France Continues Ownership Of Brazil

Brazil has capped a tournament full of uninspiring play with more of the same, but this time, they weren't able to get away with it. A peaking-at-the-right-time French squad got a goal from Thierry Henry, slotting home a free kick from the man of the match, Zinedine Zidane. Zidane was brilliant all day long.

That gave them a 1-0 lead, and after that, the French defense held strong, which isn't something you get a chance to say every day. The Brazilians forced the action late, coming pretty close to getting the equalizer, but the fact that they couldn't find that sort of urgency at any previous point finally caught up with them. The defending champions are gone, and soon, all the random photographs of phenomenal Brazilian ass will be going with them.

So we've got an all-European Final Four, including France, Germany, Portugal and Italy. We'll start previewing the semifinals tomorrow, so if you've got any pithy (I learned a new word from David Stern) comments on either of the upcoming matches, send them to mjd@deadspin.com, and we'll see if we can't put together a reader-inspired preliminary preview tomorrow.

Brazil 0-1 France [BBC Sport]