THIS may have been the most talked-about World Cup in history, but in terms of exciting football it has been far from the best.

For me, neither of the semi-finals was a great match, as all four teams were too preoccupied with getting a lot of men behind the ball to protect their goal.

The Italians are old hands at that sort of football and they did exactly what they had to do to beat Germany. You know you will get few chances to score when you're playing Italy and from the time the Germans missed a couple of good early opportunities, they were doomed.

You have to give Italy credit. They've gone 20-plus matches unbeaten and that is a tough thing to do in international football.

And they're not all about defending ? they do have some skilful players. Their second goal in the last minute of extra time was pure class, with the reverse pass to Alessandro Del Piero and his superb finish. Del Piero has suffered so much disappointment in past World Cups, so I'm glad for him.

France's 1-0 win against Portugal was no classic either. It was a case of two teams playing the same cautious system and cancelling each other out.

The problem is that there is too much emphasis on tactics these days. Coaches are not letting players go out and play. If two teams go out there with one striker and five players across the midfield, you know nobody's going to be giving much away and it will be a defensive game. We've seen too much of that in this World Cup and very few teams coming to play open football.

The game was not so stifled by tactics and systems in my playing days. Ron Greenwood, the late former manager of West Ham United, used to tell us: "You are the ones out there playing, so you have got to be able to think for yourself on the field." He didn't bother with blackboards.

What we've seen happening so much in this World Cup is that coaches have been doing the thinking for players. The players have been reduced to just going out and following instructions rather than using their own flair and imagination on the field.

That's why this has not been the tournament I had hoped for. I wanted to see more goals, more attacking and more individual skill on display.

Coaches have made some strange decisions at times. Why Argentina's Jose Pekerman did not use substitute Lionel Messi in the game against Germany, I'll never know. He had one of the cleverest and most dangerous players in the world on the bench and he decided to leave him sitting there.

It would be difficult to pick a player of the tournament, although Zinedine Zidane has a pretty good case. Many people had written him off and in the first round games, he was struggling a bit. But now he's picked it up a notch and his last two games have been sensational. Some of his footwork has been devastating, unbelievable.

Brazil's exit from the tournament in the quarter-finals was a disappointment to many in Bermuda, but the fact is that, apart from a few flashes of brilliance, they never played well and did not deserve to advance farther.

Meanwhile England paid a heavy price for a moment of madness from their young star, Wayne Rooney. His red card for stamping on a Portuguese player's groin was deserved. If he tells me that was an accident, he's lying. He's very lucky he didn't cause that guy some serious damage.

I think that had a big influence on the game, because Rooney is one of those players who can break the deadlock with a piece of brilliance in the space of a few seconds. It's hard to name many players like that in world football ? Messi, Henry and Robben come to mind.

Somebody has got to sit down with Rooney and let him know he can't do things like that. He is so important to the team that he's got to stay out there on the field. He can't carry on being "Loony Rooney".

What was also unacceptable about that incident was the behaviour of Rooney's Manchester United team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo, who ran over to the referee to urge him to dismiss his club mate. I don't believe that what Ronaldo did made any difference. And he wasn't thinking that this was a guy he played with, he was thinking about helping his team win the match, because he knows all too well what Rooney is capable of. But it was poor conduct, all the same.

As for the final, I believe that whoever scores the first goal will win. Both sides have great individual players, and if anything, Italy have a slight edge.

I know that France have five players aged 32 and above, but I don't think fatigue will come into it. This is a World Cup final and everyone will be giving it their all.

Here's hoping for a great match.