Munich

This World Cup, which was expected to provide a festival of youth, has turned into a celebration of experience. While Kaka faded, Lionel Messi was deprived of his rightful chance and Wayne Rooney simply self-destructed, the old men grabbed the stage for a final parade of their talents.

Luiz Felipe Scolari says Portugal can be proud of its football team despite their agonising loss to France, as he goes about the difficult task of picking them up for a third-placed play-off match. He warned Italy they will have their work cut out against France in the final in Berlin on Sunday, while paying tribute to his players who matched Portugal’s best World Cup campaign.

Zinedine Zidane fired France into their second World Cup final appearance in eight years on Wednesday, scoring the only goal in a 1-0 semifinal victory over Portugal. The French captain shattered Portugal’s dreams of a first appearance in the final after coolly converting a hotly disputed penalty midway through the first half at the 62 000-seat Allianz Arena.

Another 2-0 deficit wasn’t enough to stop orange-clad Côte d’Ivoire from stomping away in its elephant dance. Taking advantage of two handballs by Milan Dudic, Côte d’Ivoire beat Serbia-Montenegro 3-2 on Wednesday night through Bonaventure Kalou’s penalty shot in the 86th minute.

Coming into the World Cup, Côte d’Ivoire was widely regarded as the most talented team coming out of Africa. Now Ghana is the lone African team with a chance to qualify for the second round of the tournament, and the vanquished Elephants of Côte d’Ivoire are pulling for them.

Defender Radhi Jaidi headed an injury time equaliser on Wednesday as Tunisia scrambled a 2-2 draw with Saudi Arabia, which left both teams waiting for an elusive World Cup win. After a defensive mix-up, forward Zied Jaziri put a high ball into the six-yard box which Jaidi nodded home.

Hours to go before the World Cup started on Friday, the streets of Munich were alive with exuberant fans singing, showing their colours and waiting for the whistle to blow as hosts Germany meet Costa Rica in the curtain-raiser. A giant screen set up by German public television station ZDF in Munich’s central Marienplatz counted down the seconds.

Teamgeist (team spirit) is the unusual name of the adidas match ball that will be used in the upcoming World Cup. For the ball colours, however, the designers stuck with traditional black and white — except for the final in Berlin. The teams fighting for the championship title on July 9 will be kicking a gold-and-white ball.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has acknowledged his team need to defend much better if they are to have any chance of overcoming Bayern Munich to reach the quarterfinals of the Champions League. Arsenal fell to a 3-1 defeat in the last 16 encounter in Munich on Tuesday as their brittle defence was torn apart by Bayern.