If ever a World Cup deserved a decent finale it is this one. After a month of generally pleasing football, full of false trails and cunning sub-plots with not everything quite what it seemed at the time, an anticlimax would be hard to swallow.
True, the ambitious standards of entertainment set by the opening group stage have only partly been maintained. Almost inevitably, once the contest reached the knockout phase, a number of games were beset by cards and caution. Yet there have been more outstanding encounters in this World Cup than there were in the 2002 tournament which produced memorable results rather than memorable matches.

The established order of things in the world game, moreover, has been restored to its axis. In Japan and South Korea only three former winners survived to the quarter-finals. This time there were six. In 2002 South Korea, Senegal and Turkey reached the last eight when France, Argentina and Italy were long gone. In Germany the old football empires have struck back.
For the vibrancy of the atmosphere, the friendly fervour of the fans and, not least, the heat in which many of the matches have been played the 2006 World Cup has born some resemblance to the 1994 tournament in the United States; England did not compete in that one either. Twelve years ago open, entertaining contests went hand-in-hand with controversy and drama, not least when Diego Maradona failed a drug test. Then as now the refereeing lurched from the competent to the downright awful, a Syrian doing his best to spoil a compelling quarter-final between Bulgaria, the surprise team that summer, and Mexico.
Yet, watchable as much of the football in America was, the best matches this time have been even better: Argentina's narrow victory over Mexico in the second round won by that marvellous shot from Maximiliano Rodríguez, Germany's typical late comeback against the Argentinians in a breathtaking quarter-final marred only by the handbags after the hosts had won on penalties, the French revival which saw off Brazil and of course Italy's stunning victory over the Germans in the semi-finals.
Much mention has been made over the years of the Italians' 4-3 defeat of West Germany in the Aztec Stadium in Mexico City which took them to the 1970 final, as if this is the standard by which all subsequent World Cup epics should be judged. In fact the excitement of that encounter was confined to extra time, when the teams traded five goals.
In Dortmund the drama lasted two hours, not 30 minutes. Before future World Cups Fifa should make it mandatory that all participants view DVDs of this masterpiece to remind themselves how great matches are compounded. The players will be reminded that the less they dive, argue, feign injuries and generally behave like clots the easier it will be to get on with the game. The referees will be reminded that controlling matches sympathetically and with common sense, as the Mexican Benito Archundia did with such distinction, is more likely to win the teams' cooperation than constantly giving them their cards.
In Munich the following night a Uruguayan, Jorge Larrionda, refereed the semi-final between France and Portugal with similar restraint though in more difficult circumstances. Five of France's starting line-up were on yellow cards including French football's answer to Gandalf, Zinédine Zidane, and the Portuguese were diving like herring gulls. Happily the referee was having none of it and while France have lost Louis Saha, booked after coming on as a substitute, for the final they can live with that.
Luiz Felipe Scolari was surely jesting when he insisted afterwards that, while he had no quarrel with the penalty from which Zidane won the match, Portugal should also have had one for a push by Willy Sagnol on Cristiano Ronaldo. For one thing Ronaldo was already in full flight before Sagnol touched him, and for another he could have been pinioned by two French defenders while a third applied chloroform and still no penalty would have been given.
Ronaldo's reputation for diving did him no favours on or off the pitch. He is a gifted young footballer who apart from the theatricals had a good World Cup but in Munich the crowd shrilled their disapproval every time he touched the ball. For some reason they seemed to think he was a bit of a winker.
As to tomorrow's final, well, it could be a classic but it might be wiser to settle for a close contest of counter-attacks and hope for an early goal - as long as it is not scored by Italy. And remembering the barren anticlimax in Pasadena in 1994, when the Italians lost to Brazil on penalties after two goalless hours, it would be as well if any parallels with the World Cup in America stop well short of Berlin.