48 hours: England and Beckham, unplugged, inglorious, as usual

Just typical. The most glaring hiccup of the 2006 World Cup quarter-finals would involve David Beckham.

Thanks to a dodgy microphone, Beckham could add another little chapter to his never-ending story.

By the end of the weekend though, the over-publicised England captain had led his team on an inglorious final bow in Gelsenkirchen, while one of the truly great players in history staged a recovery of breathtaking elegance in Frankfurt.

These two events were linked in a coincidental way.

Yesterday was Fifa's anti-racism day and it meant that the quarter-final captains faced an extra burden.

Not only did they have to lead a small child and carry a "friendship football" on to the pitch, but they were also required to carry a clipboard holding their speech against racism.

This is a haphazard way of getting the message to the world, as presumably you could only get the message if you happened to understand the language of a quarter-finalist. There's a good chance, for instance, that Saudi Arabian people will not get the full thrust out of a superstar's mouth.

This method of sorting out the world is even more haphazard if the microphone - which most cleverly looked like a small football on a stick - doesn't carry the message to the stadium audience.

And if anyone's microphone wasn't going to work, it was always going to be Beckham's. Trouble just follows that man around.

Never mind. This unplugged moment turned into another triumph for Fifa as Portugal's captain Luis Figo graciously loaned Beckham his microphone. What marvellous spirit.

Unfortunately, what was to follow tended to deflate the euphoric feeling of brotherhood, although it did still involve balls. Racism may have been taken care of prior to the match, but other evil forces were still alive and kicking.

Wayne Rooney, on whom a nation's hopes rested, allegedly stamped at Portuguese defender Ricardo Carvalho's groin area and was red-carded, leaving England to struggle to defeat without his underwhelming World Cup contribution.

Confusion took over at this point, with the match commentator claiming the red card was issued for Rooney manhandling his Manchester United teammate Cristiano Ronaldo, who was in turn trying to get Rooney carded by the referee.

Whether the sending-off was fair is debatable, but Rooney - once again in a young career - put himself at risk.

England have been a team unplugged from the outset.

Rated as the second favourites going into this tournament, they have been the outstanding disappointments in Germany.

While other major contenders along with outsiders such as Ghana have been fluid and skilful, England have only contrived to look the part without convincing anyone including some of their leading players, judging by their comments.

It is naturally tempting to blame manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, he of the fake sheikh deals and maker of many other tabloid headlines, for the bumbling fall.

Why the struggling, confidence-lacking Frank Lampard should be assigned the first kick of the penalty shoot-out against Portugal defied logic, for instance.

And in a tournament where wide attacking players have prospered, he gave the impressive and super-quick Aaron Lennon remarkably short playing time.

England were certainly disjointed, and their fans may no longer dig this particular Swede, but the problems surely go much deeper.

English players just aren't as comfortable on the ball as those from France, Italy, Portugal, even Germany, Brazil of course, and more.

The reasons offered for England's malaise in the finesse department range from the British weather, to an over-emphasis on the team sport as opposed to encouraging skills among young players.

Whatever the truth, which undoubtedly is a mixture of many things, the end result at a major tournament has been bitterly disappointing once again.

Much of England's hopes rested on Steven Gerrard commanding the midfield, but this area became a minefield for Eriksson's side.

Germany has the imperious Michael Ballack, whereas England's power game not only lacked central energy, but Gerrard and Lampard were incompatible.

Where to now for England, apart from hiding away from the tabloids?

The finest generation of English footballers for many years were outclassed in Germany and it was no surprise to see them lose yet another penalty shootout. Even here, the England players looked as uncomfortable as they did in the rest of their game.

Not so Zinedine Zidane of France. The greatest player of his generation, and one of the finest in history, made an international comeback last year when France were struggling.

He was, supposedly, only a shadow of his former self, although this is a condition that would still leave a fair few others in the shade.

As one of Sky's unnamed commentators told us yesterday morning, most can only dream of playing football the way Zidane does. Against Brazil, the ball was once again Zizou's best friend and a French side full of class began to flow. How appropriate, on Fifa's anti-racism day.

Zidane, the son of poor Algerian immigrants, has often felt the pain of racism, even having his commitment to France's football cause questioned in the mid-1990s because of his heritage.

After France won the 1998 World Cup, the hero-worshipping of Zidane was seen as a major strike against racism in his homeland. The reticent Zidane, a non-practising Muslim, was moved to say that it showed France "had changed and was changing". But even after that triumph, he was still hit by vicious racist reactions.

It is easy, maybe too easy, in the age of ruthless corporate image-making, to be cynical when the rich and famous start delivering orchestrated messages at major events - no matter how genuine Fifa may be in this case.

If Beckham and his fellow World Cup captains had to deliver any more messages of goodwill, they'd need shopping trolleys to get the gear for their pitch on to the playing pitch.

But the Zinedine Zidane story is real and another matter altogether.