- ABC did not play Shakira's performance before the game. Instead they were too busy playing their commercials. Do they not realize that the WC final is a celebration? Luckily, I flipped to the Spanish channel just in time to catch it and tape it. I still have the song in my head...and you know my hips don't lie.
- The game was action-packed from the beginning, with a PK in the 6th minute. A sign of things to come...
- The Italian goal was awesome, and made me think that they were a better team...at first.
- The game was going fine until Italy made a second penalty in France's box, but the ref didn't call it! The announcers said that it was even more of a penalty than the first one, but it was still not called. Interesting, considering that Italy has clubs on trial for putting refs in their pocket. If the penalty was called, Zidane would have scored another PK goal and France would have won the final 2-1.
- In double overtime, Zidane's shirt is pulled by Materazzi, the 2 exchange words, and Zidane turns around to head-butt Materazzi in the chest! This wasn't seen by the ref, and while one of his 3 linemen did see it, he did not say so until after it was broadcast on the big screen. It is against FIFA rules to give a red card based on a broadcast. Whether or not any of the linemen actually saw the head-butt (he he), Zidane was given the red card and ended his 18 yr long career. Why did he do it? What could he have gained? Was it worth it? Should he have been given the red card, assuming the linemen did not actually see it? If he had not been given the red card, Zidane would have stayed for the PK shoot out. He would have made the goal that Trezeguet missed, and France would have won the final.
- If France had been granted the PK I talked about in the 2 bullets ago, Zidane would have been remembered forever as the hero who scored 2 goals in the WC final to give France its 2nd victory. But instead, his legacy is tarnished, and he did not even leave the locker room to get his silver medal. I believe France should have won the WC, but a series of bizarre events in the final game prevented that.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
World Cup Final
As requested, here are my thoughts on the World Cup Final 2006:
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2 comments:
I wouldn't necessarily rely on Marcelo Balboa's commentary to "read" a match. The Tapesh commentators are better than him & he played for the US national team.
Good on you for working in match fixing--I'm not even an Azzurri fan, but this is getting out of hand.
I know these are your thoughts on the game, but you left out france dominating the second half & both overtimes, but was unable to connect to the back of the net. A win is earned, & to do that, you have to score goals--if you don't finish, it's just too bad. That's why soccer is so heartbreaking & beautiful at the same time.
France had several legitimate attempts on goal outside the not given PK (but if you also recall, Italy scored a second goal in regular time that was disallowed b/c the Luca Toni was offsides)
It's not double overtime, soccer just has one overtime period consisting of 2 15min halves.
You don't know he would have made the goal Trezeguet missed. Zizou would have shot first (David shot like 2rd iirc), maybe Sangol would not have even been in the 1st five shooters.
Zizou has done things like this in the past (ask the Saudi player he stomped on for insulting his berber heritage) & Materazzi is a known jerk @ Inter (ask the African player he brought to tears by joining in on fan jeers). It's mainly newer watchers who are in shock.
I dunno if your tune has changed since his statement, but you might understand a bit more.
--it's conjecture that the 4th official viewed it on the bigscreen, (not to say I don't question their claim he didn't, but then that would be the broadcasting corps fault, NOT the refs, b/c they shouldn't have shown it) all the officals wear headsets so they can communicate w/ each other, he very well could have been taling to him over the headset, & then they had an in person call so the ref could bounce off his idea of what card to give. Hence the long delay to let temps cool, b/c if you've ever been in/watched a match when tempers are hot immediately following something like that, can lead to an all out brawl if not done in the right manner.
Zizou totally deserved the red, it was retaliation, pure & simple, sad he got it sure, but not that he did it. Even he understands that & so do his fans.
A statement released says told French Federation officals he told them he didn't deserve a medal. Monday morning quaterbacks have no clue. Soccer fans still love him & respect him, his temper is part & parcel w/ him. He is remembered as a magnificent player w/ more class than some.
I agree with pretty much everything you said. Yeah, I left out pro-Italy stuff b/c I wanted France to win so bad that I wanted to block them out. A lot of people say that Italy winning was proof that there was no match fixing, but I think it could just as easily be evidence of it, depending on how you could argue it. I also agree that Zizzou deserved the red; I'm equally pissed at him for losing his cool as I am at Materazzi for baiting him. Z was very classy in the match with Portugal, esp. the way that he and Figo exchanged jerseys and were buddy-buddy. I'll admit that the only world cup I've been to was the Wrestling World Cup in 1997 in Stillwater, OK, where US beat Iran, making the 1998 soccer worldcup victory that much sweeter.
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