What Can You Say About That?

What a crazy World Cup Final! I fancied the Italians before the game but it was the French who finished the game stronger and probably should have won the game before penalties. But what most people will talk about is the moment of sheer madness from Zinedine Zidane in the 110th minute.

After a seemingly nothing incident with Marco Materazzi the French captain just turned to the tall Italian defender and gave him a vicious headbutt to the chest!

Unbelievable!

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I first saw the incident – totally insane!

And the more you see it the worse it gets!

It is debatable whether Zidane’s absence would have made a difference to the penalties but he would have surely taken one and we’ll never know if it would have changed the outcome.

The fact is that the Italians are now World Champions which is an amazing achievement considering all the turmoil that’s happening back home.

And Fabio Cannavaro lifts the World Cup after winning his 100th cap for Italy.

And for Thierry Henry another major final ends in cruel defeat.

First he suffered to the hands of Barcelona in the Champions League Final after leading for so long with 10 men and then tonight he lost out on his second World Cup trophy on penalties.

The 2005/2006 season ends in despair for Titi.

And I have to say I haven’t been a fan of Raymond Domenech’s tactics used for Franch and Thierry Henry throughout the tournament.

Henry has been so isolated in every World Cup game it was untrue. Because of Zidane’s age and lack of pace he never got close enough to Titi to give him any real support and the wide players Ribery and Malouda are very average players.

France really missed a player like Pires who would have given France so much more creativity in a 5 man midfield.

Ronaldo: England’s Scapegoat…

As you will have noticed everyone hates Ronaldo. The internet have websites hating him, the press are castrating him, and there is a big e-mail campaign to ruin his chances of winning the young player of the tournament by voting the other players over him.

The hate campaign after the England v Portugal match is just ridiculous.

So what has he actually done?

He got Rooney sent off.
Sorry, but the short-tempered scouser did that himself. I don’t think Ronaldo got him to stamp on Carvalho RIGHT in front of the referee.

He ran to the referee.
Well firstly almost EVERY team at the World Cup surrounds the referee when a major incident happens – Manchester United are the masters of it. If Ballack stamped on one of the England players I’d be surprised if they wouldn’t ask the referee to send him off.

He winked to the bench.
Well Ronaldo is an arrogant player. He was probably caught up in the moment – you are playing for your country in front of millions of fans worldwide.

He dives.
Yes, Ronaldo dives. We all know that. We’ve all known that for a long time. But he isn’t the only one – the Italians dive, most of the Portugese dive, the French aren’t squeaky clean and Michael Owen is one of the worst divers I have ever seen. But if he gets penalties against Argentina then it’s ‘alright’.

He’s a pretty boy.
Well I can’t comment on that one.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like Ronaldo and being an Arsenal fan I have a natural hatred towards him – not as much as Van Nistelrooy but that’s another story.

I find it amazing that somehow people persecute Ronaldo for somehow ruining Englands World Cup Dreams.

I watched the Portugal game with a group of friends and couple of them were United fans. Anyway, every time he got the ball they would, well to say they were slagging him off would be an understatement.

Correct me if I’m wrong but has he even said he wants to move to Madrid?

And last night the constant booing throughout the game was over the top.

In the past Vieira, Henry and Cesc have been linked to Barca and Real but we Arsenal fans haven’t singled them out until we know what’s exactly going on.

Well I know Ronaldo isn’t everyone’s cup of tea but if the England team actually showed half the passion Ronaldo does then England wouldn’t have disappointed AGAIN.

The bottom line is that without Rooney losing his temper yet again Ronaldo isn’t an issue. So instead of painting Wayne Rooney as the golden boy why not realise it’s his fault for getting sent off?

There is no difference between Rooney’s red card and Beckham’s 8 years ago. Both were petty acts of petulance and both ruined England’s chances of progressing but the reaction to both of them is worlds apart.

I just caught the Portugal v France semi-final and it was a dire game.

And it seems every game I’ve seen was rubbish; Switzerland v Ukraine, France v Switzerland, Brazil v Croatia and every other game, not to mention every England match.

What the hell is wrong?

There seems to be a big effort to play negative, boring football and when very, very average teams such as Germany, France and Portugal reach the penultimate round of a World Cup then something is very wrong.

I will admit to falling asleep as I tried to watch quite a few of these ‘world class’ matches. Do I have narcolepsy? Possibly but I doubt it.

Past it players like Zidane suddenly become a match-winner again, after playing poorly for the last few seasons. Hell, even Patrick Vieira looks half decent in this World Cup.

They’ve even made the ball lighter to make things more difficult for the goalkeepers but there is still a lack of action on the goal front.

The most exciting action is from the referees and how many yellow and red cards they will produce!

I hate to think what the World Cup Final is going to be like on Friday Sunday.
(Edit: The World Cup Final is obviously on Sunday, not Friday. Maybe I do have narcolepsy…)

Final’s are usually boring anyway and this World Cup is going to guarantee possibly the longest 90 minutes you will ever witness.