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.