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Argentina produced a fluent, attacking and decisively dangerous performance to beat South Korea, sending a warning and reminding its competitors they too need to be reckoned with.
After scraping through qualifying, Diego Maradona’s side put on arguably the best performance of the competition to date – perhaps behind Germany’s 4-0 thrashing of Australia because of the defensive presentation.
Other than a slack moment from Martin Demichelis on the break and a couple of other nervy patches to start the second half, Argentina’s performance was superb.
The flair and spark created through the centre of the park was a joy to behold, particularly in the first half.
With captain Javier Mascherano sitting in midfield, a quartet of stars put on a passing clinic similar to Germany, Netherlands, Brazil and to a lesser final result, Spain.
From Lionel Messi, Angel Di Maria, Maxi Rodriguez and to some extent Carlos Tevez, Argentina holds a more than capable attacking threat.
The flair and fluency in the middle was highlighted through hat trick hero Gonzalo Higuain’s third goal.
A delicate pass through to the left from Messi found substitute Sergio Aguero, who in turn spotted Higuain to head home at the back post.
The introduction of Aguero is an example of the depth some of the best World Cup squads have.
Inter Milan defender Nicolas Burdisso was introduced when Walter Samuel was forced off with a hamstring injury.
Others on the bench were veterans Juan Sebastian Veron and Martin Palermo, as well as Inter Milan striker and Champions League hero Diego Milito.
The cover and concern for Maradona remains in defence with his three unused substitutes in the win over South Korea all applying their trade in the country’s domestic league.
Then there are the two men everyone now refers to in the same sentence – Maradona and Messi.
There’s something about the former and his managerial capacities.
In the tunnel before the game, he laid a friendly kiss on the cheek of each of his players.
He gets animated on the sideline and there’s no doubt his players respect him and he has a x-factor that’s hard to pinpoint.
If you need an introduction to Messi – best player in the world – quick, creative, goal scoring, dribbling and ball control exemplary, capable of producing moments of magic and a key to Argentina’s hopes.
The attacking display was brilliant to watch and showed Argentina can win this World Cup with a little bit of luck.
Goal of the day: Gonzalo Higuain’s third (Argentina) – simply brilliant team move.
Love to be: Otto Rehhagel (Greece) – football changes quickly and he responded with the substitute after the red card to turn the game.
Hate to be: Sani Kaita (Nigeria) – sent off on 33 minutes for kicking out at Greek opponent. His side led 1-0 at the time and went on to lose the game.
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