It was a great victory for France. Having one of the most determined team in the world France managed to take home the 1998 World Cup. This time french people were able to see an exhibition game in Paris at the St. Denis Stadium. Most of the original players attended, like Zinedine Zidane who has been keeping himself busy with his favourite charities.
Image courtesy of Newscom.
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I’m glad we’ve all learned one thing from the whole Zidane – Materazzi headbutt furore, lip readers don’t have a bloody clue what they’re doing. Let’s take a run through the various lip reading efforts from the experts as reported by the press:
THE SUN:
Materazzi called Zidane a “son of a terrorist whore”
and just for good measure:
‘a source close to the Italian squad claiming that after twisting Zidane’s nipple, Materazzi asked him: “What, don’t you like it?” The French captain replied: “A bit too hard to turn me on.” But Materazzi shouted: “Well, I did it that way because I know …read more

I’m a big fan of the introduction of technology into football where it can help the match officials make the correct decision on contentious issues though, in the World Cup Final, Zidane’s sending off was far from contentious. Anyone who seen it knew instantly that it was a straight red card offence for violent conduct but the issue here is this: just who did see the initial incident? Answer: none of the five match officials.
Neither the referee, either of his lines men or the fourth and fifth officials off the pitch saw the words between Zidane and Materazzi and then …read more

So it took a penalty shoot out to seperate the teams and in the end I’m happy to see the Italians lift the World Cup. They’ve stuck together and shown a willingness to overcome the problems i ntheir domestic game throughout the tournament and what more fitting a finale for them than for Grosso to slide home their fifith successful penalty and for Fabio Cannavaro to lift the World Cup on his 100th appearance for his country.
Other than Italy winning, the main talking point for a long time about this World Cup Final is going to be about Zinedine Zidane. …read more

So with the game poised at 1-1 at half time I’m leaping online to give a quick overview of what I’ve seen so far. The first 35 minutes were good with plenty of passion and effort rather than skill or guile and despite Malouda’s obvious dive for the French penalty I think the first half was pretty evenly matched.
Marco Materazzi got a deserved equaliser from a Pirlo cross and it’s been this combination that has tested the French several times with Pirlo crossing from Italy’s right and first Materazzi and then Luca Toni winning headers in the French box. Obviously …read more

Heartbreak for the plucky Germans as Italy’s never say die attitude (and a distinct desire NOT to have to face the Germans at penalties in their own backyard) saw them through to the World Cup Final in easily the finest game of the tournament so far.
Both sides have forced their critics to eat their words during the course of their campaigns and despite the first goal not being scored until the 119th minute, this game was a pulsating end-to-end battle between two sets of the finest footballers on the planet.
The referee played it just right by allowing a few tackles …read more

When will Wayne Rooney ever learn? A couple of days after being sent off and contributing to his country’s dismal exit from the 2006 World Cup, everyone’s favourite lovable rogue Scouser has threatened to take all action necessary to exact his revenge upon his clubmate Cristiano Ronaldo for his part in his sending off.
A fantastic gesture of level headedness from the Roonster which completely fails to take into account the referee’s explanation that is was the stamp on Ricardo Carvalho’s crown jewels that earned him the red card and not the protestations from young Ronaldo at all. Never let the …read more

So England have fallen at the quarter final stage of a major tournament once again and now that the tears have stopped being cried we can have the armchair experts on messageboards, blogs and radio phone-in shows telling us all exactly how much of the blame everyone has to take. I’m going to run through some of the main protaganists and see how much of the blame portion I think they can take.
1) Wayne Rooney: “Wazza” did it again, that uncontrollable temper that they told us was under tight lock and key came out in glorious technicolour by the time …read more

What better way to end the epic quarter final clash between the two best performing teams at this year’s World Cup than with the Germans keeping up their fantastic penalty shootout record and a fullscale brawl erupting on the pitch!
The match itself did turn into something of a chess stalemate at times with both sides well marshalled defences cancelling out the attacking flair on the pitch but Jose Pekerman’s (the now-former coach of Argentina) decision to use his three subs and bring on defensive players like Cambiasso when only 1-0 up looks to have been the major tactical turning point. …read more

French defender Lilian Thuram received unanimous applause from the assembled media at France’s press conference for refuting French National Front leader Jean Marie Le Pen’s claims that the French squad weren’t “French” enough because there were too many “players of colour” in the current squad.
(See article online from The Guardian newspaper)
Thuram himself was born on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe and despite having won 118 caps for his country, he obviously doesn’t impress Monsieur Le Pen who would rather have a side full of bumbling René’s from ‘Allo ‘Allo than a time with non-whites in it.
One particularly pertinent point …read more