Four years after Mexico, the same two teams met again for the trophy, and produced the opposite of a classic. The 1990 final was a rematch dressed as a reckoning, and it is remembered less for its football than for its temper.
The match
Argentina arrived in Rome battered and depleted, more a survival act than the side that had dazzled in 1986. Maradona was carrying injuries and a marking job from every defender he met. The game became a stalemate of fouls and frustration, short on chances and long on bookings.
It turned, as so many tight finals do, on a single decision. With five minutes left, the Mexican referee Edgardo Codesal pointed to the spot after Roberto Sensini challenged Rudi Völler. Andreas Brehme placed the penalty low and beyond Sergio Goycochea, and West Germany had the only goal they needed.
The first red cards in a final
The match made history for the wrong reason. Pedro Monzón was sent off in the second half, the first player ever dismissed in a World Cup final. Gustavo Dezotti followed him before the end, leaving Argentina with nine men and Maradona in tears, mouthing his fury at the officials as the whistle went.
Why it mattered
This was West Germany's third world title and the last act of a particular footballing nation. Within months the country had reunified, and the team that beat Argentina in Rome would never play again under that name. Franz Beckenbauer, who had captained the 1974 winners, now managed the 1990 winners, a double almost no one else can claim.
For Argentina it was the bitter end of the Maradona World Cup era. The 1986 final had been a celebration of attacking genius. The 1990 rematch was its cynical shadow, the kind of game that pushed FIFA toward the rule changes, the back-pass ban among them, that reshaped the sport in the decade that followed.