"pundits want the WC to be like the Nike adverts"

An interesting series of tweets from @digitalben, in the wake of Argentina's defeat of Greece tonight:

Star players monopolise the dialogue. Messi was flat today. The panel talk for ages about him (and how great he'll be next round) anyway. They say 'the Greeks marked him out of the game' as if that was some kind of unsportsmanlike trick. Conclusion: pundits want the WC to be like the Nike adverts. Star men and faceless mooks. Not so much a sport as a skills exhibition.

Commentating for the BBC, the dour Mick McCarthy moaned that the game was boring - but it was only boring if you wanted to see a skills exhibition, not an enthralling tactical battle. McCarthy seemed to want the Greeks to suicidally attack, allowing Messi and Veron the space to destroy them. OK, it didn't work out for Greece, but they held Argentina for most of the match, and could easily have scored on the break. It's difficult to see what other tactics Greece could have adopted if they wanted to succeed.