SEMIFINALS

FRANCE 1 PORTUGAL 0



The English-speaking media's heroes and villains were pitted against each other in the second semifinal match today. France won back their crown as the darlings of football as writers and fans have been dazzled with their return to form, and caught up in the prospect of Zidane, Thuram, Makelele and Vieira taking it home one last time.

On the other hand, after upsetting the English-speaking world with their performances against Holland and England in which accusations of diving, acting and cheating were constantly thrown around, Portugal came into this game less liked than Osama bin Laden by the English media.

France came out looking far from they did in their world-beating matches that led to this semifinal. They took a cautious approach, playing half speed and staying back. They showed why as Portugal got off to a blistering start, with Christiano Ronaldo in particular going straight at the French defense, throwing everything he had at them, all while receiving a chorus of boos every time he touched the ball. Indeed, they looked the more dangerous side, but France's cautious attacking finally found Thierry Henry in the box in the 32nd minute. He beat Ricardo Carvalho to the middle but was dropped with a slightest of leg pokes, slightly reminiscent of Michael Owen's easy takedown against Argentina in 2002. This set up a penalty kick taken by Zidane. His easy three-step kick is nearly unbeatable. Portuguese keeper Ricardo even guessed correctly, but couldn't reach far enough or fast enough to stop it, and it was 1-0 to les bleus.

Carvalho's postgame take on his foul on Henry was classic - typically Portuguese in this tournament. The Fiver said it best:
'"I know I made contact with Henry but the referee could have played
the advantage. He did their job for them" - you gotta love those
Portuguese. Having fouled someone in the box and then admitted it,
Ricardo Carvalho is still wondering why the referee had the gall to
give a penalty against him.'

Portugal's answer to finding themselves down was to keep attacking, while embellishing and making the most of the dark art known as, shall we say... 'simulation.' They went flying wildly on what replays showed was very little, even no contact at all. For some strange reason, their diving seemed to occur most often inside France's box. Thankfully, the referee was having none of it. What's more, France did an excellent job of concentrating on defense throughout the rest of the game: they rendered Portugal's only striker, Pauletta, invisible (though he has a habit of doing this to himself anyway) while Makelele and Vieira shut down playmaker Deco for nearly the entire match. This no doubt made the difference as Sagnol was once again brilliant and Eric Abidal able in handling Ronaldo and Figo up the sides. Meanwhile, all Maniche could do on this day apparently was try to break Frank Lampard's unofficial record for most shots over the bar.

Surprising nobody (backup keeper Gregory Coupet no doubt included), Portugal's best chance came on another Fabien Barthez boneheaded goalkeeper save of a free kick. The swerving ball bounced high off his chest only for Figo, just waiting for it in the box, to knock it high over. A few more failed dives by Portugal and the game was over: good had triumphed over evil according to the press, as Zidane and co. were once again playing for the World Cup while Christiano Ronaldo was once again crying, this time for losing.


Oh, and by the way, pre-final, here's my all-tournament starting XI:

Goalkeeper:
GIANLUIGI BUFFON, ITALY

Defenders:
FABIO CANAVARO, ITALY
WILLY SAGNOL, FRANCE
RAFAEL MARQUEZ, MEXICO
FABIO GROSSO, ITALY

Midfielders:
ANDREA PIRLO, ITALY
PATRICK VIEIRA, FRANCE
GENNARO GATTUSO, ITALY
MAXI RODRIGUEZ, ARGENTINA

Strikers:
MIROSLAV KLOSE, GERMANY
FERNANDO TORRES, SPAIN