Brad

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!

Eusebio is low profile here, but Pele should be left off the screen for his own good. The guy obviously isn't wearing any clothes and every time he opens his mouth and presents one of his no-content open-door comments to the world, I could bite another piece out of some furniture. Do you have any furniture left?

It should be interesting when Rooney and Ronaldo report for training camp at Manchester United later this summer.

Yes, but it seems like without Rooney, the game is opening up a bit. However, I think now that's in extra time, England will just play for the penalty kicks.

This has the smell of PKs.

Now with the red, this has the potential to get ugly.

I saw parts of 1966 but not as much as I'd like but I did see just about all of 1970 and that was the best tournament I ever saw. 1982 was rather good too and so was 1998. I have good memories of that although I can't point you to anything specifically. Maybe it was just the idea of France winning finally after all these years.

Again, my apologies for doing that. Getting back to the subject, nobody's talking about the Italy game. I thought that match was better than I expected and I thought the Ukrainians were better than I expected. Aside from Saudi Arabia, which I didn't consider a real test, this was probably the best I've seen them play. They had some good shots on goal in the second half and only some good defense and a little luck prevented this game from being tied. But you also had a sense that Italy was going to get a second goal and end the drama. I have to say I've never seen so many blonde athletes on a pitch at any one time.