France 1, Brasil 0.

Damn. Once again, France bested Brasil in the world cup stage. Once again, Zinedine Zidane shows what a quality player he really is. So all credit to France for they were clearly the better team on the day.

As for Brasil, their world cup campaign never really lived up to the team's real promise. With players like world footballer of the year Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Kaka, Robinho, Roberto Carlos, Dida and the list goes on... Brasil should have easily made it into the final.

But football is always a funny game. Things do not always go as promise. When Brasil did not quite dominate its opponents in the group matches, I thought that they were conserving their energy for the long haul. True enough, Brasil was able to up the gear when needed. But the flair and the coordination was not really there.

Ronaldinho has been strangely subdued throughout the campaign. Brasil's passes were frequently poor without proper attacking build up. And France punished them for it. Right on cue, Zidane shifted into top gear and displayed easily his best performance in the world cup to crucially beat the much fancied Brasilian team.

Funnily enough I am not surprised. Brasil deserved the exit. Of the many teams in the world cup 2006, Brasil grossly undelivered from match one. Congratulations to France. I shall be supporting them for their second World Cup glory.