The help Messi and Maradona received or didn’t receive doesn’t end there, and the truth is likely that neither player won or lost the World Cup for his country. It’s indisputable that Maradona outperformed what was expected of the chances he had throughout the tournament. But in the final, the highlights and the data will tell you his teammates filled that role. His offensive contribution was the fifth highest among Argentina players in the match behind Valdano, Julio Olarticoechea, Enrique and Burruchaga. Burruchaga, Valdano and José Brown scored a goal each with a combined xG not quite reaching 0.5, meaning they scored about 2.5 goals more than expected among the three of them. In other words, in one match, the trio nearly equaled the expected goal plus-minus that Maradona posted in the five-match sample (+2.9).
Meanwhile, jump ahead to 2014 and Gonzalo Higuaín accounted for well over half of the scoring opportunity the ’14 team had with a 0.4 xG. His xG total was hundredths of a goal from the goal-scoring ’86 trio, so nearly identical. But Higuaín had nothing to show for it aside from an early goal called back for offside and two near misses that, on their own, each had a higher conversion likelihood than any of the three goals scored by Argentina in the ’86 final. His xG was actually a shade higher than 2014 Germany’s leader, Benedikt Höwedes, who, you might recall, missed Germany’s best chance of the match when he hit the post with a header off a corner near the end of the first half.
So Maradona not only had a more active midfield than Messi in the final, but he also had teammates finishing when he wasn’t. Which brings us to consider one chance from each match, on which Maradona and Messi played supporting roles.
