Portugal and France can write their own script 

PARIS -- Tournament finals are the last chapter of a narrative. Unlike league football, there really is no Brooklyn Dodger-esque "wait till next year" vibe. Next year isn't next year -- it's two years from now, and, given the nature of the international game, odds are that much of each team will be different, most likely with a new manager too.

It will not be hard, then, for the two coaches involved in Sunday's final -- Portugal's Fernando Santos and France's Didier Deschamps -- to find the right psychological hooks to make their teams match-ready. The tale is largely written. But there is a chance to determine the ending, and that's a luxury you rarely get -- in sports or in life.

Both can tell their players that, while they might not have been the best team in the tournament, the fact that they're here suggests they might be the hungriest and most tough-minded. Never mind to what degree it's true; focus instead on what it means.

If games finished in the 88th minute, neither of these teams would have won a single match in the group stage. Take France's 2-0 semifinal wins vs. Germany out of the mix and the highest-ranked sides these teams have actually beaten are Romania, 22nd in the world and 2-1 losers to France, and Wales, clocking in at No. 26 and beaten 2-0 by Portugal in the last four.

Or move to another, admittedly more subjective, vantage point and ask how long in this tournament has either side spent playing great football on the front foot.

At the risk of sounding harsh, for France you might highlight a half vs. Republic of Ireland and Iceland respectively and maybe the opening minutes against Germany. For Portugal, there were flashes in the group stage and against Wales.

It's not that the rest has been poor -- well, some of it has -- but rather that the success of both teams has been more about effort, grit, teamwork and difference-making individuals stepping up, mainly Renato Sanches and Cristiano Ronaldo for Portugal and Dimitri Payet and Antoine Griezmann for France.

Let's be clear: This in no way diminishes the achievement of either side. But Ronaldo's words after the Wales win -- rather than being a throwaway comment -- take on a greater significance: "It did not start as we wanted. But this is not a 100-meter sprint. It's a marathon."

Sports psychology types like to talk about "visualizing" success, and presumably managers do it too. It's safe to say neither Santos nor Deschamps visualized they'd get this far with their particular setup.

Or, in the case of Deschamps, several setups. The French manager has made tactical or personnel adjustments in every game, except for the Iceland match, where he was 4-0 up at half-time. Just four of his starters in the tournament opener against Romania -- Hugo Lloris, Bacary Sagna, Laurent Koscielny and Patrice Evra -- have retained their place throughout the tournament.

It's a similar story with Santos. Five of the 11 who started in the opener against Iceland likely won't be starting against France; Ronaldo, Nani and goalkeeper Rui Patricio are the only ones to have been named in the starting lineup for every match.

Would both managers have made so many changes if everything had been going swimmingly?

Would they heck.

Both have had the humility to place their trust in guys who were either on the fringes or not even professionals a year ago.

Payet was a 29-year-old who could not gain the trust of successive France managers. Indeed, before this tournament he had played 90 minutes just twice for Les Bleus. Sanches had played one minute of top-flight football before last November. It's fair to say that, without these players, neither side would be in the final.

Both teams have endured periods in which they dominated and created plenty of chances only for their finishers -- Olivier Giroud and Ronaldo -- to let them down. But both persevered and, while it was a bit of a no-brainer for Santos to stick with Ronaldo, the same can't be said for Deschamps: He did have other options, from Andre-Pierre Signac to Anthony Martial to Kingsley Coman.

Both have also had games in which they played poorly and an individual star went supernova to save them: usually Griezmann or Payet for France, Ronaldo or Sanches for Portugal.

Both have put in sterling defensive performances at different times, often led by unsung veterans: Pepe and Laurent Koscielny come to mind.

Both have stared disaster in the eye. In the round of 16, France went a goal down to Ireland and the Lyon crowd was getting restless, whereas Portugal fell behind three separate times to Hungary in the final round of group games and lived to tell the tale.

France don't just have home support; they are the more gifted side from top to bottom, blessed with a range of solutions, especially in attack. Historical precedent, if you buy into it, plays in their favour too: They won their past two tournaments on home soil -- Euro '84 and the 1998 World Cup.

They know they can play better--- much better -- than they did in the past three halves of football, and it's a natural pressure point for Deschamps to hit. (Though, to be fair, he probably ought to shoulder a fair part of the blame for any poor play against Germany as well.)

Portugal, meanwhile, have proved themselves to be furiously, maddeningly resilient. At 3-to-1, they have more Champions' League winners than the French, if that means anything. They too can kick it up a notch, though probably not as much as Deschamps' crew, unless Ronaldo is in Superman mode.

It's tempting to conclude this final will be a typically tight, grind-it-out game. France have all the pressure of the world on them and, given the way they're set up, they can afford to wait for a set piece or a Griezmann run on the break.

Portugal have looked best when they've outworked the opposition and defended as a unit. It's the formula that got them past Croatia and Poland and, on paper, there's little reason for them to deviate from the script.

And yet if there's one thing the semifinals reminded us, it's that goals can come at any time and in any circumstance. An early one at the Stade de France could radically change the blueprint, and there is enough individual talent on both sides for this to happen. So maybe an early gamble, from either side, might not be such a bad idea.

The book has been written, bar the ending. Odds are we won't see many of these guys -- from Evra to Sagna, from Pepe to Ronaldo -- in another major international tournament final. What you can be sure of is that every last one of those involved will want to make this count and leave nothing on the pitch. Just as they've done throughout this tournament.