THE BATTLE FOR THIRD

Germany and Portugal will try and salvage some pride when they meet in Saturday's third-place match at the World Cup.

Often maligned and undervalued, the World Cup's bronze-medal contest has traditionally been treated as an anticlimactic afterthought by most teams, but FIFA, soccer's world governing body, maintains the game is an integral part of the tournament.

"There's still a high value in that match," FIFA communications director Markus Siegler told a news conference Wednesday.

The usual criticism of the match is that the teams are uninterested in playing after losing semifinals and rarely perform at peak level.

"If you speak to players, for them it still matters whether they finish third or fourth," Siegler said. "This particular case, in which we have the German team involved, I'm pretty sure this will be another great match.

"There's still prestige, it's still about the team knowing 'we finished third on the field of play."'

That hasn't always been the case, however.

FIFA organizers didn't even see the need to stage a bronze-medal game at the inaugural 1930 tournament in Uruguay. The first bronze-medal game was played at the 1934 World Cup in Italy. Ernest Lehner scored a mere 24 seconds into the contest to lead Germany to a 3-2 victory over Austria in Naples.

The most famous contest took place in 1958 in Sweden. Just Fontaine saved his best performance for last, scoring four goals in France's 6-3 win over West Germany to bring his tournament total to 13, a World Cup record that still stands today.

Turkey and South Korea met in the 2002 third-place game, an exciting affair that saw the Turks beat the hosts 3-2. Both nations had plenty of reasons to be proud: South Korea became the first Asian country to reach the semifinals at a World Cup, while Turkey, playing in its first World Cup in 48 years, proved it was an emerging European soccer power.

History was also made in the 2002 game: Hakan Sukur's goal for Turkey came just 11 seconds after the opening kickoff, the fastest goal ever scored at the World Cup.

In 1990, Italy and England, both eliminated in heart-breaking penalty shootouts in the semifinals, engaged in a thrilling match. The prospect of finishing third clearly meant something to both teams, as they battled in a back-and-forth affair that the Italians won on a late goal by Salvatore Schillaci.

Of course, there have been more than a few stinkers - most notably Poland's 3-2 win over France in 1982 when the French fielded its 'B' team - but the third-place game has also provided great drama - Croatia's 2-1 win over the Netherlands in 1998 that capped off a fantastic tournament for the World Cup debutantes.

Having distinguished themselves with some stellar performances at the 2006 World Cup, you can expect Germany and Portugal to treat the third-place game with the proper respect when they meet Saturday in Stuttgart.