Les Bleus Charge Through!!

It's hard to believe that a few weeks ago, I wrote that "How can a team studded with stars, including one of the world's great strikers Thierry Henry, score so few goals?" I apologize, Raymond Domenech! You are brilliant! Well, at least your players are.

As I wrote earlier, I had a feeling that France would win this game. They have been on the rise since the Togo match. But I was not prepared for the way they dominated Brazil. 1-0 is a thin margin and they were one quick counterstrike away from being tied but France owned the midfield, rendered Ronaldinho nonexistent (and by the way, I love the guy, but he's been missing lately: this game and others in the WC and the European Championship game. Somebody put his name on the back of a milk carton.), and their defense didn't allow Brazil to create real threats to their weak link (AKA Fabien Barthez) until stoppage time (!).

The Ghana game exposed Brazil's weakness. France blew it apart. For a team that pledged to played Henry tight, didn't he appear a wee bit open on that goal? Oops.

Zizou is the Man!
This is the first WC game I'm going to commit to DVD and it's because of Zinedine Zidane. He was absolutely posessed today (as in the previous game against Spain). Time after time, he took posession of the ball in the midfield, held it or dispelled it with a variety of trickery and guile and guts, and refused to have anything else than victory. Zizou owned the midfield and terrorized Brazil's players. It's hard to believe that he is 34 years old, and Ronaldo is only 29. Also hard to believe that France also has Patrick Vieira in the middle - he was not bad at all today, either.

I can't say enough about Henry, either. They kept him bottled up in the 1st half, but he exploded in the 2nd half, causing constant trouble for Brazil's backline. The goal he scored was a brilliant goal - scorer's touch into the ceiling of the net. He almost got one earlier on a corner that was intercepted and turned wide by Vieira, off of a corner kick. And his back heel pass to Vieira, later in the half, was so close to the game capper. If this man isn't the FIFA player of the year, they should just suspend the award for this year.

If there is any justice in this world, the finals will be between Germany and France. I cannot pick right now, though my heart will be with Thierry Henry and Zizou.

Oh, and England and Portugal played a match, as well. England is like a dreary cloud that darkens every stadium it inhabits and renders every match involved a dull, passionless affair. Today, was no different, however, Portugal (do they miss Deco that much?!) shared the culpability. Actually, England played pretty spirited football towards the end and into the overtime. If they had just managed one goal they would be through.

Their PKs were abysmal. The team had no self-belief whatsoever. Lampard missed badly. Stevie G. Missed badly. My God, Sven Goran Erickson can ruin the best talent in the world! It's not as if Portugal put 5 in the net. They were pretty awful on their own. But England was determined to be the worse team on the night and they delivered!

Has anyone had a more disappointing World Cup than Frank Lampard? The man is a proven scorer from mid-field (broke the midfielder scoring record in the EPL, he did) and he comes into the WC, takes more shots than anyone else, with less to show for it than anyone. Can't even hit a gimme PK. Boo!

Oh, and Wayne Rooney. Grow up, Wayne. You step on another player's nuts and any referee with balls is going to red card you. Way to suck the life out of a team that was working hard for victory. When you were 17 and 18, this crap was cute. Now, people expect more out of you. Think about that for the next four years. Oh, and by the way, you've got a couple of weeks to think about how you're going to thank Cristiano Ronaldo for his work demanding the ref red card you.