France in the World Cup Final? Incroyable!

France has made it to the 2006 World Cup final.

In the wake of France's unimpressive first group match three-and-a-half weeks ago, anyone making the above statement would have seemed delusional at best. Well, the crazies were right: this Sunday, les Bleus meet the Azzurri in Berlin.

After the France's draw against South Korea, I wrote on this blog that I was happy to have seen what was very possibly Zinedine Zidane's final game. I never thought we'd be watching arguably (is it even arguable?) the greatest player of his generation going for his second trophy in three tournaments. And that's precisely why the World Cup is the greatest of all sports tournaments: It's long enough to allow teams to develop, improve, and establish momentum that — for the great sides — can be nearly unstoppable. We've all seen that with France, Italy, and Germany in this tournament. And with some Zizou magic, France's momentum will be unstoppable on Sunday.

Allez les Bleus!