Zidane’s heroics really began to sink in with arrival of FIFA World Cup in the Asia. Playing without him, France was shocked by Senegal in the opening match itself. Their misery did not end here. They went out of the tournament without scoring a single goal. Senegal on the other hand impressed everyone with their agile performance and made it to quarter finals when Turkey finally ended their spree. There was another team which did the entire continent proud with astounding showcase of the game. Joint host South Korea became first Asian team to enter semifinals at the cost of very strong teams like Italy, Spain and Portugal. However, both these teams were stopped in the semis by two seasoned teams of all time. With a strong midfield line and one of the greatest goalkeepers at the helm, Germany made a mockery of its opponents. Of course, Oliver Kahn stood at the goal post like a wall and made some great saves which meant there was only one goal against them till final. On the other hand, Brazil continued with where they left in 1998 and the demolisher-in-chief again the famous duo of Ronaldo and Rivaldo. Final match was being hailed as a battle between Ronaldo-Rivaldo-Ronaldinho and Oliver Kahn. However, absence of Ballack (due to cumulative yellow cards till previous game) gave Brazil a little edge which indeed mattered in the end. How can one forget that famous presence of mind by Rivaldo which allowed Brazil to complete a 2-0 victory! They really deserved this win and can be safely called one of the most successful national football teams. This world cup saw the best of Ronaldo and he won golden shoe award after narrowly missing it the previous tournament.
Germany had little consolation in the sense that the tournament was returning back to Germany in 2006 after several years. I had a chance to watch this world cup out of Green Bay in USA. This time around, 8 out of 32 teams were playing for the first time and all of these 8 teams were from small countries like Togo, Trinidad, Ivory Coast etc. Fans could not witness many goals in knock out stages which resulted into 4 out of 15 such games (including the final) being decided by penalty shoot out. Brazil once again started off very well and reached quarter finals within flash of time. Rebounding from their embarrassing performance, France made a slow start but picked up from round two. They took out Spain, Brazil and Portugal from the tournament to cement a place in final. Similarly, Germany entered semis with players firing in with all cylinders. Likes of Kahn, Ballack, Klose, Podolski and Petit ensured that Germany played great football and was one of most aggressive and in-form teams. Facing them in the semis was Italy who had an easy competition till this game. Game went into additional time at 0-0. A last minute substitution by Italy changed the pace of the game. Del Piero had saved all his energy for this moment and Germany went crashing out again, all dreams shattered leaving all fans disheartened. Final between Italy and France was an equal contest and score read as 1-1 at end of scheduled time. No goals were added in the additional time. Additional time however saw an unpleasant moment when Zidane head-butted Materazzi and was shown red card. This butt more or less decided the fate for France and Italy had won their 4th title!
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2 comments:
Lovely trip down memory lane. Of course you were in Green Bay at the last world cup - wasn't that a great time you all had. Pity they have now closed everything at Green Bay and all those wonderful people are all gone.
Thanks Ramesh! We had a great time working out of Green Bay. In fact, Green Bay was the first location which I visited outside India. Lovely memories from that time!
What could one say about people. The kind of warmth and hospotality that they showered upon us was amzing. It is indeed sad that they have closed everything down there.
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