FIFA World Cup 2010 Beauty and the Beast: Argentina Hammer South Korea

Diego Maradona may dislike Michel Platini, and he may think that Pele belongs in a museum, but the way his Argentinian football team passed and moved in the 4-1 thrashing of South Korea, his team, not him, will be who people will be talking about in the latter stages of this year's World Cup.

England would kill to play as well as this tomorrow.

It was sexy football, with Lionel Messi and Carlos Tevez pulling the strings that we could only wish for.

Angel Di Maria was also a problem, and Javier Mascherano's solidity as a defensive midfielder alowed the magicians pull out their rabbits from the blue and white hat.

Then, up front, there's Gonzalo Higuain, who scored a well-taken (if a little lucky!) hat-trick in his country's 4-1 hammering of South Korea.  There's also Maxi Rodriguez, who'll similarly cause you a problem or two.

Oh, and the defenders can score goals, too, as Gabriel Heinze proved with a diving header during Arentina's 1-0 win over Nigeria.

But then there's the beast, in the form of Argentina's defensive "efforts," which England would not wish to have. At times in the Korea game, they were dreadful. Martín Demichelis' woeful efforts to clear a simple ball at the end of the first half let in Lee Chung-Yong, who bounded in to make it 2-1. In the second half, more horrible defending nearly ensured that it was 2-2, but Yeom Ki-Hun wasted a chance to become a Seoul hero.

And while you might slate the eccentric Maradona and his Argentinian defenders, who wants to bet against Higuain, Messi and Tevez continuing to worry teams, come the end of the month?

I don't.