CERRITOS, CA (smt) -- Zinedine ZIDANE slotted his PK attempt past POR GK RICARDO (who guessed right again!) to lead 2G-France (4-0-2) past 1D-Portugal (4-1-1), 1-0, and into their 2nd WC Final. FRA, which struggled to qualify out of Group play, beat its third straight Group winner. POR had the better of the play but continued its reputation of being whiners and divers (OK, everyone take a drink when a POR player dives - you'd be drunk pretty quick).

Both FRA and ITA have won all three Knockout matches without going to the PK shootout (PSO) whereas GER & POR won once in the PSO. So we get the scandal-laden Itallians vs the old French in Germany. With no need to dive, the GER-POR game should be a very entertaining and open-ended match.

GK? GK!: How does no one score off of FRA GK Fabien BARTHEZ???... his "don't touch me" save off of Christiano RONALDO's FK onto the head of Luis FIGO was hilarious!... he always seems to dive before the shot is taken so it's a wonder no one beats him up high... but he's a classic, though, a veteran from '98... POR's GK RICARDO, though, is a force to be reckon with... he's allowed just one goal all tourney long while guessing right on five of the six PKs he's faced (the sixth was shot over the crossbar), saving three... and I loved how RICARDO got into the action in the dying minutes to help his team (hello, Bruce Arena) even kicking a ball back into the box...

PK! PK?: I will say this- it was NOT a dive by Thierry HENRY (you can see while airborne he was clipped and so when he landed, he was off-balanced and fell) and thus, by the letter of the law, it's a PK... but should it be?... I know there are rare instances where there is a foul in the box but it doesn't result in a PK but an indirect free kick IN the box... I'd like to see that more often - unless it was a direct scoring chance, no PK but an indirect FK... ITA's PK v AUS would have been the same situation since Francesco TOTTI has kicked the ball too far foward before he was tripped up... was POR's Christiano RONALDO a PK a few minutes later? Nope, 100% dive....

PERFECT: FRA is 8 for 8 in PKs in WC play... FRA is 17-0-1 overall in WC play when leading at the half... POR is scoreless in the last 277 minutes...

DEFECT: POR coach Luiz Felipe Scolari lost for the first time in WC (11-1-1)... POR trailed for the first time this WC...

STOP THE LOVE: I thought Billy Packer's (CBS) love for Duke University was annoying during the NCAA March Madness, but JP Dellacamera's (ESPN) constant excitement every time ZIDANE touched the ball was sickening...

GEEZ: I don't know if I'm more surprised to see Kobe Bryant or Ethan Zohn from "Survivor: Africa" in the new Nike soccer commercial...

No changes in the standings except that ELASTIGIRL is counting her money and ESTEBAN Y ALEXI was the only person to pick FRA (and to win it all, nonetheless). Yet, he'll be out of the money... but he did move from 34th to 27th and can end in 11th if FRA wins it all.

Which brings us to... I could have finished in the money if (117 being the magic number)...

• 5th place JJ (113 pts) picked ARG instead of MEX in the Qtrfinals (QF)
• 6th place PELE (111) picked... actually, not a bad bracket... just bad luck
• 6th place RAM58 (111) picked... not too bad either... SUI over KOR in the R16 would give him 3 pts and still shy of money
• 8th place MR WONDERFUL FC (109) had picked BRA instead of USA into the QF and GER instead of SWE into the QF
• 8th place SWEET LOU (109) had picked FRA instead of KOR in the R16 and ITA instead of UKR into the Semifinals (SF)
• 10th place EEK (108) had picked ENG & ESP instead of CRC and KOR into the QF
• 20th place AS VAFFANCULA (who picked ITA to win it all and could finish 5th!) had just picked FRA instead of SUI into the QF
• 27th place ESTEBAN Y ALEXI (who picked FRA to win it all) had picked ITA over JPN and ESP over KOR into the QF

WC STATS: 62 matches (14 ties)... 141 goals (2.27 per game)... 27 Red Cards (4-TRI, 14-TOG, 15-UKR, 17-POL, 21-SCG, 22-ANG, 25-ITA, 25-USA(2), 26-CZE, 39-MEX, 38-SCG, 38-CIV, 41-CZE, 44-CRO(2), 44-AUS, 48-TUN, 49-SWE, 52-POR(2), 52-NED(2), 53-ITA, 55-GHA, 58-ARG, 59-ENG); team with advantage (14 goals for, 1 against (53-ITA))... 16 PKs (12/16) (15-ESP (G), 24-POR (G), 26-GHA (LP), 28-CRO (S), 31-ESP (G), 39-POR (G), 39-MEX(H), 38-CIV(G), 38-CIV(G), 42-GHA(G), 44-AUS(G), 48-UKR(G), 49-SWE(H), 53-ITA(G), 56-ESP(G), 62-FRA(G))... Scoring first: 40-8-7 (12-JPN, 14-TOG, 31-TUN, 34-CRC, 38-SCG, 43-JPN, 50-MEX, 56-ESP)... Shutouts: 45 (6 0:0 ties)... Leading at the half: 28-4-3 (12-JPN, 14-TOG, 31-TUN, 38-SCG)... Both teams scoring in the first half: 12 (1-GER-CRC 2:1, 7-MEX-IRN 1:1, 25-ITA-USA 1:1, 22-NED-CIV 2:1, 34-CRC-POL 1:1, 39-POR-MEX 2:1, 38-CIV-SCG 1:2, 42-GHA-USA 2:1, 43-JPN-BRA 1:1, 44-CRO-AUS 1:1, 50-ARG-MEX 1:1, 56-ESP-FRA 1:1)... Own goals: 3 (3-PAR, 25-ITA, 36-TRI)... ET/OT: 5 (50-ARG-MEX 1:0, 54-SUI-UKR 0:0, 59-GER-ARG 0:0, 60-ENG-POR 0:0, 61-GER-ITA 0:2)... PSO: 3 (54-SUI-UKR 0:3 [3+], 57-GER-ARG 4:2 [4], 59-ENG-POR 1:3 [4+])