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It is a fitting tribute to a World Cup where defences have ruled that today’s final between France and Italy will see the two stingiest teams in the tournament go head-to-head.
   With just three goals conceded between the finalists in their 12 games so far, it is not difficult to envisage a tense climactic battle that may need something special to unlock it.
   And in the form of their mesmerising captain Zinedine Zidane, France believe they hold the skeleton key. ‘We have Zidane and they don’t,’ was French defender Willy Sagnol’s neat appraisal of the two finalists.
   At the age of 34, Zidane will bid ‘au revoir’ from football on the biggest stage of all, bringing the curtain down on a glittering career that has seen him win every major honour the sport has to offer.
   Now a global audience of 1.5 billion will focus their gaze on Berlin’s 69,000-capacity Olympic Stadium to see if the French magician can pull off one last, glorious conjuring trick.
   Win or lose, Zidane’s place in the pantheon is assured, his role in helping France to the final after coming out of international retirement adding lustre to the legend.
   Written off as past their sell-by date as they stumbled through the group phase, France’s fortunes underwent a renaissance once the knockout rounds began with Zidane inspiring the revival.
   Now they are only 90 minutes away from a second World Cup in eight years, the crowning achievement in a decade of glory that began when France, and Zidane, reached the semi-finals of the 1996 European Championship.
   The common thread of the past 10 years has been Zidane, along with his friend and defensive stalwart Lilian Thuram, who will win his 121st cap on Sunday before his expected retirement.
   ‘It’s going to be very difficult and we are going to have be at the top of our game, but we have the weapons to do it,’ said Zidane, scorer of two goals against Brazil in the final in Paris eight years ago.
   It has been a remarkable transformation for France, who were booed and jeered by their own fans in their final friendly matches before the tournament as coach Raymond Domenech groped blindly for the right formula.
   No-one associated with Sunday’s final appreciates the threat of Zidane better than Domenech’s Italian counterpart, the masterful Marcello Lippi.
   Lippi was Zidane’s manager for three years at Juventus when the French maestro was at the peak of his powers.
   ‘France have recovered the best Zidane and have grown through the tournament,’ Lippi said. ‘Zidane is probably the best player there has been in the past 20 years.’
   Despite the high praise, if anyone can come up with a plan to thwart Zidane, it is the shrewd 58-year-old who has overseen Italy’s stealthy progress into their sixth World Cup final.
   Victory for the Azzurri will confirm Lippi as the most successful manager in the history of Italian football, adding the greatest prize of all to the five Italian titles and Champions League crown he won with Juventus.
   While a fairytale finish beckons Zidane and France, Italy too are driven by their own sense of destiny, having seen their domestic football buried in an avalanche of corruption scandals in the weeks leading up to the finals.
   Lippi’s role in forging such a battle-hardened team against such a lurid backdrop will go down as a masterpiece of man-management.
   ‘We have shown that we have got some great footballers and that we are not criminals,’ said Italy’s veteran striker Alessandro Del Piero. ‘Everything that has happened off the pitch has brought us closer together.’
   France may take a slight psychological advantage into the final having beaten the Italians three times in major tournaments since 1986.
   Their most recent victory over the Azzurri came in the final of Euro 2000, when Italy were just 17 seconds away from winning before France equalised and David Trezeguet struck a memorable golden goal winner.
   Italy have moved on since then. Only two members of the side beaten in Rotterdam—captain Fabio Cannavaro and Francesco Totti—are expected to start in Sunday’s final at the 69,000-seat Olympic Stadium. France on the other hand will take to the field with five of the side that prevailed in Holland.
   Italy have seen their back four breached just once in six matches, due in part to the superb form of their captain Cannavaro.
   France’s defensive effort has been been similarly hard-nosed, with only two goals conceded so far. The evergreen Thuram, one of four veterans of France’s 1998 triumph, has been outstanding at the heart of the French defence, shielded brilliantly by Claude Makelele and the resurgent Patrick Vieira.
   But none has been better than Zidane: the ultimate goodbye awaits.

Bastian Schweinsteiger scored two goals Saturday to lead host Germany to a 3-1 win over Portugal in the World Cup’s third-place match.
   Bastian Schweinsteiger scored two goals Saturday to lead host Germany to a 3-1 win over Portugal in the World Cup’s third-place match.
   Schweinsteiger also played a part in Germany’s other goal when his free kick was deflected in for an own-goal by Portugal’s Armando Petit.
   Nuno Gomes scored for Portugal in the 88th.
   The win in the consolation game was the next best thing to playing in Sunday’s final - contested by France and Italy - and unexpected when the young German team behind innovative coach Juergen Klinsmann began play four weeks ago.
   Schweinsteiger’s two goals were almost identical.
   In the 56th, he retreated from the corner of the penatly area on
   the left side and worked to the middle of the field, launching a 25-meter (yard) rising shot over the outstretched left hand of goalkeeper Ricardo Pereira.
   Six mintues later the midfielder, who didn’t start in the 2-0 loss to Italy in the semifinals, set up the own-goal as Petit deflected his free kick behind Ricardo.
   In the 78th, he again sent a rising shot sailing over Ricardo’s hands. With this one he ripped off his shirt, drawing applause from the 52,000 sellout that included seven-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher.
   The Germans have won the World Cup three times, and they are always a threat. They’ve reached the semifinals a record 11 times, and this is the third time they’ve won the consolation prize.
   Portugal failed to match its best World Cup, falling just short of the third-place finish in 1966. Eusebio, a member of that 1966 team, was on the bench but couldn’t rally a victory. Portugal winger Luis Figo came on as a late substitute and, at 33, surely has played in his last World Cup. It’s also likely to be the final World Cup game for 37-year-old Germany goalkeeper Oliver Kahn, who got his first start after sitting on the bench for six games behind Jens Lehmann.
   German newspapers called this the “Little Final,” but it had a big feeling in a stadium awash with Germany’s black, yellow and red national colors. One hand-written poster read: “Thanks for being our guest,” shorthand for the feel-good factor in this tournament.
   The biggest question for Germany is the future of Klinsmann. The California resident has been non-commital about his plans. But even the tabloid Bild, his biggest critic a month ago, has begun a write-in campaign to keep him.
   Other newspapers like the Berliner Kurier carried this headline: “Klinsi, please stay.” A poster hanging from the team’s hotel in Stuttgart read: “Thanks guys for a wonderful four weeks.”
   This was the first World Cup meeting for the two European teams. Overall, they have played 15 times, and Germany won seven, Portugal won three and five were draws.
   Germany made five changes from the team that lost 2-0 to Italy. Portugal made three from the side that fell to 1-0 to France.
   Germany had most of the pressure early, but Portugal got the best scoring chance in the 15th when Pauleta broke in from the left, but his shot for a wide open corner was deflected by Kahn diving to the left.
   Portugal scored only seven goals in the tournament, and Pauleta’s poor finishing was one reason. He scored in the fourth minute of the first game, but not since.
   In the 20th, Germany had its best chance when Sebastian Kehl’s curling shot was tipped over the crossbar by Ricardo. Five minutes later, Podolski tested Ricardo with a rising free kick. The first half was broken by fouls and three yellow cards, keeping Japanese referee Toru Kamikawa. busy.

After more than two years of competition featuring 194 teams, 910 games and more than 2,600 goals, the World Cup will be decided today with either Italy crowned champions for the fourth time or France for the second.
   A billion people will turn their attention to Berlin’s Olympiastadion where two teams drenched in World Cup history will do battle in the 18th final.
   The match has left bookmakers divided but is littered with fascinating sub-plots that fans of each side can cling to in the desperate hope that they are fated to triumph.
   For France it is the opportunity to complete the circle of recovery after they were knocked out after the first round without scoring a goal four years ago.
   Striker Thierry Henry’s frustration goes back even further as he seeks to banish the bitter-sweet memories of 1998 when he watched the final from the bench as France triumphed 3-0 over Brazil.
   And there is Zinedine Zidane, who retires after the match with his reputation as one of the game’s greats long-assured but who craves the ultimate leaving gift.
   Italy go into the game under the cloud of the domestic match-fixing scandal which might yet see half the squad playing second division football next month but which has also helped mold them into a formidably spirited unit.
   They are also seeking revenge for the agony of the 2000 European Championship when the title seemed theirs before France snatched an injury-time equalizer then won it with David Trezeguet’s golden goal.
   While Zidane’s departure seems to demand victory, Italy can point to a similarly neat and equally deserved last page scenario that would see their superb captain Fabio Cannavaro lifting the trophy on the occasion of his 100th international appearance.
   However, all the historical twists will be forgotten on Sunday when the destination of the trophy will be decided not according to some grand design but more likely by a moment of inspiration or a fatal loss of concentration.
   It seems certain that the match will be in keeping with the rest of the tournament as a cagey affair with little likelihood of a feast of goals.
   That was certainly the case in their last World Cup meeting in the 1998 quarter-finals when France advanced on penalties after a goalless draw.
   Five of the side who played in that game and went on to win the trophy and then beat the Italians again in the Euro 2000 final are in the squad for Sunday—Fabien Barthez, Lilian Thuram, Trezeguet, Henry and Zidane but only Cannavaro and Alessandro Del Piero survive for Italy.
   The gray edge to the French side was one of the reasons so few people gave them a chance in this competition but they have countered the critics with performances of increasing confidence as they dispatched Spain, Brazil and Portugal.
   Italy too have every reason to back themselves. Their superb defense, fighting spirit and a coolness in front of goal that has produced 10 different scorers of 11 goals, took them deservedly past Australia, Ukraine and Germany.
   Both sides are littered with potential match-winners and both have experienced players highly qualified in the art of stopping such performers.
   Can Zidane possibly match his two-goal heroics of the 1998 final, can Henry deliver one of his special moments or can new boy Franck Ribery complete a dream tournament by scoring in the final?
   Conversely can Luca Toni follow in the footsteps of 1982 hero Paolo Rossi, will Andrea Pirlo net one his sumptuous free kicks or could the rampaging Gianluca Zambrotta charge his way into the history books?
   If not, there is always penalties.
   
   HEAD-TO-HEAD
   Italy have played France on 32 occasions winning 17, drawing eight and losing seven, outscoring France by 75 goals to 44. This will be the fifth World Cup meeting of the pair. The Squadra Azzurri won 3-1 in the 1938 Quarter-finals and 2-1 in the 1978 Group phase. France’s sole win over Italy came in the 1986 second round (2-0). This was the last time Italy lost a World Cup knockout match within 90 minutes. In the 1998 Quarter-finals France beat the Italians 4-3 on penalties after a goalless draw.
   The only previous final between Italy and France came at Euro 2000. France won 2-1 through a golden goal by David Trezeguet. Italy led 1-0 until the 90th minute. This match was also the last meeting between the two sides.
   

Italy coach Marcello Lippi says sheer hunger for success will be the deciding factor in today’s World Cup final against France.
   ‘Tomorrow we go to Berlin and we’ll sit down at the table where everything will be laid out in front of us,’ said the 58-year-old at a press conference here on Saturday.
   ‘Without sounding too presumptuous, there isn’t much difference between the two teams. France are an excellent side with superb players, but our team is also strong.
   ‘There are a lot of factors that will contribute to the outcome like organization and technical quality. But what it will come down to is which team has more hunger.
   ‘In the French team there are players who have won the World Cup and European championship, while this generation of Italian players haven’t even come close to winning something.
   ‘That’s whats on the table tomorrow, and we have our forks in our hand.’
   Italy midfielder Andrea Pirlo believes his side have a healthier appetite than France because of their recent lack of success in major tournaments.
   ‘It’s going to be an incredibly tough match, but we have more hunger than they do,’ said the AC Milan midfielder.
   Lippi said he expected France to be more difficult opponents than hosts Germany, who the Azzurri beat 2-0 in the semi-finals after extra-time.
   ‘I would say France are better than Germany. Germany can be a team that goes on to be very successful. They’re very young, but they don’t yet have the experience that France has,’ he said.
   Torrential rain in Berlin means that neither Italy or France can train on the Olympic stadium pitch before the final, but Lippi said FIFA had assured him the playing surface would be fine for Sunday’s showpiece.
   ‘We’ve been told that the pitch has been covered and that it will be in excellent condition for the final,’ he said.
   Lippi then dismissed press speculation that he is interested in becoming the coach of English Premiership giants Manchester United.
   When asked if he was going to Old Trafford, he replied: ‘All I’m interested in is winning the World Cup. It’s pointless talking about these things.
   ‘There’s no truth in this story and you will find out where I am going in the next 15 to 20 days, maybe a month. But I’m certain it won’t be Manchester.’
   Lippi’s contract with Italy ends after the World Cup, but the Italian football federation are keen for him to stay on.

We are now only waiting for a grand final between Italy and France. For football romantics, it may not be a great match to watch, but I am really foreseeing a tough competition. Italy and France are the teams to have grown up with the age in the tournament and they are now well capable of entertaining the global spectators, who will remain glued to the television today to watch them in action.
   The reason for apprehension of a boring finale to the World Cup is quite understandable. Defence is the main strength of both the sides and in such a case it was not very unusual to see an insipid game. Moreover, one of the finalists – Italy – have a long tradition of playing defensive football.
   But have you seen the semifinal match of Italy against Germany? There were no signs of defensive football that could bore a fan. Rather it was the game which would last long in the memory of fans for the drama and entertainment it had produced.
   After watching the game I have no other option but to tip the Italians as favourites to win the tournament, although France are not a side to be written off, especially with the great Zinedine Zidane in their ranks.
   To me Italy are stronger than France because of their non-dependence on a single or a specific group of players. They have talents in all departments including the goalkeeping, which will give the side an edge over France.
   The 1998 champions will have to depend heavily on Zidane, Henry and Viera to make deference and it will also make the game plan of Italy a little bit easy. If they can block the trio, Favio Cannavaro has every chance of celebrating his 33th birthday and 100th international match with the World Cup trophy.

Win or lose, Sunday will be the last time the world will see one of the greatest players in history, Zinedine Zidane, in action. Earlier in the year, Zidane announced his retirement from club football and returned to international football only to take part in this World Cup. What greater occasion can it be for one of the greatest to bow out from football in one of its greatest occasions?
   And to make the occasion sweeter, be rest assured that Zidane and his team-mates, who rather visibly worship him, will give it their best shot to lift the trophy. They will fire from all guns, and with Zidane at the helm, they are quite capable of overcoming their opponents, despite them having performed better as a team. Also, the Italian defense has brushed aside all attacks with their brilliant defense, and it will take a player of Zidane’s stature to break them open.
   France may have won the trophy in 1998, but for those who are gifted with a sharp memory will recognise the fact that if one tournament was to be Zidane’s it was this one. Zidane’s influence, command, skills, and dominance over his side and in the matches has been far greater than in 1998. Also, if they win this time he himself will be lifting the trophy first time as the skipper.
   In 1998, he was suspended for two matches for a red card and his only memorable performance was the final were he scored two goals with headers.
   This tournament, he is already sitting on two goals going into the final. He has scored in the second round and semifinal against Spain and Portugal respectively and against Brazil in the quarterfinal he has put on display in what is being touted as one of the finest performances in history. One more like that, and history will be rewritten to fit Zizou right at the top.
   
   Fabien Barthez
   Position: Goalkeeper
   Club: Marseille
   Age: 35
   Caps: 86
   Flamboyant goalkeeper who has been loved and loathed by French fans throughout a colourful career, which included key roles in the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 victories. A controversial choice as No.1 keeper ahead of Gregory Coupet, Barthez has looked vulnerable to shots from distance.
   
   Eric Abidal
   Position: Fullback
   Club: Lyon
   Age: 26
   Caps: 13
   A pacy fullback who likes to get forward in attack, Abidal has been a key figure in the Lyon side which clinched its fifth successive French championship this season. Back to full fitness after suffering a foot injury late last year, Abidal has become a favourite of coach Raymond Domenech since his debut in 2004.
   William Gallas
   Position: Centre-half
   Club: Chelsea
   Age: 26
   Caps: 46
   Has been a revelation for France after being given an extended run in his preferred position at the heart of the defence. Skilful on the ball and strong in the tackle, Gallas has shown the sort of form which have made him such an invaluable member of Chelsea’s English Premiership-winning side.
   
   Lilian Thuram
   Position: Centre-half
   Club: Juventus
   Age: 34
   Caps: 120
   The most capped player in French history, Thuram returned to international duty last year after retiring following Les Bleus dreadful Euro 2004 campaign. Has repaid Domenech’s faith with some defensive displays that have been right out of the top draw. Man-of-the-match in semi-final win over Portugal.
   
   Willy Sagnol
   Position: Fullback
   Club: Bayern Munich
   Age: 29
   Caps: 44
   A long-term understudy to the now retired Bixente Lizarazu, Sagnol was a vocal critic of his treatment by successive French coaches but has now blossomed under Domenech.
   A skilful defender who started his career as a striker, Sagnol is adept at turning defence into attack.
   
   Claude Makelele
   Position: Midfield
   Club: Chelsea:
   Age: 33
   Caps: 49
   Another one of France’s golden oldies who came out of retirement to help the squad qualify for the World Cup. Makelele is widely regarded as the finest holding midfield player in the world and has been in superb form during the tournament, protecting the French back four zealously.
   
   Patrick Vieira
   Position: Midfield
   Club: Juventus
   Age: 30
   Caps: 93
   Ferocious in the tackle and creative in attack, the Senegal-born Vieira is regarded as one of the best all-round midfielders in football today. Struggled with a groin injury last season but has played himself back into form at the World Cup with two man-of-the-match performances and two goals.
   
   Florent Malouda
   Position: Midfield
   Club: Lyon
   Age: 26
   Caps: 18
   One of a new generation of French players that Domenech has integrated into the old guard, Malouda is an elusive winger capable of troubling the meanest defences with his ability to dribble at pace. A useful crosser of the ball, Malouda is a vital attacking outlet.
   
   Franck Ribery
   Position: Midfield
   Club: Marseille
   Age: 23
   Caps: 9
   Over-hyped as the next Zinedine Zidane, Ribery has gradually grown in confidence over the course of the tournament. A dynamic, jack-in-the-box kind of winger, Ribery contributed an important goal in the second round win over Spain and is a key member of the starting line-up.
   
   Thierry Henry
   Position: Striker
   Club: Arsenal
   Age: 28, Caps: 84
   Has never quite managed to reproduce at international level the mesmerising form he displays for his club, but Henry is without question one of the top three or four players in the world. Has been forced to operate in an unfamiliar lone striker role at the World Cup but has still scored three times.
   — AFP
   
   
   This World Cup can best be described as a team World Cup, as in, team performance has overshadowed any individual effort, and as such, fans have struggled to pinpoint someone as the player of the tournament. Of course, there is Zidane, and Riquelme in the early stages, but both have failed to be consistent throughout the tournament. And the sad part is, the contribution of defenders is not considered to the level of goal-scorers and playmakers or else Cannavaro’s performance so far has been unmatched by all the other great names.
   To put it simply, the Italian captain, also considered one of the best-looking men in football, has been a rock of the Italian defense. Attack after attack, Cannavaro has single-handedly cleared with his swift tackles, confident clearances, and precision marking, and even in the absence of his fellow central defender and legend Alessandro Nesta, he is yet commit any serious offense on the field.
   Italy have yet to concede a goal in the tournament apart from the own goal by Zaccardo and have got their eleven goals in the tournament from ten different outfield players.
   Also, Nesta has been left out with an injury, Daniel de Rossi suspended for the elbowing incident and Materazzi also missing a match
   through a red card, Cannavaro has virtually been the lone man standing, marshalling the Italian defense against opposition of the quality of the Germans, Ukranians, Czechs, Australians and Ghanians.
   Cannavaro has taken part in two previous World Cups and has been the linchpin of the Juventus defense in recent years.
   Sunday will be his 100th appearance in the Italian jersey and what more illustrious way to celebrate the occasion than to lift the trophy, in
   what definitely be his last appearance in a World Cup.
   
   Gianluigi Buffon
   Position: Goalkeeper
   Club: Juventus
   Age: 28
   Caps: 66
   Been in imperious form throughout the tournament, seemingly thriving off the external pressures of allegations about his betting on matches, Juventus being threatened with demotion for alleged match-fixing and the apparent suicide attempt of former team-mate Gianluca Pessotto. Conceded just one goal - an own goal - and cuts a calm and authoritative presence in the area.
   
   Gianluca Zambrotta
   Position: Fullback
   Club: Juventus
   Age: 29
   Caps: 57
   Outstanding at right back and had stunning match against Ukraine - scoring a rare goal, clearing off the line twice and setting up Luca Toni for the third goal. Seemingly inspired by Pessotto’s predicament - he and Alessandro Del Piero returned briefly to Turin to see him in hospital - and adds valuable pace and an attacking threat.
   
   Marco Materazzi
   Position: Centre-half
   Club: Inter Milan
   Age: 32
   Caps: 31
   Everton fans may be stunned to see Materazzi in a World Cup final after a mediocre stay there in 1998/99, however a return to Italy sparked a renaissance in the hardman central defender. Plays the bad cop to Cannavaro’s good cop. Not as elegant on the ball as the injured Alessandro Nesta but effective. Scored in the 2-0 win over the Czech Republic but was sent off somewhat harshly in the second round match with Australia.
   
   Fabio Grosso
   Position: Fullback
   Club: Palermo
   Age: 28
   Caps: 22
   A late developer who benefitted from the form of Sicilian club Palermo in Serie A. Previous clubs such as Chieti and Teramo tell a story of unglamorous progress to the top, but has seized the opportunity and has made decisive contributions. His fall in the penalty area over an already prostrate Lucas Neill gave Italy an injury-time 1-0 victory over Australia while his stunning goal a minute from the end of extra-time spelled game over for Germany in the semi-final.
   
   Andrea Pirlo
   Position: Midfield
   Club: AC Milan
   Age: 27
   Caps: 30
   While Grosso was the executioner against Germany, Pirlo was the orchestrator as his delightful pass set up the defender. Deservedly man of the match for the semi-final, he has also shown he can score, his freekick sending Italy on their way in the opening match against Ghana. The AC Milan star is tireless, good in the tackle and has great vision. Stop Pirlo and Italy may cease to function.
   Gennaro Gattuso
   Position: Midfield
   Club: AC Milan
   Age: 28
   Caps: 46
   Where Pirlo creates, Gattuso destroys. Short and stocky, he is the soul of both the AC Milan and Italy midfields. Snaps away at the heels of his opponents, sometimes too much for both their and the referee’s liking, but managed to avoid a booking in the 2-0 win over Germany. Self-deprecatory and honest about his role, he was nonetheless described by Spanish paper El Pais as “more emblematic in world football than Ronaldinho”. His clash with Claude Makelele and Patrick Vieira promises to be not for the faint-hearted.
   
   Simone Perrotta
   Position: Midfield
   Club: AS Roma
   Age: 29
   Caps: 30
   Aide de camp to Gattuso in putting up the barriers in midfield, although tends to get forward more often than the AC Milan dynamo. The English-born midfielder has had two chances at the international scene, having dropped out after the Euro 2004 debacle. A resurgence of form at AS Roma persuaded Marcello Lippi to recall him. Reliable and hard-working.
   
   Mauro Camoranesi
   Position: Midfield
   Club: Juventus
   Age: 29
   Caps: 25
   The Argentinian’s initial selection by Giovanni Trapattoni caused uproar and he hasn’t helped by not singing the national anthem. Has blown hot and cold here, hinted at doing something outstanding without managing to do so. The ponytailed wide midfielder has at times played like the journeyman he once was trawling along the South American and Mexican leagues. He is no Bruno Conti - the winger from the 1982-winning side - but Italy will hope he can produce something out of the ordinary.
   
   Francesco Totti
   Position: Midfield
   Club: AS Roma
   Age: 29
   Caps: 57
   Which Totti will turn up? The one that held sway in the first-half of the semi-final with Germany or the one that disappeared from sight in the second-half? May be appearing on the international stage for the last time so will surely want to bow out in spectacular fashion. Too often he has been more show pony than the dynamic creator-in-chief but has partly answered his critics with the ice-cool penalty against the Australians.
   
   Luca Toni
   Position: Striker
   Club: Fiorentina
   Age: 29
   Caps: 23
   Flourished at Palermo after years of honest endeavour at unglamorous clubs, earning big money move to Fiorentina. Tireless and selfless running alone up front got its reward with two goals against Ukraine, but was substituted by the time Italy struck twice against Germany. May be second choice behind Alberto Gilardino for final after latter impressed in the semi-final.
   — AFP

No Italian opponent has scored in this World Cup. France has allowed two goals overall.
   Even with all the offensive flair on both sides, defense will decide the title Sunday in Olympic Stadium.
   The Azzurri have been so impenetrable in six matches that only Cristian Zaccardo got the ball past outstanding goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon. Zaccardo plays defense for Italy.
   Germany probed and pressed throughout its semifinal and went 120 minutes without ever finding the net. Indeed, the Germans had only a handful of dangerous opportunities with one of the most powerful offenses in the tournament.
   Australia displayed a strong attack in the first round, then was blanked by the Italians. Ukraine, with star striker Andriy Shevchenko, didn’t get on the scoresheet in the quarterfinals.
   ‘We’re not going to disappoint, we’re going to play our game,’ Buffon promised.
   That game features textbook technique in the penalty area. Led by captain Fabio Cannavaro, the Italians block more shots than Shaq. They brilliantly volley clearances upfield, sometimes from angles that seem impossible.
   ‘Cannavaro has been unbelievable at this World Cup, I don’t think there is any doubt that he’s the best defender in the world,’ coach Marcello Lippi said.
   Even when opponents have room to shoot, they cut it too fine and miss the net. Or Buffon catches or parries away shots.
   Buffon believes his team faced a bigger challenge eight years ago against the French.
   ‘There’s certainly less to worry about than in ‘98,’ he said Friday. ‘In ‘98, we had to play France at their home, and they were all eight years younger and at the peak of their games. We were really afraid of them and we suffered a lot because of that.’
   France has no reason to fear any team after outplaying Brazil in the quarterfinals. But the French weren’t quite so effective with the ball against Portugal in the semis.
   Their defense? Impeccable.
   ‘We don’t concede goals,’ said Thierry Henry, France’s leading scorer with three goals in the tournament. ‘Everyone fights and fights together. When we need to make the difference, we make the difference.
   ‘After we scored the penalty, we defended like lions,’ he added of the victory over Portugal.
   Such regal defense will be needed again Sunday because, even with their defensive personas in the World Cup, both teams bring a wealth of attacking talents.
   Italy has had 10 players score, led by striker Luca Toni with two. But it has been the point-guard style work of Francesco Totti and Andrea Pirlo that has sparked the attack, and Fabio Grosso is among the tournament’s most effective defenders near the opposition’s net. Even such players as Alessandro Del Piero and Filippo Inzaghi have made major contributions as substitutes.
   France has midfielder extraordinaire Zinedine Zidane, who has recaptured the form he used to win three FIFA player of the year awards and to lead France to the 1998 championship. Henry, although his marksmanship could be more precise, always is a threat, and Patrick Vieira’s recent performances rival any of his teammates’.
   For all that attacking acuity on both sides, a 1-0 result is entirely possible. Perhaps even inevitable. The defenses simply are that strong.
   ‘Our defense is pretty good and our goalkeeper is pretty much unbeatable,’ Lippi said.
   ‘We were convinced from the start that defensive cohesion would be the key to success,’ France defender Willy Sagnol said. ‘It is not an iron defense. It is a high-performance defense.
   ‘The true cognoscenti will say that this is soccer. A solid defense is the key to success. We knew this from the start.’

You don’t need a degree in human nature to see that Raymond Domenech and Zinedine Zidane have not always been best buddies.
   They would of course argue that a coach and his captain don’t have to be founding members of each other’s fan clubs as long as they have a civil personal relationship that produces results.
   And France’s presence in Sunday’s World Cup final against Italy at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin is pretty sound evidence that whatever the rapport between them, Domenech and Zidane have gelled enough to inspire a team one step away from lifting international football’s biggest prize.
   The Domenech and Zidane show is a world apart from Sven-Goran Eriksson and David Beckham’s love-in, with the England manager sticking by his captain through thick and thin and the pair frequently extolling the other’s virtues in public.
   There has been no airing of such sentiments chez les Bleus, at least not of a positive nature.
   Domenech issued an SOS to Zidane to come out of retirement last summer to help steer France through the troubled waters of qualifying for Germany 2006.
   Zidane had more than once categorically rejected any notion of a return in the year since he had bowed out of the international scene in the wake of France’s failed bid at Euro 2004.
   But after a mysterious nocturnal visitation he thrilled the team’s fans by announcing he was saying ‘oui’ to Domenech’s request - and the rest, as they say, is history.
   With his steady hand back on the tiller France safely navigated their remaining qualifiers to end up top of the group and clutching a ticket to Germany.
   Reports of training ground run-ins between the pair have emerged since, with both holding strong views on how best to rehabilitate France’s fortunes after the dismal defence of their 1998 world title in Asia.
   The two fiercely proud Frenchmen appeared to be jogging along satisfactorily until the veneer of normality coating their relationship was wiped away at Leipzig on June 18.
   The showdown came in the second minute of injury time in France’s second group game against South Korea.
   Zidane had picked up a booking for a moment of petulance after the Koreans’ late equaliser and then, to the amazement of fans and the press alike, Domenech hauled his skipper off, replacing him with David Trezeguet.
   The French team’s motto is ‘live for all, die for all’ but if looks could kill then Domenech would be six feet under as Zidane, his face like thunder, stormed past him on the touchline without a word, hurling his sweatband into the dug out.
   Tackled on the incident the next day, Domenech tried to make light of it, but he was hardly effusive when asked to extol the virtues of his soon to be retired number 10.
   Giving his explanation for the French icon’s evident anger Domenech said: ‘Find me a player who’d be happy to leave the pitch with a game hanging like that.
   ‘For me it’s reassuring that he wasn’t happy.’
   He dismissed any notion that there was a rift between him and the man who spent his 34th birthday watching his teammates secure qualification from their group against Togo from the changing rooms.
   ‘It’s been more than two years now that you’ve been saying that,’ Domenech told a press conference.
   ‘It’s only speculation. He works well for his team, the team gets on well, I can’t say any more than that.
   ‘We talk, we speak about the team, what’s going on. He does his job well, everyone’s working for the team to ensure it goes as far as possible together.’
   The pair seem to have patched things up nicely since, with Zidane posting three imperious performances against Spain, Brazil and Portugal.
   That left him and Domenech set to walk up the aisle at the Olympic Stadium, if not quite arm in arm, then at least marching to the same tune.

It kicked off with a goal-fest as Germany thumped Costa Rica 4-2 yet slowly but surely the World Cup has become a tournament dominated by defence.
   France and Italy contest the final here Sunday having conceded just three goals between them in their 12 matches to date.
   And if Italy win, and prevent France scoring in the process, they will set a new record having let in just one goal during the tournament—and even that was scored by one of their own players.
   The performances of Italy and France’s respective back fours have contributed to what is one of the lowest scoring World Cups in history.
   A total of 141 goals have been scored so far in 62 matches, an average of 2.27 per game, only marginally above the record low of 2.21 from the 1990.
   FIFA President Sepp Blatter admitted the low goals tally was a concern. ‘The football isn’t that bad, but there aren’t enough goals—and when there are too few goals, the public isn’t very enthusiastic,’ Blatter said.
   ‘The essence of the game is goals.’ Blatter said FIFA would study possible rule changes that would help to end the dominance of defences.
   ‘We will set up a large symposium with the 32 World Cup coaches, the referees, the doctors and the technical study group of the World Cup,’ Blatter said. ‘We want to hear what they have to say about what we can do to make football more attractive again.’
   Underscoring the World Cup goal drought is the fact that German striker Miroslav Klose is on course to be tournament top-scorer with a total of only five goals.
   If Klose fails to add to that tally he would be the lowest top-scorer since six players shared the accolade with four goals each at the 1962 finals.
   According to former England international Gary Lineker, the lack of goals has reflected the dominance of defence.
   Defenders, not strikers, have been the stars of 2006, said Lineker, the 1986 World Cup top-scorer with six goals.
   ‘It was great in the group stage when there was a lot of attacking play. But once you got to the knockout rounds, everybody started playing a bit cautiously ...The coaches have got to look at that,’ Lineker said.
   ‘Sometimes a bit of fear comes in—nobody wants to make a mistake, nobody’s prepared to take a chance, and I think the teams that have taken their chances in the final stage, like France, have been rewarded for that.’
   Lineker said the relatively low goals totals of the leading strikers was down to their failure to peak for the finals.
   ‘Not too many of them have found their best form at the right time,’ he told Fifaworldcup.com. ‘Obviously Miroslav Klose is the top scorer with five and if that wins it’s over 40 years since a total like that won the Golden Shoe.
   ‘Thierry Henry could yet beat that. The French started slowly as did he but he’s got himself into the tournament and showed a bit more of his club form.
   ‘Apart from that, none of the really top goalscorers really got going. Apart from one or two defenders, it’s hard to pick out any real star men.’

Hosts Germany have provided one of the feel-good stories of the World Cup, with their refreshingly attacking brand of football and seemingly unbreakable team spirit.
   Their dreams of winning football’s greatest prize on home soil may have been dashed by Italy in a dramatic semi-final, but coach Jurgen Klinsmann and his team still have plenty to celebrate, not least strike prodigy Lukas Podolski’s capture of the prestigious Gillette Best Young Player award.
   With three goals in the tournament to date and a series of impressive performances alongside fellow attacker Miroslav Klose, the 21-year-old Podolski, who is about to join German champions Bayern Munich from FC Cologne, has been chosen by FIFA’s Technical Study Group (TSG) as the best young player in the competition.
   Podolski still has another match to play, of course, when Germany face Portugal in Stuttgart’s Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion on Saturday in the match for third place. A win, and perhaps even another goal, would be a wonderful way for the affable youngster to bring his first FIFA World Cup to a close. Here, in an exclusive interview with FIFAworldcup.com, Podolski gives his own impressions on how he thinks he has fared.
   Lukas Podolski, congratulations on winning the Gillette Best Young Player award. How much does this mean to you?
   It’s just great to win an award like this at the biggest tournament in the world. I want to thank everyone who voted for me and of course the other guys in the squad. My winning the award was all down to the team. Of course, it’s not quite as good as winning the whole tournament though.
   How are you feeling ahead of Saturday’s play-off for third place?
   It will be difficult for both teams to motivate themselves for this game, since we’re obviously feeling a bit down after losing in the semi-final, but we will be going all out to win the match and give the fans in Germany something else to cheer about. We definitely want to finish third.
   Will you be looking to overtake Miroslav Klose in the list of top goalscorers and win the Adidas Golden Shoe award?
   No, which one of us wins that prize is not important to me. We wanted to win the World Cup, and unfortunately we’ve missed out on that. Miro has had a great tournament, and I hope that he can end up as top scorer and maybe even knock one or two more in against Portugal.
   How do you think your first ever World Cup has gone?
   It’s obviously been one of my career highlights to date. Three years ago, I was playing in FC Cologne’s youth team, and then when I turned pro, we unfortunately weren’t playing European football. I have since managed to get some international experience playing for Germany, and being at a tournament like this, scoring three goals and for us to finish third or fourth is obviously wonderful. It is a real achievement, both for me and for the team.
   What will you remember most about Germany 2006?
   I haven’t even thought about this yet. That’ll come when I have some time off afterwards, and can sit and look back on it all. The main thing at the moment is that we’re all so disappointed, even still today, that we lost in the semi-final against Italy.
   In that match, you were marked by a world-class defender in the shape of Fabio Cannavaro. Where do you think you need to improve to be able to come out on top against a player like him?
   I’m quite a way away at the moment. I’m still young, and still very much in the development phase, and things can only get better for me. Playing against him was another way of gaining valuable experience. Now that I’ll be playing with Bayern, I’ll carry on gaining experience and developing. When the next World Cup comes around in four years’ time, things will look different.
   How do you rate the way the German team has evolved recently?
   Before the tournament, everything we did seemed to come in for criticism. And of course now, everyone is changing their opinion with the benefit of hindsight. We always wanted to have a young squad, and during the tournament, we showed what we are capable of and how much potential we have.
   Rather than Germany, it will be Italy versus France in Sunday’s Final. Who is your tip to win?
   I’m going for France. The way they have been playing in their last few games, particularly after their poor performances in the group stage, has been really impressive.

Few people are aware of the amount of logistical preparation that precedes every World Cup match, much less the intense scrutiny associated with the Final, which will be the focus of millions of eyes across the world. To get an idea of what goes into getting everything just right for football’s biggest match, FIFAworldcup.com went straight to the source.
   FIFA General Coordinator Windsor John is the man in charge in Berlin, and he will shoulder the immense responsibility associated with making sure the Final goes off without a hitch. Having joined FIFA from the Football Association of Malaysia and served as a FIFA Development Officer, John’s experience with FIFA competitions runs back nine years to the 1997 World Youth Championship.
   FIFA worldcup.com: Is there anything special that will go into the preparations for the Final?
   Windsor John: The awards ceremony. I’m involved in the planning and discussion stage. The overall preparation is done by the event manager, but because I am in charge of the pitch itself, once the stage is set and the players are ready, I give the cue to start the ceremony. For the match itself, we have already done several times exactly what we are going to do for the Final.
   When do you begin preparations for a match?
   Preparation of course goes on every day that you’re here. But, for the Final for example, once we know the teams we contact them with regard to their training sessions one day before the match, and we also inform them of the colours they are going to wear.
   What about the day before the match?
   There are two major activities going on. Number one is the match coordinator meeting, where we put the two teams together and all the other officials and explain the organisation of the match. We go through the logistics for the match - what time do they arrive, what do they do when they arrive, when do we collect the starting list? The other important activity is the official training session at the stadium where the two teams have a chance to train for one hour. We make sure that they follow the time, that all the necessary equipment is in place.
   Can you talk us through the day of the match?
   The match day itself, we are in the stadium very early and the day goes as follows...
   9 hours - The first thing that I normally do is of course check the pitch, that’s the most important thing. I go through the pitch together with the venue manager, check all the markings to make sure they’re correct, make sure the goals are in place, check the substitute goals. We do it again and again and again – we don’t take any chances even though it’s the sixth match in the venue. Then I come back to check the changing room areas. Of course, cleanliness is one of the most important things that we ensure.
   7 hours - I go up and have a look from the VIP area, make sure all the flags are in place and chat with all the various managers. After that I come back to the changing room area and have a short meeting with my local counterpart, the venue manager, to discuss any issues, any security concerns, any other important details.
   5 hours - This is where the youth programme kids come. The kids that carry the flags and escort the players rehearse the pre-match ceremony. We do a rehearsal because at every match the kids are different, so we have to explain it all over again. Then I have a quick briefing with the ball kids. I have two ball kid trainers, I have a brief meeting with them and then we train the kids.
   3.5 hours - The security check would have finished by then. The FIFA Security Officer will come to me and give me a short report.
   3 hours - The gates are open, so we get updates from then on to get a feel of the situation.
   2 hours - The next important thing is to wait for the teams. We have briefed the team liaison officers to call us when the team is departing from the hotel, so we know that it’ll take about 15 minutes, 20 minutes max to reach the stadium, so that we can get the entrance ready with stewards, make sure that they are prepared to receive the teams.
   90 minutes - I meet the teams and collect the start lists. So far the teams have been very cooperative.
   70 minutes - I take the fourth official to the changing room, where he checks the colours, checks for jewellery and so on, two or three minutes maximum. Then I will wait for the teams to go for the warm-up, that’s usually 45 minutes to 20 minutes before kick-off, but for the Final match we have moved the time forward because we have some ceremonies. I make sure that they follow the time scheduled.
   20 minutes - From now on the clock really goes fast. Once the teams get back into the changing rooms, my assistant will make sure that the tunnel is prepared, the flags, the kids, everybody’s in place.
   15 minutes - When I bring the teams from the changing rooms, everything is in place. My assistant will send the national flags in, then I cue the announcer to welcome the teams.
   Kick-off - The final thing that I do before kick-off is give the referee the thumbs-up for kick-off. If you sit at home and watch the telly or if you are sitting in the tribune and you see the match kick-off on time, then we have done our job.

Soccer success and soccer scandal are prompting Italians to question which better reflects their collective character.
   Is Italy the nation that played its way into Sunday’s World Cup final against France or the nation in which the best teams may have succeeded by fixing matches?
   The answer, it appears, is a bit of both.
   ‘We are a people capable of the most heroic gestures and of the worst acts of cowardice,’ said Gianluca Nicoletti, social commentator for the Turin-based daily La Stampa. ‘We are Italians.’
   Never was the contrast more clear than Tuesday, when Italy beat Germany 2-0 to advance to the championship game just hours after prosecutors urged the demotion of four teams from Italy’s top league.
   ‘Are we dirty and also good? Is that the Italian anomaly?’ asked an opinion piece published the next day in La Repubblica.
   Scandal and World Cup achievement are old acquaintances in Italy. The last time the country won the World Cup, in 1982, a betting scandal preceded the tournament.
   Now, allegations of corruption and favoritism have piled up against Juventus, AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio - the four Serie A clubs for which 13 members of Italy’s 23-man squad play.
   Prosecutors in the sports trial are seeking to demote Juventus to Serie C - the third division - and to strip league titles the team won in the past two seasons. They also want Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio to be relegated to Serie B.
   Fans say winning the World Cup won’t cleanse the sport. After all, corruption scandals in Italy are routine.
   ‘The scandal has been an inspiration, something to overcome,’ said Matteo Falcione, a lawyer from Rome. ‘But winning the World Cup won’t change anything for Italian soccer. There will be another scandal.’
   Italy’s players have kept mostly silent about the probe.
   ‘Yes, the confusion of the past two months has given us all the desire to respond in an appropriate way,’ coach Marcello Lippi said earlier this week. ‘It’s brought this group of guys together. We wanted to show what Italian soccer really means.’

Record-breaking Argentine referee Horacio Elizondo is likely to be the most important and controversial man on the pitch in Sunday’s World Cup final between Italy and France.
   The 42-year-old physical education teacher, who is the first Argentine official to handle the showpiece game, has flashed 22 yellow cards and shown his red twice in four games, three of which have ended in uproar.
   The law of averages suggests he is likely to book at least five players – and there is a 50-50 chance of a sending off. He is a keen poet and golfer and may need those refuges for reflection if he oversees more discord at the Olympic Stadium.
   He will be the first referee to control the opening match and the final and only the second to handle five matches at a World Cup. Mexican lawyer Benito Archundia, who refereed the Germany-Italy semi-final, was the first.
   Elizondo, who speaks Spanish and English, but not French or Italian, is one of South America’s most experienced and respected officials, but he has incurred the wrath of players and supporters from Ghana, South Korea and England.
   His handling of the opening fixture between hosts Germany and Costa Rica was a masterpiece of control and restraint – with only one caution – but Czech Republic’s clash with Ghana in Group E was a very different story.
   Seven players were booked and one, Czech Tomas Ujfalusi, was sent off for a foul that led to Ghana being awarded a penalty.
   As Elizondo was completing the dismissal, Ghana’s Asamoah Gyan took the kick prematurely.
   He was cautioned, for the second time in the tournament, and suspended, despite protests, from their next game against the United States.
   In the Switzerland versus South Korea match Elizondo awarded a controversial 77th minute Swiss goal by over-ruling compatriot Rodolfo Otero’s offside flag as Alexander Frei ran clear on to a deflected pass and several Korean defenders stopped playing.
   On the pitch, Elizondo produced 10 yellow cards, five for each team.
   His boldest decision at the finals was to send off England striker Wayne Rooney for stamping on Portugal defender Ricardo Carvalho in their quarter-final clash in Gelsenkirchen.
   Born on November 4, 1963, Elizondo has been an international referee since 1996. He has controlled the 2002 and 2005 Copa Libertadores finals in South America and two Copa America finals.
   He says he came into refereeing by accident, but now realises how lucky he has been.
   ‘It was as if I’d been born to do it,’ he told FIFA’s website. ‘I never looked back. I realised that refereeing combines three things that are cornerstones of my life – sport, teaching and justice.’

It is said that there are no harsher, more analytical critics of the beautiful game than footballers themselves and, as such, FIFAworldcup.com’s series of adidas +10 teams has offered a unique insight into which players have most impressed their illustrious fellow pros.
   Over the course of the 2006 World Cup, we have canvassed the likes of Juan Riquelme, Steven Gerrard, Zinedine Zidane and Lukas Podolski, all of whom have spoken with enthusiasm and, in some cases, reverence about the footballers alongside whom they would most like to play.
   Today, we focus on the midfield, and compare the +10 panel’s views on, arguably, the two greatest players of the past decade, Ronaldinho and Zinedine Zidane.
   Zizou and Vieira more popular than Ronnie
   Ronaldinho certainly has his admirers, among them his club colleague Xavi, who lauded Barcelona’s brilliant Brazilian as ‘right now, the best footballer in the world’.
   Perhaps surprisingly, however, only two more players found space for him in their line-ups, David Trezeguet and Michael Ballack. The Germany captain remarked of the Selecao star: ‘He’s got amazing technique, is very dynamic and can do anything with the ball.’
   This would seem paltry when compared with the 12 who gladly accommodated Cafu, and it also pales in comparison to the 11 who placed Zinedine Zidane at the heart of their midfields. Even Kaka, an international colleague of Ronaldinho’s, admitted ‘it is impossible to leave (Zidane) out’, while Arjen Robben hailed the French maestro as ‘the best footballer in the world without any doubt’.
   Trezeguet, meanwhile, described the France talisman as ‘the master of football’, David Beckham paid tribute to ‘the best player I’ve played with’, while Patrick Vieira suggested that his international team-mate ‘is one of the few where you do not have to give any explanation why you picked him and not somebody else’.
   Vieira himself can lay claim to a substantial fan club, with the Juventus midfield colossus selected in midfield for no less than four of our +10 teams. ‘He is so strong that having him in your team is like having two players in one,’ enthused Podolski.
   To put this impressive tally in context, it is one more than the great Johan Cruyff received, although Vieira proved quick to join Arjen Robben and Franz Beckenbauer in naming the Dutch legend in his perfect line-up. ‘Cruyff was cool and elegant and knew how to make other players shine,’ was the Frenchman’s tribute.
   ‘Figo was my idol since I was a child’
   Another lavishly talented individual from the same era, George Best, was one of several midfielders who found favour with two of our +10 selectors. One was Beckenbauer and the other Beckham, who inherited Best’s No 7 shirt at Old Trafford and said of the sadly-departed legend. ‘George was an incredible player, a great person, and his talent was absolutely immense.’
   Beckham offered similarly high praise for Lothar Matthaeus, another midfielder picked in two separate +10 teams, with Germany’s inspirational skipper at Italia 90 lauded as ‘a player who was excellent getting forward and scoring goals, but who was also brilliant at defending and stopping the other team from attacking’.
   Another, very different all-rounder, Fernando Redondo, was favoured by Riquelme and Raul, the latter of whom attributed to his former Real Madrid team-mate ‘all the qualities, both human and professional, needed to be in my team’.
   Some of the stars of Germany 2006 were also recognised, among them adidas Golden Ball candidate Andrea Pirlo. ‘He has amazing technique and is the perfect modern-type footballer,’ was the verdict of Tranquillo Barnetta, who, like Alessandro Nesta, reserved a place for the Italy playmaker in his perfect team.
   There were also a couple of votes for Luis Figo, one of which came from Vieira and the other from the veteran Portuguese winger’s likely successor. ‘For me, Figo is perhaps the best-ever Portuguese player after Eusebio,’ said Simao. ‘He has also been my idol since I was a child.’
   He may not be as eye-catching as the likes of Figo and Pirlo, but Emerson picked up an identical number of votes, with both Ballack and Shunsuke Nakamura eager to sing the praises of Brazil’s least-acclaimed midfielder.
   ‘He’s got it all,’ said Ballack, ‘power, dynamism, a goal threat, composure and charisma.’ Nakamura, meanwhile, vividly recalled encountering the then Roma midfielder during his own time in Seria A with Reggina. ‘He was not a flash player, but he had vision,’ said the Japanese midfielder. ‘I saw immediately that he played the game at a very high level with a fantastic speed of thought. I felt it right next to me.’
   The +10 panel might have declared Zidane their top midfielder in overwhelming fashion, but tomorrow we turn our attention to a more closely-run battle between the game’s great strikers, plus we reveal how the likes of Beckham and Ballack sit on perhaps the most hotly-debated football topic of all: Maradona or Pele?

Marcello Lippi has been saying for the past month that Italy’s strength is its teamwork.
   There are no individual stars on the field, just a huge amount of team spirit.
   With Italy’s 11 tournament goals coming from 10 players, the Azzurri’s biggest driving force may be Lippi himself.
   ‘Beyond his technical merits, he has qualities that I’ve never seen in anyone else,’ goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon said Friday. ‘A lot of people said before that a coach who has led a club like he has couldn’t win the World Cup.
   ‘But with a bit of humbleness, brains, experience and intelligence, all traits he’s shown he possesses, I think you can do great things.’
   In eight seasons at Juventus before taking over Italy, Lippi won five Serie A titles, one Italian Cup, four Italian Supercups, the 1996 Champions League, the European Supercup and Intercontinental Cup.
   What seems to most separate Lippi from his predecessors is his attacking instinct.
   Lippi had four forwards on the field, two as midfielders, when Italy scored two goals in the final minutes of its 2-0 extra-time win over Germany in the semifinals. All six forwards have scored at the tournament.
   For a team that was once famous for its lockdown ‘catenaccio’ defense—in which the entire team retreated in front of its goal and attempted to score only on counterattacks—this was a major development.
   ‘They were the ones with the catenaccio, not us. That was an important signal Lippi gave us,’ Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro said.
   For the most part, Lippi refuses to discuss individual members of his team or explain his lineup choices, even after games. He quickly loses his temper when a reporter even hints at a tactical question.
   ‘If I tell you the lineup beforehand, you’ll go down and ask one of the poor guys that’s left out how he feels and you’ll take half of one of his words and create controversy,’ Lippi said before Italy’s second-round win over Australia, swearing and climbing halfway out of his chair at one point as if he was going to walk out of a new conference.
   Midfielder Gennaro Gattuso appreciates Lippi’s straightforward approach.
   ‘On a personal level, he always tells things straight to people’s faces,’ Gattuso said. ‘Sometimes it bothers people, but in the locker room he’s been able to obtain everyone’s respect. This team really reflects the personality of its coach.’
   Even the media are starting to come around and support Lippi. But they continue to report that Lippi has already made up his mind to leave the national team after the World Cup, with Manchester United the latest supposed destination.
   Guido Rossi, the former senator called in to lead the Italian soccer federation during a massive corruption scandal, has called for Lippi to stay, saying that’s what ‘the furor of the people’ demands.
   Several players have also said they hope Lippi doesn’t go.
   ‘We hope he’s received the message from the team and stays,’ Cannavaro said.
   One of Lippi’s role models is Enzo Bearzot, who coached Italy to its last World Cup title in 1982.
   ‘Lippi has shown himself to be a great leader of men, and that comes ahead of the fact that he’s a great technical coach of a very strong team,’ Bearzot told the Gazzetta dello Sport. ‘He’s worked very hard for two years and now he’s reaping the fruits of his labor, in very difficult conditions, I might add.’
   Lippi personally had to answer prosecutor’s questions about alleged pressure he received to select certain players, and his son was placed under investigation for his position in a player agency involved in the scandal.
   Team manager Luigi Riva, Italy’s all-time leading scorer who is participating at his ninth World Cup as a player or management member, credited Lippi with keeping the Azzurri focused.
   ‘He built the motor that’s held this boat together on those days that seemed like they would never end,’ Riva said. ‘He completely isolated the team.’
   Riva’s analogy is appropriate for Lippi, who lives on the Tuscan coast and is an avid fisherman.
   Lippi liked to joke before the World Cup that he would tell his fishing friends to start the motor on his boat before every game, so he could hurry back and escape out to sea if Italy lost.
   ‘Rest assured. No one ever turned the motor on,’ Lippi said Wednesday, a day after Italy qualified for the final. ‘It’s been idle for 40 days.’

Two years ago Mario Azevedo, a Brazilian journalist and lawyer who once played for club side Atletico Mineiro, went to Germany on holiday.
   While here he saw Franz Beckenbauer talking on television about the volunteers’ programme for the 2006 World Cup Germany and knew it was the job for him. He logged onto FIFAworldcup.com there and then and filled up the application form, just a day before the deadline.
   When the organisers called him a few months later he sailed through the interview. A veteran of several major tournaments, he had attended some 32 international games, spoke four languages and would be travelling onto Afghanistan at the end of the tournament to interview the country’s president, Hamid Karzai.
   Mario is just one of the 1,600 volunteers from 150 countries who are in Germany to ensure the greatest footballing show on earth goes without a hitch. A distinctive presence on the streets of the host cities in their light blue and orange shirts, the volunteers will also be on duty at the Final in Berlin and their role at the tournament is a vitally important one.
   Although Frankfurt is base camp for this vast army of helpers, Berlin is home to the biggest volunteer centre, an enormous building that served as barracks for British soldiers at the end of the Second World War. Facilities include a huge canteen, a large swimming pool and a recreation area with table tennis tables and basketball courts.
   Contrary to public perception, life is no picnic for the volunteers. They often have to spend hour upon hour at the many ticket counters and accreditation centres and, as their job title suggests, they receive not a single cent for their hard work, only lunch vouchers. What is more, they also have to find their own accommodation.
   The best part of the job, however, is the spirit of togetherness. ‘We’re like one big family,’ explains Mario.
   ‘We go to parties and concerts together and we organise outings too.’ The volunteers also have their own journal, which is sent out by email each day and includes a ‘Volunteer of the Day’ section and photos of everything that goes on inside and outside the centre. One issue even featured a letter written by the volunteers to the Germany team.
   Between them they speak over 50 languages, and it is their job to record the players’ reactions at the end of each game for immediate posting on FIFAworldcup.com. Our unpaid heroes include the likes of Kirstin, Ioannis, Chloe, Christian, Sabine and Raquel, but do not be fooled by the names.
   Whether they be German, French or Greek, you can be sure they speak Japanese and Arabic like a true native.
   As Mario says: ‘We’re here because we want to be.’ For the legions of volunteers, the chance to take part in a World Cup is a unique and unforgettable experience that makes all the endless hours beneath
   the burning sun and the hardships of a long day’s work worthwhile. Germany 2006 would be all the poorer
   without them - just ask the thousands of people they have lent a helping hand to over the last few weeks.

It is fair to say that the 2006 World Cup Germany has been dominated by the midfielders’ union. Led by the revitalised Zinedine Zidane, the men charged with patrolling the midfield have become the stars of the tournament and the linchpins of their respective teams. From the genius of the French wizard to the darting Aaron Lennon and the hard-running Michael Essien, fans will take away many happy memories of the midfield men in action.
   Poetry in motion
   There are some players who seem to have stepped off another planet. Whenever they touch the ball the whole world holds its breath, expecting the unexpected. Usually distinguished by the No 10 on their backs, perhaps the most exalted of their breed is France’s Zidane. After surprisingly coming out of retirement, the inimitable ‘Zizou’ has rolled back the years to guide France into the Final of the FIFA World Cup, producing a quarter-final performance against Brazil that will inspire future France midfielders for generations to come.
   Italy, France’s opponents in Sunday’s decider, boast two exceptional attacking midfielders of their own: Francesco Totti and Alessandro Del Piero, two players who share the same position, hero status and pedigree. In the build-up to the tournament much was said about their seeming failure to replicate their imperious club form with the Azzurri. Italy’s barnstorming campaign has silenced the doubters, however, with sometimes one, the other or both inspiring the men in blue on to ever greater heights.
   And who could forget the unstinting efforts of Michael Ballack, Luis Figo and Deco? The incombustible Germany captain was the driving force behind his side’s surprising run, while the Portuguese duo orchestrated their team’s return to the semi-finals after a 40-year absence. Also worthy of a mention in dispatches are the elusive Tomas Rosicky, the dependable Kaka, the deadly accurate David Beckham and Ronaldinho, who never quite reproduced the form that made him the 2005 FIFA World Player of the Year.
   Conjurers and sorcerers
   Aside from the poets and artists there is another breed of midfielder who combines explosive speed with mazy dribbling skills – the type of player every defender dreads. Among them are two lesser-known wingmen who have shot to prominence at Germany 2006 on the back of some eye-catching displays – France’s Franck Ribery and England’s Lennon.
   The Olympique Marseille man has been one of the stand-out performers in a side that has exceeded all expectations, adding an exciting unpredictability to French forays into the opposing half. As for Lennon, the Tottenham Hotspur teenager’s direct running added a much-needed dimension to England’s play, and the youngster will have his sights set on making an even greater impact at South Africa 2010.
   Argentina’s supremely gifted Lionel Messi belongs in the same category. After producing some sublime performances as a substitute, his surprising omission against Germany left the entire football world to ponder what might have been. Another young pearl to shine on the world’s biggest stage was Cristiano Ronaldo, who drove opposing defences to distraction with his feints and delightful dribbling. Italy’s Mauro Camoranesi, the Netherlands’ Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie, Argentina’s Maxi Rodriguez and Mexico’s fleet-footed Andres Guardado were other speed merchants to blaze a trail in Germany.
   Men of iron
   But where would these wizards be without someone to win the ball for them in the first place, without the unsung midfield enforcers who do their dirty work for them? Teofilo Cubillas, a member of the FIFA Technical Study Group, identified two such men: ‘Defensive formations have prevailed at this World Cup. Defensive midfielders have been more prominent than their attacking counterparts, and the two men who have really caught my eye in that respect are Italy’s Gennaro Gattuso and Argentina’s Javier Mascherano.’
   No definitive list of authoritative midfielders to shine at Germany 2006 would be complete, however, without including the likes of Germany’s Torsten Frings, France’s Patrick Vieira and Claude Makelele, Portugal’s Maniche, the Spanish trio of Cesc Fabregas, Marcos Senna and Xavi, Mexico’s Pavel Pardo and the Ghanaian Essien, who must still be wondering what might have happened had he not been suspended for his side’s showdown with Brazil.

This might have been the most colorful World Cup. A good thing if blue—as in Azzurri and Les Bleus—is your shade of choice. A bad thing if the most memorable hues are yellow and red.
   When Italy and France meet in Sunday’s final, Olympic Stadium will be awash in cobalt and azure. The Italians bring a deep, stingy and versatile squad in search of a fourth world championship. The French, who won their only title in 1998, are blessed with experience and creativity, with a roster of stars including a captain, Zinedine Zidane, who will leave the soccer stage in the biggest game his sport can offer.
   Hopefully, their performances in the final will erase the images of a foul-afflicted, theatrics-plagued, sometimes filthy tournament in which referees were as much in the headlines as Buffon, Ballack and the Beckhams.
   What more can anyone ask for in a championship matchup?
   These are two classic European teams that have pushed aside scandal or criticism to peak at a perfect time. The more touted countries heading to Germany 2006 are long gone. Brazil and Argentina, two of the pre-tournament favorites, couldn’t get out of the quarterfinals. Nor could England. Spain and the Netherlands fell in the second round. A German team that inspired waves of patriotism—flag waving, painted faces, spontaneous singing of the national anthem—was stunned by two goals at the end of extra time in the semis.
   Still standing: A French team on the border of dissension a couple of weeks ago, revitalized by its beloved Zizou. And an Italian club whose easiest job in the last month has been playing soccer on the highest level, temporarily outside the maelstrom tearing through its national game.
   ‘It is true that for a long time already, it was ‘either we do it together or we die very fast,’ France coach Raymond Domenech says of a team that struggled to qualify for the World Cup and barely got into the second round. ‘For some 15 games, we have been living with a knife at our throat.’
   They survived even without Zidane, a three-time player of the year who was suspended for getting two yellow cards in the first two games. While he missed the match with Togo, his teammates squeezed through to the second round.
   Ever since, with Zidane at his masterful best—and with everyone getting along with Domenech, for once—France has looked even better than the 1998 champs.
   ‘First and foremost, everybody sticks together,’ said Thierry Henry, who scored the winner against Brazil—off a free kick by Zidane, naturally. ‘They all come back and fight together. When we have to make the difference, we do so.’
   Italy’s concerns have had nothing to do with camaraderie. Indeed, the only team whose entire roster plays club ball at home has found comfort with each other. Thirteen of the 23 players are with the four clubs facing relegation in the match-fixing scandal, yet they’ve all used the probe as a unifying force.
   ‘The mood of Italian soccer right now is fantastic, for played soccer,’ coach Marcello Lippi says. ‘For the rest, I don’t know.’
   Both teams benefited from controversial penalty calls on their way to the final. Francesco Totti scored from the spot in second-half injury time against Australia. Zidane got the only goal of the semifinal victory over Portugal after a suspect penalty.
   Those are just two instances when game officials were in the spotlight. There were perhaps 300 more—the World Cup record for yellow and red cards has been shattered. Through 62 games, there have been 27 ejections and 336 yellow cards.
   Players have boosted the total with their dives, or overacting with the slightest contact, or tugging shirts, or vicious tackles. Referees haven’t helped by being inconsistent at best, incompetent at worst. One, a highly regarded Englishman, handed out three yellow cards in one match—to the same player. Another gave out a record four red cards and a record-equaling 16 yellows in a second-round fiasco between Portugal and the Netherlands.
   ‘It’s just been bad,’ US coach Bruce Arena said last month. ‘Part of it is due to fact they’ve been overcoached. That’s the way it is. I’m afraid one of the legacies of this World Cup will be officiating. And it’s a shameful legacy, it shouldn’t have come to this.’
   Arena’s team was one of the biggest flops of the tournament. Ranked fifth by FIFA heading into the World Cup, the Americans went out with a whimper in the first round, showing none of the skills and resolve that carried them to the 2002 quarterfinals.
   Even worse were the second-ranked Czechs, who bombed out in the same opening-round group, which Italy won and surprising Ghana came in second to advance—the only African nation that got out to the knockout stage.
   Not that the top-ranked Brazilians impressed, either. Their cavalcade of stars crashed against France. Three-time player of the year Ronaldo did set the World Cup career scoring record with 15, but that was about the only noteworthy achievement by the five-time champions. FIFA Player of the Year Ronaldinho was a major bust.
   Offenses weren’t on display very often, either. The 2006 World Cup averaged 2.27 goals per match through the semifinals, just a shade above the record low of 2.21 in 1990.
   Thankfully, the tournament showcased a new stream of standouts who could be dominant players by the 2010 World Cup in South Africa: Carlos Tevez of Argentina, Cristano Ronaldo of Portugal, Wayne Rooney of England and Lukas Podolski of Germany.
   And the monthlong event was a peaceful festival that drew millions to outdoor viewing areas, where they mingled as friends, not foes. The projected hooliganism never developed, perhaps because of the strong security presence everywhere, or possibly because everyone preferred partying.
   The hosts certainly did their share of celebrating, and when the ‘Mannschaft’s’ championship hopes died in Dortmund, the fans lingered to cheer, applaud and, one last time, sing ‘Deutschland’ to their heroes.
   In turn, the players saluted the crowd with one last tour around the field, one of them waving a flag of black, red and gold.
   It would be nice if that could be the lasting image of this World Cup.

Today’s World Cup final is expected to draw a worldwide audience of more than a billion, organisers said Friday.
   ‘The TV rights have been sold to 200 countries,’ said Wolfgang Niersbach, vice president of the local organizing committee. ‘I think 207 contracts have been signed. That’s more than the U.N. has countries.’
   The US Census Bureau estimates the current world population at 6.5 billion. The United Nations, meanwhile, has 191 member countries. The 2002 tournament in Japan and South Korea drew a cumulative TV audience of 28.8 billion in 213 countries with 1.1 billion watching the final, according to FIFA. That was down from 33.4 billion at France ‘98, no doubt due to the time difference in the Far East. The cumulative audience is expected to exceed 30 billion this time.
   FIFA sold the TV rights for the tournament for $1.22 billion.
   Niersbach said there will be more than 3,000 journalists at Olympic Stadium to see the final between France and Italy: 1,800 print, 1,000 TV and radio, and 300 photographers. There will also be 66,000 fans at the game.
   In the United States, ESPN is drawing a 1.9 rating, or 2,287,000 viewers and 1,735,000 households per match.
   Tuesday’s Germany-Italy semifinal delivered a 4.1 rating (3.74 million households), making it the highest-rated non-US game ever on ESPN and the third highest-rated World Cup game ever on the network. The Portugal-France semifinal on Wednesday got a 2.6 rating (2.38 million households).
   ABC is averaging 3,845,000 viewers and a 2.6 rating, while ESPN2 has averaged 1,147,000 viewers and a 1.0 rating. Overall, 90 million people have tuned into the World Cup on ABC, ESPN, or ESPN2, up 15 per cent from the 78 million people who watched the World Cup on the three networks through the same point in 2002.

German midfielder Torsten Frings has described FIFA’s decision to suspend him for the World Cup semi-final as ‘a joke’.
   Television pictures appeared to show Frings hitting Julio Cruz in the fight that broke out following Germany’s penalty shoot-out victory in the quarter final, and as a result FIFA slapped the midfielder with the suspension just 24 hours before the last-four game against the Azzurri.
   Argentina’s Maxi Rodriguez and Leandro Cufre are still being investigated for their part in the fight, but Frings has now spoken of his disbelief at the decision from the governing body.
   ‘I feel betrayed as it was not what I deserved,’ Frings told Bild. FIFA destroyed my dream. The suspension remains a joke. I was suspended for defending myself after I got hit twice and kicked once.’

The perfect way for Zinedine Zidane to end a stellar career is to take home another World Cup winner’s medal eight years after the first.
   Italy will make sure he doesn’t.
   Berlin’s Olympic Stadium saw one of sport’s greatest achievements 70 years ago when Jesse Owens sprinted to four Olympic gold medals. If France beats Italy on Sunday, Zidane’s performance in winning a trophy at age 34 in his very last game before retirement won’t be far behind.
   The Real Madrid playmaker, who scored with two headers when France beat Brazil in the 1998 final near Paris, will ask his aching legs for one last effort Sunday. So far they have not let him down and Zidane, whose performances for Madrid have been well below his usual level, has recaptured some of the form that made him the game’s best player five years ago.
   With his retirement immediately following the final whistle Sunday, a huge wave of emotion will pour out whatever the result. If France wins its second World Cup title and denies Italy its fourth, it will be one of the greatest stories in soccer history.
   It’s likely Zidane will go into a retirement a loser, however.
   Emotion and nostalgia don’t win soccer games, especially World Cup finals, especially against the Italians.
   Zidane and the rest of his French teammates face an Azzurri team that is playing extremely well.
   In true Italian style, the team has conceded only one goal in its six games and that was by one of its own players, defender Cristian Zaccardo in the 1-1 draw with the United States, a group game in which three players were sent off in the first 49 minutes,
   Since, Italy beat the talented Czech Republic 2-0; Australia 1-0 thanks to an injury-time penalty kick by Francesco Totti; Ukraine 3-0; and Germany 2-0, with both goals in the last two minutes of extra time.
   The Azzurri play strong in every minute of every game. The back six - four defenders plus workaholic midfielders Andrea Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso - work efficiently as a unit. Although Alessandro Nesta has been missing nearly the whole way with a thigh injury and is out of the final, Marco Materazzi has been a standout replacement, along with probably the best defender in the championship, Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro.
   Behind them, goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has made reflex-action blocks and acrobatic tip-overs whenever the defense has been breached.
   That’s what France has to beat in Berlin on Sunday. Maybe only stars of the caliber of Zidane and Thierry Henry are capable of it.
   Zidane has shown plenty of his on-the-ball trickery: the stepovers, the sideways twists and spins past defenders and the instinctive first-time passes that pull defenses apart. But, if any defense is prepared for them, it is Italy’s.
   Gattuso, one of the most fearsome and effective tacklers in the game, won’t be far from Zidane and will deny him time on the ball. Cannavaro and Matarezzi will block the way to Henry, who hasn’t produced his best form so far. Maybe he’s saving it for the final, which isn’t usually his way. The Arsenal striker has a habit of not performing in the big games and Italy plans to make sure that reputation remains.
   France goalkeeper Fabien Barthez is another throwback to that final of 1998 and European Championship triumph of 2000. Yet, despite his vast experience at the top level, he still seems to forget that his hands are there to catch the ball rather than punch it away.
   Barthez came up with one of the most bizarre saves in World Cup history in the 1-0 semifinal victory over Portugal. He reacted to a straightforward shot he should have caught by pushing it upward volleyball style with his lower arms. It handed Portugal’s Luis Figo an easy chance to equalize, but he headed over the bar.
   Italy’s Totti and Luca Toni won’t let him off so lightly, although they won’t be allowed many chances by a well-organized French back line in which Lilian Thuram, another World Cup winner from 1998, has rivaled Cannavaro.
   Like the Italian formation, France has the vastly experienced Claude Makelele and Patrick Vieira in front of its defense to cut off the flow of Italian passes and allow Zidane the freedom to try and run the midfield.
   Zidane, Makelele and Thuram came out of international retirement to lift an ailing French team and try and win another World Cup. There are several reasons they will fail.
   Quite apart from the fact that Italy’s overall form is better, there is a force driving the team on that has nothing to do with the events at Germany 2006.
   Back home, a trial on match-fixing allegations involving four of Italy’s top clubs - Juventus, AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio - has those teams facing demotion if it’s proven they colluded with referees.
   Maybe if that investigation weren’t happening, Italy might not be so motivated to win. Italy coach Marcello Lippi was in charge of Juve when the match-fixing incidents were alleged to have happened and has given evidence to investigators explaining his innocence.
   If Lippi is crying Sunday when Italy wins the final 2-0, they will be tears of joy. The emotions for Zidane will be far less happy.

Facing another embarrassing exit from the World Cup, France’s players had a choice: Face up to the team’s problems and get them out in the open, or go home early.
   Defender Willy Sagnol said only frank, heated, face-to-face discussions where everyone spoke, regardless of rank or experience, saved the team from first-round elimination.
   ‘There were heated arguments,’ Sagnol said Friday. ‘A lot of topics came up.’
   The house-cleaning worked, and rarely has a French team looked so united ahead of Sunday’s World Cup final against Italy in Berlin.
   ‘I think we found the keys,’ Sagnol said. ‘Now we are having less arguments. We have found the right formula and it’s up to us to continue for at least another 90 minutes.’
   Wednesday’s semifinal win over Portugal saw explosions of joy, and players dancing together in front of delirious French fans—just like eight years ago. Television images showed Sagnol sitting on the dressing room steps, wrapped in a tricolor flag and sobbing with relief.
   Back in Paris, fans flooded the Champs-Elysees, bellowing out La Marseillaise, and singing Gloria Gaynor’s anthem ‘I Will Survive’ with renewed vigor. Gaynor’s song was adopted by the 1998 World Cup-winning team, but her lyrics also chillingly fit the current side.
   France did survive—barely.
   Having stumbled to opening draws against Switzerland and South Korea, France had to win its final game against lightly regarded Togo to avoid a repeat of the 2002 World Cup—where it went out in the first round without scoring a goal.
   The tension in the French camp became apparent.
   ‘Everyone wanted to pull in the same direction, but obviously with different ideas. It’s normal to have arguments,’ Sagnol said. ‘When you’ve had two draws before facing Togo, it’s certain that all is not right, that there are still things to improve.’
   Whether it’s 13-cap Eric Abidal, or 121-cap Lilian Thuram, ‘everyone says what they think’ and there ‘are no cliques of two or three players in the current squad, Sagnol said.
   That is light years from the 2002 World Cup or 2004 European Championship, where feuds and bickering undermined the team. Neither 2002 coach Roger Lemerre nor 2004 boss Jacques Santini tackled the issue and it crippled both squads.
   Sagnol praised current coach Raymond Domenech for breaking down barriers between the generations and encouraging an environment of totally open discussion.
   ‘We’re lucky enough to have a coach who lets us express ourselves, who made us face up to our responsibilities,’ Sagnol said. ‘He’s made us masters of our own destiny.
   ‘What was said between us will never be known.’
   However, Sagnol did concede the players were almost destroyed by nerves at the thought of another first-round exit. Finally, the 2-0 win over Togo ‘liberated’ the team.
   ‘It was hard to play that match, as we knew what could happen,’ Sagnol said. ‘But it helped us evacuate the ghost of the last World Cup. It was maybe a bigger weight than we thought.’
   Although the ghosts of 2002 are forgotten, all is not forgiven. Sagnol says the stinging criticism the team received still leaves the players bitter.
   ‘We can’t forget that,’ Sagnol said. ‘I have not forgotten who wrote these things. This matter will be settled one day or another.’
   Before the tournament, Sagnol had a finger-pointing argument with French fans at Stade de France when Les Bleus were booed and jeered in a warm-up match against Mexico.
   So, sadly, if France beats Italy on Sunday, the joy only will be shared with a select few ‘who have encouraged us and believed in us from the start.’
   Some wounds within the French team, then, are still too deep to heal.

When Italy meet France at the Olympiastadion today it will be only the seventh time in 18 World Cups since the competition started in 1930 that the final has been contested by two European teams.
   The last time it happened was in 1982 when Italy beat West Germany in Madrid to become world champions for the third time.
   Their previous two victories were also against European teams, beating Czechoslovakia in 1934 and Hungary in 1938.
   Their two defeats in five finals have both been against Brazil, losing 4-1 in the classic 1970 showdown in Mexico City and 3-2 on penalties after a goalless draw in 1994.
   They now have the chance to make it four final wins out of four against European opposition when they meet France, who are playing in their second World Cup title decider in eight years.
   The first all-European final was played in Rome in 1934 when Italy won the World Cup for the first time with a 2-1 come-from-behind win over Czechoslovakia.
   Italy retained their title four years later when Vittorio Pozzo became the first, and so far only, man to coach two World Cup winning teams when they beat Hungary 4-2 in Paris.
   The next all-European affair was in 1954 when West Germany beat Hungary in Berne.
   The other two European finals came in 1966 when England beat West Germany and 1974 when West Germany defeated the Netherlands in Munich.
   As far as Italy are concerned there are similarities with 1982 when they beat West Germany in the last all-European final.
   Their preparations for the finals in Spain were completed against the backdrop of a match-fixing scandal.
   Paolo Rossi, who finished as top scorer in 1982 with six goals including one in the final, completed his ban for his involvement in the scandal shortly before the World Cup began.
   Italy is embroiled in a far bigger match-fixing scandal now although that should not distract the national team from the task ahead on Sunday.
   Goals from Rossi, Marco Tardelli and Alessandro Altobelli gave Italy a 3-1 win over West Germany in Madrid with Paul Breitner scoring the last goal seven minutes from time.
   A closely-fought, low-scoring game is in prospect at the Olympiastadion—unlike France’s 3-0 win over Brazil in 1998 when Zinedine Zidane scored twice and Emmanuel Petit got the other.
   Italy’s last appearance in the final in 1994 ended in a 0-0 draw with Brazil and the match was decided on penalties.
   It would be an anticlimactic end to the World Cup if Sunday’s match was to end in the same way.

Goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon’s presence is arguably the biggest difference between this Italy team and the one that lost to France at the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Championship.
   Buffon was a reserve on the 1998 team and missed the 2000 tournament due to injury.
   ‘The fact that I haven’t been beaten individually by France gives me a certain amount of tranquility,’ Buffon said Friday, two days before the World Cup final in Berlin.
   ‘There’s certainly less to worry about than in ‘98,’ Buffon added. ‘In ‘98 we had to play France at their home, and they were all eight years younger and at the peak of their games. We were really afraid of them and we suffered a lot because of that.’
   At this World Cup, Buffon has allowed only one goal in Italy’s six games – an own-goal by Cristian Zaccardo. No other goalkeeper in World Cup history has allowed so few goals so many games before the final.
   ‘We’re not going to disappoint, we’re going to play our game,’ Buffon said.
   Buffon will set another World Cup record if he keeps France scoreless for the first 65 minutes of the final. That would make it 518 minutes since Zaccardo’s goal, beating fellow Italian Walter Zenga’s mark of 517 scoreless minutes at the 1990 World Cup.
   Zenga’s streak ended when Argentina’s Claudio Caniggia scored in the 67th minute of the semifinals.
   While he’s never played against France, Buffon is still familiar with ‘Les Bleus.’
   Three members of France’s squad – David Trezeguet, Patrick Vieira and Lilian Thuram – are team-mates of Buffon’s at Juventus. Arsenal striker Thierry Henry’s goal against Buffon in the quarterfinals of the Champions League in March led to Juve’s elimination.
   ‘Henry is the type of player you never want to meet in attack,’ Buffon said. ‘But I think to win a World Cup you have to meet players like him.’
   Trezeguet’s golden goal beat Italy in the Euro 2000 final and he’s scored 95 goals for Juventus over the past six seasons. Lately, however, Trezeguet has been relegated to France’s bench in favour of Henry.
   ‘I’ll be happy if he doesn’t play, although I realise that if there’s a substitution he’ll probably come on,’ Buffon said.
   There are another four Juventus players on Italy’s team, meaning eight players overall from the squad will be taking part in the final – more than from any other club.
   All the Juventus players have an uncertain future with the squad facing likely relegation for their central role in a massive corruption scandal.
   Making things even more difficult for the Juventus players is the sight of a former team-mate, Gianluca Pessotto, fighting for his life in a Turin hospital after falling out of a window at team headquarters, reportedly holding rosary beads.
   Pessotto’s condition worsened slightly Friday, doctors said.
   Buffon said it was ‘a small satisfaction’ for Juve’s embattled management to have so many players in the final.
   Former Juventus player Zinedine Zidane is Italy’s biggest worry right now. The final will mark the last game of Zidane’s career and Italy have never had much success against him.
   In 1998, Pessotto struggled to mark Zidane. After the 2000 final, former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi called Italy’s coach at the time, Dino Zoff, and chastised him for not marking Zidane closely. The call made Zoff decide to resign.
   ‘I’ve played against him several times with (AC) Milan and I’ve never marked him man to man,’ Italy midfielder Gennaro Gattuso said. ‘You don’t stop Zidane. Maybe he stops himself if he’s not in form.
   ‘You have to try and control him,’ Gattuso added. ‘To stop him you need to make the sign of the cross.’

The last 10 World Cup finals have been contested by just six different teams yet bookmakers have a consistently unimpressive record in their quadrennial tournament predictions.
   The ability of the leading nations to maintain their stranglehold on the final should simplify the task of forecasting who will be basking in glory every four years.
   However, even when the field is seemingly so narrow, the business of forecasting remains fiendishly difficult.
   Sunday’s finalists France began this tournament as 14-1 shots and slipped to 25-1 after drawing their first two games against Switzerland and South Korea.
   Their miserable performances in the 2002 event and in Euro 2004, their struggle through qualification for Germany, some woeful friendlies and an ageing squad all seemed to add up to a team who had peaked years ago.
   Italy, bidding to win their fourth world title, had a better look about them but could still be backed at 10-1 before the first game of a tough Group E where Czech Republic and the United States were both ranked above them, according to FIFA.
   Brazil, as always were the heavy 5-2 favourites with British bookmakers, followed by Argentina, Germany and, thanks to the usual heart before head investments that warp the odds, England. A repeat of the 2002 Brazil v Germany final was a 14-1 shot but Italy v France was a 50-1 scenario.
   Now they are there, the bookies remain a little confused, though heavy backing of Italy since the semi-finals has established them as slight favourites.
   Four years ago both teams travelled to Asia with high hopes and short odds but France (3-1 favourites) failed to get out of their group and Italy (5-1) were knocked out in the second round by South Korea. In contrast a German team thumped 5-1 at home in qualifying by England and condemned by many as the country’s worst in living memory defied odds of 20-1 to reach the final.
   Likewise Brazil, on the back of losing an unprecedented six qualifiers and friendly defeats by Honduras and Australia, were confidently priced out as 7-1 sixth favourites; a snip as it turned out as they went on to win the title for the fifth time.

When Italy takes the field in today’s World Cup final, it will have some unusual support - some 300 monks at one of Tibetan Buddhism’s holiest monasteries will be praying and cheering for the Azzurri.
   It’s Italy’s fair play during the tournament that has impressed the holy men at the Rumtek monastery, high in the Himalayan mountains, monks said.
   ‘I am praying for Italy’s victory like many of my colleagues here. The team has reached the finals after a long gap and (are) playing in a fair manner,’ said Tenzing Dorji, a 27 year-old monk.
   However, he does concede that there may be one or two secret France fans there.
   Most of the younger monks are keen soccer fans, said Karma Gyaltsen, a senior monk in charge of the monastery’s administration.
   ‘I’m sure they are going to break the stillness around here a bit with their shouts Sunday night,’ he said.
   But that’s OK, Gyaltsen is an Italy supporter too.
   While he also admires their style of play, his devotion to the Azzurri, goes deeper.
   He’s a big fan of Italian soccer legend Roberto Baggio.
   ‘I like him. He is a Buddhist after all.’
   Baggio, who played in three World Cup’s for Italy, converted to Buddhism in the 1980’s.
   The monks at Rumtek, one of the holiest Tibetan Buddhism sites outside Tibet, will gather
   in a hall, braving the near freezing weather and staying up till the early hours of the morning Monday to watch the game.
   And soccer fever won’t abate after the World Cup, Dorji said. The monks are avid players too.
   ‘Football is our favorite game. Wednesdays aside, we play the game during our lunch-break,’ he said.
   Rumtek is 24 kilometers (15 miles) west of Gangtok, the capital of northeastern India’s Sikkim state, which borders Tibet.

What comes to mind when you think of the World Cup? Superstar strikers, maybe, great attacking play, incredible goals, nail-biting tension, tears of sadness and of joy? Time to add two more ingredients to the list: miraculous saves and goalkeeping acrobatics.
   The keeper is always the first name on the teamsheet, but rarely is the No.1 picked out as a potential match-winner prior to a World Cup. In 2006 all of that has changed. As several superstar strikers have failed to live up to expectations, and the average number of goals per game has dropped, it is the world’s shot-stoppers that have been grabbing the headlines.
   For the record
   The list of goalkeeping feats at Germany 2006 is headed by Switzerland’s veteran No.1, Pascal Zuberbuehler. Even though his team were knocked out in the Round of 16, the FC Basel keeper did not concede a single goal, the first time in FIFA World Cup history that remarkable feat has come to pass.
   Others have also caught the eye of the experts, even if their teams did not cover themselves in glory. As he revealed to FIFAworldcup.com, Italy’s goalkeeping coach Ivano Bordon, himself a World Cup winner as Dino Zoff’s understudy in 1982, has been impressed by the high standard set between the sticks. ‘The Czech Republic keeper, Petr Cech, left the competition early but showed what an excellent keeper he is and Ghana’s keeper, Richard Kingson, also did very well.’
   In fact, Dida conceded only two goals over the course of his team’s five matches. His safe handling and first-rate positional sense got the five-times champions out of some tricky situations, particularly in their Round of 16 encounter with a determined and dangerous Ghana side.
   Semi-finalists in good hands
   Excellence between the sticks is something that the four semi-finalists have in common, too. The outstanding form of Fabien Barthez, Jens Lehmann, Ricardo and Gianluigi Buffon was a major factor in their teams’ qualification for the last four.
   In the cases of France and Germany, experience has been the watchword. The 35-year-old Barthez and Lehmann, one year his senior, have relied on all of their know-how to marshal their defences. The Frenchman has now won 86 caps and thanks to his athleticism, Les Bleus have only conceded two goals on their way to the Final.
   Arsenal keeper Lehmann, with 38 caps to his name, does not have as much international experience as his French counterpart. What he does have is a wealth of experience gleaned from years of top-flight European football. Only Costa Rica and Italy managed to breach the German defence, scoring two goals apiece.
   As Bordon commented, the success of Lehmann and Barthez is down to their hard work and good form. ‘Lehmann showed what a good season he has had for his club side and Barthez made a few little mistakes but in the end the opposition didn’t make him pay for them,’ said the Italian.
   Out of all of the custodians on show in Germany, it is perhaps Portugal’s No.1 Ricardo who has enjoyed the most attention. He has only conceded two goals in the competition, but it is his remarkable ability in penalty shoot-outs that sets him apart. After his success in helping Portugal’s march to the Final at EURO 2004, most notably when he saved Darius Vassell’s spot-kick to end England’s involvement, the Sporting Lisbon player has excelled once again.
   He has established a new FIFA World Cup record for penalties saved in shoot-out situations, and has become a real specialist in the tension of sudden-death football. Just as in 2004, the team to suffer were Sven-Goran Eriksson’s England, Ricardo saving three spot-kicks out of four to send the Portuguese through to a semi-final showdown with France.
   Place of honour, however, goes to the youngest and most consistent of our gang of four. Gianluigi Buffon, at 28 still a fresh-faced youngster in goalkeeping terms, is yet to be beaten by an opponent at the finals. Italy’s only goal against was scored by his own team-mate Cristian Zaccardo, who put through his net in their group match against the USA. As someone who knows the Juventus keeper inside out, Bordon’s praise for Buffon is resounding. ‘Without a doubt, he is one of the best in the world,’ he said.

The World Cup by the numbers:
   1. Sweden’s Markus Allback scored the 2,000th goal in FIFA World Cup history. It was Sweden’s first goal in the 2-2 draw with England in a Group B match. Goal No. 1,000 was scored by Rob Rensenbrink of the Netherlands in 1978.
   2. Ronaldo scored his 15th World Cup goal to become the tournament’s all-time leading goalscorer, topping German Gerd Mueller’s previous record by one goal.
   3. Switzerland is the first team to be eliminated from a World Cup without conceding a single goal. The Swiss lost on penalties in the second round against Ukraine.
   4. Portugal’s Ricardo is the first goalkeeper to save three shots in a penalty shootout at a World Cup.
   5. Germany is the only team to have been involved in four World Cup penalty shootouts, winning every one.
   6. At 18 years 357 days, Lionel Messi became the fifth-youngest goalscorer in the history of the tournament when he scored Argentina’s sixth goal against Serbia and Montenegro in Gelsenkirchen.
   7. Iran’s Yahya Golohammadi became the fifth-oldest goalscorer (36 years, 84 days) in the history of the World Cup when he scored against Mexico on June 11.
   8. Against Ukraine, Tunisia’s Ali Boumnijel became the fifth-oldest player (40 years, 71 days) to play in a World Cup game.
   9. Togo’s Otto Pfister (68 years, 211 days) became the second-oldest and Spain’s Luis Aragones (67 years 334 days) the third-oldest coaches in World Cup history.
   10. French goalkeeper Fabien Barthez recorded five shutouts to increase his career total at the World Cup to 10, a record jointly held with England’s Peter Shilton.
   11. Portugal’s quarterfinal draw after extra time with England ended Luis Felipe Scolari’s streak of 11 consecutive World Cup wins as coach. However, his 12-match unbeaten stretch is a record.
   12. With four wins to start this competition, 2002 champion Brazil set a record of 11 consecutive victories at the FIFA World Cup.
   13. Going into the final, Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has not conceded a goal in 453 minutes. This is already the fifth longest span.
   14. Horacio Elizondo is the first referee to be assigned to the opening game as well as to the final. He is the second referee after Mexico’s Benito Archundia to officiate five games at a World Cup.
   15. Archundia became the first referee to officiate five matches in one competition.
   16. With 12 single cautions and four indirect ejections, the Portugal-Netherlands game set a record for most disciplinary measures in a single World Cup game.
   17. Cafu became Brazil’s most capped player at the World Cup with a total of 20 matches. At the same time Cafu also became the player with most World Cup wins to his name (16).
   18. Guus Hiddink qualified for the second stage of the competition for the third consecutive time, and with three different teams: the Netherlands in 1998, South Korea in 2002 and Australia in 2006.
   19. Brazil’s Carlos Alberto Parreira became the first coach in World Cup history to face national teams from all six confederations.
   20. Parreira equaled Bora Milutinovic’s record of five World Cup participations.
   21. Parreira celebrated his 20th World Cup match as coach, equaling Mario Zagallo and Bora Milutinovic. Helmut Schoen leads with 25 matches.
   22. The second-round match between France and Spain was the 700th World Cup match.
   23. The penalty shootout between Switzerland and Ukraine (won 3-0 by Ukraine) was the lowest-scoring tiebreaker in World Cup history. Switzerland became the first team not to convert a single penalty in a penalty shootout.
   24. Italy’s 11 goals going into the final were scored by no fewer than 10 different scorers - a record now jointly held together with France (1982).
   25. The average attendance of roughly 52,500 is the second-highest in World Cup history. Only USA 1994 drew larger crowds.
   
   Rooney gets two-match
   ban for WC red card
   Agence France-Presse . Berlin
   England striker Wayne Rooney has been suspended for two matches following his World Cup quarter-final red card, a FIFA spokesman told AFP here Saturday.
   The 20-year-old Manchester United star was sent off for violent conduct during England’s defeat to Portugal when he stamped on defender Ricardo Carvalho.
   The ban means that Rooney, who was also fined 5,000 Swiss francs (4,084 US dollars), will miss England’s opening qualifying matches for the Euro 2008 tournament against Andorra and Macedonia on September 2 and 6 respectively.

Tough line on elbowing
   ‘reducing head injuries’
   The number of head injuries at the World Cup has been reduced because referees have taken a tough line on elbowing, FIFA Chief Medical Officer Jiri Dvorak said on Saturday.
   There have been just 11 head injuries at the 62 games so far, compared with 25 at the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea.
   ‘This is due to the fact that referees are sanctioning elbowing incidents with the red card,’ said Dvorak, who is a neurologist by profession.
   The toughest penalty was handed down to Italy midfielder Daniele De Rossi, who was sent off and then banned for four international matches for elbowing US striker Brian McBride in the face in a first-round match.
   Dvorak reported that the average number of injuries of any sort had fallen to 2.2 per match at this World Cup from 2.7 per match in 2002.
   This was partly due to the three-week gap between the end of the club seasons and the start of the World Cup enforced by FIFA which had allowed previous injuries to heal properly, he said.
   
   Cancellation of Africa-themed concert ‘unavoidable’
   Stormy weather left organisers with no choice but to cancel a concert planned for Friday night featuring mainly African artists to showcase South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 World Cup, FIFA said.
   After weeks of hot weather, the German capital was battered by storms and torrential rain on Friday.
   ‘The show was cancelled because there was a big risk for the participants and spectators. We had no choice and we greatly regret this,’ FIFA spokesman Markus Siegler said.
   The ‘Football for a better world’ concert was to have featured singers including Youssou N’Dour playing at the Fan Mile area in Berlin.
   
   Final reparations
   An 11-year-old German boy who suffered concussion when a car ploughed through Berlin’s Fan Mile a week ago, has received two tickets for Sunday’s final between France and Italy from the city’s mayor.
   ‘The final is a moment he will remember forever,’ mayor Klaus Wowereit said.
   The boy was the most badly injured of 26 people hurt when a car burst through security barriers at the Fan Mile. The driver of the car is receiving psychiatric treatment.
   
   ‘Doping-free’ World Cup
   Every drugs test has produced a negative result for the third consecutive World Cup, FIFA Chief Medical Officer Jiri Dvorak said on Saturday.
   Two players have been tested after each match, with urine samples analysed and testing for the endurance-booster EPO also carried out.
   Dvorak said FIFA no longer tested blood samples because ‘there is no scientific evidence that blood samples offer any additional information or give any additional proof’ than urine testing.
   
   Mascot sales hit million mark
   More than a million dolls or toys featuring Goleo, the shaggy lion mascot of the World Cup, have been sold during the month-long tournament, German toymakers Nici said.
   The two best-selling versions of the mascot have been a key holder and a stuffed toy measuring about 25 centimetres (10 inches).
   Nici has suffered severe financial problems since paying 28 million euros (35 million dollars) to win the license to produce Goleo.
   The increased sales came too late to prevent the company laying off 120 workers in a bid to stay afloat.
   — AFP

French stars Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry can propel France to World Cup glory over Italy on Sunday said Les Bleus legend Michel Platini on Saturday.
   The 51-year-old, however, said that not many moments from this World Cup would remain in the memory for long.
   ‘The (French) squad is strong, with great players, the experience of Zidane and also if we really are going to win it, there is Thierry Henry who will make the difference,’ said the former French captain and midfield general, who never reached the final falling at the semi-finals stage in 1982 and ‘86 to West Germany.
   ‘It is Henry that scored the goal against Brazil and won the penalty in the Portugal semi-final.
   ‘It is the great players that make the difference: Zidane’s freekick which resulted in Henry’s goal against Brazil, the penalty as a result of the foul on Henry which Zidane converted.
   ‘We have two great stars and it is them who will win the World Cup.’
   Platini, who captained France to the Euro 1984 title, said it was not important whether Zidane played well or not in what will be his last ever match.
   ‘It was not really important that he played well or not,’ said Platini, who is also head of FIFA’s technical commission.
   ‘What is crucial is the confidence he brings to the team. He may not play well one day, but he is there.
   He gives a lot to the others,’ added Platini, who had a spell as French coach leaving after they crashed out of Euro ‘92 at the first stage.
   Platini admitted he had tipped a France Italy final - but for the 2002 renewal - and was not capable of predicting who would win on Sunday.
   ‘It is really 50-50,’ said Platini, who was part of the great French midfield of the 80’s with Jean Tigana, Alain Giresse, Bruno Genghini and then the latter’s successor Luis Fernandez.
   ‘Italy and France match up pretty close. It is going to boil down to an error here or there.
   ‘All of them possess creative talents, with Zidane and (Francesco) Totti, and two excellent strikers in Henry who has more all round talent than Toni, but the latter is better with his head.
   ‘On the Italian side, Pirlo is the technical genius. If Pirlo is on song, then everything ticks.’
   Platini said that he had not been concerned with France’s poor showing in the group stage - two draws with Switzerland and South Korea and a win over Togo sufficing to get them through - as it was rare for a team to keep its form throughout.
   ‘I don’t know a lot of world champions who shone in the first round.
   ‘You can’t be in form for the first match and the final after a long season.
   ‘You only have to take Ronaldinho as an example. He is the best player in the world, but at the World Cup, he didn’t do much like Deco or Frank Lampard.
   ‘The World Cup, is a stage, one has to be good for 10-15 days.
   ‘And then we had the good idea of finishing second in our group,’ he added laughing.
   Platini, though, was scathing about the quality of fare produced over the past five weeks.
   ‘As president of the FIFA technical commission I have to say the football has not been good this year.
   ‘To try and pick out special moments is not easy.
   ‘I don’t know which match or incident will remain in the memory.
   ‘Argentina did please me. However I am not disappointed because even without great football, there is emotion.’

Neighbours France and Italy, both previous World Cup winners, both known at home as ‘the blues’, meet in Berlin Sunday in the final in a game with a resonance far beyond its sporting dimension.
   Few pundits had thought that an ageing French team (‘les bleus’), with many survivors from the glorious team of 1998 that won the game’s supreme prize in Paris, would go far after its dismal qualifying performance and indifferent showing in early games.
   Not many saw eventual victory for the Italians (‘gli azzurri’) in the light of scandals back home, a team also not in its first youth, and a sometimes patchy exhibition in the early stages of the cup.
   But much-fancied Argentina, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Portugal and Spain will not be in Berlin, and the two sets of blues—though France will be in white—will be, to replay the 2000 European Cup final won by France 2-1 with a golden goal in extra time.
   Much more rides on the final than the trophy to be hoisted before delirious supporters sometime on Sunday night.
   For France, whose fans have relived on the road to the final the exuberant, horn-sounding, Champs-Elysees-flocking, chanting night of triumph in 1998, a win would brush aside, even if temporarily, the depression caused by political scandals, riots in housing estates and the loss of the 2012 Olympics.
   Zinedine Zidane, the master, better known as Zizou, has regained his place as French icon-in-chief, the conductor of a team in which only three first choices are not of sub-Saharan African, Caribbean or North African origin.
   Memories of the 1998 team, the black-beur (Arab)-blanc team with its muliticultural promise, have been revived.
   Win or lose, it promises to be an emotional night in Paris. Fans will pack cafes with huge television screens.
   Victory will be celebrated by a spectacular all-night light show at the Eiffel Tower.
   The world’s most-visited monument with six million visitors each year was draped with thousands of light bulbs to celebrate the millennium six years ago.
   Currently these flash on and off for 10 minutes each hour during the night.
   But should Zinedine Zidane and his men triumph in Berlin the huge iron structure will flash its recognition without pause throughout the night until dawn.
   Police will be out in force on the Champs-Elysees, the traditional gathering point of fans and suburban youths looking for confrontation.
   The celebrations after the semi-final win, joyful as they were, provided cautionary incidents—five deaths by accident around the country and more than 200 arrests.
   For Italy the stakes are rather different. There the game has been tarnished by bribery scandals and the apparent suicide attempt by a former international, 35-year-old Gianluca Pessotto, who spent 11 years with Juventus before hanging up his boots in May and becoming their team manager.
   A prosecutor has recommended relegation for Juventus, AC Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina as punishment for the clubs’ suspected involvement in match-fixing.
   Thirteen of the Italy squad, none of whom is implicated in the scandal, play for the four accused Serie A clubs and could soon be considering their futures.
   Italy’s players have been reluctant to talk about the scandals embroiling their clubs but there is no doubt that the investigations have fostered a ferocious sense of purpose amongst the squad.
   ‘We have shown that we have got some great footballers and that we are not criminals,’ said veteran striker Alessandro Del Piero. ‘Everything that has happened off the pitch has brought us closer together.’
   And the Italians will be given a heroes’ welcome Monday whatever the outcome, Rome’s mayor Walter Velroni said, at the Circus Maximus in the centre of the capital.
   But it could mean a 10 million euro (dollar) bill for an Italian company that sold more than 10,000 television sets with the promise that buyers could keep the set and the money they paid for it if Italy wins.

France star Zinedine Zidane has attempted to play down the hype surrounding his last ever performance in professional football as Les Bleus take on Italy in the World Cup final on Sunday.
   The Marseille born schemer is widely regarded as one of the finest players of the past decade and has the chance to bring his glittering career to a close with the greatest prize of all in Berlin.
   Zidane has provoked a renaissance in his form during the tournament in Germany, with his showing in the quarter final win over Brazil evoking memories of his best displays for Juventus and Real Madrid.
   As such the clash against The Azzurri has been painted in some quarters as a kind of ‘Zidane final’, with the 34-year-old genius taking centre stage in a bid to match his two-goal contribution in France’s victory against Brazil in 1998.
   However the modest midfielder says the focus must remain on the achievements of the team as Raymond Domenech aims to lead Les Bleus to their second World Cup triumph.
   ‘People are always asking me about this World Cup being emotional or special because of my retirement, but there is nothing special happening around me concerning this being my last World Cup,’ Zidane is quoted as saying in the Daily Star.
   ‘I don’t want to be special, I don’t want to be talked about as a separate part from the group.
   ‘I’m in the group with my team-mates, I’m focused on the competition and there is a good spirit in the team.
   ‘I have good memories of 1998 and to raise the trophy again would be very special.
   ‘It’s going to be very, very difficult and we are going to have to be at the top of our game but we have the weapons to do it.’
   Zidane believes the spirit in the French camp could be key to their chances against Italy, echoing the sentiments of right-back Willy Sagnol on Friday. ‘Our motto is ‘We live together or we die together’ and there is a great team spirit,’ Zidane added.
   ‘It would be magnificent if we could win the trophy, not just for the players but for all our personnel and all the people who have supported us, particularly those who have been behind us from the start and not those who joined in half-way through.’

A 39-year-old Volkswagen Beetle that once belonged to Germany coach Juergen Klinsmann is on sale in a frenzied auction and has surpassed the price of another Volkswagen once owned by Pope Benedict sold a year ago.
   The blue 1967 VW convertible that Klinsmann drove in 1994 and 1995 while playing at Tottenham Hotspur has jumped from 105,000 euros to over 300,000 euros ($383,200) in the internet auction eBay.
   The car’s owner, who lives in the Stuttgart suburb Boeblingen, wants to remain anonymous but has registration papers that includes ‘Juergen Klinsmann’ as a previous owner, according to the Stuttgarter Zeitung newspaper on Saturday.
   The price for the auction that began on July 1 and runs to Tuesday is well above the $245,000 an internet
   casino paid last year for a
   used Volkswagen Golf owned years earlier by Pope Benedict XVI.
   ‘I really couldn’t recommend bidding for that car,’ Klinsmann said at recent news conference. ‘It was already completely rusty when I got rid of it.’
   Klinsmann has said he gave away the car, which was fun to drive as well as being something of an anti-establishment symbol, over 10 years ago when a mechanic told him it was ‘kaputt’.
   Local newspapers reported that the restored car with a 44-horsepower air-cooled engine had never been involved in a traffic accident since its first registration on Sept. 20, 1967.
   They said it had a nominal book value of about 12,000 euros. But the hometown frenzy over the coach who unexpectedly took Germany to the semi-finals before losing to Italy has only grown in recent days and has propelled its value higher.
   All of Stuttgart seems to be going berserk over their native son on Saturday ahead of the match for third place between Germany and Portugal on Saturday night.
   Local political leaders want to name a street after Klinsmann in the Botang district where he grew up and trained as a baker in his family’s shop.
   The Stuttgart history museum ‘Haus der Geschichte’ is handing out to customers free freshly-baked pretzels from Klinsmann’s bakery.
   The museum is also
   offering free admission (normally 4.50 euros) to all those who use the code word: ‘Klinsmann’.

Argentine Horacio Elizondo’s appointment to control Sunday’s World Cup final made clear that FIFA preferred to have Hispanic referees in charge of the World Cup’s biggest games.
   Five of the final eight fixtures of the tournament, from quarter-finals to final, will have been controlled by Spanish-speaking referees, including both semi-finals and the final.
   This Hispanic representation reflects the make-up and decision-making trends of the World Cup referees committee, which is chaired by Angel Maria Vilar Llona of Spain since 2002.
   They appointed referees from Spain, Argentina, Belgium and Slovakia to take charge of the quarter-finals, a Mexican and a Uruguayan to run the two semi-finals and an Argentine, again, to officiate at the final. It will be the first time that an Argentine official has refereed the showpiece event and only the fourth time a Latin- or Central-American has been in charge in 18 finals since 1930.
   West or north Europeans were preferred overall from 1930 to 1982. During that time, England became the only country to supply three World Cup final referees.
   Since 1982, the final has been taken twice by Brazilians and once by a Mexican referee.
   Elizondo, who also becomes the first man to control both the opening match and the final at a World Cup, will be assisted on Sunday evening by two fellow-Argentines, Dario Garcia and Rodolfo Otero. The same pair ran the line for him in the opening match on June 9 in Munich.

The 2006 World Cup final between Italy and France will take place at the Olympiasta-dion in Berlin. Following are five facts about the stadium.
   n The Olympiastadion was the venue for the 1936 Olympics. It was built between 1934 and 1936 by Werner March on the site of a previous stadium designed by his father Werner for the proposed 1916 Games, which were cancelled due to the First World War.
   n Jesse Owens, the American athlete, won four gold medals at the 1936 Games in the 100m, 200m, long jump and 4 x 100m. One of the roads around the stadium is named Jesse-Owens-Allee.
   n The Olympiastadion has previous World Cup experience. In 1974, the last time the finals were held on German soil, three matches were played there, all of them involving Chile.
   n To bring the crumbling stadium up to scratch for the 2006 World Cup a 242 million euro ($309.1 million) refurbishment was carried out. Work began on July 3, 2000 and matches continued to be played there while it was being carried out. The stadium was officially reopened on July 31, 2004.
   n The first international played at the remodelled stadium was between Germany and Brazil on Sept. 8, 2004. The game, a repeat of the 2002 World Cup final, ended 1-1.

Brazil legend Pele has defended the quality of the World Cup and predicted a tournament-making final between Italy and France in Berlin on Sunday night.
   The finals in Germany have struggled to live up to its early promise after some stand-out group ties, but Pele insists he has been impressed with the matches.
   ‘I have not been disappointed, we have had a lot of good games, exciting games,’ the 65-year-old told BBC Sport.
   ‘But the highlight should always be the final and I think it’ll live up to it.’
   Following a series of opening highlights at the finals, with matches such as Germany’s 4-2 defeat of Costa Rica, Argentina’s 2-1 win over the Ivory Coast and the 3-1 victory over Japan by Australia, the knock-out stages have produced some tepid affairs.
   The defensive approach of teams such as England, Ukraine and Switzerland led to uninspiring ties in the second round, while there were just six goals in four quarter-final ties - three of which were scored by Italy.
   ‘Of course, the second round in particular had games that weren’t the best,’ said the former striker.
   ‘But generally the games have been of a very good quality and I have enjoyed it.
   ‘Everyone wants to see a great final. That can be the mark of a quality tournament.
   ‘And I think we can expect a super game.’
   France will face Italy in the final after beating England’s conquerors Portugal in the semi-finals.
   Portugal overcame 10-man England on penalties in the quarter-finals, after Sven-Goran Eriksson’s side survived an hour’s play with a player less following Wayne Rooney’s red card for a stamp on Ricardo Carvalho.
   And Pele has offered his advice to Rooney following the striker’s frustrated outburst in Gelsenkirchen, urging him to deal with the unwanted attentions of opposing players ‘with patience’.
   ‘I’d like to give Wayne a little bit of advice - every big player will be marked closely,’ he said.
   ‘It will be the same with Wayne as it was with me, with Bobby Charlton, with Maradona - every opposing manager will tell his players to get tight, mark close, be aggressive.
   ‘He must learn to expect it and to deal with it calmly. He must get the experience to say ‘ok, I understand this, I know what to do’.
   ‘My advice is be calm and then you can beat the player on the football pitch, not by losing your temper.’

The heavy rains and thunderstorms that have doused Berlin’s heat wave in the last two days will have left the capital by today’s World Cup final, Germany’s leading meteorologist said on Saturday.
   Joerg Kachelmann, ARD television’s weather forecaster, told Reuters that temperatures at kickoff at 8 pm (1800 GMT) today for the match at Olympiastadion between Italy and France would be 24 degrees.
   That is well below the stifling highs of 35 degrees recorded two days ago in western sections of Berlin around the stadium before a series of thunderstorms drenched the city.
   ‘We’re going to see clouds and patches of blue skies in between with a 20 per cent chance of showers,’ Kachelmann said of the weather at the stadium on Sunday evening.
   ‘The temperature at 8 pm will be 24 degrees and it will be only slightly cooler at about 21 degrees when the World Cup is handed over later,’ he added.
   ‘That’s not too bad as far as heat and humidity is concerned,’ Kachelmann said. ‘No deluge should be expected either.’
   A thunderstorm and cloud burst on Friday evening forced the cancellation of an outdoor concert at the Brandenburg Gate for World Cup fans. There were further spells of rain in Berlin on Saturday.

Lone striker role damaged Rooney: Owen
   The decision to play Wayne Rooney as a lone striker in the World Cup quarter-final loss to Portugal may have contributed to his sending off according to injured striker partner Michael Owen.
   The Manchester United star battled back from a broken bone in his foot to get back into Sven-Goran Eriksson’s lineup, but the Sweded asked him to go it alone in front of a busy midfield.
   In a tight match, Rooney caused the Portuguese problems but was sent packing shortly after half-time for stamping on defender Ricardo Carvalho although he claims there had been no intention on his part.
   England fought on bravely to keep Portugal at bay during regulation play and extra-time but then went out on penalties.
   In an interview to be shown during ITV1’s World Cup final coverage, Owen said: ‘You would suggest he’s probably only got angry because of what’s happened in the first hour of that game. It’s a frustrating role to play.
   ‘Wayne Rooney is one of the best strikers in the world and you’re cutting one of his legs off if you’re playing just one up front,’ quotes The Sun. — AFP
   
   France people convinced they will beat Italy
   Almost nine out of 10 French are convinced their team will beat Italy and take home the World Cup today, according to a poll in the Le Parisian newspaper on Saturday
   The poll of 513 people showed 86 per cent believe the national team will win in Berlin while only five percent think not.
   People younger than 30 are the most fervent supporters with 92 per cent predicting a win while pensioners and people in the rural areas are slightly less convinced.—Reuters
   
   Eiffel Tower ready for France win
   A World Cup victory for France against Italy on Sunday will be celebrated by a spectacular all-night light show at the Eiffel Tower.
   The world’s most-visited monument with six million visitors each year was draped with thousands of light bulbs to celebrate the millennium six years ago.
   Currently these flash on and off for 10 minutes each hour during the night.
   But should Zinedine Zidane and his men triumph in Berlin the huge iron structure will flash its recognition without pause throughout the night until dawn. — AFP
   
   Blatter receives German state honour
   German Chancellor Angela Merkel has awarded the country’s Grand Cross of the Order Merit to FIFA president Sepp Blatter for his role in the football World Cup.
   Blatter said he was ‘moved’ by the award which he said he was receiving on behalf of all members of the football’s world governing body.
   ‘But the honour really belongs to Germany,’ he added.
   Merkel used the opportunity to wish Italy and France luck ahead of the final in Berlin on Sunday and to congratulate the German team for reaching the semi-finals.
   ‘The whole country is behind this team,’ she said.
   The chancellor thanked German coach Jurgen Klinsmann for doing a ‘fantastic job’.
   There have been calls for Klinsmann to be awarded the Grand Cross for leading a youthful German side into the last four of the championship. — AFP
   
   Poborsky quits int’l football
   Czech Republic midfielder Karel Poborsky announced on Friday that he has retired from international football.
   The 34-year-old former Manchester United and Lazio star won a Czech-record 118 caps, but decided to retire after his country’s disappointing exit from the World Cup at the group stage.
   The Ceske Budejovice player wants to concentrate on helping his club, where he is also general manager and executive president, establish themselves in the Czech first division.
   Poborsky, who joined Ceske from Sparta Parague in 2005, won his first cap in 1994 and helped the Czech Republic to reach the final of Euro 96, where they were beaten by Germany. — AFP
   
   Lhasa
   At Tibet’s holiest shrine, young monks are getting up at 3:00am. Not to pray, but to watch the World Cup.
   Lights flickered in the windows of the Potala Palace, former home of Tibet’s exiled ruler, the Dalai Lama, as France beat Portugal this week to set up a final showdown on Sunday against Italy.
   Monks watched on a 21-inch color TV, drinking Coca-Cola and eating instant noodles, said Lobsang, a 27-year-old monk with a gapped-toothed smile and a closely shorn head.
   ‘I get very excited, very happy, when I watch the games, because I get to see a lot of the famous players,’ said Lobsang, who like many of the 83 monks at the palace goes by only one name.
   Tibet’s Buddhist monks aren’t encouraged to play soccer, though they are allowed to watch. But among ordinary Tibetans, the game is as wildly popular as it is in the rest of sports-crazed China.
   ‘Most Tibetans love and play football,’ says Bian Ba, a former player for Tibet’s official league team. He now works in the Potala Palace, helping with tourists and keeping an eye on the treasures.
   But is it acceptable for monks to become so attached to a sport when their goal is to let go of worldly pleasures? Lobsang thinks so.
   ‘This activity brings a kind of happiness,’ he said. ‘It doesn’t harm anybody and it brings people together.’ — AP

England (595/9 dec) lead Pakistan (156/4) by 439 runs
   at tea, day 3
   Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq and fellow senior batsman Mohammad Yousuf missed out on the chance of some time in the middle before next week’s first Test at Lord’s after they each fell for nought against England A here Saturday.
   At tea, on the third day of this four-day match, Pakistan were 156 for four in reply to England A’s first innings 595 for nine declared, a deficit of 439.
   Faisal Iqbal, dropped on two by Ian Bell at second slip, was 54 not out and Abdul Razzaq eight not out.
   Yousuf fell for a five-ball nought, casually hooking novice pace bowler Stuart Broad, who had earlier scored a career-best 54 not out, to substitute fielder Neil Dexter at deep square leg.
   And 123 for three became 134 for four when Inzamam, who faced 12 balls, top-edged a pull against off-spinner Jamie Dalrymple and was caught by Alex Loudon, running round from first slip.
   At tea Dalrymple, one of England’s few successes in their 5-0 one-day series thrashing by Sri Lanka, had impressive figures of two for 15 from 10 overs.
   Earlier, Matthew Hoggard added to England’s woes by sustaining a freak hand injury just days before Thursday’s first Test start.
   During the warm-up before play here Saturday, 29-year-old swing bowler Hoggard had his right hand trodden on by fellow Yorkshire seamer Tim Bresnan.
   He had to have stitches inserted into the palm of his bowling hand and England selector Geoff Miller later told reporters that Hoggard would not be able to bowl at all Saturday and possibly not on Sunday.
   England, who are due to name their first Test squad on Sunday, will be without another senior pace bowler at Lord’s in Andrew Flintoff, missing because of an ankle injury, although they hope to have him back in time for the second Test at the all-rounder’s Lancashire home ground later this month.
   Meanwhile England have several long-term injuries to senior players with captain Michael Vaughan (knee), pace bowlers Simon Jones (knee) and James Anderson (back) as well as left-arm spinner Ashley Giles (hip) all unavailable.
   After Tim Bresnan bowled opener Imran Farhat (16), Broad had Iqbal dropped by Bell.
   Left-handed opener Salman Butt completed an 88-ball fifty with his 10th four, a cover-drive off Bresnan. But he fell tamely when he turned Dalrymple to the off-spinner’s Middlesex team-mate Owais Shah at midwicket for 63.
   Chris Read (150 not out) and Broad extended their overnight last-wicket stand to an unbroken 127 on what was an ideal batting pitch.
   The hosts’ score was boosted by 62 extras, 31 in byes alone. That was unsurprising given that Iqbal was acting as an emergency wicket-keeper after Kamran Akmal, the only recognised gloveman in the Pakistan squad, sustained a bruised left index finger on Thursday’s first day.
   But Pakistan remained confident that Akmal would be fit for Lord’s.
   England A resumed on 530 for nine with former England wicket-keeper Read, who lost his Test place to Geraint Jones on account of his batting, 120 not out and Broad, the son of former England opening batsman Chris, unbeaten on 29.
   Broad, 20, primarily a right-arm seamer, went to a maiden first-class fifty in 96 balls with a superb back-foot cover-driven boundary off Mohammad Sami - his eighth four.
   Read then reached 150 in 196 balls, featuring two sixes and 20 fours by hoisting leg-spinner Danish Kaneria - who took four for 158 in a marathon 48 overs - high over square leg at which point England A captain Robert Key, who himself made 136, declared.

Amelie Mauresmo became the first Frenchwoman in 81 years to win the Wimbledon singles title when she conquered a severe bout of stagefright to beat Belgium’s Justine Henin-Hardenne 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Saturday.
   The 27-year-old’s victory was also her second career Grand Slam victory and was the first step towards what could be a memorable weekend for French sport with France facing Italy in the World Cup final in Berlin on Sunday.
   Mauresmo was blown off Centre Court in the first set before she recovered to claim a victory which will be more satisfying after her Australian Open win in January was tainted by Henin-Hardenne’s decision to pull out injured in the second set of that final.
   It also broke France’s long wait for a women’s champion here after Suzanne Lenglen won the last of her six titles in 1925.
   ‘It feels great,’ said Mauresmo, three times a semi-finalist.
   ‘It’s been a great two weeks and I don’t want anyone to talk about my nerves anymore.’
   Defeat meant that 2001 runner-up Henin-Hardenne failed, for now, to become only the 10th woman in history to win all four Grand Slam titles.
   ‘She just played better than me, she took her opportunities,’ said Henin-Hardenne who arrived here on the back of a third French Open title as well as victory in Eastbourne, the traditional Wimbledon warm-up event.
   ‘Amelie was just too good but I’ll be back and hopefully I’ll get another chance.’
   Mauresmo endured the worst possible start.
   After winning the toss and electing to serve, the 27-year-old was broken by a fired-up Henin-Hardenne.
   The Frenchwoman squandered a chance to break back in the sixth game and Henin-Hardenne then made her pay with two stunning backhands which gave her a second break of the opening set and a 5-2 lead.
   Henin-Hardenne quickly went to three set points and took the opener 6-2 with a thunderous ace after just 31 minutes of one-sided action.
   However, the Belgian went dramatically off the boil at the start of the second set and dropped serve in the second game to slip 0-2 down which soon became 0-3 as the Frenchwoman started to find her range with her serve-and-volley game.
   Mauresmo wasted two more chances to break again in the fourth and sixth games and Henin-Hardenne took full advantage with a break back to trail 3-4.
   Mauresmo, so often let down by a brittle temperament, hit back straightaway to lead 5-3 and held her nerve against three further break points to take the second set 6-3 with a fourth ace to level the final after 80 minutes of action.
   The French wine lover was quickly in charge in the decider, leaping into a 2-1 lead as Henin-Hardenne saw her own game fall apart.
   That became 3-1 thanks to only her second love-service game of the final.
   She saved a break point in the fourth game before a sweet volley extended her lead to 4-2.
   Mauresmo kept her composure to take the title when Henin-Hardenne netted a forehand after 2hr 2min of action.

India’s Test series victory in West Indies was one of the high points of Anil Kumble’s 16-year international career, the leg spinner said on Friday.
   Kumble took six second-innings wickets as the touring side won the fourth and final Test in Jamaica by 49 runs to clinch a 1-0 series triumph on Sunday, India’s first in the Caribbean for 35 years.
   ‘It is very satisfying since I have had to wait all this time for this moment,’ the 35-year-old said.
   ‘This probably was my last Test series in West Indies so it was extra special.’
   It was third time lucky for Kumble after two previous tours of the Caribbean.
   ‘They weren’t really pleasant memories from my earlier trips,’ Kumble said. ‘So it was important for me to achieve a victory and I am happy to have played a significant role.’
   Kumble, Test cricket’s fourth-highest wicket taker with 533 scalps, picked up 19 wickets on the 1996-97 tour of West Indies as India lost a five-match series 1-0.
   His second visit in 2002 ended in double anguish. India lost the series 2-1, after leading 1-0, and the spinner had to return home for surgery after his jaw was broken by a bouncer from paceman Mervyn Dillon in Antigua.
   Kumble, who has signed to play for English county side Surrey later this season, said he was pleased to be contributing to India’s successes.
   ‘I’m happy to be playing my role whenever I get an opportunity. At this point all I can say is I’m feeling fit and strong and enjoying my cricket.’
   Kumble’s wife gave birth to their third child, a girl, on Thursday.

Roger Federer will not only have to beat Rafael Nadal in today’s Wimbledon final.
   The world number one must also overcome the self-doubt that appears to creep into his game every time he looks over the net and spies the hunk of Spanish muscle that stands between him and a fourth consecutive title at the All England Club.
   Seven times the two best players on the planet have gone head to head, and only once has Federer emerged victorious.
   That was on a Miami hard court last year. Since then Nadal has chalked up five straight victories, including a run of four this year that culminated in his four-sets triumph in last month’s French Open final.
   Past performance, of course, is no guide to future returns and Federer’s supporters will be quick to point out that Nadal has never had to contend with their man’s unrivalled range of shots on grass, a surface on which he is unbeaten in 47 matches.
   ‘It will be a very difficult match against one of the best in history, especially on this surface,’ said Nadal.
   ‘I’ll need play the best match of my life to win.’
   By his own admission, Federer, who has yet to drop a set here, arrived in London two weeks ago struggling for his best form.
   But with every match here, his level of performance and his confidence have edged upwards, culminating in a near flawless semi-final demolition of Jonas Bjorkman.
   The man on the receiving end of the heaviest semi-final defeat since records began has no doubts about Federer’s right to be regarded as one of the all-time greats.
   Bjorkman has been around long enough to have crossed swords with Pete Sampras and Stefan Edberg, and he believes that the different elements of Federer’s attacking arsenal surpass even the biggest weapons of those grass court greats.
   ‘Stefan’s movement was so great, he was like a cat, so smooth,’ said Bjorkman. ‘But Roger is almost above that. He doesn’t look like he’s moving a lot but he’s always there and seems to have so much time to play his shots.
   ‘Pete, on his serve, had that pure power combined with hitting it in the corners. But Roger can mix it up as well and with the same toss on every serve it makes it very hard to read.’
   Such high praise does not however prevent Bjorkman from suggesting that Nadal’s psychological edge over the world number one could make Sunday’s final a close-run thing.
   ‘I think Nadal is probably the only one who has an idea about how to play Roger at the moment,’ he said. ‘He’s obviously managed to get into the head of Roger a little with the head-to-head record and that’s going to help him in the final.
   ‘And maybe with his lefty spin he can get Roger out of position a little bit more often than other guys can.’
   Former champion Pat Cash echoed Bjorkman’s comments when he observed that Nadal ‘gets under Federer’s skin and produces nagging doubts deep inside his brain.’
   That theory is certainly supported by the hesitant tone Federer adopts whenever the subject of Nadal comes up, his bullish comments apparently as much for his own benefit as for his audience.
   ‘I know I can beat him,’ Federer insisted, playing down the significance of his defeats by Nadal, four of which have come on slow clay courts.
   ‘I don’t need to think about playing him, I just need to focus on me playing on grass, my style of play and playing aggressive,’ Federer said.
   ‘That’s easier to do on grass than clay where he can cover much more ground, so I’m confident.’
   In public at least, Nadal has been happy to embrace the status of under-dog.
   ‘It’s Roger’s surface,’ he said modestly after the typically gritty display that allowed him to squeeze past Marcos Baghdatis, the conqueror of 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt, in the semi-finals.
   Nadal also accounted for Andre Agassi on his way to the final although it will not have been lost on Federer that the person who came closest to beating the Spaniard was the American qualifier Robert Kendrick, who served and volleyed his way into a two-set lead before running out of steam in the second round.
   Federer might not go that far but he knows his way to the net and that could be the factor that makes the difference this time around.
   But on the evidence Nadal has presented this year, this will not be his last chance to knock his rival off his Wimbledon throne.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) is to conduct research into the vexed question of player ‘burnout’ after claims the current schedule of international matches is placing too great a burden on the game’s leading players.
   Federation of International Cricketers’ Association (FICA) chief Tim May, the former Australia off-spinner, recently raised the spectre of players taking performance-enhancing drugs in order to keep themselves going between matches.
   But his fellow Australian Malcolm Speed, the ICC’s chief executive, insisted the workload of top cricketers was not as demanding as many thought.
   ‘Two words that concern some of our stakeholders are ‘burnout’ and ‘saturation’,’ Speed said. ‘They are highly emotive words (and) they are too often used in the absence of facts and evidence.
   ‘Many of the game’s top players are playing fewer cricket matches than their predecessors while international cricket is in greater public and commercial demand than ever.
   ‘It is time some proper research is undertaken into these two often-raised but little-understood areas (and) I am pleased to say that this week our members mandated ICC to begin a comprehensive research project in this area.’
   Although the terms of reference of the research project are yet to be determined, it is likely it will compare player workloads over eras, as well as assessing injury trends.
   Meanwhile Speed, speaking at the ICC’s business forum at Lord’s on Friday, also responded to criticism of the recently-adopted six-year Future Tours Program (FTP) which aims to structure the schedule of international cricket.
   ‘Let me say that the FTP is fundamentally good for the game.
   ‘Far from being concerned about the excessive volume of cricket being played by our members, we believe many of them should be looking for opportunities to program more cricket.
   ‘New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh all have fewer than 55 Test matches scheduled over the next six years and South Africa and the West Indies’s annual schedules of Test cricket only hit double figures three and four times respectively.
   ‘When the schedules of our members are looked at over the course of the forthcoming six years, only three teams ever come close to reaching the players’ recommended upper limit (of 15 Tests and 30 ODIs in a 12-month period) - Australia, England and India.
   ‘Of those three, Cricket Australia, whose players are currently on a five-month break, and the England and Wales Cricket Board both have formal agreements with their player groups concerning the volume of cricket they play and both have consistently honoured those agreements.
   ‘And the Board of Control for Cricket in India, which has more cricket scheduled than anyone else, has regularly assured us their schedule has the full support of their player group.’
   Speed said individual national boards bore the main responsibility for managing player workloads.
   ‘They need to balance the demands of player workload with public and commercial interest.
   ‘The directive we have given to our members is that in instances where they are considering adding to the current schedule, they should do so in consultation with their elite player.’

Andrew Flintoff could play a Twenty20 Cup game for Lancashire as part of his build-up towards a Test comeback.
   Flintoff hopes to be fit for the second Test against Pakistan at Old Trafford on 27 July after spell on the sidelines because of an ankle injury.
   He has bowled in the nets and coach Mike Watkinson told BBC Sport there was ‘a bit of a chance’ Flintoff could play against Notts today.
   The final decision would, however, rest with the England and Wales Board.
   Andrew Strauss will be captain for next week’s first Test at Lord’s, but Flintoff will take over when he returns to the side.
   To be part of the squad for the second Test, Flintoff would first have to come through the four-day Championship game against Kent, starting on 18 July.

Michael Vaughan’s England career is not over, chairman of selectors David Graveney has insisted.
   Vaughan has been ruled out of the Ashes series starting in November because his rehabilitation from knee surgery is going to take at least six months.
   But Graveney said the 31-year-old’s long-term future was not in doubt.
   He told BBC Five Live: ‘There’s no suggestion that Michael Vaughan’s career is under major threat. The Ashes were always going to be a close call.’
   The England and Wales Cricket Board medical team issued a statement on Thursday saying Vaughan’s knee specialist had advised his rehabilitation be taken slowly in order to give the surgery the best chance of success.
   The statement added: ‘As a consequence, Michael has been ruled out of the Ashes Test series and will be targeting a return to cricket early in 2007 with a view to being available for selection for the World Cup.’

Bangladesh A team took 2-0 lead in the five-match one-day series against Zimbabwe A after they won the second match by four wickets at the Queen’s Sports Club in Bulawayo on Saturday.
   Skipper Tushar Imran was unbeaten on 96 off 122 balls to guide his team to victory after the bowlers had restricted the hosts to 204. Bangladesh A reached the target in 45.3 overs with Mehrab Hossain Jr contributing second highest 38 runs. Mehrab shared a 96-run stand with Tushar in the fourth wicket while Forhad Reza, who got a national call-up, accompanied the skipper till the end remaining not out on 30. The third match of the series will be held at the same venue today.

The ICC’s Chief Executives’ Committee has approved the recommendation that a Test match be called off on the final afternoon if there is no chance of a result. The new regulation, which will come into effect immediately, allows the game to be called off once a minimum of 75 overs have been completed in the day’s play.
   This effectively means that the captains can forego the last hour of play, instead of the 30 minutes the old regulation allowed. Percy Sonn, the new ICC president, unveiled the second edition of the Strategic Plan at the annual conference at Lord’s. The Plan will run for five years, ending 2010, and will chart the ICC’s priorities and areas of functioning.
   ‘It has been put together following an extensive consultation process between an ICC project team, our members and stakeholders’, Sonn said. ‘It is the organisation’s roadmap for the next five years - years that should be great for cricket.’
   The CEC also adopted the ICC Gender Recognition Policy, enabling cricketers who have undergone gender reassignment surgery to play women’s cricket at international level provided they meet the required criteria.

The proposed series of one-day matches between India and West Indies planned for North America is back on, although all the games are now likely to take place in Canada and not in the USA as originally intended.
   It is reported from Canada that a deal was done between the Indian board (BCCI) and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) when their respective chairmen met during the ICC executive meeting at Lord’s this week.
   The series, which is likely to be played in Toronto in September, had been reportedly scrapped and the boards were said to be looking at alternative venues in the Far East.
   The sticking point was that the grounds in the USA had not received ICC clearance, but there are no such issues in Toronto which has already hosted one-day games.

Australian Robbie McEwen dominated another bunch sprint to claim victory in the 189km sixth stage of the Tour de France here Friday, his 11th career win in the race.
   Belgian rival Tom Boonen, who finished a distant third, retained the race leader’s yellow jersey ahead of Saturday’s 52km time trial around Rennes.
   McEwen, who won race stages on Monday and Wednesday, has already equalled his achievement of last year when he claimed three stages but lost the points competition’s green jersey.
   This victory, which boosted his chances of winning the green jersey for a third time, came at the end of another long home straight which his lead-out man, Gert Steegmans, forced his way through with McEwen on his wheel.
   In the last 200 metres Steegmans dropped off, giving the 34-year-old McEwen a perfect launchpad for his final burst to the finish line.
   McEwen finished with room to spare from Italian Daniele Bennati, of the Lampre team, who finished second.
   Boonen meanwhile did well just to finish ahead of Austrian sprinter Bernhard Eisel. Boonen, Quick Step’s reigning world champion, has failed to win a stage since he pulled on the race leader’s jersey a few days ago and will be disappointed having said before the race that this stage suited him well.
   The 25-year-old has a 12-second lead over McEwen in the general classification, which nonetheless will be shaken up after the time trial on Saturday.
   Australian Michael Rogers sits third overall at 21sec with another sprinter, Oscar Freire, in fourth ahead of American George Hincapie.