Brad

Not necessarily. A PK has to be awarded according to the subjective judgement of a man who may or may not even have a good look at the play. I'm just not yet convinced that the PK was deserved. I don't know, Brad. Was Italy's goal a "break"? Sure, Zidane may have made a difference if he'd stayed on, but nobody knows. France certainly played well overall, I guess I'm just trying to give Italy a bit of credit where I think it's deserved (at least to some degree). What I meant by breaks was Zindane's headbutt and Trezeguet's miss. Their goal was certainly not a break but a great header. Italy does need to get credit because they are the Champs. They won so that entitles them to the credit.

Your premise seems that they deserved to win because they scored a legitimate goal as opposed to the France PK. A PK is just as legitimate as a non PK goal. In fact, this was a more deserving PK, imo, than the one in the Portugal match. Looking at the game overall, Italy had some moments on offense in the first half but after that it was all France. They were constantly on the attack, looking for the tie breaker. They were making younger men look bad. However, not always the best team wins. You need to get breaks. Italy got them, helped by Zidane and they won. End of story.

Back to the match and the headbutt. This is what Domenech said, as reported in the BBC: France coach Raymond Domenech said the referee should have given Zinedine Zidane more protection in the World Cup final defeat against Italy in Berlin. Zidane was sent off in extra-time for a head-butt on Marco Materazzi before France went on to lose on penalties. "Materrazzi is the man of the match, not Andrea Pirlo," said Domenech. "When one has to put up with what Zidane had to and the referee doesn't do anything, one understands. You can't excuse it, but you can understand it."

What is your problem?? As far as I know no one mentioned any of those things, whereas your comments are rude and insulting. Actually I haven't got any problems: some of your past comments about italians edged the trivials commonplaces about us: 'divers', 'catenaccio', 'typical italian playing', ecc.. The party goes on right on so who cares... You've got to be kidding me. That's what you're getting upset about. Sheez. If somebody had said derogatory about the Italian people, I could understand your feeling upset but not for those comments about how your countrymen play football.

As far as Zidane costing them the title, it's arguable but he would have been taking one of the penalties so who knows? It's unfortunate, win or lose, that he went out that way. That headbutt will go down in World Cup lore and provoke unceasing debate as to whether France would have won or lost had he not done that.

I said they didn't deserve it because France played much better over the whole game and you can't deny that. I'm not looking down on you or Italy just looking at who played better. However, as we all know just because you play better doesn't guarantee a win and that's what happened here.

They didn't deserve it but that's irrelevant. They're the Champions. Zidane's headbutt may have cost them the title.

Unbelieveable. You have to keep your head. A headbutt worthy of American football. Penalties. It had to come to this, I'm afraid. Not a feeling to make Italian supporters happy, I'm sure.

Towards the end of time, Italians looked a bit disorganized in the back. France has been the better side in the second half but to no avail. I would think that exhaustion may be setting in.

Definitely.

With less than 15 minutes to go, Shakira seemed to get the crowd fired up. Of course, that's probably not too hard either

I frankly don't know who will win but I hope it's just a good match. Over on the BBC, Marcel Desailly said "I'm a bit disappointed about Italy. They don't really deserve to be in the World Cup final because they have shown only 45 minutes of good football, in the second half of their semi-final against Germany." I'm not sure I really believe that but they did get a gift against Australia and Ukraine was one of the worst quarterfinalists. However, their defense has obviously shone so I have no idea who will be favored. If it's hot, France will need to score in the first half or early in the second to win because some of their players might run out of gas. Again, who knows? Let's just hope it's entertaining as I agree with Hans that this has not been the most entertaining Cup.

Those were two beauties by Schweinstieger. Someone from Germany asked me if I would like Klinsman to be the US coach? I replied only if I could have some of the German players.

I think this was the point I was trying to make (but not as good as Jim). It could have been waved off.

Barthez forgot he was playing football and thought he wandered into a volleyball match.

The one good plus for France in all of this was that no one in card trouble, except for Saha (and he seemed more interested in tackling than playing), received a card so France will have the team it wants on the pitch on Sunday.

Yes, it was not good. Looks like they were out of gas by the end of the match, especially Henry.

That dive was unbelievable, not even good acting for him. I'm not sure I would have given a penalty for that. Well, he didn't get one - I was referring to Ronaldo, not Henry. Henry was tackled, the penalty was a correct decision. I was combining two thoughts in that one post. Sorry for any confusion. Yes, he was tackled but I've seen worse not called. Don't get me wrong I want France to win. Just not sure that was deserving of a penalty in a game of this importance.

That dive was unbelievable, not even good acting for him. I'm not sure I would have given a penalty for that.

Looking at the French yellow card situation, there is some cause for concern: Zidane, Viera, Ribery, Sagnol and Thuram each have one. Losing any of them could be a problem in the final.

Some fine commentary here since yesterday. As far as predictions, I'll go with the current thinking. However, I think that it will be France 2-0. I just hope that the quality, if you can call it that, of the Portugal team doesn't result in any yellow cards that have players missing from the final, especially Zidane.

I'm probably stating the obvious but if France win this Cup, this will go down as Zinedine's Cup. It's amazing to think how far they've progressed after those awful showings against Switzerland and S. Korea. How many of us (myself included) had written them off! We all assumed it was a foregone conclusion that Spain would beat them. Sometimes a great player, knowing this is it, is just not willing to say goodbye, adios, adieu, whatever. I guess we will find out soon enough. Re the little pisser, the guy has a lot of flash, the fancy moves, but other than that I don't see much there.

They did not play up to expectations. I think the Australia match was an eye opener. It showed how they could be contained. I think the sentimental choice, unless you're German, Italian or Portuguese, is France and that's because of Zidane. Ribery! He's come on in the last couple of games. I will be in Southern France next Sunday. I sure hope that France is in the final. That would be something to experience.

Well deserved. Brasil looks fairly ordinary today.

Damn!