Argentina reminded the world of their quality today as they put 6 past a totally dismantled Serbia & Montenegro. The industry of the early goals and total mastery of the rest have even the great Argentine—Maradona, himself—celebrating the beauty of Argentine Football.

Maxi Rodriquez struck first in the 6th min. with a wonderful out-step right footed strike as Saviola played a perfectly weighted pass from the right wing, rewarding Rodriquez for his strong off the ball run into the box. Rodriquez was rewarded again (in the 41st min.) with his 2nd—Argentina’s 3rd—as he followed up on an unbelievable play, orchestrated by Saviola, who stripped the left back and dribbled past another defender to set-up for a shot that the keeper could only deflect to Rodriquez.

It was in between the Maxi goals where Argentina really showed what they are all about. Sustained possession and neat triangular passing from defense-to-midfield-and-vice-versa-and-back-again must have gotten the Serbia & Montenegro side dizzy because when Argentina finally pushed forward to end off the move, Saviola, Crespo, and Cambiasso combined so well that the move ended with a heel pass from Crespo inside the box, setting up Cambiasso’s goal.

After the break, Argentina came out looking for more goals. Crespo was rewarded by substitute—teenage sensation—Lionel Messi in the 80th min. as the No. 9 striker added to his World Cup tally with a back post finish from Messi’s goal-mouth cross. Carlos Tevez another 2nd half substitute showed his individual brilliance as he megged and powered past two defenders to bury in the right corner past the distraught keeper in the 85 min. To put the icing on the cake, Messi finished off another intricate move combined by Requilme, Tevez, Crespo, as Messi slotted past the keeper on his near post in the 89th min.

Goalasos-upon-Goalasos. 

This entry was posted on Friday, June 16th, 2006 at 10:34 pm and is filed under Soccer World, World Cup 2006, Argentina. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.