it's a mystical bond between man and machine

Monday, July 03, 2006 | 4:06 PM

England 0
Portugal 0 (Portugal win 3-1 on penalties after extra time)

for England: red card, penalties and defeat. the quarter-final match was full of incidents. first take: Rooney's red card. the striker never did anything wrong. if he was deemed to have pushed Cristiano Ronaldo, that only deserves a yellow card. he did not stamp on Carvalho deliberately. he was trying to hold off 2 players, and when Carvalho slipped, he accidentally stepped on him. the referee, seeing it differently, ruined the match. secondly, the behavior of Ronaldo. he had no business to tell the referee to send off Rooney. his immaturity shows in his playing. good dribbling, but crosses and shots poor. only thing is that he scored the winning penalty for Portugal in the penalty shoot-out. third, England's penalties. Carragher looked nervous, Lampard has shooting problems, while Gerrard hit it too straight. only Hargreaves found the net. the Portugese goalkeeper, Ricardo, was great. he saved 3 shots and even got a hand to Hargreaves' shot. also, Eriksson's tactics (obviously). playing Rooney as a lone striker in his 4-5-1 was a big mistake. he needed support, which didn't come. Lampard could've been disposed for Crouch, who hadn't let England down in the previous matches. Crouch showed excellent ball control. at least, Beckham's injury had Aaron Lennon in, who showed more purpose.

England's defenders were superb, but Eriksson never capitalised on that. the centre-backs, Ferdinand and Terry, shut out the Portugese time and time again. Ferdinand made a brilliant tackle on Valente in extra time. Terry kept Portugese strikers quiet throughout the game, and made spot-on tackles. England had chances, but more attacking options would have let to a favourable result.

despite the exit, England has found a new hero in Owen Hargreaves. to Portugal's players, it must have seemed like there were 3 or 4 of him, as he covered every area. the Man of the Match against Portugal was also the only English player to score in the penalty shoot-out.

Brazil 0
France 1

France's veterans showed grit and determination as they knocked out Brazil in the quarter finals. Zidane, Vieira, Makelele, Thuram and Sagnol played great. leading them was Zidane, who set up the lone goal, and provided exquisite touches, normally showed by Brazil. Parreira dismantled his Magic Quartet by taking out Adriano, only bringing him on later on. Parreira could not get anywhere near the best from Kaka or Ronaldinho. Ronaldo failed to deliver and dragged the team down along with him. in midfield, Gilberto Silva, Ze Roberto and Juninho were set too far back, allowing France's 5-man midfield to control the match. right-back Cafu, most probably played his last World Cup final match, kept on running, trying to find an equaliser, but his teammates never bothered. France's 4-man back of Gallas, Sagnol, Abidal and Thuram were so solid that goalkeeper Barthez was not even properly tested by the Brazilian forwards. once the French realised the Brazilian moves were uncoordinated, they began to impose themselves. and in the 57th minute, Zidane set up Henry for the winning goal. his free kick looped over the Brazilians, and an unmarked Henry fired home from close range. sadly, Brazil did not have enough quality to fight back from a goal down and beat the French.