July 5, 2006
THE PENALTY PHASE
Zidane's PK lifts France over Portugal into final

By Michael Lewis
BigAppleSoccer.com Editor

Munich, Germany -- Once again another World Cup match was decided on penalty kicks, except this occurred during the middle and not at the end of the France's 1-0 semifinal victory over Portugal.

France received an unexpected call and converted its chance. Portugal, however, never got the call and eventually paid the penalty with the loss.

The French survived the Portuguese's late surge and the goalkeeping antics of Fabien Barthez as they continued their improbable march toward their second championship in three competitions. They'll meet Italy for the title in Berlin Sunday.

"I must confess it is something that I can't possibly imagine because the World Cup remains the dream of my childhood," said French defender Lilian Thuram, named man of the match. "It is something quite fantastic."

Not surprisingly, the man who decided the match was 34-year-old Zinedine Zidane, who continued his revival as an impact international player with Sunday as his final competitive match. His 33rd-minute PK turned out to be the game-winner.

"It will be good to lift the Cup again one more time," Zidane said. "We really want to succeed."

While many experts feel Zidane and France have turned the clock back to the 1998 World Cup when it captured the title, this competition has become a virtual duplicate to Euro 2000.

Substitute the host Germans for the Netherlands and you've got the same exact scenario as six years ago. France dispatched Portugal in the semifinals, on a late Zidane penalty and overcame the Italians in the final.

The match, for all intents and purposes, turned during a four-minute span late in the opening half.

In the 32nd minute, referee Jorge Larrionda (Uruguay) made a generous call in the French's favor, ruling that Ricardo Carvalho's trip of Thierry Henry at the top of the penalty area was worth of a penalty kick.

"There was contact," Henry said. "I thought I had gone past him and he caught me. I didn't ask for the penalty, but it was given."

Portugal coach Felipe Luiz Scolari, whose 12-game Cup unbeaten streak was snapped, wanted to give it to Larrionda after the match, but wasn't allowed to get close to the game official.

"We know South American referees," he said. "They know how to kill a game."

So does Zidane, who does it in his own way. A minute later e fired a right-footer into the lower left corner out of the reach of a diving goalkeeper Ricardo, the penalty-kick hero of Portugal's Saturday quarterfinal shootout win over England.

In the 37th minute, Larrionda refused to whistle a make-up call for the Portuguese after defender Willy Sagnol made slight contact with Cristiano Ronaldo, who embellished the collision with a mediocre dive. Larrionda, however,' didn't buy it.

"Anyone who understands soccer saw that the referee wasn't fair," Ronaldo said.

Ronaldo almost equalized in the 78th minute, sending in a bullet of a 35-yard free kick into the goalkeeper’s box. Instead of catching the ball or punching it out of harm’s way, Barthez, who has a long, bumbling history of turning saves into goals, decided to slap it up into the air as a volleyball set-up. Luis Figo, however, did not convert his spike attempt, heading the ball over the net.

"Each match you play you feel that pressure," French coach Raymond Domenech said. "You feel like you're going to be hanged, but you have to withstand this."