World Cup 2006 Group C, Netherlands 0 Argentina 0: There are once-off matches which meet the grade and occasionally there are teams who match the lustre but for the whole exotic package - history, excellence, colour and variety - there is no World Cup fixture quite like the Netherlands and Argentina.

That history and the expectation it spawns demanded more than the scoreless draw we got in Frankfurt last night but in the circumstances this was a game which didn't actually disappoint.

This was the fourth chapter of the Netherlands' and Argentina's World Cup story and the first time the sides have met without the stakes being breathtakingly high. The football spoke to us then in measured, valedictorian tones, both sides already having graduated cum laude from Group C.

Both sides have impressed in the competition but there were changes to the line-ups last night.

In that context the strength of Argentina's squad is something to behold. With Hernan Crespo and Javier Saviola both on yellow cards Jose Pekerman was able to insert Carlos Tevez and Lionel Messi in their stead. That's like losing the services of Starsky and Hutch but gaining Batman and Robin.

The Dutch have rather less wealth at their disposal but were able to give a World Cup start to Feyenoord's greatly admired striker Dirk Kuyt. Putting him into a forward line with Ruud van Nistelrooy and Robin van Persie is none too shabby a task.

The beauty of the Netherlands and Argentina is that geographical separation has meant that there has been no chance for familiarity to foster contempt.

For long stretches last night the sides explored each other's strengths and weaknesses with an almost academic distraction. Juan Riquelme would look up and ask the Dutch how they might respond if he hit an outrageous 40-yard pass against the grain of play to the feet of the cantering Tevez down the left corner. More often than not the answer satisfied.

The lack of a goal disappointed but didn't deter much from the spectacle. For hours beforehand the stands were cliff walls of colour. At one end the orange army were tiered above their Argentine brethren and they looked like a vivid sunset declining into a perfect summer sky.

The football matched. They went at each other in turns and while the Argentinians were gorgeously extravagant at times they gave off the air of a side who were content that their preliminary World Cup work had already been done.

Only when their extraordinary fans, bent it seemed on jumping up and down for 90 solid minutes, seduced them with renditions of a slow and mesmerically rhythmed song did the Argentinians respond with football to match.

They were breathtaking in those moments. And surprising. One entirely unforeseen pass by Messi found the feet of Esteban Cambiasso in front of goal after 15 minutes. Only Boulahrouz had the alacrity to respond and his lunging foot saved a certain a goal.

At times the Argentinians strung the play together in verse form, strikingly creative passing meeting its rhyme in audacious skills. One passage where they retained the ball for almost two minutes ended with Tevez swirling a shot wide. We swooned and wondered could anybody match this and then the ball was swept downfield and Kuyt demanded a fine save from Abbondanzieri. Answer given.

That was the flavour of it. Argentina are so front-loaded with trickery and magic in Riquelme, Tevez and young Messi (not nineteen till Saturday) that you tended sometimes to overlook the defensive excellence of the Dutch and the tactical nous which has made the orange shirt so iconic in so short a time.

When the front three of Van Nistelrooy, Van Persie and Kuyt moved, spreading the defence and confusing the Argentinians, you could see the calculated minds of surgeons at work.

Still it was Tevez and Messi we had come to see. Hard to believe that the former isn't playing in Europe yet and hard to imagine what price Corinthians of Brazil will demand for him now. He failed to score last night but his close ball control, his work rate and his sense of position drew gasps at times from the crowd. And Lionel Messi? With Rooney still struggling to find his best stuff Messi is the true wonderkid of the tournament. Younger than the Englishman, convalescent from injury too but just beginning to establish a sense of his own invulnerability at this level. He tried things last night that only a kid would try but he worked hard too and there can hardly be a manager here (including that of Brazil) who does not envy Pekerman the choices he has to make when it comes to selecting his forwards.

Towards the end (with the Argentinians knowing that a draw would be enough to bring them to Leipzig on Saturday to play an uninspired-looking Mexican side) it was left to the Dutch to do the spade work on the field. They were game enough.

Kuyt's blond head was seen fizzing and buzzing everywhere, Kew Jaliens brought a new dimension and new pace to the Dutch play and Rafael Van der Vaart kept the whole thing varied with his distribution and running. The clash of the Dutch with Portugal on Sunday in Nuremberg will be intriguing.

Intrigue in fact was the theme of the night. Pekerman summed it up nicely.

"We were very satisfied with the game. Very happy to be first in the group. It was a difficult game but an attractive game except for there being no goals.

"We both played hard. We had better chances and if we could have finished we would have impressed more. We still have to look to make improvements."

SUBSTITUTES

NETHERLANDS: Maduro for Sneijder (86 mins), Landzaat for van Persie (67 mins), Babel for van Nistelrooy (56 mins). Subs not used: Mathijsen, Van Bronckhorst, Robben, Kromkamp, Heitinga, Van Bommel, Vennegoor of Hesselink, Timmer, Stekelenburg. Booked: Kuyt, Ooijer, De Cler.

ARGENTINA: Coloccini for Burdisso (24 mins), Aimar for Riquelme (79 mins), Cruz for Messi (69 mins), Subs not used: Sorin, Heinze, Saviola, Crespo, Franco, Scaloni, Palacio, Ustari, Gonzalez. Booked: Cambiasso, Mascherano.

Referee: Luis Medina Cantalejo (Spain)