[JaredL]

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i agree with you about zidane in the first two games. since then, however, he's been sensational. do you really think zidane has just been serviceable in france's victories over spain, brazil and portugal? if that's the case, i'm sorry, you're looking with colored glasses.


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I will fully admit to looking with colored glasses. I have mentioned numerous times here that I strongly dislike Zidane based on his play for Real Madrid. I'm very pleased that in his last match for them he lost to Sevilla (though he scored which takes some of the fun out of it for me).

Zidane was admittedly very good in the Spain game and I didn't watch the Brazil game so I have to rely on what I read (chose a bad time to move across the country [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] ) but the Portugal match is a good example of what I mean. He had a brilliantly taken penalty - keeper guessed right and still had no chance, but otherwise wasn't particularly amazing. He completely botched one excellent scoring opportunity by making a horrible pass I think to Ribery (it was a guy coming up on the right) when they had a 3 on 2 break, and in general did nothing particularly special barring the penalty. A big part of that of course was the way the match went. After France scored the match wasn't really setup for the attacking midfield of France to show their stuff and as I said he botched the main big scoring opportunity (to be honest I can't remember if this was before or after the goal, you should know which I'm talking about). I guess he was man of the match, but it's one of those deals where whoever took the penalty would have gotten it had they made it (though again it was very well taken) because it was solidly a team effort and nobody really impressed above all others on their side.

As you said, in their first couple matches he was far from impressive. He was pretty much anonymous in those matches, looking nothing whatsoever like the Zidane from the late 90s and early 2000s. Furthermore, him being forced to sit out that third match doesn't exactly help the argument that he has had a very strong world cup finals.

Basically I think that all of this adds up to a good but not great world cup for him. Henry was more important imo for France. Given his lack of club success, Real Madrid in fact underachieving, it shouldn't be enough to get him anywhere near the top of the golden ball discussion barring emotions based on his retirement.

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others who particularly impressed me:

ribery (where'd he come from? wow)


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I agree on this. I think France's turnaround came from him stepping up in a major way. As I've said here, I think the 4-5-1 system they use, in particular with the two solidly defensive minded midfielders, requires a creative playmaker who can take on multiple defenders. Ribery has done this extremely well the last few matches for them.

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, lahm, klose, ricardo, buffon, pirlo, cannavaro, essien.

honestly, i'd gove the golden ball to fabio cannavaro. maybe i'm high.

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I could see this happening. If Italy win it's obviously largely due to defensive success. Cannavaro played a major role in that.

Jared