Full (and I mean full) coverage of the 2006 World Cup, from start to finish. I watched the whole thing and wrote about every single game, so if it happened at the World Cup, you’re bound to find it here.
This article is a submission for the Soccerlens ‘Share Your Football Experiences’ Contest; to participate, please read the details here.
Australia 3 Japan 1, Reads the scoreboard on a hot Summer’s day in Kaiserslautern, Germany on the 12th of June; Anybody looking at a score like that would think 3-1 is a fairly one-sided affair, But that game in June was anything but…
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Long story short - Zahavi speaks to the Israeli press about the Israel v England game, talks about the England squad under Eriksson being jealous of Beckham and about the possible reaction in England towards McClaren if England loses to Israel tomorrow.
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If you were to summarise England’s World Cup, you couldn’t do better than this:
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Zinedine Zidane finally spoke out about his clash with Materazzi in the World Cup final (a clash that left Materazi flattened on the floor and got Zidane a straight red card).
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Zinedine Zidane wins the Ballon d’Or - the Golden Ball - the best player award - for the 2006 World Cup.
Are you fuckin’ kidding me?
Can someone please cut through the tripe and the hype and actually point these myopic idiots in the right direction?
Written by Ahmed Bilal. 4 comments
The 2006 World Cup saw a host of great goals, including a couple on the second last day of the tournament as Schweinsteiger and Germany provided two more crackers to go with the Lahm and Frings efforts from their first game against Costa Rica.
But choosing the best goal out of all of them is perhaps impossible.
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To a man, the French were impressive in the 2006 World Cup final. Their possession play, attacking flair and speed down the flanks would have overwhelmed any other defence in Germany, and it is a tribute to the Italians that they did not let through a legitimate goal in face of France’s best attacking performance in the World Cup.
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Update: Zidane has spoken about the incident. Read Zidane’s comments on the headbutt incident. Read also: What Did Materazzi Say To Zidane?
It has been one of those World Cups - where the matches threaten to explode into brilliance but ultimately leave you wanting more.
Last night, Zidane and the World Cup final epitomised that feeling, with the master dazzling but ultimately unsuccessful and the match, which had threatened to be played fast and furious, ending into yet another cagey battle between two excellent teams.
Written by Ahmed Bilal. 15 comments
The 2006 World Cup will be remembered for a lot of things - Brazil’s failure (unexpected), England’s failure (expected), France’s renaissance (unexpected), the wonderful fans and the great goals (somehow less means better).
But the one thing it will be remembered for most is the diving.
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Recent World Cups, and especially the 2006 edition, have seen more even matches and an emphasis on defensive strengths. Franz Beckenbauer blamed the coaches for not being adventurous enough but the fact is, all teams are fighting harder, not just the big ones.
Luckily for us, there were still some amazing matches played over the course of the month - and it goes without saying that the France vs Italy final will be a candidate for this list as well.
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Germany win 3-1, and secure 3rd place. Yawn. Apart from Oliver Kahn and Luis Figo playing their last games, this game was meaningless for football (although German fans will be sure to milk it for all its worth.
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Manchester United and England’s striker Wayne Rooney has been suspended for two matches and fined 3500 Euros (2400 pounds) by FIFA for his straight red card against Portugal in the World Cup quarter-final.
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Manchester United hasn’t had a great World Cup - One of our strikers was dropped when he could have helped his team win, another hasn’t been used in the tournament but managed to pick up two bookings in 10 minutes, and the third got a red card for a stomp that condemned Ronaldo to infamy.
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FIFA announced their picks for a 23-man squad of World Cup 2006. As expected, there were some glaring omissions, ridiculous inclusions and a tendency to be out of touch with the tournament that had actually gone on.
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Lucas Podolski, the young striker who has just signed for Bayern Munich, was chosen as World Cup 2006’s best young player by FIFA this morning.
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(Italy beat France 5-3 on penalties)
So this is what winning a world cup feels like…
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There are three major awards to be handed out in this World Cup - the Golden Shoe (for most goals), the Best Young Player and The Golden Ball (best player of the tournament).
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The World Cup is almost over and all eyes are trained towards Berlin, where Italy and France will meet on Sunday.
Stuttgart though, will be preparing for a showdown of it’s own, as Germany and Portugal prepare to slug it out for a 3rd place finish in what promises to be a physical and controversial encounter.
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Italy vs France promises to be a classic - two teams extremely strong in defense and fast on the counter and down the flanks. For the clubs whose players are involved in the World Cup final though, winning the trophy will mean a triumph for them as well.
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The 2006 World Cup has been begging for a footballing epic and tonight the Azzuri pulled off an “Italian Job” that will rank as one of their finest wins over Germany.
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FIFA have handed German midfielder Torsten Frings a one-match ban for a punch thrown on Argentina striker Cruz in the melee following the Germany-Argentina quarter-final penalty shootout.
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Warning: This is not safe for work.
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Keeping with the SoccerLens tradition of making predictions before every round of the World Cup, here’s another edition of World Cup predictions as we near the finale of Germany 2006.
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After the 1-1 draw with South Korea, you would have bet your house against France beating Spain, much less reaching the semi-final of the 2006 World Cup.
But now, thanks to the magic quartet of Zidane, Henry, Vieira and Ribery, France have one eye on Berlin.
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Right after the match, there’s very strong temptation to blast Lampard and Eriksson for England’s defeat.
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By this point, very few people consider England as genuine contenders for joining Germany and Italy in the World Cup semi finals. And if that was a stretch, hardly anyone would consider the chance of England being in Berlin as being anything more than wishful thinking.
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With the Brazil-France quarter-final later today, it seems relevant to revisit an article wrote earlier titled ‘How to Beat Brazil’ and see what tactics France will be using today in a bid to repeat their World Cup 98 heroics.
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Update: The ‘Frings punch’ clip has been added - please see the link at the end of this article.
By now everyone has probably either seen or heard or read about the confrontation after the Argentina-Germany World Cup quarter-final between the two sets of players. After watching the video (link at the end) and read reports on the matter, here are some details on what actually happened.
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For a team that barely broke a sweat in their 3-0 win over Ukraine tonight, the Italians showed that they will be as hard to beat as Argentina were for the Germans.
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To think that at the end of 90 minutes Argentina had 59% of possession, and that even after 120 minutes at the end of extra time they had 58% possession, you start to wonder where Argentina actually lost the match and where Germany won.
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