Naturally enough, when analysing the progress of France to the World Cup Final against Italy, Zinedine Zidane has been the player in the spotlight. But Thierry Henry’s contribution to the defeats of Spain, Brazil and Portugal has been highly significant, with goals in the first two and the penalty award that settled the semi.

I wonder if people will ever again trot out the myth that Henry hides on the biggest matches. As well as the World Cup campaign of 1998, when he would have played in every match but for Marcel Desailly’s red card in the final, he was key to the Euro 2000 victory as a guaranteed starter in every one of the six matches. There’s a strange symmetry between that tournament and this, with France beating Spain and Portugal in knockout matches to meet Italy in the final (after the elimination of the hosts in the semi final by the Italians both times).

Another interesting aspect of France’s progress has been Henry’s chance to even the score with opponents that played for Barcelona in Paris on May 17th. So Spain’s Puyol, Brazil’s Ronaldinho and Portugal’s Deco have each suffered in turn as France’s number 12 wreaks havoc in the name of revenge. Shame there are no Barca players amongst Italy’s contingent.

The bottom line though is that Henry’s contribution to the French campaign has been absolutely key, and he has come good when it has mattered. There has never been any question of the player under-performing, and please don’t tell me a World Cup semi final isn’t a big game.

At least the player is now guaranteed the one thing he was denied in 1998 by appearing in the final itself. I hope the Italians don’t revert to type as their football has been at its best when they have played a more expansive game, as they did against Ghana in the group stage and Germany in the semi. I am hoping for a French win through a mix of loyalty to Henry and appreciation of Zidane’s excellent play in the knockout games of these finals. But if Italy play as I would like them to, I would not begrudge them their win. Shevchenko may turn out to be a huge buy for Chelsea, but Pirlo is the player who I have always thought the heartbeat of the current Milan side, and his display against Germany was top notch.

There are mixed feelings about how good these finals have been, but for me they have overall been very entertaining. Having said that, people are already talking about the Germany v Italy semi as one of the greatest ever World Cup matches. There I beg to differ. Extra time was fantastic if only because Italy did not want penalties and so opened up the game. But there wasn’t a hell of a lot of drama in normal time. So much so that when a video tape I was recording the match on ran out at the end of normal time, I didn’t put in another tape to do the additional 30 minutes. I won’t want to watch this again, I thought. So don’t put it down as such a classic.

The ending was fantastic though, with the right team going through and Jens blameless for either goal. One of the newspapers mentioned a moment of Lehmann nastiness after the second goal was scored, although I didn’t see what they were talking about. Germany did terrifically well given the limitations of their squad, an example to England (who had a much better roster of players and a far more experienced manager), but I really didn’t fancy the prospect of watching them in the final in Berlin, possibly because I had money on Italy to make it there! Well I never claimed to be objective!

Some good news (although I doubt it will happen) is that Patrick Vieira has been mooted to appear in Dennis Bergkamp’s testimonial on July 22nd. With France having reached the final, both he and Thierry Henry will be on a beach somewhere come Saturday fortnight. On one level it’s a shame, but I’d much rather see the pair playing in Berlin on Sunday than Ashburton Grove less than fortnight later. It will be very interesting to see where PV4 ends up assuming Juve are indeed demoted to Serie C. Please let it not be Old Trafford!

Let’s just hope that the French player who is at Arsenal gets a much deserved winners’ medal on Sunday, rests up well and does not suffer fatigue in 2006-07 as a result of his exertions in Germany. I suspect that Henry will be rested for a fair few matches over the course of a season, so lets us also hope that the team start chipping in with some more goals to relieve the burden of the captain.