World Cup final victory would be a just reward for dynamic football

I WRITE this the day before the World Cup final. Soon we'll find out which team will win - but I hope it'll be the French. They deserve it. If Zidane shows his best skills again, if he has enough strength and energy left in him for the final, the Italians shouldn't be able to stop this great player and his team-mates.

Even in the semi-final where they scored only one goal - and that from the penalty spot - the French team showed us high-quality, dynamic football with the ball constantly on the move.

To me it seemed absolutely right that they won that game. It was amazing how smartly and assuredly Zidane regulated his team's play. It was as if we had a player-manager on the pitch. He's a real leader and remarkable example for younger footballers to follow.

The French team didn't seem so strong at the beginning of the tournament, but they looked better and better with each game they played in Germany.

Naturally, I understand that the French may still lose in the final. Football is full of accidents like bad refereeing or injuries but, when it comes to potential, the French team is my favourite compared to the Italians.

In that other semi-final between Germany and Italy, we had to wait for almost 120 minutes before they managed to hit the target. The final scoreline of 2-0 didn't show that the Italians were much stronger - their second came only when all the German team went forward looking for a chance to equalise and forgetting about defence.

The pair of teams in the final isn't quite what I expected when the World Cup started. In my opinion Argentina or Brazil could have been there. But Argentina stumbled over refereeing while the Brazilians didn't have sufficient strength and power and were taken by surprise with the wonderful football shown by the French squad.

To me, the high standard of refereeing was a pleasant surprise in the semis, both of which I attended. One thing surprised me. I expected that the referee would favour the Germans more. We have seen it many times before at both World Cups and Euro Championships when they did everything possible, and even impossible, to help the host team to come through to the later stages of the competition. I'm glad nothing of the kind happened at this World Cup. In neither of the semis did the referees deserve any reproach.

The Portuguese players were accused by some observers of diving, provoking fouls and appealing to referees for the opponents to be shown yellow and red cards. I don't agree. In my opinion the Portuguese are just ill-prepared to face such a physical and tough style of play demonstrated by most teams in Germany. For them, falling down all the time and demanding that their opponents are penalised is a natural reaction to such football.

Saying that, I'd like to go back to Wayne Rooney's red card in the England v Portugal match. The English press accused Cristiano Ronaldo of provoking him. That's probably right, but only a weak player can be so easily provoked. The truly top players do not respond. Such great men of world football as Zidane, Figo and Henry are hard to provoke. The victims of provocations are only immature boys - which is still the best description of Rooney.

This is also evident to me when I see how he hogs the ball. To be scornful and even boorish towards your opponents always brings punishment. People sometimes get away with it in day-to-day life, but not in football.

The problem is that Rooney learned this attitude in the "school" of the English Premiership. And that's a result for you. To kick a man spreadeagled on the grass was a reflex for him. And this happened at the worst possible moment for England.

In the best games of this World Cup which I watched the teams showed high-speed performance with instant transfer from defence into attack. The ball is delivered from one penalty box to the other in a matter of several seconds. It's one-touch football, and it means we're seeing more of a team game than ever before. The selection of players has improved and we see fewer mediocre players among the stars.

It becomes more and more important how productively a player performs: how accurate his passes are, how tightly he can cover a certain zone in defence, and how he moves without the ball.

As for the stadiums where the semis were played, I quite liked the arena in Munich but the stadium in Dortmund was a disappointment. It's design prevents any movement of fresh air and in hot weather it gets extremely stuffy for the fans. Looking for a slightly cooler place in the stadium, I left my chair and sat on a stone step.

But imagine playing football there! I strongly suspect that the German team failure was at least partially due to that factor. The Germans looked the stronger side initially, but then they just "suffocated".

Taken from the Scotsman