Argentina looked a tidy team for an hour or so against Ivory Coast last weekend but I expected Serbia & Montenegro to cause them a few more problems. Hey, what the hell do I know? The Argies were in control from the first whistle to the last, enjoying a sixth minute strike from Maxi Rodriguez, adding a contender for goal of the tournament from Cambiasso, then killing the game stone dead with another from Rodriguez before the break.
During the first half romp Hernon Crespo also had a perfectly good goal disallowed for offside. He was a yard onside when the pass was played, he took it in his stride and clipped it past the keeper. What does the referee do? He books him for kicking the ball away!!! What was he supposed to do? Work his tail off to get a yard of space, time his run to perfection, then stop, check with the ref, the linesman, the fourth official and Franz Beckenbauer in the stand before having a shot at goal. Sometimes I wonder where FIFA find these jokers.
Italian referee Roberto Rosetti loved being the main man and couldn't wait to pull out the red card when S&M (cue giggles from Ian Wright) striker Mateja Kezman, working hard retrieve the situation, slid into a challenge. It was a typical forward's tackle, badly timed, more of a gesture than a serious attempt to win the ball but in no way dangerous. A yellow card? A straight feckin red!!! One more look-at-me-I'm-so-important strike for referees.
Lionel Messi entered the fray for the closing stages, with Diego Maradona going bonkers in the VIP box, and suddenly any notion that Argentina might just be going through the motions was up in the air. It went from 3-0 to 6-0 PDQ. Forget all the hype surrounding Wayne Rooney, this wee guy is the genuine article and, as if to prove his point, he quickly broke clear and left Crespo with a tap-in, Tevez got the fifth, then Messi himself wrapped things up.
On this sort of form, Argentina will give anyone a real run for their money and their clash with Holland in Frankfurt on Wednesday promises to be a bit tasty. The Dutchmen looked good in the first half against the Ivory Coast and, at that time, I was telling anyone who would listen that they might be worth a punt. Van Persie's free-kick was superb, then Van Nistelrooy, as he is prone to do, exploited the current uncertainty surrounding the offside law to make it 2-0. He was offside for about ten minutes prior to getting the pass, the defenders left him on his own, then he drifted back, was onside for a nanosecond, then he raced clear to score. But if Roberto Rosetti had been in charge at Stuttgart, he would undoubtedly have disallowed the goal and probably booked Van Nistelrooy into the bargain.
The tosser appointed to spoil this game was Ocsar Ruiz from Colombia and he was another who was far too fond of the sound of his whistle. Time after time he stopped the play when he could have played the advantage but, with Holland in control, I reckoned he was no more than a minor distraction. But when, just a few minutes after Zokora had clattered one off the crossbar, wee Bakary Kone fired a peach of a shot into the roof of the Dutch net, the clueless ref found himself struggling to handle a real match.
Holland certainly lived dangerously in the second half and the Ivory Coast are a very unfortunate team to be out of the competition so early. Against both the Dutch and the Argies, they showed they can mix it with the big boys and, on a different day with maybe a different referee, they might have a few points on the board and still be in contention. Put it this way. I've been more impressed by them than I've been by England.
Meanwhile, Holland and Argentina will be playing to top Group C when they meet in midweek but, with them meeting the qualifiers from Group D (probably Portugal and Mexico) in the first knock-out round, Wednesday's match won't have too much of a bearing on how they progress. Mexico were dire against Angola and, even with the Africans reduced to ten men by yet another pedantic referee, they lacked the craft to create anything significant in front of goal and I expect them to be blown away when the serious business starts.
All in all the competition is shaping up very nicely, with some intriguing games coming up in the week ahead, and once the groups sort themselves out I feel we could be in for some classic contests when they start playing it's a knock-out.
LITTLE BOY BLUE