Mondiali di calcio Germania 2006
Today is the day that I have been gearing for after so much waiting! I scraped all my travelling plans to Hannibal and Kansas City for the weekends because of the World Cup matches and finally the final match is here!
Battle of the giants! Of course I was rooting for Italy all the time, but deep down, I knew that Zidane was the deciding factor, and not Italy. Zizou is really the world's most talented midfielder of his time!
Normally, professional teams don't really send a person to "mark" another person. But as Lippi had said, Gattuso was sent to mark Zidane because all teams that don't have already been eliminated by France. Good call! Somehow or another, Gattuso looks like a little grizzly bear to me, though the italians supposedly call him the "snarling dog"... erhmm... nonetheless, he did managed to keep zidane in check a few times...
Dear ms shakira was performing at the world cup. Imagine her singing "hips don't lie" while buffon and barthez try to guess where the penalty kick is coming from based on the opponents' hips! hehheh
I have no idea that Bill Clinton watches soccer. While I was watching the finals with my housemate Nicole (who adores soccer), her dad called to talk to her. When she said that she couldn't talk cos she was watching the World cup, her dad told her "soccer is damn boring. I don't see why you can't talk to me now." She had to INSIST after that. Sigh... anerica is blind!
Fabio Cannavaro, the super super super wonderful captain!
Henry was taken down in the box (though cannavaro insisted it wasn't in the box, the replay showed it to be so, therefore good call from the referee... SEE? I am not that biased k?) and Zidane took the PK, just a few min from start. Could see Buffon looking so nervous... sigh... and sure enough, Zidane got it in! 1-0 for Fra!
Isn't berlin charming? Berlin is a quite diff from the other western european capitals. It doesn't have the old charms of Roma or the classy designs of Paris, but it was so extensively rebuilt after the WWII that I think it's in a class of its own!
(this is where I might sound biased) I think that Materazzi's 19th min goal was way way classier than the PK that france got. Pirlo did a wonderful pass and I think that to penetrate your opponent's defence in the finals with such a beautiful shot (and for someone of his position) is damn cool. So that makes 12 goals from Italy by 11 different people! Great team work! I think that's why Brazil lost to France. So many great players, but all so individualistic!
You could tell that Lippi was trying to pull the same trick that he did against Germany. Nearing the end of the match, the whole Italian team moved forward (rem the 4 forwards against germany in the last few min of ET?). Unfortunately, there were some close goals (one even went in but referee declared offside, else my 2-1 prediction would have come true. As such, I lost a cup of coffee to chris, but I think it's worth it!) Also, the defence of italy was quite shakey at many points cos they all moved forward. Buffon did a miraculous save when Zidane almost headed it so high up into the net. Could see Zidane screaming his head off like a wild dinosaur (i am not lying, you should have seen it) Overall, the italians were better in the first half, while the french ruled the second half. Anyway, there are rumors that Lippi will go to Man U to be the asst coach, and when Ferguson leaves, he will be the coach! Sensational huh!
Zidane head butted Materazzi when the referee was not looking (I think that out of respect for the maestro, there isn't a single picture of it on the official world cup webpage.) Anyway, the referee ran back and zidane refused to admit it and just walked off. The referee was gonna start the game again but cannavaro and buffon kept pressing, so he checked with the asst referee and sure enough, Zidane was red carded instantly. I don't know if Materazzi had offended him previously with his words, but they were walking away peacefully when suddenly Zidane unexpectedly just turned and head butted him in the chest with a venomous look. The american commentator called him vicious, but I have a lot of respect for Zidane and I wouldn't say so. Nonetheless, he really deserved to be red carded. For someone of his seniority and standing, I really expected way more from him. He single handedly gave away France's chance to beat Italy. Without him, it's not very possible for Fra to penetrate Ita (though there were a few close ones after that cos the italians were on offensive too).
Finally, when the game came to PK, Barthez couldn't quite match up and victory was delivered into the Azzurri's hands!
My idol!!!!
Italian fans celebrating at La Piazza della Signora in Firenze, Italy!
Buffon won the Lev Yashin award for being the best gk (oliver kahn won the previous time) and I think that he totally deserved it! (but if we are talking about best gk for PK, I think ricardo is better) (see? I am not that biased!) Klose won Golden Shoe for most goals, and hopefully, tmr Fabio Cannavaro will win the Golden Ball!!!! Camoranesi cut off his hair in celebration and erhmm Gattuso pranced around the field in his white undies... haha... FORZA ITALIA! Now that the world cup is over, I need to move on with my life and get my expts working in 1.5 weeks time, and then it will be time for Singapore, where aunties and uncles queue up for Hello Kitty at 5am at MacDonalds! Yipppee!
Sigh, what do I do without world cup matches to watch during office hours? *SIGH*
EDIT: since everyone thinks that I am obsessed about italy, i need to clarify: I AM! haha... no lah... i just think it's nice to know another language and to immerse in another culture... and italian food is superb what... as for soccer, I just hate the english premier league... i only watch world cup once every 4 years, and that's it. hence, i shall now go back to the fascinating world of killing mice and perfusing them til they die! yippee!
EDIT 2: I found the vinyl record of the mamas and papas! YAY!!! CALIFORNIA DREAMIN'!!!!