There can be few things in life more satisfying than watching years of hard work culminate in one fleeting but beautiful moment. In 2006 José Pékerman stood in the technical area at Gelsenkirchen and experienced just that, bathing in the warm glow of fulfilment as he saw the stars align in 54 glorious seconds.

Two years earlier, Pékerman had been entrusted with the Argentina job, succeeding Marcelo Bielsa, with whom he shared many deeply held beliefs about how the game should be played. The appointment made perfect sense. Pékerman could try to improve on the fine but flawed work of his meticulous predecessor but better still, he would be working with players whom he had helped to sculpt into steely winners in his role as the under-20 coach.

Between 1994 and 2001 he oversaw a golden era of Argentinian youth football, winning the World Youth Championship three times in four tournaments. It was an unprecedented period of success with Juan Pablo Sorín, Esteban Cambiasso, Pablo Aimar, Juan Román Riquelme, Javier Saviola and Maxi Rodríguez among the players whom Pékerman schooled in a highly effective form of possession football that he hoped would serve Argentina well in the future. Underpinning his philosophy was the keenly held belief that a composed approach will always be rewarded more richly than a hurried one.

This was something he tried to drum into his under-20 players on a personal level as well as a tactical one. He left Aimar, among his most heralded players in 1997, on the bench for the final of the World Youth Championships in Malaysia, apparently with the sole intention to teach him the lesson that haste, whether on the football pitch or in progressing a career, isn’t always the best way forward. Having had to wait for his chance to manage Argentina after a career that weaved in and out of football following the early curtailment of an undistinguished playing career, Pékerman knew the value of patience.

There were signs in the buildup to the 2006 World Cup that Argentina could be a force with a manager at the helm who knew the players so well. None more so than at a raucous Estadio Monumental on 8 June 2005, when just under 50,000 fans bore witness to a devastating first-half display in which Argentina danced around a spellbound Brazil, their rhythmic passing providing a joyous backing track as they raced into an insurmountable 3-0 lead against the world champions to seal World Cup qualification. There was also a rare glimpse of peak Riquelme, with the enigmatic playmaker swivelling away from Roque Júnior with graceful ease before unleashing an unstoppable 25-yard strike into the top-left corner.

Freeing Riquelme to influence games as a menacing metronome was the chief reason that Pékerman’s side were so easy on the eye in Germany. There had been criticism in Argentina that Riquelme was often allowed to get away with too much in matches, paying scant regard to tracking back and scoffing at the idea of winning back possession. But the truth is that by playing one or both of Cambiasso and Javier Mascherano behind him, most of the time Riquelme didn’t need to.

When Mascherano stole the ball with Ivory Coast on the attack and Argentina just 1-0 up in the first group game in Germany, they looked perfectly set for a blistering counterattack. Instead, Argentina took eight considered touches, never accelerating the move until within striking distance. It was Riquelme’s wand of a right boot that set up Saviola to stab home. The patient approach had worked again and given us a hint of what was to come. It appeared Pékerman had come up with the magic formula. The murmurings of approval for Argentina’s style of possession football afterwards would become a chorus following the game against Serbia and Montenegro.

Among Argentina supporters there was a whiff of anticipation about what was possible against Serbia and Montenegro. Two years earlier the same sides, containing a good portion of the players lining up in Gelsenkirchen, had met at the Athens Olympics, which Argentina went on to win. The score? Argentina 6-0 Serbia and Montenegro.

Perhaps that is why Argentina had a swagger about them from the start. Six minutes into the game, a delicious move on the left resulted in Saviola bursting into the box, where he poked the ball across to Rodríguez to jab home and prompt Diego Maradona, high up in the stands, to begin just the first of his many crazed celebrations that evening. It would take a further 24 minutes for the lead to be increased, but it was a period in which Argentina’s grip on the game became so unbearably tight that something had to give. It did. “The most beautiful goal,” as Hernán Crespo described it.

Diego Maradona celebrates during Argentina’s mesmeric display of possession football against Serbia & Montenegro. Photograph: Achim Scheidemann/EPA

It begins in much the same way as the second goal scored against Ivory Coast, with the opponents’ pocket being picked while on a dangerous-looking attack. On this occasion it is Rodríguez who does the pilfering, chasing back and hooking the ball away from Mateja Kezman, in full gallop. He then shows he has the intelligence to match his industry, drifting off into space and dragging three opponents to the left of the pitch before popping a little pass back to Sorín, who takes them out of the game by coming back inside.

The patient passing continues over to the right-hand side of the pitch, with Mascherano, Riquelme and Cambiasso all getting a touch and appearing to move in slow-motion as their opponents huff and puff around them. The ball, now on first-name terms with Argentina’s midfield, is worked back over to the left in sophisticated style, never in danger of being stolen away. It’s at this point that you become aware that the unhurried movement of both players and ball has begun to mesmerise.

There is an opportunity to quicken the attack as the ball arrives over on the left again but these Argentina players, schooled as they have been by Pékerman to be patient at all times, show their intelligence, choosing to eschew the first opportunity to attack down the left wing and instead frustrate their opponents to the degree that five Serbia and Montenegro players are drawn towards the ball as Argentina play it backwards again. Now, this is when the slow-slow-quick approach kicks in, with Mascherano fizzing a pass out to Sorín, who is hugging the touchline, before finding Saviola, the catalyst for the deadliest part of the attack. He bursts inside from the touchline and plays a cute one-two with Riquelme, who for all his influence on the game, plays only a minor role in this wonderfully-crafted goal.

Saviola picks up the return from Riquelme (pass 22 in case you’re interested) and curls the ball out towards the edge of the box, where Cambiasso is lurking. It’s not an easy pass to control, bouncing awkwardly in front of a player who had only come on 12 minutes earlier, as a substitute for the injured Luis González, and had never been famed for his attacking prowess. But sometimes in life, moments arrive that hint at perfection and must not be undone. There is a sense that Cambiasso was acutely aware of this as his first touch, a feathered dink with the outside of his left foot, feeds Crespo perfectly. The big striker then shows incredible deftness himself, taking one delicious touch with his left instep, delaying to allow Cambiasso to catch up, and then teeing him up with his right heel. Impeccable link-up play.

Crespo said afterwards that he knew that something great was happening as the move was gradually and skilfully stitched together behind him. Perhaps Cambiasso did too, and it is why, when the series of 25 passes was nearing its glorious end, neither player dared shirk the responsibility of seeing to it that it was given the final flourish it deserved.

There is utter joy and intense relief as Cambiasso drills the ball high into the net. In some ways goals that are built through patient passing moves are similar to 147 breaks in snooker. As they reach their denouement, the pressure mounts. “Don’t ruin it,” must have been the recurring thought as Cambiasso and Crespo realised it was up to them to do justice to what had gone before them. They did not. As Cambiasso raced off to celebrate, clutching his shirt with two hands, Pékerman roared his approval from the sidelines, having watched his team score a goal that he had helped make possible by drumming into them the value of possession when many were still kids.

It would have particularly pleased Pékerman that it was Cambiasso, the epitome of a team player, who was in the right place at the right time to score one of the great team goals. There were echoes of the recently passed Carlos Alberto’s iconic goal for Brazil in the 1970 World Cup final in Cambiasso’s effort, only with an even greater number of passes and a finish that was not as emphatic but still thoroughly assertive. A decade after it was scored, this goal is now seen by many as being the precursor to tiki-taka, when possession itself became a potent weapon in football.

It still haunts many Argentina fans that the class of 2006 did not go further than the quarter-finals, with Pékerman accused of blundering against Germany, going against his principles and substituting his pass master Riquelme for the more defensive qualities of Cambiasso in the 80th minute and thus ceding the attacking initiative. Germany went on to equalise as Argentina became far less assured in possession. They lost on penalties, of course. Worse still, they disgraced themselves as a fight broke out at the end.

A fight breaks out at the end of Germany’s victory over Argentina on penalties at the 2006 World Cup. Photograph: Frank Augstein/AP

Pékerman resigned after the defeat. It is a great shame. His methods had imbued Argentina with the kind of on-the-ball authority that would serve Spain so well in their period of domination between 2008 and 2012. But Pékerman can be proud that his team created something wonderful in Gelsenkirchen, something he deserved to oversee and take credit for given his key role in developing the players who made it happen. The fact that it took a while to arrive made it all the more beautiful.