The Future's Bright, The Future's Orange - LITTLE BOY BLUE'S WORLD CUP DIARY - June 11:  Day Three

Last updated : 12 June 2006 By Little Boy Blue
The Ayrshire Division of Marco Van Basten's Oranje Army was out in force.  Several of the guys were kitted out in official Holland tops from previous eras (the bloke wearing number three was obviously called William), somebody else wore the blue change strip with Numan emblazoned across the back, there were two Ajax shirts on show and one of us wore Rangers Ajax-like away jersey. 

It was good to see that Gio Van B has recovered from the clattering he got against Australia last weekend.  However, there have always been doubts about his defensive abilities and Serbia & Montenegro showed early signs of trying him out.  But once Holland settled down, they looked good and it was no surprise when Arjen Robben shrugged off a challenge and raced clear to fire home the opener.  The football played by the Dutch at that stage of the game was the most impressive we'd seen in the tournament this far and they really should have been further ahead at the interval.

Just like the English and Argentinian sides yesterday, Holland dropped down a gear in the second half and Serbia & Montenegro got back into the match.  They too are a useful side and had their chances but they didn't take them and on a couple of occasions Robben came close to punishing them on the counterattack.  For all their early superiority, the Dutch were content to settle for the 1-0 scoreline, justifiably confident that the Serbs will do a bit of damage against their other opponents in
Group C.

This is undoubtedly the tightest group of them all.  No matter how its pans out, two excellent sides will be on their way home and, while Holland and Argentina are probably most folk's favourites to go through, there are no gimmes here.  Every point will have to be earned and, having got off to a winning start, both the Argies and our Brother Orangemen will be happy with their weekend's work.

Midway through the game I got a couple of text messages from a Halifax Bear who ain't too happy with my 'anti-English' coverage of events in Germany.  Well Steve, halfway through the second half I reckon my 'anti-English media hype' stance was perfectly justified when the commentator started prattling on about the possibility of Holland meeting England in the quarter-finals.  Jesus Christ, England have won one game, and none too convincingly either, yet these eejits are already jockeying for position in the last eight!!!  By the way, Steve is no eejit - he was watching the fitba in a pub called The Dutchman!

Having got myself well hyped up for the Holland game, I found it hard to get enthusiastic about Mexico v Iran, although the pre-match exchange of gifts put a smile on my face.  While the Mexican handed over the traditional national association pennant, the Iranian skipper presented what looked like a framed magic carpet about half the size of the six-yard box.  It must have been a tight squeeze getting it onto the team bus after the game.

Iran certainly made a bright start to the match but, when they failed to make it count, the loss of the opening goal to Omar Bravo had me fearing for them.  But Iran are no pushovers, they got back into it through a Golmohammadi strike and gave as good as they got for much of the afternoon.  Mind you, they got a big break when the ref amazingly turned a blind eye to Marquez being barged to the ground in the six-yard box early in the second half.  It was a stonewaller of a penalty but not for the first time, and not for the last, the bloke with the whistle got it wrong.

Although they've got a few players in the major leagues, Iran's absence from mainstream football circles has robbed them of big-time know-how and, when they lost two goals in a three minute spell near the end, the roof could have caved in on them.  They did well to keep it at 3-1 and won't be too disappointed with their showing.  Of all the groups, Group D is probably the most clear-cut, with Mexico and Portugal certs to go through.

Most of us expected that Portugal v Angola would be the first serious mismatch of the tournament and when Pauleta shot inches wide of the Angolan goal inside the first 12 seconds I reckoned it would set the tone for the night.  Less than four minutes later he was on target, cashing in on some good work by Figo, and it looked like I'd have to get my shoes and socks off to keep score.  Figo and Christiano Ronaldo were enjoying too much space, this one just had to be a goalfest, didn't it?  Didn't it?

For reasons best known to themselves, Portugal suddenly didn't look too bothered.  OK, so Angola got themselves organised a bit better after their nightmare start but surely a class act like Figo could have opened them up at will.  As it was, the most enterprising attacker on the park was Angola's Akwa who, although lost with the ball at his feet, was game for a laugh with his overhead kicks.  And late in the game Benfica's Mantorras, the Portuguese League's Egil Ostenstad, came on and looked capable of embarrassing those who have mocked him.

Yet again, a win by the narrowest margin was acceptable by a side who should have done better and, while everyone has been in such a hurry to use the heat as an excuse, I'm afraid I'm not buying that one.  As I see it, too many of the top teams are afraid of showing their hand too early in the competition when they really should be firing on all cylinders to scare the shit out of their rivals.

But despite all that, it has been so far so good for the World Cup.  The overall quality of play has been good, with the potential to excel as the tournament progresses, and I expect Italy and the Czech Republic to give us another excellent day of fitba tomorrow.

For now, however, I'm heading back to the pub to add my tuppence worth to the 'expert' debate.  And before you ask, I've ditched my Orange County shirt - and now I'm wearing Rangers' controversial 'tangerine' number of four years ago.

LITTLE BOY BLUE