2006 World Champions: Italy

Finally World Cup 2006 draws to a close. A month had passed, so much had happened in the footballing world. From the first match between Germany n Costa Rica to the final match this morning between France n Italy, the world had seen many ups n downs, n cried a lot too. Football, the only sport that has the ability to bring the whole world together. Italy won the World Cup this time round, their 4th to date, just one less than Brazil. The Azzurri won the match on penalties after extra time with the scoreline deadlocked at 1-1.

France went ahead early in the match when Materazzi was adjudged to have fouled Florent Malouda as he made a clumsy challenge inside the area. Zinedine Zidane converted the spot kick cheekily n bring France 1-0 up. Zidane jogged away with an arm raised as he joined Pele, Vava and Paul Breitner as the only players to score in two World Cup finals. However, the lead only lasted for 12min as Materazzi made amends for conceding the penalty when he climbed above Patrick Vieira to level the scores on the 19th min through a header from Andrea Pirlo's corner to record his second goal of the tournament.

Just like the European Championship in 2000, the match had to go on to extra time. David Trezeguet came on for Ribery n Sylvain Wiltord for Henry after the former ran himself to the ground n the latter limped out of the match. The fresh legs couldn't inject any spark to the game n a moment of madness from Zinedine Zidane marred his last ever match for Les Bleus. With 10minutes of extra time left, Zidane rammed his head into the chest of Italian defender Marco Metarazzi. The referee missed the incident initially but produced the red card upon consultation with his assisstant. It was the end of the road for Zinedine Zidane as he walked into the tunnel slowly in tears. I bet Metarazzi must have said something very insulting to Zidane to cause the man to act so rashly. He's usually a mild mannered man n to see him headbutt another player was a shock.

France lost some steam after seeing their great captain n inspirational leader leave the pitch with still 10mins to go on the clock. It went on to penalties to decide the winner n i thought France have the edge due to Italy's poor record on penalty shootouts. I was wrong. David Trezeguet, the hero back in 2000 when he scored the golden goal against Italy, became the villian as his kick hit the bar. It was all down to full back Fabio Grosso to convert the deciding kick n he did it with style; a powerful shot with his left foot onto the top right corner of the net. The Italians were ecstatic. It was a sweet revenge for Euro2000 as well as excorcising the ghost of World Cup 1994 when they lost to Brazil through penalties in the final match.

So yeah, the new world champion. Italy came a long way to lift the trophy. I don't have much nice things to say about them, except for their rock wall defence. No other team in this tournament can boast a defence of conceding only 2 goals, except for Switzerland who went out even though they didn't concede a goal. The Azzurri was lucky to have gotten past Australia with 10men in the 2nd round n they were 2nd time lucky when they beat my beloved Germany with 2 LATE LATE goals in the semi-finals. I'm still feeling the heart ache for that match. ARGH!!

Ok, now that the World Cup is over, it also marks the end of some players' international career. It's really sad to see the great players leave the international scene.

France: Claude Makelele, Zinedine Zidane(complete retirement), Lilian Thuram, Fabian Barthez, Sylvain Wiltord

Japan: Hidetoshi Nakata(complete retirement)

Australia: Mark Viduka, Mark Schwarzer, John Aloisi

Brazil: Cafu, Roberto Carlos, Pernambucano Juninho, Jose Ze Roberto

United States: Brian McBride, Claudio Reyna, Kasey Keller

Czech Republic: Pavel Nedved, Karel Porbosky, Jan Koller

Italy: Francesco Totti, Alessandro Del Piero, Filippo Inzaghi, Gianluca Zambrotta

Portugal: Luis Figo, Pedro Pauleta

Netherlands: Edwin Van der Sar, Phillip Cocu

Trinidad & Tobago: Dwight Yorke

Sweden: Henrik Larsson, Niclas Alexandersson, Marcus Allback

England: David James

Germany: Oliver Kahn, Jens Nowotny, Jens Lehmann, Oliver Neuville, Bernd Schneider

The above players from their respective countries have either retired from the internationl scene or are close to it with this World Cup as their last major tournament. The biggest loss would be Zinedine Zidane n Hidetoshi Nakata who are retiring completely. Zizou is 34 n Nakata 29. I will always remember Zidane as the player during my time who plays the most beautiful football. He will be missed....

A video of Zinedine Zidane