Semi-final: Portugal 0 – 1 France
Do you mind if I just dispense with any attempt to be impartial for this one? I’ve been a good boy so far, don’t you think? I haven’t said “C’MONYOUINGERLUN!” once, have I?
I know some English people still have a bizarre animosity towards the French (I mean, come on… it’s been 191 years now) but it’s fairly safe to say that very few English football fans wanted to see Portugal win tonight. Sure enough, they didn’t, but the score, not to mention the character of the match, was quite revealing.
First of all, if France are to have any hope of beating Italy in the final, they’ll need to recreate the stunning Zidane-centred attacking flair they demonstrated in the Brazil match… and then some. Italy have by far the best defence in this World Cup and while Zidane may be just the person to unlock it, the French will have to be on their guard against Italian counter-attacks. Barthez kept a clean sheet despite being at his Hulot-esque best but, unlike 1998/2000, he can’t rely on an almost unbeatable defence to get him out of trouble every time.
Secondly, do we really ever want Scolari to coach England? I was certainly in favour of his appointment back when it looked like a definite possibility, but I’ve seen a lot to dislike over the course of this World Cup. The current Portugal squad has a great capacity for attractive, attacking play, but several of their performances in Germany have looked stodgy and unimaginative. Deco’s suspension provided a reasonable excuse for the lack of creativity in the England match, but not tonight. He played, but just couldn’t seem to get involved.
The biggest issue, though, is still the diving and play-acting. This is not entirely the fault of Big Phil (Portuguese teams have always been rather lightweight in the tackle) but he’s done nothing to avert the media shitstorm of the past week. Portugal stood to gain some PR brownie points by approaching tonight’s match with a more gentlemanly attitude, but no… if anything, they were even worse than against England. ITV picked up on several examples of absolutely blatant diving both at half-time and after the match, but what made the whole thing worse was the screaming, pop-eyed outrage from Scolari and all denizens of the Portugal dugout. It was a rare pleasure to see these cheats ejected from the World Cup.
It wasn’t a vintage French performance, but it was enough. No doubt questions will be asked about the penalty (like the free-kick against Spain, Henry *was* fouled, but over-acted somewhat) but World Cup matches have been decided on far more controversial decisions.
I am SOOOOOO glad the cheating scumbags are out…
really there is nothing more to say!