Champions in waiting? Argentina thrill world with brilliant 6-0 thumping of Serbia & Montenegro

It is Argentina's gift to the 18th World Cup. They presented it yesterday with a performance that went straight into the pantheon of the game that long ago conquered the world but which needed in this German summer, as never before, a major injection of fresh grace, spirit and high skill.

All of it came in Gelsenkirchen when Argentina beat Serbia & Montenegro 6-0 and long before the end of an exquisitely executed slaughter we know this was so much more than one lopsided football match. It was a brilliant statement of renewal, of standards that can carry the game into a new and thrilling phase of its long and compelling history.

That this was the reality - that any team who beat Argentina in the next few weeks will have the right to claim that they are great world champions - was already evident in the 31st minute of a display that recalled some of the most sumptuous performances in the tournament that launched itself in Uruguay 76 years ago. It was laid down by 25-year-old Esteban Cambiasso of Internazionale. He sent the ball billowing into the Serbian net at the climax of 24 passes. This was football of the sweetest classicism; this was a crescendo surely building to greatness.

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It is necessary to know that Serbians - who form the core of the team so comprehensively eviscerated yesterday - are nobody's idea of football mugs. They conceded just one goal in their qualifying campaign. Historically, they were key contributors to a Yugoslav side feared across the world for their fierce physicality and fine skill. Topically, less than a week ago they lost by the only goal to the richly promising young Dutch team of the former icon player Marco van Basten.

But yesterday they were simply engulfed by a team who, we can certain, sent a ripple of concern through the Black Forest headquarters of the reigning world champions, Brazil, who, despite that heavenly goal of Kaka, were less than overwhelming against Croatia the other night and they know, along with all the other contenders, what levels they must attain.

England, so desperate to find a rhythm of their own, may be encouraged by their victory over Argentina in a friendly, but they will to reflect that their coach, Jose Pekerman, virtually dismantled his team before the end when in a winning position.

The Argentines, the winners in 1978 and '86, displayed astonishing depth yesterday. Their chief orchestrator is Juan Roman Riquelme, but plainly they have quality in every corner of the team.

Against Serbia, with almost taunting confidence, Pekerman sent on the 18-year-old Lionel Messi, who has taken some months to recover fully from the thigh injury he sustained against Chelsea in the Champions' League.

Messi, who transfixed Stamford Bridge in the first leg of that quarter-final tie, made one goal and scored another yesterday. This could be his World Cup in the way that the one of 1986 belonged to his now ecstatic countryman Diego Maradona.

Throughout football there is now a great reaching out for superlatives. Partly, it is because a thrilling force has plainly arrived. Partly, there may be euphoric relief.

Four years ago in the Far East the fear was that the bloom had left the great tournament. Superstars like Thierry Henry of France, Luis Figo of Portugal and David Beckham of England were bedevilled by a combination of injury and fatigue. There was some fear of a terminal decline for the greatest show in sport.

Yesterday it was though a new flag had been raised, a new era begun. The colour of the flag happened to be blue and white but suddenly that seemed less important than the fact that the game of the world had been lifted to a timeless, beautiful level.