The last time we saw an all-European final four at the World Cup was a generation ago.
Three of those countries vying for the title 24 years ago -- Italy, Germany and France -- are back for more, with Portugal taking the place of Poland in this competition.
That was when a Paolo Rossi-led Italian team overcame a gritty German side in the final in Madrid.
Tuesday, those two teams meet for the right to advance to Sunday's championship match at Olympic Stadium in this city.
The winner will take on the survivor of Wednesday's France-Portugal confrontation.
Germany vs. Italy, Dortmund, Tuesday, 3 p.m. ET
Whether it was pre-planned assuming Germany was going to run the table or just plain luck, the hosts take on their nemesis in a stadium where they don't know how to lose.
The Germans have never lost at Westfalenstadion. They are an incredible 13-0-1 there, dating back to their first game in 1935. Their lone blemish was a 1-1 tie with Wales in 1977. The U.S. received a dose of what the "Wall" was all about on March 21, when Germany embarrassed Bruce Arena's team 4-1 in an international friendly.
The stadium is known as the "Wall" as some 25,000 screaming fans in the Borussia Dortmund section stand and root for their team. It's the largest standing room section in Europe.
"It's hard to give any fundamental explanation for such a long unbeaten streak in Dortmund," said Germany defender Christoph Metzelder, who plays for Dortmund in the German Bundesliga. "It's one of the biggest stadiums in Germany ... Dortmund is a football-crazy town. The people live and breathe football."
The Germans will need all the help they can muster because they suffered a major blow Tuesday when midfielder Torsten Frings was suspended for the match for throwing a punch at Argentine forward Julio Ricardo Cruz after the quarterfinal win against Portugal. Frings, who has been one of Germany's unsung heroes because of his workrate, probably will be replaced by Tim Borowski or Sebastian Kehl, who is better known for his defense. Frings, incidentally, blocked a shot on the goal line with his hand in Germany's 1-0 quarterfinal win over the U.S. in the 2002 World Cup, but was not penalized for that infraction.
Italy will be without a key player as well as central defender Alessandro Nesta was ruled out of the match with a groin injury. Marco Materazzi, returning from a red-card suspension against Australia, is the likely choice to replace Nesta.
In that 1982 final, the Italians rode the timely goal-scoring of ultimate comeback kid, Rossi, just back from a two-year suspension for match-fixing, en route to a 3-1 victory against Germany.
Since then the three-time champion Germans have gone to two finals, losing in 1986 and winning it all under coach Franz Beckenbauer and striker Juergen Klinsmann in 1990 in Italy. Now Beckenbauer is head of the World Cup Organizing Committee and Klinsmann is directing Germany's fortunes.
A quarter century later, the Italians are thriving in the midst of another match-rigging scandal.
The Italians hope to have psychological edge, thanks to their 4-1 rout of the Germans in Florence on March 1. The Germans claim they were a different team then.
"It will be a completely different game," said Italy defender Gianluca Zambrotta, the star of the 3-0 quarterfinal win against Ukraine. "That was a friendly played in the middle of the league season. Now everyone's focusing only on the World Cup."
France vs. Portugal, Munich, Wednesday, 3 p.m. ET
A pair of aging playmaking midfielders -- France's Zinedine Zidane and Portugal's Luis Figo -- once again will try to recapture some glory one last time.
Zidane, 34, has caught fire the past two matches, as free kicks in victories over favored sides -- Spain (round of 16) and defending champion Brazil (quarterfinals) turned out to be the game-winner. Thierry Henry's deciding score against the Brazilians was the first assist by Zidane in Henry's 36 international goals.
"This was probably his best performance in the last eight years," Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira said. "He showed a lot of personality and creativity."
Added Henry: "Zizou played so well. He drove us on."
Defender Lilian Thuram, another 34-year-old who came out of retirement to help France qualify, has a deja vu feeling going back to 1998, when the French captured its one and only World Cup crown.
"Since the start of the tournament we are a bit in the same state of mind," he said. "Back then it was very difficult to score a goal against France. It's the same here. It's very difficult to destabilize us."
Figo, 33, probably will take a backseat since Deco returns from a red-card suspension. But he showed he has still has some magic left in his feet, even though he has lost a lot of his pace, leading the attack in the quarterfinal shootout against England.
The Portuguese are considered the outsiders. They have never reached the final, their third-place finish in 1966 being their best showing.
"It's a special moment for us and for all the Portuguese, and we don't want to disappoint neither the people nor ourselves," defender Miguel told the Associated Press. "From the teams that are left, we always were the least favorites in the eyes of the media and fans in general."
Portugal's Brazilian coach Felipe Luiz Scolari, who boasts a remarkable 12-match unbeaten World Cup streak (11-0-1), is vying to become the first coach to guide two countries to world titles. He led Brazil to the crown four years ago.
Scolari also is only the fourth foreign coach to guide a team into the semifinals, joining England's George Raynor (Sweden, second place in 1958), countryman Otto Gloria (Portugal, third place in 1966) and the Netherlands' Guus Hiddink (Korea, fourth place in 2002) as the only men to pull off a rare accomplishment.
Michael Lewis writes about soccer for the New York Daily News and is editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He can be reached at SoccerWriter516@aol.com. Views and opinions expressed in this column are the author's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com.
