I feel like I unleashed a real torrent with my earlier posting about the manifold joys (not shared by all commenters, to put it mildly!)of the World Cup. Naysayers should watch the first five minutes of today's Argentina-Serbia&Montenegro match for a perfect illustration of what I had in mind. Argentina scored a truly magnificent goal -- 12 separate passes in the offensive third of the field, a beautiful slow build-up to the final charge into the box (an Argentine defender, who saw an opening and burst into it) and the great finish. [the second goal, with TWENTY-FOUR PASSES leading up to the finish, was even more magnificent).

The usual pile-up celebration followed; but what was really great was the shot of two of the Argentine players, a defender and the goalkeeper, away from the pile-up; the emotion that poured out of them visible on their faces was pretty intense -- there's not much else one ever can see on TV that touches it. If you think (as many do, with lots of justification) that big-time sports is too often just about the money, see if you can find a replay.