By Gabriel Araujo
KANSAS CITY, Missouri, June 22 (Reuters) - Argentina fans, players and coaching staff kept Diego Maradona close to their hearts on Monday as the reigning world champions prepared to face Austria in their second World Cup Group J match in Dallas, with the late icon's presence as vivid as ever.
Monday marks 40 years since Maradona's defining performance in Argentina's 2-1 win over England in the 1986 World Cup quarter-finals at Mexico City's Azteca Stadium.
On June 22, 1986, he scored
both the infamous "Hand of God" goal and the sublime "Goal of the Century," dribbling past half the England team. The anniversary is commemorated in Argentina as the Day of the Argentine Footballer.
More than five years after his death, Maradona remains a ubiquitous figure among Argentina supporters, the only true rival to Lionel Messi's towering popularity.
As fans gathered last week for a party in Kansas City, which has been serving as Argentina's tournament base, giant flags bearing Maradona references rippled through the crowds.
One banner placed him side by side with Messi and carried a single word: "simbiosis."
The devotion followed the team south to Texas, where fans on Sunday chanted that "Maradona is greater than Pele," in a dig at their Brazilian rivals.
Speaking at a press conference ahead of the match, coach Lionel Scaloni reflected on the 1986 moment.
"I think I was at home, at my grandmother's house, because we all lived there. There were I don't know how many of us living there, we didn't have our own home. It was a very small TV," reminisced Scaloni, who was eight at the time.
"Emotional. I didn't know tomorrow was the anniversary of that great goal, so let's enjoy it. We will see it everywhere tomorrow. We'll cry a little too," Scaloni told reporters on Sunday.
Austria, Monday's opponents, also have a place in Maradona lore.
He scored his only international hat-trick against them in a 5-1 win in 1980. The sides met again in 1990, each time with Argentina as defending world champions.
Maradona died on November 25, 2020, at 60, after a heart attack while he was recuperating from brain surgery to remove a blood clot.
(Reporting by Gabriel AraujoEditing by Toby Davis)
