world cup review

one week after the world cup was ended in germany, very thing back into normal... no one is talking about world cup anymore but still, there are some ppl thinking why zidane doing that??? he cant just stay calm, as u know, this can cause lotz of probz... first, this cause the champion! second, this cause his reputation! third, what an ugly retirement from soccer? as for the final, the match is very good in my personal opinion compare to those '94, '98, n '02! let talk about the '94, it is BRAZIL v ITALY, the match went onto penalty n brazil won it when Baggio fired the last kick into the spectators! in '98, what a stupid match! i wonder what is brazil doing against france??? that really really fake man! suddenly zidane became famous after that, he went to real madrid from juventus with a world record transfer fee! haha~ so what??? as for '02, this is kind better than the two previous one, then brazil went onto become the champion against germany!

now, the '06 final, italy v france, what a good match! this is bcoz i can see my idol-buffon playing on the field man! hehe~ he is one of the best goalkeepers in the world now, others are casillas, cech, ricardo, van der sar n a few more! this is actually the team i wanna watch in the final, not against france but brazil, lost to france easily in quaters! what a let down, an overrated team-brazil! let me talk about the match, i would list down the starting lineup first, just to easy for ppl to refer!

ITALY (4-5-1)
starting:
1 - buffon (juventus)
19 - zambrotta (juventus)
3 - grosso (parlemo)
5 - cannavaro (juventus)
23 - materazzi (inter)
16 - camoranesi (juventus)
21 - pirlo (milan)
8 - gattuso (milan)
10 - totti (roma)
20 - perrotta (roma)
9 - toni (fiorentina)
subs used:
15 - iaquinta (fiorentina)
7 - del piero (juventus)
4 - de rossi (roma)

FRANCE (4-5-1)
starting:
16 - barthez (marseille)
19 - sagnol (bayern)
3 - abidal (lyon)
15 - thuram (juventus)
5 - gallas (chelsea)
22 - ribery (marseille)
10 - zidane (madrid)
4 - vieira (juventus)
6 - makelele (chelsea)
7 - malouda (lyon)
12 - henry (arsenal)
subs used:
18 - diara (lens)
20 - trezeguet (juventus)
11 - wiltord (lyon)

on one hand, france is the one, the favorite to win the world cup! zidane, henry, thuram n barthez are the players who played in their '98 champion team, they are the experience team! on other hand, there are only 3 players played in '98 for italy, del piero, cannavaro n nesta, too bad, nesta was injured n just only cannavaro played the whole game n del piero was a sub! not only this, in '98 the italians lost the quaterfinal match to france in penalties! then after 2 years, in euro 2000, the italians lost to the same team in the final by a golden goal scored by trezeguet! u can see, base on these, the luck n experience had totally covered the italy team! with the past records, france had what they need, n looking for their second world champion title! as for italy, they wanna lift their 4th world cup, last won in 1982, 24 years ago! what italy has are their looks, cool n handsome! haha~ this is what the girls looking for, a team full of good looking guys n got all the girls cheering for them!!! i think, they gonna have lady luck...

as for the match, it start was a great start for both team untill france got a penalty in the 6th minute! it was totally a joke man... look carefully, there wasnt any contact between malouda, cannavaro n materazzi! france really know how to get penalty man... ACT is the best! then, zidane tried to be funny n chipped the ball into the goal while taking the penalty, he almost missed it man! haha~ he was really lucky at that moment! after that, italy came back with a strong attacking style, the equaliser came in the 18th minute when materazzi headed home a pretty swing out corner from pirlo. he totally take charge in the 6-yard-box, and scored in front of barthez, helpless at that moment. after the equaliser, italy took control the game with a few chances from the corner just to see it hit the cross bar, what a waste! then the scoreline was 1-1 till the end of first half! in the second half, it was just a normal tempo game, both sides was holding n crossing the ball, less attack scene, the important part was vieira cant continue the match n was subed by the coach! then, zidane was almost left the pitch with a knock on the shoulder but he still manage to continue! full time 1-1

extra time was taken place... both sides has a few chance but just wide n far away to goal! buffon made a great point blank save header from zidane minutes before he was sent off with a straight red card for "head"butted materazzi in the chest! do u know? if the referees on the pitch n sidelines didnt see the incident took place then zidane will escape the marching order but according to the fourth offical (sub referee), he saw the incident took place, after the referee on the pitch spoke with the fourth official n learned that incident was taken place, so he flashed zidane the red card! this is the "gentleman greeting" which u seldom see in soccer, besides that, zidane was just the 4th player to get sent off in the final (if no mistake)! after ET, the game still tied at 1-1, penalty kicks gonna decide who is the champion! italy won the penalty kicks 5-3 by scoring all 5, just to see trezeguet (euro 2000 hero for france) to miss the 2nd penalty! what a waste, france! by the way, zidane still got the golden ball (MVP), just in front of cannavaro n pirlo by votes! but zidane might got his award striped by FIFA bcoz of the incident!

overall, this world cup is just full of cards, yellow n red, around the pitch! what is this man??? the referees flashed lotz of cards, portugal is the cards champion n eventually finished 4th behind the host, germany who won the match 3-1! then, best young player was podolski who finished ontop of cristiano! the golden boot winner was klose with 5 goals in account! there was a consolation prize for brazil by getting the fair play award! haha~ buffon got the best keeper award! besides these, i wanna say, this world cup is really bored in overall, most of the team won their match with a low scoreline only for argentina to crashed serbia 6-0 in their group match! i got a conclusion from the previous world cup till now, never wanna be the favorite to win the world cup! u can see in '98 then '02 then '06, how the champion perform? can u say that is good? all the stars in brazil was sinked into the deep sea after their defeat to eventual runnerup!

oh ya... i think Lee Chun-soo (KOR) scored the best goal in the tournament against togo with a nice-curled freekick over the wall just outside the box beating the keeper sight! others long shots like frings, lahm, jole cole n others was just luck, even that are nice! u know what? as for me, the african teams should be credit with some hardworking or spirit award bcoz they really playing well in all the matches, including ghana, ivory coast, tunisia, angola n togo! ghana even qualified to the 2nd round but lost it against brazil, that was also a nice game! i gonna give my all star team for this world cup!

starting (1st): (4-4-2)
GK buffon (ita)
DR zambrotta (ita)
DL lahm (ger)
DC thuram (fra)
DC cannavaro (ita)
MR cristiano (por)
MC zidane (fra)
MC pirlo (ita)
ML schweinsteiger (ger)
SC henry (fra)
SC klose (ger)

subs (2nd):
GK ricardo (por)
DR miguel (por)
DL grosso (ita)
DC terry (eng)
DC materazzi (ita)
MR rodriguez (arg)
MC gattuso (ita)
MC essien (gha)
ML ribery (fra)
SC podolski (ger)
SC torres (spa)

okay... i think thats all for this year world cup! hope to see guys in 2010 in south africa, i am ur reporter, hoe mun, good bye n good luck... take care!