Certain English commentators really know how to describe a game of football. Sometimes, it seems, the words that flow out of their mouths are so appropriate it’s impossible to think of whatever they just said being described in any other way. Richard Williams achieves this at certain points throughout his synopsis of yesterday’s semi-final showdown between Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo, who he describes as men with “faces that draw the eye” for different reasons. “Figo’s is that of a priest who has heard one confession too many,” he says, while Zidane’s entire head seems to have been carved out of a chunk of pink granite.” He makes another great description of the “pungent memory” of Abel Xavier, the now-retired Portuguese defender whose hand at the near post drew that fateful penalty against France at Euro 2000, one of the great tournaments for those who remember. Those memories flooded back before game time as “the Portuguese players came out into the near-empty stadium to sniff the air and made straight for a familiar figure (Xavier), his hair still dyed in imitation of an underdone creme brulee, who came down from his seat to greet them.” Not everyone will be satisfied with a pair of semi-finals that brought only three goals, certainly not soccer newbies, but a thoroughly fascinated Williams hailed the breadth of experience on display over two games: “Semi-finals are so often bland and unsatisfying affairs, but last night it seemed that this World Cup was using the best qualities of its last four contestants as the ingredients for two excellent football matches, worthy of the great players for whom they were providing such a memorable showcase.” And for those who love to watch the real beautiful game, there is nothing like watching the clash of old masters like Zidane and Figo, “the men who see space and time and angles where we see only confusion, who have the firmest grip on our imaginations and affections.”