World Cup

[DavidMn]

Originally Posted by bretonbanquet

France 1-0 Portugal
Zidane 33 (pen.)

A tight game of pretty high quality, and I think the best team won. France sat back a lot in the second half, but they were able to hold on reasonably easily, not like when they played South Korea... Portugal had their chances right to the end - particularly a potentially huge mistake by Saha just before the final whistle - but nothing worked out for them. Also people were getting a bit hacked off with their perpetual diving. So, A France/Italy final - let's hope it's a good one

Isnt Zidane's story, with this begin his final world cup and scoring the only goal in the match interesting? I think the Italy France final will be very interesting to watch!

[tuigirl]

Italy/France final ..ha...I shouldv'e taken a bet out at the beginning of the week!

See, we all poo poo France for whatever reason (yes, I'm bad..) but at the end of the day, they (as a nation) have an undying belief, that they are the best and dammit, their sports teams (and some individuals) come up with the goods more ofen than not (even though it looked like an Henry dive to me) Zidane made sure it went in anyway ! So hats off to them for coming through, Portugal did well but it only takes that one "dodgy" penalty.Having said all that, just watching how well everyone played last night, showed me that England in no way could have gotten that far on the skills they had..PASSING and KEEPING the ball (with some sort of speed) are football basics and France and Portugal both had 'em in abundance..t'was a good match. I might even watch the final

[littlewolf]

i was surprised at how much france concentrated on defence
portugal played very well, after that penalty shot i hoped they would´ve scored equalizer and taken it to overtime.
both germany-portugal and italy-france will be great matches

[Gailh]

Originally Posted by tuigirl

Italy/France final ..ha...I shouldv'e taken a bet out at the beginning of the week!

See, we all poo poo France for whatever reason (yes, I'm bad..) but at the end of the day, they (as a nation) have an undying belief, that they are the best and dammit, their sports teams (and some individuals) come up with the goods more ofen than not (even though it looked like an Henry dive to me) Zidane made sure it went in anyway ! So hats off to them for coming through, Portugal did well but it only takes that one "dodgy" penalty.Having said all that, just watching how well everyone played last night, showed me that England in no way could have gotten that far on the skills they had..PASSING and KEEPING the ball (with some sort of speed) are football basics and France and Portugal both had 'em in abundance..t'was a good match. I might even watch the final

What a shame Portugal lost to a "dodgy" penalty. The biter bit!

Gail

[DavidMn]

I personally am very intrigued by the final machup. Two teams with good World Cup history that have never played each other in a final.

[tuigirl]

Originally Posted by DavidMn

I personally am very intrigued by the final machup. Two teams with good World Cup history that have never played each other in a final.

I think they'll be quite evenly matched, so hopefully a good entertaining game.
littlewolf...to me defending and tackling by France were excellent, it can make all the difference to a team (take notice England!) passing and keeping are all good too

[amber]

Omigod! Did you see that save?! Fricking awesome.
Whew! Viva Italia!!!!

[amber]

Bye, Zidane, forever! Shouldn't head butt people.

[amber]

VIVA ITALIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bretonbanquet]

Italy 1 (5)
Materazzi 19
France 1 (3)
Zidane (pen) 7

Pirlo O
Materazzi O
De Rossi O
Del Piero O
Grosso O

Wiltord O
Trezeguet X
Abidal O
Sagnol O

Italy win the penalty shoot-out after Trezeguet misses his penalty. I think they just about deserved it, particularly after Zidane went nuts and head-butted Materazzi in the chest... Who knows what Materazzi said to Zidane to deserve that, but it must have upset him big time. Zidane had the chance to lift the World Cup in his last ever game, as one of the greatest players in the world, and he just momentarily lost his head and used it to get himself sent off. Very sad to be honest.

[Gailh]

What on earth came over Zidane?

What a prat!

After that little display I'm glad the Italians won!

Gail

[bretonbanquet]

Originally Posted by Gailh

What on earth came over Zidane?

What a prat!

After that little display I'm glad the Italians won!

Gail

Exactly - I was fairly neutral up until that point

[amber]

Originally Posted by bretonbanquet

Exactly - I was fairly neutral up until that point

HAHAHA, I wonder what Matarazzi said? For some reason in the fray of the commentary I was under the impression that Matarazzi said something, but perhaps it was physical? Do you guys know? I woke up late and didn't see the whole game. The announcers said something about "going back and forth all match".
Even though Zidane did that, I would've rather seen such a great player go out better.

[madformac]

Originally Posted by amber

VIVA ITALIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tuigirl]

We were channel flipping, so we didn't see it all (I heard about the Zidane thing..what a wally) but ITALY...there you go! What a funny world cup, very unpredictable (well, not in Englands case!!!) it's been mostly enjoyable and given us all something to talk about these past couple of weeks