page_title: History of the Argentina national football team
section_title: 1990: Finalist again
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Argentina national football team / History / 1990: Finalist again
caption_attribution_description: English: Argentina striker Claudio Caniggia scoring his goal v. Brazil at the 1990 FIFA World Cup.
context_page_description: The first match ever recorded by an Argentina national football team was played on 16 May 1901 against Uruguay, although the one played by Argentina on 20 July 1902 is considered its first official match, a 6–0 win.
  The Argentina national team has appeared in five FIFA World Cup finals, including the inaugural final in 1930, 1978 beating the Netherlands, the 1986, 1990 and 2014.
  Argentina has been very successful in the Copa América, winning it 14 times and also winning the "extra" South American Championships in 1941, 1945 and 1946. The team also won the FIFA Confederations Cup and the Kirin Cup, both in 1992, and the Argentine olympic team won the Olympics football tournaments in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008.
context_section_description: Argentina went to the 1990 World Cup with no qualifiers needed as being the previous champion. Prior to the World Cup, the national team played some several matches with no good results: Argentina lost to Mexico (0–2) and Scotland (0–2), winning just one of the five games played (to Israel, chosen again to be the last rival before the tournament as it had been four years before). In addition, Jorge Valdano (one of the most important players during the 1986 World Cup) trained hard in order to be in good physical condition for the Cup, but Bilardo decided not to include him in the definitive list of players. To that, Valdano said, "I swam through the ocean but I drowned at the shore." In addition to Valdano not playing, a number of other important players were injured, so Argentina resorted to cynical tactics on the field, as they knew they could not win easily in a straight fight.
  Argentina finally debuted at the inaugural match at the San Siro in Milan, being defeated by Cameroon (1–0). This result caused a great surprise in Argentina so the national team line-up was based on the 1986 world champion.
  Argentina won its second match against the Soviet Union 2–0 (where titular goalkeeper was Nery Pumpido seriously injured, being replaced by Sergio Goycochea for the rest of the tournament), and drew 1–1 with Romania in the last match of first round, both played in Naples, where Maradona played for Napoli in the Serie A. The team qualified to the second round, where they faced Brazil at the Stadio delle Alpi in Turin. In a match where Brazil played much better than Argentina, with forwards Müller and Careca repeatedly shooting to the goal but missing the target (the ball clashed Argentina's posts a couple of times, while Goycoechea stopped other shots) Argentina (with Maradona in bad physical condition) resisted Brazilian offensive movements during the first half, which ended 0–0. In the second half, Brazil was not so persistent as it had been during the first 45 minutes, so Argentina took advantage of the situation. With nine minutes till full-time, Maradona took the ball in the centre of the field, dribbled past three opponents and made a precise pass to winger Claudio Caniggia, who advanced with the ball to a goal after dribbling around goalkeeper Cláudio Taffarel. Argentina won the match 1–0, eliminating its arch-rival in a World Cup for the first time. That match is still regarded by the media and fans as one of the most remarkable moments of an Argentina national team.
  For their quarter-final match in Florence, Argentina narrowly eliminated Yugoslavia in an exciting penalty shootout, with Goycoechea becoming a hero after stopping three penalty kicks, including the last two. Maradona also missed a penalty kick, a rare occurrence; at one point Argentina were behind the Yugoslavs, but Goycoechea's outstanding goalkeeping kept Argentina in the tournament.
  Argentina advanced to semi-finals where it to play against Italy in Naples. The local host was considered favourite to win the match because their striker Salvatore Schillaci was the tournament's top scorer (he would be awarded both the Golden Boot and the Golden Ball at the end of the tournament) and  Argentina had many injured players, Maradona being one of them. Nevertheless, Argentina made its best performance in the World Cup and the match ended 1–1 after 90 minutes. With zero goals in extra time, the game went to a penalty shootout where Goycoechea was the hero again, stopping the shots from Aldo Serena and Roberto Donadoni to send Argentina to its second-straight World Cup final.
  For the final in Rome, Argentina played West Germany, coached by former player Franz Beckenbauer. Caniggia was suspended for one game after receiving a yellow card in the match against Italy so he could not play the final. Germany arrived to the final as a wide favorite to take the Cup, as the squad had showed an effective and precise playing style, unlike Argentina which (with the exception of the game with Italy) had not had good previous performances. In addition, German footballers were
caption: Claudio Caniggia scoring the only goal against Brazil in Turin.
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