The Shape of Things to Come

Three days into the 2006 World Cup and, so far at least, there appear to be no easy games. Trinidad and Tobago fought out a goalless draw against Sweden. Portugal made hard work of a 1-0 victory against little Angola. The Ivory Coast impressed as they went down 2-1 to mighty Argentina. Serbia and Montenegro somehow held free-flowing Holland to a single goal. And Ecuador stunned Poland with a 2-0 win.

Ample evidence that in world football these days no-one’s a pushover. And at the other end of the spectrum, there are already signs that Argentina are going to be very difficult to beat and Holland have quickly settled into the kind of fluent imaginative football which makes them a good outside bet.