The Real Story of the 2006 World Cup Final

Yes, Italy won the World Cup for the fourth time.

But let's move past
1) that Italy beat France (yay!), and
2) that they did it on penalties.

What everyone's talking about, and what the 2006 World Cup Final will most probably be remembered for, is Zidane's headbutt. What a coincidence that the incident happened to involve the only two goal scorers in that game's regulation time; Zidane scoring with an early penalty, and Materazzi equalizing with a high header from a corner kick. And at the penalty stage, France could have used another Zidane penalty kick. I'm sure there are France supporters out there agonizing over Zidane's red card.

Anyway, this headbutt thing was quite serious. There was immediate speculation on what set off Zidane. One side said this. The other side said, "No, I don't even know what that means." They even got lip readers to watch the tapes and decipher what was said. Still, despite being sent off from the Final, Zidane got the Golden Ball. That's a tribute to a great ballplayer!

So, the 2006 World Cup was the Zidane Headbutt World Cup! :-)

And this brings my football-following days to an end. At least for another 4 years or so. I don't really follow any sport that closely, but I do enjoy watching the big games.

I vaguely remember the 1986 World Cup, mainly cos of Maradona's Hand of God. I somehow remember people talking about that. That was when I was in boarding school in Penang. The next World Cup for me was the 1994 World Cup. (Lin, remember watching that in Stockholm?) I didn't really follow the 1998 World Cup, mainly cos I was a uni student in Canada with no cable. And somehow, I didn't much follow the 2002 World Cup, but that was a busy year for me.

Until the next big game attracts my attention, that's it from me for sports.

A forgone conclusion for third place at 2006 World Cup?

Well, seems my outlandish predictions were only half outlandish. ;-) Loved those two late Italian goals! Well deserved, and quite a gamble. I mean, seriously, four strikers on the field!

So now we're down to the last two games of the 2006 World Cup.

And I wonder, is the third place game really a foregone conclusion? Most peeps I talked to seemed to think that Germany was sure to win their match-up with Portugal. But they do seem to have run out of steam in the last couple of games. In the run-up to the quarters, they were quite impressive, with their string of early goals to give them the psychological edge. Then they kinda faltered and met with some good fortune in the Argentina game. And in the Italy game they looked like they were fine with taking it to penalties again.

Sidebar: They're letting Kahn in for their last game! Hehe.

This is the third place game, and they're on home ground. They'll be playing for pride in front of their home fans. I'm sure the crowd will be pushing for them to win against Portugal.

Do Portugal have some magic up their sleeves they can pull out for their last game? Look around the field... Doubt it...

World Cup 2006 Semi Finals

So it's a European Cup.

Surprises galore for me. Crushed dreams. Countered with raised spirits for some.

Let's make some outlandish predictions then shall we?

In the Germany-Italy game, Odonkor gets a red card for getting in the face of an Italian. Lehmann lets an early goal in, so he gets switched for Kahn (finally!), who quickly concedes two goals. Ballack manages to limp pass all the Italian defenders for a late consolation, but the game goes to Italy after they crush the German defense 3-1.

Portugal-France goes to Portugal. Score is 1-1 after 120 mins, and Portugal wins on penalty shootout after Zidane kicks too high.

Yeah, right.

What is it about fans and their predictions? Let's just hope for a beautiful game. I wish I saw more of that from Brazil. :-( Seriously, I didn't see Ronaldinho really shine this World Cup.

Germany-Argentina result

Oh woe, oh woe!

I knew as soon as they went to penalty shootout Germany were through.

Did anyone else feel the ref was biased against Argentina?

It was a good and entertaining game though. Just felt that the ref made too many calls in Germany's favour, and waved off incidents against the Argentinians.

Looks like Germany might make it to the finals then.