9.7.06

Germany 2006 Day 25

It seemed only apprpriate that this World Cup final went to a penalty shootout.

I didn't care much about who won - except for a slight sneaking lean towards Italy after that arsehole Zidane was sent off - but I was pleased with the result. Hard-fought, evenly matched, everything that a World Cup final should be.

Italy won, their fourth cup, another star for the shirt.

I'm typing this whilst watching the presentations. France are currently being given their second-place medals, which has to be the most bitter-sweet moment, ever. I'd bet that there's not one French player who is taking any solace in getting second, being in the final. I'll bet that all of them are looking at the trophy they didn't win, and thinking about what might have been.

Congratulations to Italy and commiserations to France.

More amusement from American pronunciation was engendered by the was "Zidane" sounds in the mouth of the commentators. It's eerily close to "Saddam" which is, some might know, the way that both the American media and politicians refer to deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. So, apparently, Saddam had been granted parole from his trial in order to play for the French team, serve as captain, and, indeed, get sent off for that head-butt.

And FIFA screwed up again with the presentation. After all these years, you'd think they'd understand that the winners of the Jules Rimet trophy want to climb on something to lift it. In Japan/Korea 2002, the Brazilians were reduced to a rickety podium that almost spilled the captain and the trophy several times. Here, the Italian captain had to climb on to a table clearly not designed to hold his weight and he, too, almost took a header.

How about, next time, we have some sort of dedicated steps to climb to lift the trophy for the crowd, hmm?

And on to South Africa 2010.

But first: Euro 2008!

1 comment:

3vil g3nius said...

hey, don't call zidane an a hole! He might not be a good sport but he's better than those Italians who would just try to get the ball into the penalty box and dive in hope of getting a penalty kick.
And yeah, my opinion is a little bit bias in account of being bitter that the Aussie lost to the Italian because their players are the best divers in the world.