I dedicate the victory to my family. The players have unlimited heart, character and personality. This squad showed great heart."
- Marcello Lippi
It’s all over.
The ‘Greatest Show On Earth’ has ended. It’ll be another 4 years before we meet it again…….
Being a big fan of fútbol, now that the World Cup is over, there’s no more late night, get up early in the morning hours to catch some football action. No more seeing goals at this kind of showcase. No more seeing the excitement, the frustrations, the spirit and the skills and wizardry that football presents itself in the World Cup stage.
It’ll be a different day from now on. Back to normal reality once more……
Spectators who came to watch the games in each stadium gave a positive image too. You can always see some of them waving their supported teams’ flags proudly, and it was great to see in most matches where the ‘Mexican wave’ was being done frequently, no matter which teams were playing against each other. It was nice too that the German host put up large screens in each stadium all across different locations so that people can see matches at different sort of angles (I haven’t seen this kind of stuff at other stadiums).
I believe that in terms of preparations and service, Germany 2006 showed what being professional and quality of hosting such a prestigious event is all about. Beckenbauer and his staff should be proud.
Sure, there was drama and tension throughout the tournament (the sending offs, the ‘Battle of Nuremberg’ (Portugal vs Holland), the penalty shoot-outs, Grosso last minutes sudden death time winner, Zidane’s dismissal,…..), but I don’t think people will remember this world Cup as one that had classic encounters.
Then there’s the issue of refereeing (e.g. Graham Poll’s ‘3 Yellow cards’ blunder) and the diving schemings.
And of course, the joke of the FIFA World rankings (
&
Oh yeah, and another thing. I also want to comment on the soundtrack that was made for this year’s World Cup. There’s two original tracks (the Il Divo & Toni Braxton combo of “Time Of Our Lives” & “Celebrate the Day” by Herbert Gronomeyer) and for me they’re all right.
But the rest of the music……..there only songs that are already out from years before, and what’s crap about it is that none of them are like songs related to football! I mean like, you got Savage Garden’s ”Truly Madly Deeply” and Kelly Clarkson’s ”Because Of You” as a song for a World Cup album, ….what the fu-k is that?
Anyhow, with that all aside, I would agree with the opinion of Paul Masefield and Shebby Singh that this World Cup had been more of a showcase of defending qualities (especially as the tournament progressed into the second round). Every top team in the World Cup got a very resilient defense line, especially the back four of the two teams that contested in the final. I believe that some of the teams got a nice pairing of centrebacks.
That being said, I also agree with what Paul Masefield mentioned in one of Germany Tonight’s episode, that there haven’t really been any attacking player who really fired up the scene with mesmerizing attacking performances in this World Cup.
True enough, both Ronaldinho and Frank Lampard didn’t put in convincing performances, and neither scored a goal. Apart from that, other important team players like Ballack and Riquelme also couldn’t find the back of the net. Totti only scored a penalty, and I think he didn’t really bossed much in midfield in the competition. I also thought Steven Gerrard didn’t convince. Maybe he got some goals in the campaign, but I don’t think he really gelled up in the
As for Ronaldo, the only goals that were importance scored by him was the equalizer against
Some more, we couldn’t see much on the best of either Wayne Rooney or Lionel Messi.
And players like Robben, Xabi Alonso, Rosicky, Torres, Carlos Tevez, and others….. couldn’t see much of them as they had to go home early (Theo Walcott didn’t even play).
.
(As a premature prediction, I’m gonna say that
**********
Some thoughts of mine…….
Man…….this is really tough to say.
Back in one of my previous posts, I mentioned that the
Now that everything’s settled……..I don’t really know which match can be qualified as the best (as previously mentioned). For me, ever since the World Cup entered the knock-out phase, the matches had become more dull and less goal scoring affairs.
16 yellow card. 4 red cards. What the fu-k was that all about? IF there’s one thing about this World Cup, referees sometimes were too much following the book, and most players were cheating & fouling too much.
Marcello Lippi. Credits are due where its due. Lippi’s no doubt for me the best coach throughout this tournament. He led
Adding to that, he had fostered an excellent team with the right frame and mindset to be positive and win the damn thing, especially considering all the turmoil and tension back in
Another one to be considered for this point might as well be Klinsmann. He was another one of those coaches whom had a barrage of negativity surrounding his team’s performance before the World Cup began and as reported that majority of
I think that the enthusiasm showed by Klinsmann throughout the tournament is also great. It really expresses what football is all about. Besides being a great player before, he’s showing that he’s also got a great character and an intelligent & positive mind being a coach, withstanding the fact that prior to taking charge of
Best Player
For me, Fabio Cannavaro. Captain of
This World Cup really elevated his status as one of the best centrebacks in the world. And the fact that he’s only like 5’9, where most of the other top class centrebacks’ height are 6 foot plus, it’s even more amazing.
Best Goal
Which else? Maxi Rodriquez’s against Mexico (it coulda’ been the best goal so far up till this time, maybe even this year?...)
As the World Cup has ended, here are my picks as the players who I thought perormed well and would form as my team of the tournament.
Simply the best. The stop he made against Zidane’s bullet header the in the first half of sudden death period was for me, the save of the tournament.
Leftback: Lahm
I think that in this World Cup, Lahm made his name felt on the big stage. Industrious in going forward, and the goal he scored is top, top quality. The way his goal was executed, and considering the timing of it, was excellent to kick start the World Cup itself.
I especially enjoyed the battle he had against Zambrotta in the semifinals.
Centreback: Cannavaro
Refer to the Best Player category. Nuff said.
Centreback: Thuram
Despite being an ‘old’ guy, Thuram surprisingly showed that he’s still can play football at the highest level. Of course, he’s playing with a resolute French back four (that’s got Makelele and Viera marshalling in front of them), but still he performed very well (especially went France clicked as the 2nd round began). I think Thuram gave his best performance in the game against
Rightback: Miguel
Tempted to pick Gianluca Zambrotta for this spot, but as I’d already chose Lahm for leftback, so I’m choosing Miguel on the right just as a fullback who would be more defensive minded.
Defensive midfielder: Gattuso
The enforcer for midfield duties, to break up the opposition’s attack flow. He’s been doing it for
Central Midfielder: Viera
I’m not too sure why I’m picking Viera for this spot. Maybe it’s due to the fact that he scored a couple of vital goals for
Leftwing: Maniche
Tough choice man. I know that Maniche is exactly not a winger. I woulda put either Robben or Reyes or Joaquin, but they could be long enough to give much impression. So I pick Maniche, just ‘cause he’s the kind of player that’s hardworking in winning and distributing the ball, and got a good long range shot to unexpectedly shake up the opposition.
Rightwing: Ribery
My choice for best winger.
Playmaker: Appiah
I was impressed by his performance against
Striker: Klose
The top scorer.
Anyhow, below are the rest of the players that I picked to form a full 23 man squad including the eleven I stated above:
Usually in every edition of the World Cup, there’s always a bunch of players that made the grade and caught the public’s eye as either the next big thing or players that have forth as the new heroes (heroes that could either go strong forward in their playing careers or be a one off and head down memory lane just as name that appeared magically once…..
So here’s my pick for this criteria.
Grosso’s been instrumental for
As I stated before, this World Cup, there’s not many attacking presence in it, it’s more down on the defensive qualities being showed by most of the top teams. There’s not much exciting strikers, forwards, midfielders that shone enough or couldn’t present their skills in the latter stages as their respective teams were eliminated too early. Anyhow, if there’s one winger who I think played well throughout, it has to be Frank Ribery. He might only have scored one goal, but he’s shown a new aggressiveness and youth coming from the French side.
As for Podolski, I believe that he will be the main player of
The World Cup only occurs every 4 years once, so in that time span a lot of things can happen and change in football. Present heroes strive on or either dwindle down their fame & deteriorate…..and new, exciting talents will emerge, and all sorts of hype accompanying whoever the new superstars will be.
Before, back in World Cup 2002, people didn’t know or heard much about names such as Rooney, Messi, Robinho, Fabregas,………
L-R: Jesús Navas, Nuri Sahin, Anderson, Bojan Krkic, Yohan Gourcuff & Giovanni Dos Santos**********
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