Tuesday, July 11, 2006
L'ITALIA AVENGED LA SPAGNA!Which basically translates to: Italy has avenged Spain! Yeah, 13 days after Spain bowed out of the World Cup I'm still pretty sore about it. So Italy has won the World Cup and they totally deserve it, what with the scandal back home.
The game was quite alright, for France to score so early would be an invitation for Italy to fight back. Zidane took the penalty kick, and the ball hit the crossbar before dropping just within the goal line. At first, I thought it wasn't a goal until I saw Zidane celebrating and the replays. First time Buffon let in a goal from the opponent.
True enough, Italy equalised in the 19th min when Pirlo took the perfect corner kick, it had to be, since it met Materazzi's head and found the net. While Barthez was flapping like a chicken (what else is new?).
Italy seemed to be aiming at tiring the French, but by the second half, it was France who were attacking while the Italians defended like crazy. But the Italian defence was impenetrable, with captain Cannavaro making several vital saves, and if the ball ever passed through the defensive wall, there was still the ever stable and reliable Buffon.
Luca Toni headed in what seemed would be the winner for Italy in the min, only to be disappointed when the linesman raised his flag for offside. But it wasn't offside! Oh well, the referee's decision prevails and the score remained 1-1. And Pirlo took a free kick which he missed by just a little bit.So the game went into extra time which was pretty nerve wrecking because whichever team scored would most probably be the winner. Extra time was not very interesting... Until the infamous head butting incident occurred. I was awfully shocked by it. Suddenly there seemed to be a commotion and all I could see was Buffon running out of his goal post and looking really peeved and gesturing madly to the referee.
I'm surprised cos I've never seen Zizou act like that. You might blame Materazzi for provoking Zidane by talking a lot of crap, probably. But this is football, players would do anything to give their team the advantage (remember C. Ronaldo vs Rooney). So this was how the greatest magician of football history brought down the curtain of his football career, with a red card in the finals of the World Cup.
It seems that Materazzi was the one steering the match, granting a penalty kick To France, scoring the equaliser, than getting Zizou sent off. But both teams held on and it was left to a penalty shoot-out to determine their fates. France's chances were rather slim, Zidane, Ribery were off, and Henry had been replaced by Trezeguet, possibly because the French coach wanted to try and repeat history, where the same man came on as a sub and scored the golden goal which led to France winning the World Cup in '98.No such luck though. Trezeguet brought about the defeat of the French team by missing his penalty kick. Pirlo, Materazzi, De Rossi, Del Piero & Grosso all delivered, none of them missed. Hence Italy are the champions of the 2006 World Cup, righteously so, as they have been very consistent with their performance in this WC.
Grosso's winner.
Pirlo hugs Cannavaro while watching the PSO.
Mauro's ponytail getting chopped off while teammates celebrate.
Holding onto his has been ponytail.
Gattuso decides to take off his shorts as a form of celebration.
Crowning the cup.Oh and the reason for this late update is because I wanted to see who would win the Golden Ball. Apparently, its Zidane. Maybe this would help allow him end his career on a better note. Except that the last time I checked, the Golden Ball was supposed to be awarded to the OUTSTANDING PLAYER IN THE FINALS. And by outstanding, I supposed they meant it in the good way, not the bad way. Sorry but even though I like Zizou well enough, I feel that Buffon, Cannavaro and Pirlo are more deserving of that award.
char/min blogged at 7:32 PM
