France 98 World Cup soccer ends on a high note

After a full month of hectic competition, the World Cup climaxes today in a match which will answer the only question left: Who will be crowned the champion?

Defending champion Brazil and host France meet in today's final, with each looking poised to score a historic win.

France is on a quest for its first championship trophy in its first final ever, while Brazil is bidding to stamp its authority in the soccer world by winning its fifth title.

Regardless of the outcome of today's final, Brazil's record of becoming the only country to have triumphed four times will remain intact.

The dream final will end a two-year-long competition, counting the qualifying matches, and starts a new selection of soccer elite for the next tournament in four years to be held in Japan and South Korea.

Barring an unforeseen upset, the first World Cup circus held in the new millennium will greet the return of young talents who have shown their maturity beyond their ages during the passing tournament.

Bidding a farewell are the likes of the Laudrup brothers -- Michael and Brian -- along with Gheorghe Hagi, Dunga and Juergen Klinsmann. But France 98 has a lot of young guns who fit the future need of filling the shoes of such veterans.

When the next World Cup commences, England's Michael Owen, Italy's Alessandro del Piero, Holland's Patrick Kluivert, Brazil's Ronaldo, Norway's Tore Andre Flo, Chile's Marcelo Salas, Argentina's Ariel Ortega, Japan's Hidetoshi Nakata and other new findings will be in their golden age and matured enough to bring the sport closer to its ideal.

This year's World Cup has also served as a big market for giant European clubs now that they are bracing for the new season in August.

Except for Salas, who was already acquired by Lazio long before the World Cup, most of the cream of international soccer are certain to play in Europe thanks to their impressive performance during the tournament.

In less than 24 hours, the multi-million dollar sports festivity will conclude on a high note. To some extent, France 98 has seen a narrowing of the gap in the playing standards of participating teams with the fact that each of them has an almost equal chance of winning. (amd)