Argentina - 6 Serbia & Montenegro - 0: At some point yesterday afternoon, this was not so much a football match as a prolonged and mesmerising expression of what the beautiful game means to the people of Argentina.
True, the South Americans made their thrilling sorcery against a country on the brink of extinction and a blunted football team that reflects the sad state of Balkan football nowadays. But in Schalke FC's closed-over arena, Argentina were dazzling and provided all the natural light we needed. The score carries echoes of their record victory against Peru in the dark days of 1978, when the host team needed four to advance from the group stage to the final and racked up a half dozen against their strangely accommodating neighbours.
But there was nothing remotely shady about yesterday's rout. And it is not stretching it to imagine that this hypnotic, slightly showy lesson in the possibilities of the game could have ended on a scoreline of double figures. As it was, Hernan Crespo had a perfectly fine goal ruled offside in the first half and hammered an 86th-minute chance straight at Dragoslav Jevric, the poor goalkeeper and the sole representative from Montenegro on this truly doomed team.
But the six goals they created all carried the famed Argentine traits of skill, audacity and uncanny ball-control. Esteban Cambiasso's 31st-minute strike seems destined to be played and replayed down the years, a perfect sequence of World Cup choreography. It was born through six perfect, one-touch passes that held the Serbian defence as spellbound as the rest of us, the magical Javier Saviola instrumental before Crespo returned Cambiasso's flick for the perfect finish.
That made it 2-0 and shortly afterwards, when Savo Milosevic slipped and fell heavily on a rare Serbian attacking opportunity, there was a sudden tiredness and heaviness about the European team and in that second, you had to fear for them. So when the mercurial Saviola dispossessed the pitifully lumbering Mladen Krstajic and waltzed dreamily into the Serbian box to lay a second goal on for Rodriguez late in the half, all pretence of competition seeped out of the game.
"Those good goals that we scored made the game look easy but this is still a tough group," said the reserved José Pekerman afterwards. "We still have a tough game against Holland ahead of us."
And what a tantalising proposition that becomes now. The chief problem for the Argentine manager would appear to be who to leave out. All of his replacements were sensational here, Cambiasso coming on only because of a 17th-minute injury to Luis Gonzalez.
But the daring beauty of Carlos Tevez's 81st-minute goal and the almost inevitable strike from the prodigious Lionel Messi illuminated for the world just how rich this Argentine vintage is.
And all around those attacking lights, the South Americans played as though more concerned with exploring the realms of their game than with Serbia. Juan Riquelme embarrassed Serbia's midfield with his clairvoyant flicks and no-look passes.
Captain Juan Sorin, with Spinal Tap haircut, terrorised the entire Serbia and Montenegro left flank. His absurdly brilliant back-heel, back to goal and body tight against the sideline, not only created the move for Rodriguez's early strike but also announced the generally rhapsodic mood that took possession of his team.
For long periods of the second half, they seemed to move the ball in time to the lulling rhythms floating down from the ecstatic Argentine stands.
At times, the Europeans looked too dispirited to do anything about it; at times they displayed that infamous Balkan temper, crudely hacking at their magical opponents. Mateja Kezman was the first to go on 60 minutes for felling Mascherano. Kezman spent his 20th birthday in a bunker as the bombs rained down on Belgrade, but it could be that when he is an old man he will look back upon this summer afternoon in Gelsenkirchen as the more haunting experience.
Serbian football has fallen mightily in the 15 years since Red Star Belgrade were kings of Europe, and as the former Yugoslavia breaks into smaller and smaller pieces with the declaration of independence by Montenegro, there seemed something terribly lonely about the sight of the small block of blue-and-red-daubed Serbian support sitting in numb acknowledgement of this exhibition of joyful South American beauty - the worst World Cup beating inflicted on the region since Yugoslavia lost 6-1 to Uruguay back in 1930.
"I made the mistake not to trust my intuition and experience," said coach Illija Petkovic, looking like a man who had lost it all on the stock exchange.
Serbia had come into this tournament with a formidable defensive record but that just melted to nothingness when set against the torrid and easy performance of Argentina. Milosevic had two decent strikes on goal, Predrag Djordevic again tried to make things happen and Daniel Ljuboja put in an admirable last half hour given the bewildering circumstances. But as an entity, Serbia and Montenegro was utterly lost.
Argentina, however, with the disconcertingly skinny Maradona dancing manically among his people, have spent this first week celebrating their sense of nationhood in extravagant fashion.
It would be dangerous, in the light of the scintillating matches occurring all over Germany, to believe that Argentina are playing the game at a higher level. But maybe what comes of this glittering day is not the point: for sheer joy and seduction, the occasion was plenty in its own right. And thousands zoomed away on the high-speed German trains with the kind of tingles they have not felt from football since childhood.
SUBSTITUTES
ARGENTINA: Cambiasso for Gonzalez (17 mins inj.), Tevez for Saviola (58 mins), Messi for Rodriguez ( 74 mins). Subs not used: Coloccini, Aimar, Cruz, Cufre, Franco, Milito, Palacio, Scaloni, Ustari. Booked: Crespo.
SERBIA & MONTENEGRO: Ergic for Nadj (half-time), Ljuboja for Koroman (59 mins), Vukic for Milosevic (60 mins). Subs not used: Basta, Nenad Djordjevic, Dragutinovic, Ilic, Kovacevic, Stojkovic, Vidic, Zigic. Sent off: Kezman (65). Booked: Koroman, Nadj, Krstajic.
Referee: R Rosetti (Italy).
