Posted: Tue July 7, 1998

MARSEILLE—I'm here for the second time in four days, so I can now speak with authority: Marseille is a dive. If the heat doesn't get you, the raw hamburgers will. (Believe me, they already have.) So there won't be much sadness on my part when when I leave here for good Tuesday night, though I'm looking forward to what should be a wonderful slugfest between Brazil and Holland. The Brazilians' defense has been horrible in this tournament, though in fact that has made them even more fun to watch, since they simply win anyway by scoring more and more goals.

As long as the Dutch fulfill their promise to play attacking soccer as well, we could be in for a classic. Dennis Bergkamp is as hot as any striker in the Cup, and I'm fully expecting Brazil's Ronaldo to explode for at least two goals tonight. (It doesn't help the defenses that Brazil's Cafu and Holland's Arthur Numan won't be playing because of yellow cards received in the quarterfinals, but if you're like me, who cares?)

Prediction: Brazil, 4-3

Afterward, I'll hop on a red-eye back to Paris, which means I may not get much sleep. No problem. I'll probably be able to catch some shut-eye during Wednesday's semifinal between France and Croatia. After scoring nine goals in the first round, France has reverted to its Euro 96 form and produced snoozer victories against Paraguay and Italy. France's problem is that its defense is as good (having allowed only a single penalty kick goal in five games) as its offense is bad. In fact, the French are so desperate to find someone who can score that they're looking to spastic striker Christophe Dugarry as their secret offensive weapon, which isn't a good sign for goal-seeking fans.

Cynical (but accurate) prediction: France 0-0, winning on penalty kicks