So it was in the end Italy. I am sure the Australians must be feeling uncomfortable with the images of the celebrations by the Italians. Were it not for that stupid penalty call against them in round 2 match against Italy, the Aussies might have made the Italian journey much much shorter.
But luck is important in sports. Like in any other thing. The Italians have been on the wrong side of luck as well, earlier. Specially the last 3 world cups. They were booted out on penalties. So it is only fair to them that luck should favour them once. Law of averages if you will.
I followed this world cup for most part. These are my thoughts ..
Zinedine Zidane was a class act against Brazil and Spain. These two teams will always fear the name Zidane. But the two most outstanding players for me as far as France is concerned were Henry and Ribery. According to me they are the most under-rated players of their times. Ribery's equalizer against Spain stands out for me as one of the topmost goals of the World Cup.
Spain added to their own woes to the endless list of under-performance this WC. They are the perpetual chokers. Feel sorry for them.
Brazil again showed how inconsistent and unpredictable they are. They were just too overconfident. The problem with Brazil is that they have 11 super stars. Someone needs to do the dirty work in the back ground. And they lack the defense and professionalism inside their own half. But it still was the best team in the WC, as far as pure footballing skills is concerned. Good that Fifa awarded them the "fair play" award.
Italy were scrapy at the beginning, but in the end their defense won them the WC. Buffon was awesome in front of the net. All of 6'4" , he was like a wall too high to climb for the opponents.
Australia was a revelation. The quintessential minnows of the game were in no way pushovers. They were plain unlucky not to reach further. But i am banking on Australia to make it big in soccer soon. Their display in this WC was a tribute the the great Australian spirit in any sport.
USA was dissappointing considering the high fifa ranking they had before the Cup. And so was Korea and Japan. They were harmless and pushovers.
I have never liked the African brand of soccer frankly. I was never ever impressed by Cameroon and Roger Miller's histrionics in previous cups. But thought Ghana was better than Cameroon. They deserved to move to round 2, which they did.
In the end the one moment that will probably stand out in the WC will be red card given to Zidane. Technically he deserved it. But i thought the Italian player Materazzi deserved a rebuttal from someone for doing what he did. In the end Zidane proved he was a human after all.
Some other moments from this WC were - the Argentina-Germany post-match brawl, the almost "violent" match between Portugal and Netherlands, Henry's goal against Brazil and Ribery's goal against Spain, Wayne Rooney's red card, the booing of Chritian Ronaldo by the crowd, Figo and Zidane exchanging jersey's, Germany's awesome performance......... and a crying Brazilian supporter.
The greatest show on the earth came to an end. It was the greatest gathering of humanity where one sixth of world's population was glued by one single event.
The tears , emotions, joy all came out of the closet and was in it's most colourful display for a whole month. And we soaked in every color possible.
Another WC where the favourites did not make it and the teams from whom not much was expected came out triumphant.
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