A thing of beauty...

...is Zinedine Zidane. Against Brazil. There were snatches of genius in their first match against the Swiss, but little indication of the beauty that we got to see yesterday.

Even if my failing memory will not remember a large part of this World Cup, it'll surely recall Zizou's moves from yesterday - the controlled ball that he coolly lofted over a immobile Ronaldo and collected, the deft right foot to left foot flick-and-pass, the trademark turnaround dancing past a stunned opposition, the vision to see the match-winning pass that lesser mortals would have missed - all moves of unparallelled wizardry. If only he would play a couple of matches more like this one, my World Cup would be made.

And to think that after their first couple of matches, France was almost out of the World Cup... and they've risen from the ashes on the back of one man's effort. As Domenech said after the match yesterday, "He is Zidane. You seem surprised. I'm not surprised at all. I know exactly what he's capable of doing." Amen to that.