The rivalry between Arge-ntina and Germany is an old one, including two World Cup finals, with one victory each.

And it's bubbling up again.

The teams meet again tomorrow, when the quarterfinal in Berlin puts Arge-ntine wonder boy Lionel Messi and Lukas Podolski of Germany on center stage. But for the two young stars, the World Cups that started it all exist only in the books — or the videos.

Messi, who just turned 19, wasn't even born when Diego Maradona led Argen-tina to a 3-2 win over Germ-any in the 1986 final in Me-xico. Four years later, Germany took its revenge, disposing 1-0 of Argentina to win its third world title.

"I've seen the goals on vid-eo," Messi said of the 1986 final.

The 24-year-old Podolski, who has scored three goals for Germany in this World Cup, has no real recollections of that game.

Argentina was ahead 2-0 that day with goals by Jose Luis Brown and Jorge Vald-ano, but things got tight when Karl-Heinz Rummen-igge and Rudi Voeller sco-red one goal each to make it 2-2 with only 10 minutes left.

Maradona, an acknowledged admirer of the young Messi, took the ball in the middle of the field and set up Jorge Burruchaga with a precise pass. Burruchaga ran a few yards and scored the winner.

"When the Germans tied, I was not scared at all," Mar-adona recalled later in his 2002 autobiography. "We knew the victory was coming, and it came."

A crowd of 114,600 attended the match at Azteca Stad-ium in Mexico City, most of them Mexicans rooting lou-dly for Germany. Argentines are not too popular among fellow Latin Americans when it comes to soccer.

That 1986 World Cup also went down in history as the tournament of two unforge-ttable Maradona goals, both against England. The first was the infamous "hand of God" goal. On the second, he dribbled through half the English team, widely considered the best goal ever in a World Cup.

Four years later, it was again Argentina vs. Germ-any in a World Cup final, this time in Rome. But the final match at Olympic Sta-dium has been considered one of the poorest, most boring in World Cup history. As the Argentine national anthem was played bef-ore the start, fans booed noisily and apparently Mar-adona was at least part of the reason.

"Northern Italians never forgave Maradona for leading a modest southern team such as Napoli to victories over traditional northern powerhouses such as Juve-ntus, Inter or Milan", Sergio Levinsky, a veteran Argen-tine newsman said in expla-ining the fans' reaction.

In addition, Argentina eli-minated Italy from the tournament.

Maradona, still not fully recovered from a foot inj-ury, was not at his best in the match and the team struggled. Germany won on a penalty kick by Andreas Brehme.

Not a final to remember. Nestor Lorenzo, a center for Argentina that day, is now an assistant to coach Jose Pekerman. He repeated an old Argentine complaint against Mexican referee Edgardo Codesal: "He gave the Germans a penalty that didn't exist."

Many agree that Codesal's call in the 84th minute was dubious.