Brazil8217;s inevitable progress to the final typifies predictability

This may not have been a golden goal according to the prospectus but the tournament could have done with more 24-carat moments like it. Unhappily the World Cup did not take the cue offered by that Bergkamp goal in Marseille; neither, for that matter, did Bergkamp.

The inevitability of Brazil8217;sprogress to a sixth final has typified the predictability of this World Cup. A computer could have come up with a denouement involving them and France, holders and hosts.

Yet, the tournament has been almost as pleasant an experience as its immediate predecessor in America four years ago, the principal difference being the violence of the Neanderthal minorities among English and German fans. By and large, however, the supporters have again been the essence of the show, whether accompanied by Brazilian drums or Dutch and Danish brass.

One prognostication was soon proved to be totally false. It was feared that France, having been allotted the lion8217;s share of the tickets, would compound the controversy by failing to attend matches in proportionate numbers. In fact most of the games have been watched by crowds as near to capacity as makes no difference.

It is a pity the English celebrations were so brief. Michael Owen set himself up to make the biggest teenaged impact on a World Cup since Pele, in 1958, whenhe gave England the lead with that wonderful goal against Argentina in St Etienne. In that moment Glenn Hoddle must have felt like a man who had won the pools, but by the end of the night he realised he had failed to post the coupon.

At least England went home with a proven caucus of talented youth in their squad. Not so the Germans, who have nothing like an Owen or a Paul Scholes coming along and were forced to recall Lothar Mattheus, who in 1994 had looked as if he was playing one World Cup too many.

The pundits will have spent many television hours analysing and discussing matches and performances but really all this tournament has done is confirm Hoddle8217;s belief that the game is continuing to speed up, and that to succeed at this level players need to possess the bodies of athletes while retaining the touches of craftsmen and the thought processes of chess masters.

In modern football the team ethic is all-enveloping. There is still room for the studious individuality of players such as the Laudrupsbut Carlos Valderrama and Roberto Baggio seemed to belong to another age. Ronaldo, built like a sprinter with brilliant reflexes, the whippet-like Owen and the swift sorcery of Nigeria8217;s Jay-Jay Okocha represented World Cups to come.

Pace, strength and stamina on the flanks, whether the players are called wingers or wing-backs, are now essential. Spain failed because they lacked these qualities and Holland faltered in the semi-finals when Marc Overmars was unfit.

It is hard to remember a World Cup where so many of the better performances have come from defenders or midfielders; Marcel Desailly, Laurent Blanc and Lilian Thuram of France, obviously, along with Igor Stimac and Slaven Bilic of Croatia, Romania8217;s Costel Galca, and Juan Veron of Argentina.

This World Cup has managed to hold the public8217;s interest because the host nation has reached the final and Brazil are never dull. Yet at times a 64-match, month-long tournament has appeared to be going on for ever.

Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA,feels there should be shorter intervals between games, apparently forgetting the exhaustion among the players which was largely responsible for the poverty of the final between Brazil and Italy in Pasadena four years ago.

The truth is the World Cup had already been bloated by expanding the number of finalists from 16 to 24. Adding a further eight risked acute indigestion but instead the tournament has been as bland as a barium meal. It is to be hoped that, once the final is over, nobody will be left asking: quot;What8217;s for desert?quot;