AFTER the glory of World Cup Goals Galore last week (it was on again the other night, keep an eye out), BBC Three also showed how a World Cup documentary should not be done, with the lamentable and mercifully brief World Cup Outtakes.

A loose amalgam of semimad stuff that happened down the years in tournaments and qualifiers, it featured clips and some b-list actors with the most remarkable memories. The likes of Perry Fenwick (Billy from Eastenders) seemed to have an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of the likes of Italy v Chile in 1962. You'd almost swear they'd been shown the footage beforehand and then sat down to moronically say what they had just seen. In fact we did swear. Repeatedly.

In this age of pointless nostalgia and pointless people telling us about what we should and shouldn't remember, the Argentina v Serbia and Montenegro game on Friday provided a unique experience. We witnessed a performance, and in particular a goal, that became immediately seminal, that we know we'll see many times, many years from now.

On World Cup Match of the Day, the usually ebullient Gordon Strachan was almost solemn in his appreciation of what Argentina had achieved.

"There's touch, there's imagination, there's a vision. There's anything you wantf" and then he trailed off, humbled by the knowledge that now that John Hartson is gone, such a goal in unlikely to be scored in his tenure at Celtic.

Strachan himself has been a pleasure to watch, as BBC becomes the place to go for evening highlights. Adrian Chiles just keeps getting better and the editing team still have that touch of class.

It's the analysis that really makes it, as the likes of Strachan and Martin O'Neill use the technology at their disposal to tell us the difference between two sides and how one overcame the other. It's the difference between learning something and just listening to someone talk.

Of course, the BBC has not been without its faults. Garth Crooks for one. On Friday evening, he reported from the England camp, of which he appears to think he's a full member, assuring the English public that "we will do what we can" to bring glory home. His portentous tones revealed that he had been speaking to Steven Gerrard, who had exclusively revealed to him that "if we keep playing as we're playing, we're not going to win the World Cup". Crooks seemed mightily impressed by this "honest appraisal".

As ever, he should have looked to RTE for the real skinny on England's chances. Honest appraisal may not be the ideal term, more like rabid abuse. "No class", "No imagination, no guile, no sophistication", "Any capacity to improve? None", "Hyped up to the eyeballs", "They'll get it. They're gonna get it from one of the top sides.

It's great, " "Total rubbish", "Forty years of hurt? Garbage". All the big boys lined up for the Trinidad and Tobago game, along with Souness, who admired the beating from a distance, while adding the odd kick to the kidneys himself when the mood took him.

Souness has been a fine addition to RTE's coverage, taking no time at all to get used to the party line. At half time in Tunisia v Saudi Arabia, he had decided that countries from far-flung places shouldn't even be at the World Cup: "We can sit here and tell a pack of lies but people will write in and say we know nothing about football". Wonder who he's been sitting beside. Meanwhile, the sensible decision has been taken to bring Johnny Giles back from Germany, and with Bill O'Herlihy in rare form, RTE's live analysis has gone from acceptable to unmissable.

Away from the punditry though, RTE haven't been so impressive. Their Gatecrasher feature has been dull beyond belief so far. The idea seems to have been for Ger Gilroy to go around Germany in a camper van, getting a feel for what's happening on the ground and maybe getting into the odd scrape.

What we've got is somebody's holiday on camera, without all the potentially interesting bits.

Meanwhile it seems like the Apres Match lads signed up a couple of weeks ago, and have been frantically trying to cobble together sketches in the short time since. Still not without their moments, but they need to recognise that doing an impression of somebody is not funny by itself.

Without access to ITV4, we sadly can't assess the comedy competition in the shape of World Cuppa, but after seeing the trailers we're losing little sleep over it. ITV itself remains shiny and smiley and virtually unwatchable, with Matt Smith in particular even more grating than the dark days of The Premiership on Monday.

The one bright spot has come in the unlikely form of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbank, whose forceful opinions and obvious disdain for the inane have made him the surprise package of the tournament. Let's hope RTE can sign him, they're conspicuously short on strikers.

But then again, with that midfieldf