Soccer: Argentina thrash Serbia & Montenegro

GELSENKIRCHEN - Argentina set the benchmark for the World Cup with a magnificent 6-0 demolition of Serbia & Montenegro this morning as they immediately became tournament favourites and the team everyone will want to avoid.

Their performance was packed with classy, high-speed football and marvellous individual displays amid great teamwork and memorable goals -- including an early contender for best of the tournament by substitute Esteban Cambiasso.

The display was all the more remarkable as it was achieved against a Serbian team who conceded just one goal in their qualifying campaign in a group that included Spain and arrived in Germany with a reputation as a tough nut to crack.

That was shredded by one of the most complete 90-minute performances seen at a World Cup for many years.

Within moments of the players leaving the pitch the Argentine fans turned their attention to the watching Diego Maradona, hero of their second World Cup success in 1986, who was swinging his shirt in wild celebration in the VIP box.

But not even Maradona's team, nor the 1978 vintage who won the tournament on home soil, produced such an emphatic display against high quality European opposition and it was a collection of "new Maradonas" who deserved the adulation.

The label has been pinned on just about every promising youngster in the national team over the last decade but the more mature Juan Riquelme, though a totally different type of player, was a worthy inheritor of the famous number 10 shirt on Friday.

Initially marked tightly, the 27-year-old emerged from the shackles to stride the pitch like a colossus, spraying passes short and long in every direction with virtual disdain for the scurrying Serbians struggling to shut him down.

The diminutive Javier Saviola, who made his international debut as a teenager in 2000, gave a mature all-round performance that belied his 24 years and he provided a constant menace up front before being replaced after an hour.

Then there was Lionel Messi. The 18-year-old did not feature in the opening 2-1 win over Ivory Coast and, with a doubt over his injured foot, was held back until the 74th minute on Friday.

By then Argentina were cruising from their 3-0 halftime lead but his introduction, and that of another young striker Carlos Tevez for Saviola, ensured they finished with a flourish.

Messi set up Hernan Crespo for the fourth goal, Tevez, similar in build to Maradona, then produced a run worthy of the master for the fifth, before Messi completed the rout with a cool finish two minutes from time.

Four years ago Argentina arrived at the World Cup full of hope and failed to make the second round. This time they have limited the talk and, despite again being placed in a tough group, suddenly look the best team in Germany.

Former Brazil World Cup finalist Leonardo described Friday's show as "magnificent and spectacular". He will not be alone in that analysis.

- REUTERS