For the first time I can remember I watched practically every one of the 64 games that the World Cup had to offer. Thanks to web streaming, pvr and delayed screenings.
I didn’t go into the World Cup with all that much hope. I had France in the work sweep and it seemed kind of inevitable that Brazil would run away with the thing. The first game really brought the tournament to life, though, Germany beat Costa Rica 4 -2 and scored a couple of great goals in the process and revealed one of the stars of the tourney in Lahm. The group stages were by and large great fun. Game of the group stage for me was the 6-0 thrashing that Argentina meted out to Serbia-Montenegro. I have never seen a better example of a team performance and it was all capped off with one of the best goals ever in Cambiasso’s effort in the first half.
As things progressed to the knockout stages teams started to become very cagey and it spoiled the play. Some coaches made very stupid decisions (Pekerman of Argentina, Aragones of Spain), in compensation some players upped their ante, in particular Zinedine Zidane of France and Cannavaro of Italy.
Best game of the tournament was the Germany-Italy semi-final match. It was a game played with a superb attitude, great talent and committment.
For a match that went nearly two hours without a goal it was really exciting. Then Grosso scored with that 119th minute goal, and Del Piero followed up a minute later. It was sad that there had to be a winner, but Italy deserved it.
The final itself was rather disappointing. France got a soft penalty, cheekily converted by Zidane, Materazzi scored from a corner with the French defence posted missing. Chances were few and far between and if France had the better of the match it was by a narrow margin. Then, of course, Materazzi said something to Zidane and the Frenchman headbutted him in the chest, thereby tainting his last ever game. It was kind of sad, but it’s something that Zidane’s done before. As they say, you can take the boy out of Marseille!
Italy won on penalties and it seemed a fair enough result, and I would have felt the same if they had gone the other way.
Not a great World Cup after all, but there were enough highlights and great games to make it a memorable one. God, now we’ve got four years for the next one. You never know Scotland might even qualify! (we’ve got no chance with the Euro championships – both WC finalists and a quarter finalist and only 1st and 2nd qualify)