This was the moment that Jason Van Blerk angered 34 million people.
That was the population of Argentina in 1993.
Van Blerk, who lives on the Central Coast, was marking Diego Maradona when the Socceroos played Argentina in November that year in the second leg of a World Cup play-off in Buenos Aires.
In the 9th minute of the match, Van Blerk clattered into Maradona, kicking him hard on the right leg. Maradona laid flat on his stomach for several moments, before clutching his leg and grimacing in pain.
The crowd howled with derision.
Funnily enough, a few years ago Van Blerk played in a five-a-side team on the Central Coast named Diego's Disciples. The team wore Argentina shirts.
In recounting his experience marking Maradona, Van Blerk told his five-a-side teammates that he didn't know if he'd get out of Argentina alive after that tackle.
Maradona wasn't too worried, though. He was used to getting kicked.
Van Blerk ended up with Maradona's shorts as a souvenir from the game, which Argentina won 1-0. Alex Tobin, a Socceroos defender and former Central Coast Mariners assistant coach, conceded an unlucky own goal in the match, which settled the tie in Argentina's favour.
The first leg, played a fortnight earlier in Sydney, finished 1-1.
Of all the tributes to Maradona after his death on Thursday from a heart attack at age 60, we most liked the one from Gary Linekar.
Linekar was playing for England when Maradona scored his infamous "hand of god" goal in the 1986 World Cup quarter final, which Argentina won 2-1. Maradona scored with a handball and later attributed it to the "hand of god".
In tribute to Maradona, Linekar tweeted: "By some distance the best player of my generation and arguably the greatest of all time. After a blessed but troubled life, hopefully he'll finally find some comfort in the hands of God. #RIPDiego."
No Pain, No Gain
On Wednesday, we asked readers: Have you ever felt the runner's high?
In response, Mount Hutton's John Ure said: "I wouldn't express it in quite those terms".
"I used to run, not because I enjoyed it but because I felt it was necessary to keep me reasonably fit," he said.
He recalled running around Centennial Park and "up and down steps when I lived at Coogee".
John can't recall ever feeling the "elation and euphoria" of the runner's high, but he does remember the pain.
"I now have two metal knees, which I attribute to years of running on bitumen or concrete," he said.
"However, I'm sure my son John - yes, the name John runs in the family - would agree with you."
John, wife Lisa and daughter Abbie have two dogs. John gets up every morning and takes them [the dogs, not his wife and daughter] for a five-kilometre walk.
If he has a hard day at the office, he goes for a run in the evening. He owns an accountancy firm. He tends to run a lot.
He'll come home, put on his running gear and go for a five- or six-kilometre run from Adamstown to Bar Beach, up Memorial Drive and back home.
"When he tells me about this, I look at him closely. The resemblance is too strong to deny that he is my son, despite our polar opposite views on running," John quipped.
- topics@newcastleherald.com.au
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