"Is France any good? I watched their group games and they did badly. I watched a few minutes of this game and they're doing really well. :( Oh, well. All the bettter for Germany if France wins."
It's not only about being "good", the majority of the teams in the world cup are very "good" (well, except for the obvious Saudi Arabia, Tunisia etc.). It's also about psychology, about how well you can adapt to your opponent's style.
Look at Italy: They are in the semifinals, but didn't manage more than a draw against the US.
What distinguishes the great teams from the merely good (i.e. the rest of the teams in the world cup), is they way they e.g. handle the pressure of being one goal behind or a man down. Some teams grow under pressure, others fall apart.
Now we'll see if Brazil is merely very good this World Cup or if they are indeed great.
It takes a few games for a team to gel in the World Cup, usually Italy and France are less than impressive in the Group stage, but all they care about is getting out alive. After three games, those teams are peaking.
Zidane definately has an extra spring in his step in the knockout stage.
Zidane is a futbol god!
Sorry. What I meant was whether France was expected to actually do a really good game or whether they were expected to be easily outmatched.
I was wondering whether it'd be like U.S.-Italy or U.S.-Germany. In one, we'd have a decent chance. In the other we would have a really small chance.