Alternatively
France failed to beat S Korea or Switzerland in the groups - struggled to beat Togo in their last game ( i was there and for long periods Togo were a match for them), then admittedly played well against Spain and Brazil, were distinctly average against Portugal and tired-loking but slightly the better team in the final.
Italy on the other hand topped a tough group including beating Ghana and Czech Republic, grovelled past Australia, thrashed Ukraine and were superb against Germany before running out of steam in the final.
Not sure either team clearly deserved to win the World Cup - Argentina were probably the best team - but i'm not sure across the course of the tournament France were any better than Italy.
Zidane won player of the tournament despite only playing really well in 2 games (Brazil and Spain) - he'd already served one
suspension following a second booking for a petulant foul against S Korea. In fact with his sending off for a stamp in France 98 - he probably has about the worst disciplinary record in World Cup history. Cannavaro deserved to win - he was excellent every game - but i guess giving it to a defender is not glamorous enough.
Although the World Cup petered out excitement wise towards the end from a visitors point of view it was easily the best organised and most fun tournament i've been to. The main difference being that the Germans aside from being really friendly hosts, love football and the game took over the country in a way that didn't really happen in the US, France or Portugal.
I'll post a link later to something i wrote for the East Anglia branch website about our experiences over there, encompassing Mexican Schoolgirls, Argentinian Chefs and people being painted green - too big to post
here.
Matt
eric barlier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
fist: im half french, so not objective one can safely say
I think its important to view the incident in perspective. ZZ has had
an excellent career but has had two other similar incidents previously
in his career. for sure a player of his caliber will always be a
target for foul play, thats for sure. so he lost his head 3 times
then one could argue. the timing for the 3rd one could nt have been
worse, its stuff that movies are made of. or jokes..
because it reminds me of this joke that holds quite some truth to it.
i ll recite the morale of the joke: IF Da Vinci, after all his
excellent jobs, were to shag a sheep, he d be remembered as a sheep
shagger, not the true artist he was. that holds truth and is relevant
to this. however its not totally fair as you might agree?
I also think since none of us know what that ass materazzi served we
cant really judge WHY this happened. for sure we can say his reaction
was insane, it was. but I think one day it will come up and a few of
us will have to admit: shit, I d do it too.
are the italians worthy winners of the WC? nope. they lost against
the USA, the french didnt lose ONE game, apart from final of course.
the italians went into 2nd round meeting and beat "great" nations as
austr. and ukraine. then beat zee germans, that was their first game
against a widely recongnised great side. on the way they were awarded
a "funny" penalty against oz in last minute, ukraine got a right
beating and zee germans lost overtime. luck?or just being italians?
hard to jugde.
the french were robbed during their 2 first games, a hand ball
stopped a goal that would have made a win against the swiss. a
disallowed goal that was a goal against korea. then they beat togo,
spain, brazil and portugal to get into final. one will argue that the
goal against spain was from a dogdy freekick. I dont. henry was
obstructed by puyol and although his reaction was "over the top" (maybe
after the first games he decided to "join the club" of cheaters to
get what he s entitled to) an obstruction is still a freekick. henry
s reaction doesnt void the situation as a freekick. then they beat
brazil, the best game of the WC for me. portugal got beaten with a
bit of luck maybe? barthez could have let it slip.
in the final they were the better team over 120 minutes. the french
penalty is NOT a dive. no way. and the rest is history as they say.
like the euro championship when the greek won Im left with a feeling
football is gone wrong again.
obviously a team cannot win the WC being shit. I ackn. that. but
deserved? not in my book.
Eric le Bleudy annoyed! :-)
On Jul 10, 2006, at 7:59 PM, Terry Emmott wrote:
>
>> Some one told me who speaks italian that mazaratti called zidane a
>> terrorist, or that is what she said she lip read.
>
> That was also on the radio this morning. Apparently Zidane says
> he's a non-practising Muslim so it was a racial sort of remark. Bit
> of an extreme reaction for that though IMO. You'd have thought he'd
> called him the misbegotten son of an Algerian whore at the very least.
>
> I think football
>> would be all the better for a bit more scrapping between players,
>> as baker used to say "not enough blatant off the ball chinnings".
>>
> Very true. One of the highlights of my Leeds-watching life was
> seeing Gary Kelly pole-axe some Mackem twat in a League cup-tie
> with as sweet a right hook as you're ever likely to see. Completely
> missed by the ref and his linesmen as well.
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> oh alright then :-)
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