Portugal sweeps Gold, Silver and Bronze medals in team diving but France advances to the final of the 2006 World Cup.  In a game where Portugal’s best chance to score came from a questionable call after Patrick Vierra made a super tackle (tackling used to part of the game of football incidentally) and Figo could not find the net from Barthez’s comical bobble of Ronaldo’s wonderfully struck free kick, France move on. 

Zizou took his lumps today for sure, as everyone from Figo to the defenders refused to concede without a physical fight, but perhaps the last true gentleman in the game today held firm in pulling the strings on the field.  In fact, if Louis Saha had simply played the dummy and let the ball roll past him to Zidane in the dying minutes, I would not have bet against him punishing the brave Ricardo with a second goal.

Note to Wayne Rooney:  watch the tape of the 88^th minute and how Makalele stood firm and forced the referee to blow his whistle rather than resort to stomping.

Note to John Harkes:  Based on Domench’s system of play with the two attacking wide players and the front man doing the majority of the running, they are supposed to run at almost every opportunity.  Then if no one is carded or injured, they are substituted for, as was the case with Wiltord, Saha, and Govou coming into the match to continue the running while Zidane was the pivot player, keeping the back 2 of Vierra and Makalele solid in front of the back 4.

Note to self: Enjoy what is shaping up to be a great final.

While Big Phil seems able to inject the total self-belief into any side he leads, the rather diminutive Raymond appears better suited for an experienced French side that has already won the biggest trophy in sport that less than .125% of Americans can refer to by name. 

Switch the coaches around for a second and imagine if seeing Deco and Domenech discussing options eye-to-eye would be inspirational or whether Vierra and Scolari would be receptive to each other's fire. Probably each coach would do just fine save for the language learning curves but the Big man leading the likes of Deco and the Little man trusting the likes of Vierra seems the proper fit for these two teams going into this semi-final.

While Big Phil's Brazilian heritage is widely known, it is interesting to know that Diminutive Ray is of Catalan descent if only to tell us that the best man for the job may carry a passport and visa today.