By George Vecsey
The New York Times
MUNICH - He is younger than he used to be. He has lost that brooding, tired look of four years ago or even of two weeks ago. The final days of his career are agreeing with Zinédine Zidane, giving him a purpose.
The television caught him bounding out of the runway for the second half of France's World Cup semifinal match with Portugal yesterday, clear-eyed and eager to play another 45 minutes in the heat and tension. The French national federation could market a film of Zidane's enthusiasm to show players young and old: This is how an athlete goes to work.
Contrast this to the weary man who reported for duty in the 2002 World Cup in South Korea. He barely mustered the energy to hobble off the team bus, pulling a muscle early in a friendly match, a symptom of the age of the defending champions, who went out in the minimum of three games.
Now Zidane is conducting a seminar on how to go out on top. At the age of 34, he is the coolest man on the planet. Yesterday he delivered a textbook example of a penalty kick that, come to think of it, the French national federation could sell to England and Switzerland and other penalty-kick-challenged nations:
Head down. No visible emotion. No elbows flapping. No knees knocking. Deliberate but not timid-looking. Just whack the ball into a corner.
In this case, the corner to Zidane's left, giving France a 1-0 lead over Portugal in the 33rd minute, which it held right through the end. Now it will be Italy against France, two nations that have been there before, on Sunday in Berlin.
Portugal was nowhere near as good or artistic as it might have been, what with skill players like Deco and Costinha back from suspensions. There was reason to think this could be Portugal's first time in the finals. But Portugal's aging Luís Figo, who at 33 is five months younger than Zidane, ran out of ideas and gas before Zidane, his old Real Madrid teammate, ever could.
After all the prematch jockeying about which team dived the most, the referee, Jorge Larrionda of Uruguay, mostly waved off the blatant dives, sometimes with a glare, sometimes just by turning his back on the posturing.
Not that the lads didn't try. When Figo went down in the vicinity of Patrick Vieira, France Coach Raymond Domenech shook his head in exasperation.
Whoever said there are no hands in soccer? When Cristiano Ronaldo performed a flop in the 29th minute, Domenech made an elaborate diving motion with both hands.
Still, it was a quivering body hitting the ground that led to the French goal. Thierry Henry and Portugal's Ricardo Carvalho were jostling just inside the 18-yard box when Carvalho's left foot whacked Henry's right ankle. Needless to say, Henry went down hard, as Carvalho disgustedly wagged his index finger. But that was Thierry Henry down, and Larrionda, the referee who handed out three red cards in the United States-Italy first-round match, called the penalty, giving France a shot from 12 yards out.
Zidane took it. There was never any doubt.
When a player is fouled in the penalty area, the real question is why he was loose near the ball in the first place. The answer in this case was that France's defense and its deliberate ball control made Henry's dramatic moment possible.
As France protected its lead, Zidane was the ringmaster of this fast-moving circus, sometimes waving his hand and calling for the ball, other times materializing in the flow, occasionally even rushing back on defense to harass Portugal's offense. After watching Zidane plod through his final days with Real Madrid last season, it was hard to believe this wraith.
He and Figo were once expensive members of the Galacticos, the overpriced, over-age stars that Real Madrid continues to collect. Together they helped win the Champions League in 2002, but then the pair, each a former World Footballer of the Year, retired from international play.
Figo was persuaded to return by the national coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari, while Zidane was persuaded to come back — either by a spirit or by his very living brother; he has told the tale both ways.
The two old Galacticos sometimes collided like wayward meteorites yesterday, casting glances at each other. Figo had the hair; Zidane, who has shaved his head to hide the extent of his hair loss, had the 1998 World Cup and the 2000 Euro titles. Once France took the lead, the two ancients seemed to play in parallel universes.
The extra factor was the French goalkeeper, Fabien Barthez, who was wobbly in 1998, wobbly for Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United and wobbly again yesterday, juggling balls and deflecting one rocket with a two-handed volleyball return to set up Figo's header high above the crossbar.
The rest of the match consisted of Zidane collecting the ball and distributing it, with stutter steps and back heel passes and deft no-look flicks. When it was over, the old Galacticos sought each other out on the field, first exchanging their captains' arm bands, then exchanging jerseys, after first embracing, bare sweaty chest to bare sweaty chest.
There has been a drop-off in the disgusting ritual of players putting on the sweaty jerseys of their opponents. This time, in a show of respect, Zidane pulled on Figo's maroon jersey before going to the sideline to salute the French fans. They would recognize Zidane even in Figo's jersey. He was the 34-year-old with exactly one more soccer match in his career, but still able to run with the young ones. It's the best way to go out of the World Cup.
