Portugal is surprise of tourney

It will take on heavily-favored France in the other semifinal today.
MUNICH, Germany (AP) -- William Gallas has a theory on how Portugal became a surprise World Cup semifinalist, and it has more to do with acting than soccer.
"They like to dive, so it depends on the referee," the French defender said Tuesday, a day before Les Bleus meet Portugal for a berth in Sunday's World Cup final against Italy.
While Germany fixated on Die Nationalmannschaft's game up in Dortmund, France and Portugal worked out in an ultramodern stadium that resembles a white spaceship.
Back in December, Le Bleus were a 12-1 longshot to win the World Cup. Portugal was even farther back in the pack at 20-1, listed along the likes of the Czech Republic.
Brazil, Argentina, England and the Netherlands -- they're all out of here. When it comes to the final, part of the stadium will be in red, white and blue cheering "Vive la France!" or in green, red and yellow yelling "Viva Portugal!"
By the end of the night, they will be a big party on Paris' Champs-Elysees or Lisbon's Avenida da Liberdade.
"We never aimed to be world champion. We just concentrated on the next game," Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said Tuesday. "They're overcoming limits. When you do that, the limits fall away, and you can start dreaming."
Winless against France
France beat Portugal on penalty kicks in last year's World Cup -- OK, it was the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Brazil. As far as the real thing, Portugal is 0-7 against the French since a 2-0 exhibition win at Paris in 1975, including losses in the 1984 and 2000 European Championships.
When these teams last met in a match that counted, the 2000 Euro semifinals, it got ugly. France won 2-1 when Zinedine Zidane converted a penalty kick with three minutes left in sudden-death extra time. Portuguese players protested the call by Austrian referee Guenter Benko, who ruled Abel Xavier used his left hand to block Sylvain Wiltord's shot.
Xavier was suspended from international competition for six months, Nuno Gomes got a seven-month ban and Paulo Bento a five-month penalty.
"There's a huge rivalry between France and Portugal," Portuguese forward Helder Postiga said. "That 2000 game stuck in our throats. It was really frustrating."
France, coming off its first World Cup championship in 1998, went on to add the European title but then was bounced out of the 2002 World Cup in the first round without even scoring a goal. Portugal also was in a 2002 flop, losing to the United States and South Korea, but made it to the 2004 Euro final, which it hosted, before losing to Greece. The French were knocked out in the quarterfinals when the Greeks ended their 22-match unbeaten streak.
Sporting 19-game streak
Now Portugal has a 19-game unbeaten streak since a February 2005 loss to Ireland and has reached the World Cup semis for the first time since 1966. Scolari, coming off a penalty-kicks victory over England, is unbeaten in 12 straight World Cup matches. He led Brazil to the 2002 title and is trying to become the first person to coach two nations to world championship.
France, which opens the World Cup with a pair of ties, is unbeaten in eight games since an exhibition loss to Slovakia in March. But after opening the tournament with a pair of ties, the French were in danger of early elimination.
"We were criticized, but we knew what we wanted to do," Gallas said.
Zidane leads way
Zidane, a three-time world player of the year, is among six holdovers from the 1998 world champions, joined by Thierry Henry, Fabien Barthez, David Trezeguet, Patrick Vieira and Lilian Thuram. He set up the decisive goal in the second-round win over Spain, then scored himself, and set up Thierry Henry's goal in the 1-0 quarterfinal win over Brazil.
Now 34, he plans to retire from soccer after this week.
"I don't talk about veterans, but about players that still improve like a good French wine," FIFA president Sepp Blatter said. "France has left such an impression that its opponents should really worry."
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.