Jean Varraud would have been happy with Zinedine Zidane’s performance on Tuesday night. Zidane became the latest player in this World Cup to confound the critics, with a subtle performance against Spain, capped by a quality goal at the end to seal France’s berth in the quarter-finals. The performance came two days after the death of Varraud, a talent scout for Cannes. In 1987 he spotted Zidane, then 15, playing for a Marseilles club. He telephoned Cannes coach Jean Fernandez and said, “Jean, I’ve just found you a genius.”The harder part was convincing Zidane to leave his roots, but Varraud persisted and Zidane eventually took the first steps in a glittering career. He is now taking his last steps and is showing glimpses of the class that made him peerless around the turn of the century.The goal was classic Zidane as he combined a sudden burst of speed with a Cruyff-esque twist - made much sweeter by the fact that he wrong-footed Carles Puyol, his opposite number and great rival from Barcelona - before slotting the ball home past his Real colleague Casillas.Zidane’s influence on French football has been waning because of his own advancing years. He retired from international football once before, to emerge from it when it was clear France still needed his help. His performance in Germany had been patchy - and he missed France’s third match against Togo - but yesterday the systems were back in order.There was, at the end, even a handshake for France coach Raymond Domenech, with whom he has been sparring over team tactics. France has been a house divided, with Thierry Henry also attacking Franck Ribery, but on Tuesday the rainbow colours were flowing.And Zidane was, once again, the man with the paintbrush and the palette.Number crunchingThere was something unique about Brazil’s line-up yesterday, I don’t know if you noticed it: When was the last time you saw any match where the players wore jersey numbers 1-11? Brazil did just that yesterday, reviving the old logical system of shirt numbers, if only by accident rather than design. There were some anomalies: No. 7, for example, belongs to the playmaker, which Adriano definitely isn’t; and Roberto Carlos (6) and Lucio (3) seemed to have swapped shirts. Ghana went a few steps further, with No 3 Gyan playing as a winger and No. 7 Illiasu as a defender.Once, it was easy for coaches and players to figure out their opponents tactics by referring to shirt numbers. It was the Hungarians who first defied that logic in their Mighty Magyar team of the early 1950s; their No. 9, Nandor Hidegkuti, was played as a deep-lying centre-forward. That was one key reason for the historic 6-3 defeat of England at Wembley in 1953.What’s in a name?From history to humour: The email doing the rounds is about the Bengalis at the World Cup. Not in the media contingent (though I’m sure we can form a playing XI with coach as well) but out there among the teams. Saha, Kaka and Dida are the famous ones, of course, and the email lists various others from all over (including the unfortunately named Boka of Ivory Coast). To that list are my humble contributions: Doi from Japan, a land more famous for tofu than yoghurt, and, representing Karnataka, Stephen Appiah. Yes, when it comes to football you just can’t keep the Bengalis away.
