Instant Action Sports

By Camilla Mancini 

On July 9th, the must exciting match of the World Cup 2006 took place at Berlin’s Olympiastadion, the remarkable Italian team played against the splendid France on a game to define the champion and the second place of the FIFA World Cup 2006.

The match started with a frightening moment for the French when their star player Thierry Henry had an accidentally crush against the Italian captain Cannavaro. Henry punched his jaw on Cannavaro’s shoulder and he was knocked down, loosing control of his senses. For a few seconds Thierry seemed to be lost and the expression on Raymond Domenech wasn’t very relaxing. But Henry took a couple of minutes and then went back to the game.

While Thierry was being assisted outside the field, the penalty caused by Materazzi _who was regarded as trying to stop Malouda’s steps forward_ gave Zinedine Zidane the chance to make a difference on the match. Zizou fooled the goalkeeper Buffon, who thought the ball was going into his right. The sphere rebounded in the bar and felt inside the box, just a foot away from the line. The French exploited in joy, but Marcello Lippi shout to his boys “it’s just starting, keep going!” _and it was indeed, for the match had many surprises ahead.

At the 19th minute, Pirlo made a pass from the corner that Marco Materazzi didn’t let go away and while the ball was still on the air, he jumped just in time to head it above Barthez and into the box. With a tied match and the pressure of the entire world watching them, both teams gave all they could. Another chance of goal for Italy came on the 35th minute, after Thuram slid the ball out of the field. Pirlo sent the ball from the corner to the front of the box, Luca Toni showed up in the act for the ball and headed it, but the French goalkeeper Fabien Barthez stopped it just in time.

By the 36th minute the possession of the ball was around 50 / 50 for the teams, although Italy kept a bit more of control on it.

Second Half … Losing the Nerves

The French started attacking with more authority and putting more pressure on the Italians getting a couple of close shots, but with not much luck because the ‘Azzurri’ keeper didn’t gave them the scores.

On the minute 56, Vieira had to leave the field for an injury and to replaced him, Alou Diarra was sent in. With France pushing hard, Lippi decided to send De Rossi instead of the AC Roma’s Captain, Francesco Totti, and also placed Iaquinta in the field, on Perrota’s position.

On the 62nd minute Andrea Pirlo made a free-kick which Toni headed into the box, but the Italians had only a couple of seconds to celebrate what they thought was their second goal. The linesmen indicated that it was offside and the goal was taken away from them, leaving the game with the same equal score. During these same minute the ball was took to the other side of the field where Thierry saw some space and hit the sphere straight to the frame but the goalkeeper Gigi Buffon anticipated the action and saved his team.

On the 69th minute France saw another opportunity with a free-hit done by Zinedine Zidane, resulting by Cannavaro, who stepped on Rivery’s foot. The strike from Zidane was chancy but Buffon caught the ball and one more time saved his team.

By the end of the second half it was obvious that both teams were starting to get tired and wanted to end as soon as possible with the match. Both teams gave an excellent game to their fans. And both left the field to take those last minutes to prepare themselves to the next part of the match.

Extra time:

During the 100th minute Rivery, with Malouda’s help, took and wasted his last chance of making a goal for his team. After a nice interplay between him a his partners, he kicked the ball, but sent it out the field after it passed rolling next to the bar, while Buffon was in the ground watching the ball, alarmed for not being able to stopped it before.

Then on the 104th minute, Zidane made another play with his colleague Willy Sagnol, he shot the ball to Zizou, who responded heading the ball straight to the box, but Sr. Buffon stopped the ball, almost with his fingertips.

Then the biggest of all the surprises this World Cup 2006 gave us, came. On the 111’ minute when everything seamed to be fine, the referee Horacio Elizondo stopped the play, turned back and run to the other side of the field, to find out that the two scorers of the game had a war of words. And as a result of the confrontation the French captain Zidane, heated Marco Materazzi, on his chest, making him felt down on his back.

Apparently what pushed Zidane to hit Materazzi, was an insult made to certain members of his family. The fact is that many French are disappointed of his reaction, especially because this act sent Zizou out of his last match, in the worst moment, in the moment when its team and coach needed him the most.

Penalties: 
“Expectation is the root of all heartache.”  -William Shakespeare.

The first player to make a penalty was Pirlo and you could felt the nervousness from everybody in the stadium through the TV scream. Pirlo took his place and kicked the ball, fooled Barthez who went looking for the ball on the wrong side and all the red, white and green fans shouted of joy. But it was France next turn and it was the Lyon player, Sylvain Wiltord. He kicked the sphere and he made a goal to the Juventus goalkeeper.

The score was tied, the next Italian was the scorer of the day, Materazzi seamed calm and his strike was well thought and even though Barthez saw the ball quite close he couldn’t stopped it. The second chance for the French was next and it was the turn of the experienced Trezeguet, who gave the championship to the Italians after he missed his strike hitting the bar above Gianluigi. Everyone watching that match was anxious there were 3 more strikes for each team and France was able to emend its error.

But the story was already written and it was Italy’s turn to become Champions, after all 24 years is a long time with out it. The next players both Italian (De Rossi, Del Piero and Grosso) and French (Abidal and Sagnol) fooled the goalkeepers, but Trezeguet’s mistake was already there placing Italy on the first place of the German’s World Cup.

All rest I can say it’s that is a shame the World Cup 2006 is already over. During this month we got excellent entertainment and many surprises from the 32 teams participating. Now all we have left is keep waiting for the FIFA World Cup 2010, South Africa.

“Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them -a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have the skill, and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill. “
                                                                       - Muhammad Ali
 

This entry was posted on Monday, July 24th, 2006 at 4:00 amand is filed under Soccer(t) , FIFA World Cup(t) . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.