BERLIN — Italy won its fourth world championship — following victories in 1934, 1938, and 1982 — when it beat France 5–3 in a penalty kick shoot out yesterday, after the two teams had finished the overtime game locked at 1–1.

For Italians the world over, the joy will be unconstrained, but for the rest of us — particularly those who had hoped to see a final full of splendid soccer — the reaction will be much less ecstatic.

For 20 minutes it seemed we were going to get that worthy final, it seemed that both teams were going for all-out attack. Within five minutes, France was in front. Florent Malouda burst into the Italian penalty area, where he was knocked down by a clumsy foul from Marco Materazzi. Argentine referee Horacio Elizondo at once called a penalty kick,and we got a moment of something else we had been wanting from this final: the artistry of Zinedine Zidane.

The man they call Zizou chipped the ball softly into the goal, where it hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced down inside the goal as Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon flung himself energetically in the wrong direction.

The soccer was full of pace and daring at this point, from both sides, and more goals were surely on the way. The second score came in the 19th minute, a classic corner-kick goal, as Materazzi redeemed himself for his penalty error by leaping to meet Andrea Pirlo’s corner and powering an unstoppable header past Fabian Barthez in the French goal.

The illusion of an imminent goal-fest lasted for about half an hour. In the 35th minute, on another Italian corner kick from Pirlo, Luca Toni rattled the crossbar with a header. After that the hard reality of defensive soccer took a hold on the game. Soon enough, we were getting not the final we had hoped for, but the one we feared: two cautious teams scrapping away in midfield and snubbing out the rare occasions when an opponent got near enough to goal to take a shot.

It has been the story, not only of France and Italy, but of most of this World Cup: sterling defensive play, anemic offensive power. France, unquestionably, was the better side at this stage, gaining control of most of the loose balls, moving forward with precise passing movements, but not really worrying the Italian defense too much. Even when Thierry Henry managed to wriggle his way past his markers, his attempts to shoot or pass to teammates were quickly canceled by terrier-like tackling from Italian defenders. Among them, as he has all tournament long, Fabio Cannavaro played with superb physical and tactical skill.

The game was 1–1 at half time, it was 1–1 at full time, and it was 1–1 after 30 minutes of overtime. By now the defensive shutters were down at both ends of the field, and neither team looked like scoring. There was bad news for France after 56 minutes when Patrick Vieira limped off with hamstring injury; but his absence was barely noticed, for the game had by then congealed into a series of sterile midfield battles that left little room for creativity or style.

At the end of the first overtime period, France had its best chance when a rightwing cross from Willy Sagnol fell to Zidane. Zidane did everything right: he timed his balletic leap perfectly, swung his body into the ball, and rocketed a header towards goal. But Buffon can leap too, and his jump to turn Zidane’s’s header over the bar kept Italy in the game.

But in the second overtime period, there was drama to be seen, extraordinary drama. The veteran Zizou, playing his last-ever professional game of soccer, the game that could see him crowned as a world champion, exploded with a moment of madness that ensured there would be no happy ending for him.

After tangling with Materazzi, he seemed to walk away, but then turned fatally back and used his head to violently butt the big Italian defender in the chest. The assault was away from the action, and Elizondo did not see it. But he consulted his assistant, who had seen everything, and Elizondo waved the red card at Zizou. A totally correct decision that Zidane did not protest. He walked off the field, and as he headed down the players’ exit, he passed — without giving it a glance — the World Cup trophy itself, displayed on a table.

But the absence of Zizou and the fact that France were now reduced to 10 men made little difference to the melancholy path of the game. It died after 120 minutes of strenuous, but largely futile, effort.

It had been neither particularly exciting nor even mildly entertaining to watch. Its inevitable denouement was a penalty-kick shoot out — a gimmick that no one thinks is the right way to finish any game, never mind a world championship, but which lives on because a suitable alternative cannot be agreed upon.

This was a moment of truth for Italy, which had exited the last three World Cups after losing shoot-outs. It doesn’t take long to decide a game on penalty kicks — a mere six minutes was all that was needed here for Italy to score with all five of its kicks, while France’s David Trezeguet hit the bar with his effort and saw the ball bounce down outside the goal.

So the Italians, thanks to Trezeguet’s error, are the world champions. Was Italy the best team in Germany? I think not. But tournaments reward only those teams that win, not those that play well. Italy has long been regarded as a team that excels in tournament play, and it did so again here, surviving crises, scoring at just the moment when it had to, giving nothing away, playing with tremendous team spirit.

Did Italy deserve its win? Just about, I think. But this was a tough one for the French to lose. This was a night when France played its best game of the tournament, and Italy played it worst. Yet Italy came out on top. It did so because its defenders once again played superbly, because midfielder Andrea Pirlo was able to repeatedly worry the French defense with his long-range passing, and because goalkeeper Buffon came up with a breathtaking save from Zidane.

Half an hour after Buffon’s heroics, after Zidane had been banished in disgrace from the arena, defender Fabio Grosso slammed his shoot-out attempt past Barthez, and Italy was world champion. It has not been pretty, but we don’t get many beautiful finals in the beautiful game any more. It’s a worrying trend that FIFA needs to ponder while it counts the sponsor money and the marketing money and the television money that it rakes in from this mammoth competition.