The good, the bad and the ugly we'll remember from France '98

By WENDELL STEAVENSON /LONDON

lready it's starting to blur: 32 teams, 704 players, 64 matches, more than 140 goals. Red cards, yellow cards. The French play in blue unless they play in white and the English play in white unless they play in red. Thank heavens the Dutch are easily identified in their unique orange--unless of course they're wearing blue. It's been difficult enough learning to separate the unrelated Italians Roberto Baggio and Dino Baggio, plus teammate Luigi Di Biagio. Even the Brazilians seemed concerned they might confuse Denmark's midfield brothers Michael and Brian Laudrup--and that was before they came up against the Netherland's de Boer twins. So for those of us still shaky from penalty shoot-out adrenaline overload, we replay some of the highs and lows of France '98.

BEST

TEAM: FIFA's official World Cup all-star selection is as follows: Goalkeepers: Chilavert (Paraguay), Barthez (France). Defenders: Thuram and Desailly (France) Roberto Carlos (Brazil), Frank de Boer (Netherlands), Gamarra (Paraguay). Midfield: Zidane (France), Davids (Netherlands), Michael Laudrup (Denmark), Rivaldo and Dunga (Brazil). Strikers: Bergkamp (Netherlands), Suker (Croatia), Ronaldo (Brazil) and Brian Laudrup (Denmark).

CAPTAINS: Two who kept their teams in the tournament were goalkeepers: Peter Schmeichel (Denmark) and Jose Luis Chilavert (Paraguay). Not content with leading his team, Chilavert also has grand political ambitions, frequently furnishing journalists with campaign quotes: "This is for the whole of South America," he said, "The economic and financial situation there is terrible, but people at least have football to take their minds off things."

GOAL: Dead heat. Both breathtakers were against Argentina. Dutch master Dennis Bergkamp exquisitely controlled a 60-m pass, and in three deft touches beat a defender and managed to chip his volley over the goalkeeper. England's Michael Owen, who is only 18, burst out of midfield with a speed dribble, danced on rubber legs past two defenders, then angled the ball hard and true.

TRICK: Mexico's Cuauhtemoc Blanco invented the "Blanco Bounce," which involves hopping over defenders' legs with the ball wedged between your feet.

FANS: The French welcomed Scotland's Tartan Army as ancient allies against the English. In kilts and silly hats, they downed 125,000 liters of beer after Scotland's 3-0 defeat by Morocco, and never stopped singing. The Norwegians chided them with the chant: "You only sing when you're winning," to which the plucky Scots chanted back: "You only sing when you're fishing." The Scots' good humor so impressed the Bordeaux chamber of commerce that it placed an advertisement in the Scotsman newspaper saying: "Thanks and see you soon...we are missing you already."

Special Mention: Japanese fans who amazed officials by staying behind after matches to pick up all their litter.

HAIR: Colombia's Carlos Valderrama has long dominated the category with his giant yellow frizzball but this year serious competition came from the bright green braids of Nigeria's Taribo West and the Romanian team, who all dyed their hair yellow to match their shirts after beating England 2-1.

MOST IRRELEVANT T-SHIRT: "I support two teams: New Zealand and whoever is playing Australia."

WORST

INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE: South Africa's Pierre Issa scored one own-goal against France, was intimately involved with another in the same match, then conceded two penalties to Saudi Arabia.

TEAM: The U.S. lost every match, including the politically charged game against Iran, managed to score only one goal, and let in four. Midfielder Tab Ramos admitted, "This whole World Cup has been a mess. I don't think we got the best out of the players here and overall I blame the coach." Coach Steve Sampson resigned.

MATCH: The Netherlands vs. Belgium. Billed as the tightest grudge match of the first round, the fixture flopped. It was freezing cold and poured with rain. The Belgians locked out the Dutch attack for the entire 90 minutes and only Dutch midfielder Kluivert getting sent off for hitting Belgian defender Staelens after he allegedly insulted him alleviated the boredom.

Special Mention: Bulgaria vs. Paraguay, a match in which nothing happened whatsoever.

DIVE: With officials trying to protect attackers by stopping tackles from behind, strikers were quick to take advantage, rolling about and clutching their shins in mock agony at the slightest provocation. One of the worst was Argentina's Ariel Ortega falling over Dutch defender Jaap Stam's leg in the penalty area. Incensed at being shown a yellow card instead of the penalty spot for his trouble, Ortega head-butted the Dutch goalkeeper and was sent off.

Special Mention: Croatia's Slaven Bilic fell over clutching his forehead after French midfielder Laurent Blanc pushed him lightly on the chin during the semifinal. This time the dramatics worked. Blanc was sent off and missed the final through suspension.

LOSER: Germany after going out 3-0 to Croatia. The game turned after defender Christian Worns was sent off when the score was 0-0. Defender Jurgen Kohler complained, "The sending off decision was ridiculous. Why is it always the Germans who get cheated?"

REFEREEING: The Denmark-South Africa match, in which three red cards were shown by the Colombian referee John Jairo Toro Rendon, all for--at worst--yellow card offenses.

Special Mention: Spanish referee Jose Maria Garcia Aranda for failing to spot Bergkamp stomping on Yugoslav midfielder Sinisa Mihaijlovic. Bergkamp, who scored minutes after the incident, said after the match: "Yugoslavia missed a penalty, my foul was not punished.We had a lot of luck."

FANS: The English were looking solid in their defense of this title until a group of Germans beat a French policeman into a coma. Some Croatians also qualify. After their defeat of Germany, excited fans in Mostar fired their guns into the Muslim quarter of the city, killing a 25-year-old woman.

NUMBERS

9000 Journalists accredited.

761 Journalists treated at one of the medical centers at the 10 stadiums.

700 Arrests.

77 The years the eternal flame at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier has been burning near the Arc de Triomphe.

1 Arrest of a Mexican fan for extinguishing the flame.

19 Percentage of American adults who watched a game on television.

2.67 Average goals scored per game.

34 Millions of dollars Ronaldo made last year.

4 Number of Brazilian World Cup team coaches.

37 Billions of accumulated world-wide television audience.