Soccer: Brazil mediocre, final poor, says Maradona

TOKYO - Diego Maradona has dismissed Brazil as a "mediocre" team who were lucky to win the soccer World Cup.

Maradona, who won the cup with Argentina in Mexico in 1986 and was a runner-up in Italy four years later, also criticised the quality of the football during an upset-filled tournament in South Korea and Japan.

"The final summed up the level of the tournament. It was a poor match. Brazil are just a collection of individuals. They don't play as a team," said the 41-year-old Maradona, who dazzled as a player but is now undergoing drug rehabilitation in Havana.

"Brazil were playing one of the worst Germany teams I have seen in my life.

"They were lucky that they had a striker [Ronaldo] who hit top form at the right time."

Ronaldo erased the nightmare of his 1998 final by scoring both goals against Germany in Sunday's 2-0 win to take his tally in the finals to eight.

Maradona blamed the sport's world governing body, Fifa, for putting sponsor money first by "overloading" playing schedules ahead of the cup.

"How can you expect the players to always be at 100 per cent when they don't get time to rest between competitions?

"Look at [French star Zinedine] Zidane. There was so much pressure on him to deliver but he was physically and mentally exhausted," Maradona said.

"The players were at saturation point after a long season and then they come to the World Cup. There is too much expected of them.

"No wonder you get all these injuries. Fifa should do more to protect the players."

- REUTERS

nzherald.co.nz/fifaworldcup

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