate with wine and a huge asado. Instead we ended up walking away from the tv in disgust as we were watching this on live tv directly from Argentina. Our two hour dinner revolved around what a jackass he is and wondering how he can be in charge. The answer to that question is simple, Julio Grondona, the President of AFA, is obviously just the same because he appointed him and he defended him after this happened.

The fact is we qualified for the World Cup and we did it despite him. In Argentina, he has gone from being God to being the Devil, and he did it all on his own. Maradona was never qualified to coach this team, much like Hugo sanchez was not qualified to coach Mexico, and he has proven it every step of the way. In his brief stints at Mandiyu de Corrientes and Racing he proved that he while he was one of the game’s best players, but he was a worthless coach.

Now, beyond doing a poor job as a coach, he is doing a poor job as an ambassador of the game (not that he ever did a good job before) and an asinine job of representing our people and our culture. We want him out and we want him out now. This is not who we are and this is not who we want representing us in the World Cup.