ZIDANE --A SCANDAL IN THE MAKING

Before the Sunday morning worship service at church, we normally have a one hour session of Bible Study. During last Sunday’s session - the topic for discussion was 'Growing through temptation' – one point my Pastor made was, “We face circumstances every day that tempt us to do contrary to what the Bible implores us to do – which is to show love,patience, gentleness,long-suffering, e.t.c.”
How I wish that the French Soccer Star, Zinedine Zidane had been in attendance (with his interpreter). Unfortunately, he was many miles away; and he probably wasn’t in the mood to listen to sermons, as his mind was obviously focused on the final match of the month- long FIFA World Cup soccer championships, in which he was expected to play a major role. Well, as it turned out, Mr. Zidane did play more than one major role. The events surrounding this case have been well documented, but they still bear restating here.
Zinedine Zidane had been voted as the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the entire tournament by a panel of experts constituted by FIFA, the voting having been taken before the final match. On the night, both teams, Italy and France, played out a 1 – 1 draw at the end of the regulation 90 minutes, and went into 30 minutes of added time (Extra Time). Significantly, Zidane had scored the game’s opening goal from a penalty kick in the first half while Italian defender, Marco Materazzi, had scored the equalizing goal. About two – thirds of the way into extra time, Zidane and Materazzi got into a scuffle that ended with Zidane knocking the Italian down with a head – butt to the chest. Zidane was immediately ejected from the game.
It’s difficult to understand how Zidane could have acted like that on such a big stage, with hundreds of millions of people watching. My initial reaction was that of shock, but after reflecting on the matter for some time, my verdict is that there were more guilty parties than just Mr. Zinedine Zidane.
Zidane is too experienced in these matters to simply flare up at such a stage, at such a crucial time, without some serious provocation. Materazzi must have uttered some unprintable words, and I strongly believe that his action was a result of a grand plan that involves other parties. FIFA has got it right in deciding to investigate. Another Italo-type scandal smells!

A TALE OF TWO GOALKEEPERS.

The host country, Germany placed third after beating Portugal 3-1 in the Third Place match. The match featured veteran goalkeeper Oliver Kahn playing his first match of the tournament(and given the captain's arm band) and putting up a splendid performance that proved wrong Coach Juergen Klinsmann's belief that Kahn was unusable while the hunt for the trophy lasted.
This was one of those matches that can be described as 'A tale of two goelkepers'. We had a similar one earlier in the competition - Czech Republic Versus USA. In this case, Portugal's goalie, Ricardo, who had performed heroics in previous matches, could find no answer to the Germans' powerful shooting. Three long-range efforts from the same player, Bastian Schweinsteiger, shook his net and made him look cheap. Wonderful shots, no doubt, but not all were unstoppable.
At the other end, Kahn was stopping opposition shots at point blank range, and also parried a swerving long range freekick from Christiano Ronaldo.
The Germans were well worth their win, even if the scoreline was a bit flattering. The difference was clearly in the goalkeeping.

AZZURRI BLUE IS THE COLOUR AS GERMANY 06 ENDS.

Italy are the new world champions of Association Football!
But they must be one of the most unlikely World Cup winners in history. Few people tipped them before the start of the tournament. SOCCER MAD certainly didn't give them a chance......."The latins might as well forget it too. For the Italians, strikers Alessandro Del Piero and Fillipo Inzaghi have passed their prime, and their successors aren’t quite in the same class".
Losing finalists, France were in the same category in SOCCER MAD'S book........"France may still have Henry, Zidane and Viera, but they don’t have anything like the Class of 98. I think they will find it hard to go beyond the quarterfinal."
But the French steadily improved as the tournament went on, and the Italians put in a couple of excellent performances after a lucky escape against the impressive Australians at the start of the group phase.
Both teams were able to portray European football in very good light, with strong defending, excellent teamwork, and some creative forward play.
A fitting blue-coloured end to the World Cup!

BLUE IS THE COLOUR, AS A MEMORABLE WORLD CUP ENDS.

I suppose I have to give full credit to the Italians for a job well done. You can't argue with results, can you? They've beaten the host team- a team in excellent form- and they are in the final of the World Cup.
So congrats to the Azzurris, and to Les Bleus as well. These are two of the giants I had written off before the start of the tournament (see "NO CLEAR-CUT FAVOURITES"). But they've made me eat my words.
And those predictions? Oh, they were going very well up till about four days ago when it all went wrong. Now I'm making no more predictions for the remainder of the tournament. But I can at least have favourites , and back them.
So I'm going for Germany to beat Portugal inthe 3rd place match today. Some consolation, but if you ask me, not enough consolation for missing out on the final. The Cup itself -nothing less- was all that the average German fan had hoped for, especially after the team had struck a beautiful rythym midway into the tournament. And let's hope that Oliver Kahn, MVP at the last World Cup, will be given the honour of featuring for his country at least once in this World Cup.
The final tomorrow is between two teams who "can't win it". Well, one of them will have to win it. And I'm backing the French; not because they are or have the best team in the competition, but because they have Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry, two players I admire, not just for their technical qualities, but also for their cool-headedness. They also have a solid defence -due in part to good quality individual play by William Gallas, Lilian Thuram, Claude Makelele, Patrick Vieira and Zidane.
No disrespect to the Italians who also have a solid defence. But their best weapon must be their teamwork.
France, Italy, Germany and Portugal, in that order !

THIS COULD BE ANOTHER ALL-EUROPEAN SEMIFINAL.

Luiz Scolari may have had some great achievements in recent years, but I think he's vastly overrated. He's reputed to have won about a dozen straight world cup finals matches and to have masterminded two of England's defeats in major competitions, but was he not the coach when Portugal lost twice in the same competition to the same team - the journeymen of Greece?
And I can't understand why he has failed to play Fulham striker, Luiz Boa Morte, who did as much as anyone else to get Portugal to the finals.
Well his team has done very well here, and they're good enough to be in the semi-finals.
England have sorely missed Michael Owen.Without him, England just aren't England, and this could well be the end of the road for the team. Wayne Rooney's surprise return to near full fitness still leaves them with a fighting chance of achieving their dream of lifting the World Cup.
But they would have to add a lot of steel to their all round quality to achieve it. This is a close one that could go either way.
The French have not surprised me with their progress; indeed this is the stage at which I expected them to be knocked out, and it's just as well that the world champions are their opponents. Mind you they are a very good side - their last match confirmed that; Iwon't be surprised if they are the ones to dethrone the champions.
The Brazilians have at last stepped up their game, but some of their players still seem to be holding something back. Ronaldinho certainly - except there's something terribly wrong with him. Somehow I feel he is waiting for the semi final before exploding. He might as well detonate that bomb one round earlier, or the world champions might be gone by the end of the day!