Stuart Dye: Argentina are the best team at the World Cup

This is not a statement on how good they are, but a reflection of how exciting they are.

Incredible ability combined with moments of criminal carelessness, beautiful but sometimes ugly, inspired but sometimes bizarre. And often all in the same game.

Sitting in Johannesburg's stunning Soccer City stadium was like being a special guest at a carnival of the weird and wonderful.

The first half dismantling of South Korea was, at times, a joy to watch. The Koreans - not a great team but no slouches either - looked stunned for 45 minutes as they barely touched the ball.

Then came a crazy moment from Argentina's back-line and Korea were back in the game.

It looked like they might even draw level, but then Argentina simply stepped up another gear to run out 4-1 winners.

But it was the manner of the gear change - and the cast of characters behind it - that makes this team so entertaining.

At the back is Gabriel Heinze who combines defending with looking like he should be in a shampoo commercial.

At the centre of the team is Lionel Messi; a boy-man who looks like the kid who got bullied at school but ghosts past players as though they don't exist and seems as though the ball is tied to his feet.

If Messi is the glamour, Carlos Tevez is the heartbeat. A bulldog of a man, at the centre of everything good against Korea, who looks like a reject from a horror B-movie.

Surrounding these three is a group of circus performers with an array of nutmegs, tricks and flicks that at times seems choreographed.

There is, of course, a darker side with a tendency to dive and a willingness to try to trick the referee with the odd handball. But, like Las Vegas, the seedy side somehow enhances the glamour and makes the whole package more attractive.

And overseeing all this is the ringmaster Maradona - former world's greatest footballer, former cocaine addict, current mad man and figurehead for a religion with an every growing congregation.

This is a team that could win everything... or it could spontaneously implode. Whatever happens, you just have to watch.