World Cup Fever

Yazeed:

Carlsb3rg and I started this blog out of our passion for football. A comment on his blog was the start. World Cup Fever grew to be a bigger thing that what we imagined. I never thought we would get this many users. We have worked hard in trying to making this thing work, writing up reports, previews, news, uploading goals and highlights, in the end its all worth it. We are both proud at what we have achieved here. It has been a nice compliment to watching the matches. We achieved all our goals. We covered each match, each goal, major news, basically everything that matters. I always have fond memories associated with past World Cups, World Cup Fever would be one of those for this year’s World Cup.

I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. I hope everybody appreciates the work we have done here.

Carlsb3rg:

No, the world cup didn’t feel like it started yesterday. I feel a sense of happiness with it’s ending, as I return to my routine life. Perhaps because I wasn’t that excited overall with this world cup. Neither was I excited with the last world cup in 2002. Refereeing is a major part of my disappointment. The new trend of playing defensively is another factor. Controversial refereeing decisions were part of the excitement in football. Not when the winning team wins 1-0 through a bad penalty though. Not to mention the leniency towards host nation Germany, and South Korea in 2002.

If FIFA should learn one lesson from this world cup, it’s that it’s time video evidence was introduced. We don’t need a second official. Zidane was dismissed through video evidence as the match official asked the fourth official, who saw the replay. Based on FIFA’s laws, Zidane should not have been dismissed as the official and the lines man did not see the incident.

We saw new and young players rise (Pudolski, Lahm, Gilardino, Ribery, Torres, ..), we saw old players rise (Kahn, Ronaldo, Zidane, Figo), we saw good players fade (Brazilian squad, Henry, Ibrahimovic, Nistelrooy, Nedved), and some players we wanted to see, but did not have the chance to (Messi, and all the bench players who did not figure in the tournament).

There wasn’t any big surprises in the tournament, but all the new qualifiers made a good showing (Ivory Coast, Ghana, Ukraine, Togo, T&T), some of them return powerfully (Australia, Switzerland, Ecuador) some of them made history in reaching later stages, and some teams were just disappointing (Poland, Serbia & Montenegro, Czech).

In any case, Italy has won the world cup. I think Italy was blessed with Alessandro Nesta’s injury. His replacement Marco Materazzi proved vital in his nation’s success. An Evertonian won the world cup! I guess there is some good in the ‘other’ team in the city of Liverpool!

Best World Cup 2006 moment: Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt.

The world cup is over for some, but the football season is just beginning, with the English League, Italian League and Spanish league all starting in August and not to forget the Champions League. International football will not stop, as the Euro 2008 qualifiers are coming soon. While the coming month will see some hot news regarding player transfers and movements. Be sure to check all the latest in football news at footyinaweek.wordpress.com
Final Notes:

This blog will always be here. I will let the goals here too. Everything will stay.

Both of us have our respective blogs, pay us a visit sometimes.

• Yazeed
• Carlsb3rg

What a nightmare ending for Zidane. I knew it was something memorable, but I never thought a red card for headbutting an Italian in the chest was it.

The first half striated well for France. Malouda was fouled in the penalty area and got France the penalty. Zidane converted the penalty, he flicked it to the center of the goal, it hit the post and fell behind the line and went out again. It was clearly in and the referee made the right call in counting it. About 12 minutes later Materazzi scores with a header from the corner that beat Veira, Barthez, and Riberry. The ball went on top of each of the three French heads.

Italy continued to look dangerous afterwards, especially with corner kicks. They had a couple of other corner kicks that almost went it. Seemed like France couldn’t defend on set pieces. At the end of the first half, France upped their game a bit, they had most of the procession during that time, but the Italian defense was too good.

The second half is almost entirely all French. They had control of the ball in the midfield and intercepted most if Italy’s chances. Henry, Zidane, Ribery, and Malouda all tried to find space in the box. They just couldn’t find a chance, and when they did, the blew it. Even though most of the play was in the Italian half, Buffon did hardly nothing. The chances were either wide, or were cut by the defense. At the end of this half I knew Italy was going to win it, I though they will do something similar to what they did against Germany, the late goals thingi.

The first extra time was also all France. The Italians looked really tired and look as if they would do nothing but wait for the penalties to arrive. Zidane had a brilliant header save from the even more brilliant Buffon, who did really well to save that! Again France looked like the better team, but they couldn’t score.

In the second extra time it was also the same story for the first 5 minutes. Right until Zidane’s red card. WHAT AWAY TO GET SENT OFF! AND WHEN? IN THE WORLD CUP FINAL!! IN YOUR LAST MATCH AS A PLAYER!!!

Zidane had an exchange of words with Materazzi. There was a foul in the middle of the field. The referee stops the match, goes to the Italian box, we dont know what happened yet. Materazzi is on the ground. Then we get the replay, and we see Zidane headbutting Materazzi. I was like “wtf was that for!!!”

It didnt really go downhill from there, but the match opened up a bit. Italy started to pick up some rhythm. But still we can feel that it was obviously going to penalties.

With Zidane in the penalties, they might have had a better chance. The penalties were dull. No one missed his chance except for Trezeguet, who hit the top bar. All of the players scored. Italy wins!

Congrats to Italy. I really wrote them off. But as I said yesterday, defense wins the World Cup, and I predicted that the team that scores the second goal wins. Italy scored the second goal and they won.

It wasnt the most entertaining match, but I am sure most people will remember it for Zidane’s headbutt

This is a goal post only. Review is a work in progress.

Goals:

• 7′ Zidane, France *penalty* (0-1) ||| In English
• 19′ Materazzi, Italy (1-1) ||| In English

Penalties:

• All in one file

Highlights:

• Zidane’s red card
• 20 minute Highlights of the whole match + inauguration (100mb!)

The line-up has been released

France:

Barthez, Thuram, Gallas, Sangol, Abidal, Makelele, Ribery, Zidane, Viera, Malouda, Henry

Italy:

Buffon, Canavaro, Materazzi, Zambrotta, Grossi, Perrotta, Pirlo, Camoranesi, Gattuso, Totti, Toni

The weather looks great, it was raining yesterday, but everything is fine now.

ART will be airing the final for free on Ein Art Channel (FTA)

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3/4

Nilesat

Will it be a fairytale ending for Zizo? Or will the Italians rise through the corruption they have back home?

Italy:

Italy has started the tournament slowly and hit form during the later stages of the tournament, when it matters. Lippi has put together an nontraditional Italian team, he maintained the defensive style, while the team has flair upfront. Lippi has also maintained a stable squad with few changes, unless there is an injury or a suspension. Today’s team should consist of Buffon in goal, Grosso, Zambrotta, Canavaro, and Materazzi in defense. Perrotta, Gattuso, Camoranesi, and Pirlo in midfeild. Totti playing behind Toni upfront. Nesta is also missing through injury for this match. Consistency works, the best teams in the world field a consistent lineup game to game. Will it work today?

In defense, Italy are the best team in the World Cup, conceding only one goal throughout the 6 matches they have played so far. The goal was an own goal that came in their second match at the group stage, against the USA. Italy also managed to score 11 goals in their run to the final. It has been impressive football from Italy. Everybody is looking good in the squad, Buffon was impressive in all matches, the defense, midfield, and attackers (not Totti though).

France:

Its all about Zizo. His last match is the envy of every footballer in the world, the World Cup Final. What a way to retire, if you win it that is. Zidane, Barthez, Thuram, and Veira have played in the 1998 final against Brazil. They are all here today too. The experience has been crucial in lifting the team’s game. They started the World Cup with two draws against Switzerland and Korea, they beat Togo to qualify to the second round. They hit top form in the final minute of the first half against Spain, when Ribery equalized. Afterwards it was history, beating favorites Brazil in a very impressive performance. They have not lost a single match under the guidance of Domenech (they drew a lot under him). Many ruled out France at the beginning of the tournament, few would have said that we will see France in the final (me :P).
Barthez is the kind of goalkeeper that makes you feel that he will do something stupid, even when he did that a few times this time, no goals went in. Gallas and Thuram have done a very good job in defense. The French also have a defensive record, 2 goals conceded so far, one of them is a penalty against Spain. In midfield they have been sensational. Makalele and Veira have done great in their defensive duties, Veira has also some attacking role in getting the ball forward. Zidane, Malouda, and Ribery have done great attacking forward. Henry is their lone striker. To me Henry and Zidane cant play together, but at least they have been doing well so far. France have been using a formation of 4-5-1 throughout the tournament, it changes once the game goes on.

My View:

I think France’s performance will all come down to Zidane’s performance. The Italians excel in containing their area, not to allow many balls in, and hit you on the run, similar to what happened in the Germany game. Even though I am a French supporter, but that is something cant do, while the Italians are brilliant at. Zidane and Henry can’t play together, Zidane’s style in releasing strikers doesnt fit Henry. It took Henry 54 matches with France to score from a Zidane pass!

Winning finals is all about defense, and as I have said, thats Italy’s game. I usually dont predict who wins in finals, I have two ways of telling you who will win in my view. Sometimes I will say that the teams who scores first wins, and sometimes I say that the team the scores the second goal wins (doesnt matter if its an equalizer or a 2-0 goal). This time I’ll say that the team that scores the second goal will win.

Good Luck to both teams.

(Below is my seat at the final)

Bastian Schweinsteiger secured third place for his nation, as the Germans deservedly won 3-1 over Portugal.

Germany started off the match with former number one goalkeeper Oliver Kahn between the posts, and rested captain Ballack due to injury. Kahn did an outstanding job in defending his goal and finished his international career with a great display. As a legend’s shine faded, another star risen in it’s place, in the shape of young Bayern Munchen sensation, Bastian Schweinsteiger who had a hand in all three goals.

On the other hand, Portugal started the game with mostly all their stars, except for Carvalho(two yellow cards), and Figo on the bench. The first half was an open game, with both teams testing each other’s defence, so it was a fairly entertaining game to watch, but with no goals in the first half.

Portugal continued their diving performances, led by diving master Christiano Ronaldo, who was also booed on every touch through out the 90 minutes of the game.

The brake through came in the 56 minute of the second half, when Schweinsteiger powered a penetrating shot at Ricardo that flew right between his hands. It got worse for Portugal, when again Schweinsteiger shot a powerful low freekick into the box, which was deflected by Petit into his own net. Bastian confirmed third place for Germany in the 78th minute, with another long shot at the far corner of Ricardo who flew full stretch towards the ball, but no where near it.

Portugal pulled one back in the 88th minute and got their consolation goal from a good Luis Figo cross, which was accurately met by Nuno Gomes’ head.

The final whistle was blown, celebration’s started with fireworks into the black sky. Only thing was missing was the World Cup.

Goals:

• 56′ Schweinsteiger, Germany (1-0)
• 61′ Petit, Portugal *own goal* (2-0)
• 78′ Schweinsteiger, Germany (3-0)
• 88′ N. Gomes, Portugal (3-1)

Germany vs. Portugal:

The match might not be as lucrative as the 62 matches we have lived through so far, but there will be no football matches for 5-6 weeks, watch it cause there is only one left

Ballack is out for this match with a knee injury, Frings is set to replace him after being suspended in the last match. Lehman gave his place to Khan cause Khan is set to retire from international football after the World Cup, this would be his last chance at playing. Germany want to end their World Cup on a high, even if its 3rd place. The World Cup has been a huge deal in Germany, they have prepared and done very well in hosting it. They will be roaring to do this one for the fans.

Portugal will be looking to equal their best ever World Cup finish of third place, as they go into their 2nd third place play-off after having won the corresponding match in 1966, defeating the Soviet Union 2-1. Portugal have been suffering with goals, they scored 6 goals in 6 matches, Pauleta, their main striker, scored one goal in their opening match with Angola. They need some serious firepower to get past Germany.

This should be an interesting match, or atleast thats what I keep telling myself

Enjoy, and vote!

Here is the 23 man squad that FIFA have chose as the best.

All-Star squad:
Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Jens Lehmann (Germany), Ricardo (Portugal), Roberto Ayala (Argentina), John Terry (England), Lilian Thuram (France), Philipp Lahm (Germany), Fabio Cannavaro (Italy), Gianluca Zambrotta (Italy), Ricardo Carvalho (Portugal), Ze Roberto (Brazil), Patrick Vieira (France), Zinedine Zidane (France), Michael Ballack (Germany), Andrea Pirlo (Italy), Gennaro Gattuso (Italy), Luis Figo (Portugal), Maniche (Portugal), Hernan Crespo (Argentina), Thierry Henry (France), Miroslav Klose (Germany), Francesco Totti (Italy), Luca Toni (Italy).

Dont forget to vote below.

Well its France vs. Italy, any team can win. It will be difficult predicting a winner in this one. May the best team win. Vote for who you want to win, and the best player in the World Cup.

In the last poll, Veira got the best player and Maxi got the best goal (2nd round)

To me the match didnt live up to the hype. The first half saw Portugal having better possession and better chances. The French defense is doing very well in this tournament, they naturalized Portugal’s edge with the shots, which was better than France’s shots. They vital moment came when Henry went down in the box and awarded France, Zidane did well to put his shot in. The first half ended there, as nothing serious happened afterwards.

The second half started well for France. Only to see Portugal find their momentum again and have most of the chances. The defense was always there to break those attacks, or as most of their shots when out. Barthez had a few saves to make, he looked a bit shaky at times.

What a way for Zidane to end his career. Playing in the most important match in football. Few would have said that France will make it to the final, same thing goes to Italy too.

It should be a great final.

Portugal face Germany in the third place match on Saturday, while the final is on Sunday.

Goals:

• 33′ Zdane, France (pen) (0-1)

Italy is already in the final. Who will join them today? The rejuvenated France? Or Portugal who havent lost a match since the Euro 2004 Final against Greece.

Defeating Brazil, France have a lot of confidence. Beating a defending champion, a favorite, and a team with all that talent, will do you a lot of good, confidence-wise. They already repeated the result of the 1998 World Cup final, will they qualify to this years final and repeat the Euro 2000 final?

Coach Domenech, who has been hammered for his tactics, before and during the first round of the World Cup, has delivered at the right time. He will have the help of Zinedine Zidane, one of the finest, if not the finest, players of his generation, who will hang his boots after the World Cup. Will it be on the 8th of July (if France looses) or on the 9th of July (if France qualifies to the final). Zidane has a yellow card in hand, he is joined by Willy Sagnol, Louis Saha, Lilian Thuram, Patrick Vieira and Franck Ribery. If any of them gets a yellow in this game, they will automatically get banned for the next match. A number of Portugese players also have yellow cards, this game will be interesting in this aspect.

Portugal have Deco and Costinha in the squad after they served their one game ban during the quarterfinal clash against England. Figo will once again play in the same feild as Zidane, for the last time. They were team-mates at Real Madrid. They know eachother well, so their midfield battle will be interesting since both of them play in a similar role in their team. Figo is also on a yellow card, along with Maniche, Ricardo, Ricardo Carvalho and Nuno Valente. Portugal also have the experience of Phil Scolari, who won the World Cup last time with Brazil. He has been the main reason of Portugal’s rise in international football. Will he guide his team to a second consecutive final, or maybe also a title?

We will have to wait and see. This match has the potential of being one of the most exciting matches we have seen so far, both teams play beautiful, attacking football.

Cant Wait!

“Walk on.. Walk on.. You’ll never walk alone” The famous song, mostly known by Liverpool supporters, played in the Dortmund stadium, as the players, fans and Germany cried for their national team’s exit.

Both teams entered the match with an emphasis on defensive midfielders, and it was mostly a tactical game rather than any other type of game. They both tried to penetrate the other’s defence line, but even so, Lehmann and Buffon were up to any tests.

So the game had to go to extra time with players looking tired. Italy threw in Iaquinta and Gilardino earlier, and introduced Del Piero as well in the hopes of snatching a goal, while Germany brought Neuville for the ineffective Klose, and Schweinsteiger and Odonkor to add some attacking midfielders. But Italy’s subs were the ones who payed off, as the Italians hit the bar twice through Gilardino and Zambrotta in the first few minutes in the first extra half.

The match seemed to go to penalties, when Italy’s Fabio Grosso made the vital move again, but scoring this time with a curling shot to the far side of Lehmann. The German players just brokedown with the goal, as it came in the 119th minute. The killer goal and the broken down Germans only paved the way for another one, a minute later with a Del Piero lob to send the very few Italian fans in the stadium wild, and the majority of Germans into tears.

Goals:

• 119′ Grosso, Italy (0-1)
• 120′ Del Peiro, Italy (0-2)

The first Semifinal match of this year’s tournament is a big one. The last time all four nations in the semifinals were from Europe was in 1982, which ironically featured an Italy vs. Germany final, which Italy won. Both sides met each other 28 times, with Italy holding a 13-7 overall victories. Most notably the 1970 Semifinal, which many would argue is one of the best matches ever played in the World Cup, it was a 4-3 victory for Italy due to an extra time goal. The second match was the 1982 final, which Italy won 3-1, even more ironic is that the Italy league was facing the same type of scandal as they are facing now.

Germany have Frings suspended from this match, due to him punching an Argentine player during the brawl that happened after the penalty shootouts of their Quarterfinal against Argentina. Other than that they don’t have any other suspensions or injury concerns. Klinsmann says that the squad grew a lot since the beginning of the World Cup, their 5 consecutive wins in this tournament is a new record for Germany at the World Cup. They have looked good in all their matches, but they looked a little shaky in their quarterfinal. Klose has looked good throughout the tournament, he currently leads the scorers charts with 5 goals.? We will have to see what will Ballack do when he? faces another maestro in? form of Totti. Surprisingly Ballack has named Italy as favorites to win this match, but he hopes that homefield advantage will help them in this match.

Italy will be missing the services of Alessandro Nesta for this game, he still hasn’t recovered from his injury which ruled him out in the last 3 matches. Italy, much like France, have hit top form at the right time. I remember reading that Lippi has said before the World Cup that the team who will win it this year is the team that hits top form in the Quarterfinals, and develop to a totally different time. That is certainly true with Italy. After a shaky start and a not very convincing one, they went through their group as winners. They beat Australia with a last minute penalty. They beat Ukraine in the quarterfinals in a brilliant match, which showed us how much potential Italy has. Italy would always be named as a defensive team, but that match showed us how lethal this Italy squad really is. Italy have never lost to Germany in a major tournament, they beat Germany 4-1 in Italy four months ago in Florence.

Will Germany take revenge? Or will it be the same old story?

Brazil who?

Goals:

• 57′ Henry, France (1-0)

A disappointing match really. We didn’t see a lot of chances from both team. From the first 30 minutes I felt that this was going to be a 0-0 draw and it will go to penalties, and that England will loose cause they always loose on penalties. I thought England will do much better in this match. They should be very disappointed with today’s result and display. Seems like now is a right time to change coaches. England with Sven are not really that scary. Lets see what McLaren does when he takes over. I don’t know why Sven substituted Beckham in the 52nd minute, was he injured? Ronney’s red card in the 62 seems a bit harsh, especially after the referee really took his time in deciding what to do, after being bombarded with Portuguese players telling him that Rooney should get a red.When the game went to extra time, Figo and Beckham were already off the field, Ronaldo had some good runs so far but nothing serious, so I felt nothing will happen. We only saw Crouch wasting chance after chance, he couldn’t keep the ball with him for a few seconds. Sven failed big time in choosing his attack for the World Cup, I guess a bit of bad luck went against him, but people should be more prepared.

Hats off to Scolari who keeps beating Sven at quarterfinals every two years

Today we witness two very big matches, its England vs. Portugal and Brazil vs. France.

England vs. Portugal

The media are viewing this as the Sven-Scolari clash. Scolari was Brazil’s manager when England met them in the quarterfinals in 2002, Scolari won. In Euro 2004 Scolari was coaching Portugal’s team when they beat England on Penalties in the quarterfinals (2nd stage in the Euro Championship). This is the third meeting between the two managers in 4 years.

Sven looks like is going to stick with his new 4-5-1 formation, with Rooney upfront. Neville is set to start, after missing the last match due to injury. Owen Hargeaves is also set to return to a holding midfielder role. Frank Lampard had a slight ankle injury on Thursday, but has passed fitness tests yesterday, and will start today. It will be a full strength England team. The team hasn’t been performing well so far. They certainly have got the players, but it hasn’t “clicked” yet. A number of players have talked about this issue, and they are all sure that in the quarterfinals everything will fall in place. Player by player, this England squad can arguably be one of the best England has ever seen. Today is the day they have to prove that.

Portugal will be suffering from their interesting match against Holland in the second round. They have Deco and Costinha suspended for this match, both important players in the Portuguese squad. Christiano Ronaldo, who left the Holland match 30 minutes into it with an injury, has been given an 80 percent chance of playing in this match. Simao and Petit will be replacing Deco and Costinha in this match. The Portuguese, both manager and players, have the psychological advantage in this game. We will have to see what they will make of it. Portugal have won all their games so far. Its the first time in 40 years since they made it past the group stages. The last time they passed the group stages was in 1966, when they were eliminated in the quarterfinals by England, who went on to be champions.

Brazil vs. France

This is the first time the two teams meet since Brazil were outclassed by France 3-0 in the final of 1998.

The Brazilians will be seeking revenge for what happened 8 years ago. Six members of the current Brazilian squad were in 1998. There are no injury worries in the squad. The Brazilians haven’t been really impressive so far, the second half against Japan was their best showing so far in the tournament. They need to raise their game against and improving French team.? Parreira admits that his team hasn’t been consistent in this tournament, and he says that this trend will end today. The weird thing is that some members of the Brazilian squad were practising their winning celebrations today at training, and it wasn’t for beating France, it was for winning the World Cup. Are they over-confident? Some people have been noticing that there is not as much teamwork from this team as what we have saw in past Brazilian squads.

I personally think that there is only one team that stands a chance against Brazil, and it is France. They have the experience and the psychological advantage against Brazil. Play-maker Zidane, who is in his final days as a player, sat out the Thursday training session after suffering a slight knock, but he is fit to face Brazil as of yesterday. Wily Sangol suffered a minor groin injury against Spain, but he is also should be fit enough to face Brazil today. It is still no known what formation will France use? Will it be the 4-5-1 we saw from Frane in 3 out of their 4 games so far? Or will they Switch back to their normal 4-4-2 formation with a striker supporting Henry upfront. The French squad is full of experience, Zidane, Gallas, Henry Veira and Barthez are very important names to the squad, all of them have lots of experience under their belts and that might be very crucial for France in this game.