France ’98. Group H. Third match. Argentina and Croatia had to play in Bordeaux and they were both qualified already for the second round (after beating both Japan and Jamaica).

A few people talked about it at that time, but it is believed that Croatia didn’t try hard enough to win that match (Argentina won 1-0) and because of that, Argentina had to face England in the second round (2-2 and a penalty shoot-out victory after 120 tiring minutes) and then Holland in a very tricky quarter final tie. ORTEGA losing it, hitting VAN DER SAR with his head to see the red card and Dennis BERGKAMP scoring the winner, that was the end of our journey in that World Cup.

On the other hand, Croatia faced Romania in the second round (1-0 in only 90 minutes) and then Germany, not an easy rival, against which Croatia displayed what’s probably their best performance in history (3-0) on their way to the semifinals. They lost to France and the rest is history.

What’s my point? My point is at this stage, when a team is qualified before the last match, there is always room for speculation and for the manager to make changes to his team in order to avoid further yellow cards, injuries and stress to the key players.

And if you let me give you my opinion, I think that’s fair enough, but I also believe we should try and win against Holland at all costs.

Losing will mean we have an extra day of rest before facing the winner of Group D (Portugal or Mexico). But it will also mean we’ll have to face, in case we go far in this World Cup, England in the quarter-finals and Brazil in the semifinals. All this speculation is according to logic and with England and Brazil winning their groups (like they are winning them at the moment of writing).

Winning (or getting a point against Holland) will give us 1st place in Group C, a day less to rest before our second round fixture against the second of Group D (Portugal, Mexico or –believe it or not they have chances- Angola). But most importantly, it will mean we will avoid facing the likes of Brazil, England and probably Germany, Spain, Italy and England before the final!

What? Yes, what you’ve just read! Let’s play a little game here. If Germany fails to beat Ecuador, they’ll finish second in their group and will go to the other side of the draw. They could face England in case they win or draw against Sweden and either Ecuador, Sweden or –believe it or not they have chances- Trinidad & Tobago could be our rivals in the quarter finals.

An old saying goes like this: ‘To win the World Cup, you’ve got to beat the best teams’. Yes, I agree with it, but it won’t hurt anybody if they play against each other on the other side of the draw while we avoid facing the creators of the game or the home team in Quarter Finals and the 5-times World Champions or the catenaccio masters in the semis. Are you with me?

That’s why I think this Wednesday’s fixture against Holland has so many implications and could be crucial in our way to Berlin.

PEKERMAN is with me and he definitely wants to win the group, but at the same time he needs to preserve some key players.

As I’m writing this, it appears there will be some interesting substitutions from what was our starting line-up against Serbia & Montenegro. Have a look:

ABBONDANZIERI will remain in goal. BURDISSO, AYALA and SORIN will also keep their places in defense, but Gabriel HEINZE, who saw a yellow card against Ivory Coast, will leave his place to Gabriel MILITO, a solid central defender who plays for Zaragoza.

A big question mark on CAMBIASSO and MASCHERANO, the inclusion of one from Lionel SCALONI or Fabricio COLOCCINI could see one of them to sit on the bench.

It could be the lucky day for many many many of you asking about Pablo AIMAR. PEKERMAN could use him to give some rest to Juan Roman RIQUELME. So against Holland, ‘El Payasito’ AIMAR could have his chance to play from the start.

Up front? Both CRESPO and SAVIOLA carry a yellow card and PEKERMAN wants both of them ready for the weekend. The pair with more chances to play from the start are: Carlos TEVEZ and Julio CRUZ.

I agree with this changes, because TEVEZ could perfectly play SAVIOLA’s role, while CRUZ is the only player in our squad with a similar game to CRESPO (a big hitman who plays inside the box, can win in the air and has a knack for scoring). Plus, he has experience playing in the Dutch league (Feyenoord 1997-2000) and that could prove vital in a one-off match.

Lionel MESSI will again wear the super-sub suit he so elegantly wore last Friday.

Marco VAN BASTEN has also said he will preserve all of his players who have seen the yellow card. That includes Arjen ROBBEN, Gio VAN BRONCKHORST, John HEITINGA, Mark VAN BOMMEL, Joris MATHIJSEN and Khalid BOULAHROUZ. So Holland won’t be facing their strongest line-up either and it could be a matter of who have the deepest bench.

I think we do. Let’s crush some oranges!

I feel like a boy again. A little child who dreams about football like I did when I was 9 and Argentina was the best in the World. Because I remember exactly where I was in each of those Mexico ’86 matches, in which Diego MARADONA gave the planet football, the best individual performance in the history of the World Cup.

Now I feel this team is putting Diego and my self in the same position. He is a fan now. Probably the most passionate around! And seeing him acting the same way I did when I was 9, makes this whole thing a little bit surreal.

Like experiencing the same things I did 20 years ago, when I had the proper age to act like I’m acting now! I’m changing my sleeping hours (and reducing them to a dangerous low!). I’m eating very badly and I’m not seeing friends and family (other than those who join me to watch the matches). I’m a grown up now, but I’m acting like a child and to tell you the truth: I’m loving it. Grown ups don’t enjoy football like we, the little kids of the World, do! Joking aside, I think that’s the best way to explain what is going on with my self lately, and I sincerely hope this could go on for a while.

There are thousands of ways to analyse what happened yesterday. A few concepts could help us to do so:

Argentina left behind the anxiety of the debut match against Ivory Coast and played a little bit more relaxed.

The early goal by Maxi RODRIGUEZ, in a great team effort with a back heel pass by SORIN to SAVIOLA who then made a perfect assist for MAXI, helped Argentina to control the game playing with the Serbs’ desperation.

Serbia & Montenegro suffered from the off-the-pitch problems. You could see there were no generosity amongst their players and they never played as a team. In contrast to that, Argentina had its most powerful weapon in team spirit and collective game.

The passing and more importantly the clinical finishing showed by Argentina were at the highest point. Perhaps Spain was the only other team with an unstoppable knack for scoring so far. But 3 of their 4 goals against Ukraine came from dead ball situations, whereas Argentina scored 6 goals from open play.

Argentina kept going forward and that was the key to kill off the game, making room in the team for the lethal: Carlos TEVEZ and Lionel MESSI. Both of them showing that they are ready to step up at the highest international level.

That sums up pretty much what was the best performance by Argentina in many years. But what really put this showing into perspective are the echoes you can hear from the media in every corner of the World. I want to have a word with those in charge of Gazzetta dello Sport and La Repubblica (Italia); Marca, As and Sport (Spain); Lance, Folha do Sao Paulo, Terra, Gazeta Esportiva (Brazil); BBC, The Guardian and even The Sun (England); L’Equipe (France); A Bola (Portugal) and the bookies all around the World: Are you trying to drive me mad? Don’t you know I’m already fired up? I don’t need your help to make me believe this time we can really go all the way. Thank you very much anyway. It’s a real pleasure to read your lines about Argentina, filled with all kinds of adjectives you only seemed to save for other teams.

Another kind of flattering, is coming for a different source. The purest. The most beautiful. Let me put it this way: the number of passes we saw in our second goal (25. 26 if you count Maxi’s steal with what looks like a pass backwards to HEINZE) is nothing compared to the e-mails I’ve been receiving! I apologise but I was unable to reply to all of them. I hope I’ll have the time to do it, as I enjoyed it very much. In any case, thank you very much for ‘losing your cool’ with me!

As I promised to do after every Argentina match in this World Cup, here are my picks as Man of the Match and other mentions:

First of all, like an old football saying reads in Argentina when a performance like this is witnessed: ‘La figura fue el equipo’ (‘The team was the star’). In a way to recognise a team effort rather than an individual showing. I will agree with that old cliché, there were no weak links yesterday and there is not a single player to be credited for this triumph. However, I’ve got some things to say about a couple of impressive men.

Man of the Match:
Gold:
Javier SAVIOLA. For the second match in a row. He was absolutely brilliant. I can’t believe why Barcelona keeps on neglecting him. Granted he is not a scoring machine like Samuel ETO’O. Granted Ludovic GIULY is playing at a high level. But now that Thierry HENRY snubbed them to stay at Arsenal and now that Henrik LARSSON returned to his native Sweden and Maxi LOPEZ is off to Mallorca, I don’t see why he is not considered at least as a second or third option. In any case, I’m happy for SAVIOLA because without a doubt he will have his reward and will play in a top club in Europe next season once again. Yesterday he had a part in all of our three first half goals and again, he showed great sacrifice to help his team-mates when Argentina was off the ball.

Silver:
Maxi RODRIGUEZ. A quiet player. A quiet guy. But he can do whatever it’s needed on the pitch. He can chase his rivals all over the field, he can pass, he can run at defenders and he can surprise opposing defenses while scoring at every chance he has. One goal to open up the match in the 6th minute. Another to finish it off in the 41st. A great show all around.

Bronze:
Juan Roman RIQUELME. One of the e-mails I’ve received asked me about a fantasy football advise. This guy was concerned because he wanted to include a player from Argentina and he didn’t like CRESPO that much. He had RIQUELME and wanted to know whether to keep him or not. So I said: ‘Look, he is the free kick specialist, the corner and penalty kicks taker. He can have an assist with a killer through pass at anytime. I would say keep him’. Well, he scored minus 0.50 and this guy probably wants to kill me. But I think it’s a case of this fantasy rules being rubbish. RIQUELME was the playmaker in a team that destroyed the opposition in a brilliant 6-0 victory and was the guy who had 5 of the 25 (or 26) passes in that unforgettable second goal. He ruled the timing, the pace and the flow of the whole game. Hardly a bad game, isn’t it?

Best of the rest:
Hernan CRESPO. A goal, an assist and a goal ruled out (while he was slightly onside). Great sacrifice, he was fouled inside the box in the second half and his delicious back heel pass for CAMBIASSO in the second goal was superb. Keep it coming Hernan!
Of course, I don’t want to be the public enemy number one, Carlos TEVEZ and Lionel MESSI. They played less time than the players I’ve highlighted and they came in with the game already won. But you cannot leave them unnoticed because of this. It was their World Cup debut and both of them had a goal and an assist and shook off all the pressure that was hanging on their shoulders.

Coming up in this space: What are our real chances? And we’ll see just how important our match against Holland (and finishing top of Group C) is for Argentina.

Argentina 6 – Serbia & Montenegro 0

How to keep the cool? How can I calm down and stop the hype that is starting to grow everywhere in Argentina and (for what I read around the internet) all over the World?

It’s very hard to do it and honestly, I don’t want to keep the cool!

Because I’ve been keeping it for 8 years now (since Holland knocked us out of France 98) and because for once and forever, the ghosts of Korea-Japan 2002 have been killed, buried and erased! I know if Ivory Coast beats Holland and Serbia and Holland beats us, then there is a chance we’ll be out of the World Cup, but frankly, I don’t see that happening.

We played the best football we played since USA ’94 (before Diego got suspended). We showed a great team spirit and we kept going forward looking for more goals. In that sense, we’ve learned from our mistakes against Ivory Coast and never sit back to defend the early lead.

25 passes!!!!! Almost every player touching the ball, several touching it more than once in the same action and a lovely back-heel pass by CRESPO followed by a great finish by CAMBIASSO. That was a moment of brilliance. The best goal of Germany 2006 by a mile and (I don’t want to lose my cool!!!) one of the best collective efforts in the history of the World Cup.

That was our second goal. Maxi RODRIGUEZ opened the scoring in the sixth minute. A key to win in confidence and to control the game from the start.

SAVIOLA was brilliant. He had a saying in all of the first three goals. An assist in the first one, a great long pass for CAMBIASSO changing the flow of play in the second goal and a shot stopped by the keeper prior to Maxi’s ghostly appearance to send it home. Again SAVIOLA helped out a lot becoming Argentina’s first defender. He was chasing people all over the field and recovering a lot of balls.

I could go on and on hailing individual performances. I might do it tomorrow in a separate article. But I need to say a couple of things about the two players that were the subject of every prayer. The people’s favourites, the most charismatic players in our team and a two of the best players in the World right now: Lionel MESSI and Carlos TEVEZ.

What a way to debut in a World Cup for the two of them. TEVEZ was the first to jump into the field. I don’t know if it was a known fact, but Carlos TEVEZ was sick yesterday and had to skip a training session. He was vomiting and feeling horrible but he was ready for his moment to come. When he replaced SAVIOLA he showed a lot of eagerness to show what he is capable of, but his first couple of actions were way behind his standards. He started to get frustrated and he needed to get something going and when he received the ball from RIQUELME in the 84th minute with the score 4-0, he started his run towards the goal and nutmegged a defender and kept going, was dispossessed by another defender TEVEZ tackled him slightly with the outside of this right boot and he created his own chance. He had only the keeper to beat and like if he was a 40-year veteran he kept the cool (I don’t want to keep the cool!) and he perfectly fooled the keeper, scoring what I hope is the first of many World Cup goals for Carlitos!

MESSI had to wait 75 minutes before taking Maxi RODRIGUEZ’s place. He looked nervous when he was sitting in the bench. He was chewing something, a piece of plastic, or something. He couldn’t wait for his moment to come. But then, when he had to go out there and perform, he did it! He went for it in every ball he touched. He played 15 minutes and ended the match with a goal and an assist! He outran everybody through the left hand side of the attack and then he sent a cross for Hernan CRESPO who came from behind and was faster than Dejan STANKOVIC to touch it and score our fourth goal.

Then RIQUELME and TEVEZ linked up very well and Carlitos was bright enough to see MESSI running through the right. TEVEZ sent a perfect through pass for MESSI and the Barcelona star scored with his right foot (not his favourite) to finish the scoring.

6-0. Our biggest World Cup win since that controversial 6-0 win against Peru in Argentina 1978. This one had nothing controversial about it. This one was flawless. This one was special. This one was bigger and heavier than the ghosts who were behind us since Korea-Japan. This one showed the best talents of this generation having their World Cup debut and coping with pressure in an amazing fashion. This one keeps us alive in the Group of Death and let us in the driving seat. This one is killing me, because from now on, I have no chance of keeping the cool!