no henry, no zidan, no vierra, france lost even be4 the first pk was kicked, but italy played well the whole game(the whole cup for that matter) they really deserved to win. A good game never less
^^^^^ Shakira performs on the stage during a pregame ceremony. Love her. ^^^^^ Mr. Tony Parker at the game. ^^^^^ She wins the award for 'hottest chick' at the world cup. She needs an agent, that face can make a lot of money.
Well the highlight of the WC -- Zidan giving those corrupt crybaby italians something to really writhe in pain about. Someone make a GIF of that ASAP.
if i'm not mistaken, i think the success rate of penalty kick takers is usually 80% i don't know why everybody including the american annoucers is saying that barthez is terrible...he does make a mistake here and there, but he's very realiable imo....he's been france's goalie when they won a world cup and a european championship...i remember back in 1996 or 1997 whoever was PSG's goalie was france's #1, but he was suspended for using drugs and barthez has been the goalie ever since
i don't know what came over zidane, but that headbutt was awesome malouda played real well this game for france, but i would take cisse over him anyday overall, france played well, but some of their older players got tired towards the end and their attack suffered, which is why i think a healthy cisse would've made a big difference overall, italy had their usual reliable defense not giving up a goal other than an own goal and pk for the entire tournament as somebody pointed out earlier...buffon as usual didn't make a mistake, but he's been a starter in the seria a since he was 17...although, totti didn't play well today, he played well for most of this tournament and it was his play making that helped lead italy to the final...pirlo was great on dead balls too so when you have two good teams collide like this, in the end, it just comes down to luck and that's what a pk shootout is based on...trezeguet is going to be a hero when he goes back to italy to play for juventus....fifa should really do like the nhl in the playoffs, make it sudden death and just let teams play until somebody scores
Zidane is a G in my book....That was tight...I love how Materrazi (sp?) collapsed to the ground like somebody shot him
If you've seen Coupet play quite often, you'll see why he should start over Barthez Barthez is an eccentric player...he used to balance that with great reflexes...which he doesnt have anymore
I feel really bad for Zidane...a once in a decade soccer legend. He is going to wake up thinking about this incident every morning in the next 5 years.
I guess they can call it the UGLY game now. The team that won puts 2-3 goons on the backline, has a great goaline and center back, and packs the midfielders on the defensive side of the ball. They even waited out for PKs even with a man advantage, it was worse then when they tried to steal the cup from Brazil that way (giving up any semblence of offense). Let us also not forget the Austrilian dive that never should have been called a foul. Italy is a nice country with great food and art, too bad their futball has all the arrgonace, attitude and spoiled antics without any flair at all. Mega credit to a few for their effort and style--Buffoon and Perlo (few mention him, but I think he was Italy's best player to watch) in particular. This world cup has to go down as one of the worst in history and will set soccer way back rewarding the way the Italian team played. The PK endings, the ethnic/homophobic slurs, the acting, the lack of goals in the flow of play. Soccer has to open itself up (bigger goal, liberal offsides--something to give aggressive offenses a chance against a bunkering defense) to be a great sport for many of us to watch.
Not really, that might prove to be the most memorable moment of his career...that was a GREAT header!
man, even when the italians get hit for real they flop. zidane's head hit the guy, but just enough to knock him back a little, not completely take him off his feet. but if it's between the floppers and the french, i guess i'll take the floppers. and yeah, italy is pretty much the anti-brazil in terms of style, which is BORING. there's being able to appreciate low scoring games, and then there's trying to trick yourself into liking low scoring games that were actually boring by trying to focus on technical aspects of the match. at least people can stop slobbering over zidane now. i just wanted him to lose, not disgrace himself. how the hell do you take an extremely great run to end your career and let it end like that? that's not like wade punching someone in OT in game 7, that would be like jordan just deciding to punch bryon russell in the face and get ejected at the end of game 6 instead of making the game winner.
Im pretty upset with the outcome because i believe France should have won the game. France played much better than Italy in the second half...but what Zidane did was just plain stupid...why put yourself in that position...it was 10 minutes before penalty kicks....
The thing is the French team was there BECAUSE of Mr. Zidane. He's still one of the best mid-fielders to ever play the game. I don't think this will tarnish what he accomplished.
none of the players including materazzi would talk about what was said between him and zidane, but his sending off was done illegaly: http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/new...RIDST_0_SPORT-SOCCER-WORLD-FINAL-HEADBUTT.XML rumors are that materazzi either called zidane a terrorist (zidane is a french-algerian muslim) or directed some racist language towards him or accused zidane of being involved in the steroid abuse scandal that tainted his (zidane's) former club juventus: http://football.guardian.co.uk/worldcup2006/matchreport/0,,1816890,00.html http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/internationals/article1169770.ece despite all this, zidane still has to be considered one of the best soccer players ever...he's won it all....league championships, a world cup, a european championship, champions league, super cup championships, a world club championship, and 3 time world player of the year
