The 2006 World Cup Awards

Zizou – unbelievable. He absolutely deserved this award – until he flagrantly head butted a guy – and get red carded with 10 minutes to go. Killing is team’s momentum.

Most entertaining – Portugal – what are you F***ing kidding me? The ill-spirited bunch of floppers entertaining. Who arguably sparked off the ugliest match of the competition! If FIFA really believes that – they’re going to kill the Cup. It’s seriously on the ropes with a lot of fans after the flopping – but to think that’s entertaining? Wow.

I’d agree – Argentina, or actually Germany. They really did it this competition. Liked Ecuador too.

Spirited – I think FIFA should have made a statement and refused to award this one, this time around.

BTW – this is a time for lots of all star teams.

Standard – best and worst.

More fun teams:
- All flagrant fouls – Zidane, Figo, Rooney etc.
- All floppers, C. Ronaldo, etc.
- All great defensive plays, etc.
- All great passes, Ballack’s, Zidane’s, etc.

Now the time!

i’m surprised at Brazil and Spain getting the fair play award… I think Brazil more-so than Spain(that dive against the Ukraine)… I think I wouldve liked to see the Ukraine or maybe even Australia win that… I think they are 2 amazing teams that shouldve gotten some recognition somehow… Nevertheless, I am happy for Spain and Brazil.

Congrats to everyone.

Bob, I agree with you, I think Argentina was the most entertaining team…

Golden Ball:

Agreed (or Buffon)

Most Entertaining Team:

Yours are both good choices, but I’d pick Argentina

Best Young Player:

Probably would have been Messi had Argentina advanced. Since they had to give it to someone, Podolski was as good a choice as any, although you’re right that he wasn’t consistently solid.

Best Keeper:

Yep

Golden Shoe:

Yep, although he lost some luster being selfish against Portugal.

Team Fair Play:

I’ll go with the good old US of A here, they had the fewest yellow’s in the group stages.

Golden Ball
Winner: Fabio Cannavaro, Italy

Most Entertaining Team
Winner: Argentina

Best Young Player
Winner: Messi, if Argentina had advanced, or Cesc Fabrigas if Spain Advanced

Best Keeper
Winner: Ricardo of Portugal

Golden Shoe
Winner: Robinho ( although he played as a sub, whenever he came on to the field, the tempo of the game changed dramatically)

Team Fair Play Award
Winner: Spain and Brazil

I agree about Argentina being the most entertaining. I also enjoyed Ghana and I wish Michael Essien had been available to play against Brazil in the second round.

Also, being of Italian descent, I have certain connections and I was able to find out what was said between Materazzi and Zidane.

It’s not pretty but you can read it at http://www.SoccerBriefs.com

Joe Bellanti
Editor
http://www.SoccerBriefs.com

@stuart
forgot the italy game, usa got two reds there.

most entertaining tem:
germany and argentina, too close to call

i think portugal vs holland was very entertaining, like a horror-movie, you’re kind of digusted by all the violence, but at the same time it’s fascinating to watch.

I can’t let this lie – anyone who thinks Ronaldo deserved the best young player award just is a complete ignoramus about football. What he is is an adequate player, a serious cheat and a halfway decent actor – not for his dives but for how he tries to look like a good player. If you really know what you are watching you saw that he was the END of many good Portuguese moves that stopped when they reached him where he did something flashy and showy and then made a poor shot or pass. He does all the stepover crap because he knows he can’t beat the defender with the cross.

If he hadactually tried to get good position then he wouldn’t have needed to dive to cover the fact he was poorly positioned.

He plays the same way at Man Utd. There’s a reason Van Nistelroy hates him – he is unable to be a good team player.

To his credit he made a good penalty.

I’d give Ribery the nod for this award, but have to agree that none of the young players really shone. I actually thought Aaron Lennon for England played better than anyone named above but he didn’t get enough playing time to register.

All these awards… who gets the best coach award.

My vote: Juergen Klinsmann

Joe, thanks for the comment. To be honest, I think it makes Zidane look even worse… I mean, everyonw was saying it was a racist comment, that, on the other hand, is just soccer talk… I play soccer and we girls are always saying nasty things like that… EVEN WORSE! I’m sure most teams do…

Best young player: Ribery(Surprise that he wasn’t even be nominate).
Best team fair play award:Spain??(whose players insulted frenchs, whith a racist Aragones at his head, whose supporters hiss boo the french anthem)really??? Could it be France if ZZ could preserve his sel control. Brazil didn’t play a lot of matchs but they always seem ok for fair play.
Portugual ??? For Scolari ’s diving entertainement probaly. I think he made errors, Withs two wings i prefer Nuno gomes vs Pauleta, for his head’s play. Zidane, greatest player of course, anybody else? Without Zidane there is no french team. Cannavaro,even if i think he’s dopped player, and if he deserved as zidane deserved a red card for his agressions(he injuried Zidane and sometimes do strange tackles, are a good player but Italia not an essential player for Italia, on my opinion.could be a good team without him.In the eye of all the racist posts and hates he provokes far before his unfortunate gesture, in the mouths of all who think they dislike frenchs, for of all the fears about him and the faults against him, even on the buffon and italians smiles when he was threw out, we see how great he is.(I would never smile if Cannavaro or Toni or Totti were threw out, like i was really sad for Roberto Baggio when french beat him, a question of proud and dignity may be). Buffon great player even if he doesn’t need to smile when Viera was injured.

Catherine, you mean to tell me you really fell for that? I think Joe is completely off his head with this one. Until either Zizou or Matrix comes up with waht happened, its going to be in the realm of the unknown.

Lip-reading..? Bah.

@ Thierry: Ribery might be your youngest player, but he’s not young at all.

zidane did the right thing,according to Brazilian journalist his sister was called a prositute

To Janik. Dear Janik, Ribery should play the less 23 years ‘ old Euro. What is the age to be considered young in this old world??lol The youngs of europe are not suffiently young for the world, make me confused.
With all my sympathy.(no stress is not bad too for a real young.)

oups wanted to say Podolski is not bad too for a real young

If indeed his sister was called a prostitute he still didn’t have to be so flagrant. My best young player C.Ronaldo why bcuz his team actually reached the semis. My second choice would have been L.Messi. Golden ball definitely ZIZU but he still disgraced himself. Best goalkeeper Buffon.Fair play award my team T&T screw what anyone else thinks.Most entertaining team Argentina.

headbutt some body on the street and its an assault. period.its right what catherine says theres some terrible abuse in womans football,your shirts dont match your shorts and your arse looks big in those shorts are just two of the abuse ive heard. cannavaro best player in the tournament.

Cannavaro is the best, most solid player but I guess the Golden Ball rarely goes to difensore. I hope he’s around in 2010. Italian papers are talking that he might stay with Juventus even if they fall to Serie B instead of going to Madrid. Will see. Zidane played well but only for 2 games. Bad example to be set now everyone’s going to do their goat impersonation to win the Golden Ball from next WC.
Best Keeper: Buffon of course but Ricardo of Portugal was fabulous in the PK shootout.

simon,

you mean to tell me you actually think zidane will tell the truth about what happened? bah…

Golden Ball

My Choice: I think Zidane was a good choice by FIFA. Sadly many have only visions of the “red card” but looking beyond this, Zidane is a quality footballer.

Most Entertaining Team

Winner: Portugal

My Choice: There were many and Portugal wasn’t one of them, I’d put Ghana and Ivory Coast up there, probably Ivory Coast.

Best Young Player

Winner: Lukas Podolski, Germany. There ought to be an older player award too.

My Choice: Podolski, without a doubt

Best Keeper

My Choice: Jans Lehmann, Germany – Plays well and always wears a smile. I wonder what kind of gum he chews though, anyone?

Golden Shoe

Winner: Miroslav Klose, Germany

My Choice: Klose

Team Fair Play Award

My Choice: Japan

Zidane, despite his act against Italy, deserved the award.

Zidane played magic against Brazil! sh*t, ain’t those guys supposed to be the best in the world?? If I recall, most everyone was giving the game to Brazil. And yet, what did we see? a soccer legend live on TV giving the best players in the world (and I mean best players, not divers/cheaters/…) a lesson. That was inspirational and just plain beautiful. So, yeah, it’s totally deserved.

OK, here is an update on Zidane:

Materazzi apparently called him ‘dirty terrorist’. See it here:
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldFootballNews&storyID=2006-07-10T163843Z_01_L10406204_RTRIDST_0_SPORT-SOCCER-WORLD-FRANCE-ZIDANE.XML

Just for being an Arab. Now, all of you can you justify this???? And on the top, it seems that Materazzi added his sister is a prostitute. How about that????

Whatever you think about Zidane’s behavior, I am with him. It is the matter of honor and honor is more important than awards.

Filthy Italian soccer (NB: I am talking about soccer, not the people per ce). Diving, cheating, hitting and insulting from behind, simulating.

You got your world cup. Choke with it.

Zidane – what a way to retire. What a way to end an international career of stature. I don’t care what was said or what team you root for, that was uncalled for. On-the-field comments are private, but butting a man in the chest in the front of the world only proves that your are a brute, out of control, and above all, selfish. He let his team down. He knows the consequences. It’s as if he didn’t care about the game’s outcome.

And the journalists setting all that aside to give the man a sentimental goodbye just shows that they don’t care about the future of the sport. They just want more blood and more red cards so they can write about controversey. If it bleeds, it leads. I’m sure they can’t wait for the three yellow card limit.

I am a Netherlands fan, and I was dismayed when the players let Portugal get to them and started retaliating. Yeah, the ref’s poor handling provoked the frustration, for sure, but each player defines his reputation for play by his actions.

Zidane defined his play at that moment – and disappointed the world. Congratulations Italy, Cannavaro for great play, and Buffon for some great saves througout the cup.

My Choice: Andre Pirlo he was italy’s brain since totti didn’t really shine.

Most entertaining team: Germany

Best young player: C. Ronaldo

Best Keeper: Buffon the best

Golden Shoe: Henry scored when needed to

I’d agree w/ your pics Bob. However, i’m not that opposed to Zidane getting the golden ball award, even though i do think Cannavaro deserved it more for his more consistent performance this WC. Even though Zizou clearly messed up and it just was’nt a pretty way to exit the WC, I still think aside from that incident, he did well enough to deserve the award.

Could someone explain to me how they decide which team is the most entertaining?? I mean Portugal?? WTH!! Should’nt the award be about the most entertaining football, not the most entertaining theatrics? Go figure…to my mind the team that bought the most amazing football skills to the field this WC was Argentina or at least Ivory Coast or Ghana, or even Mexico, but they just were’nt as consistently flawless as the Argentines. I’m sorry, but i never sat at the edge my seat when portugal played. Argentina gets my vote for most entertaining.

All of you seem surprised that Portugal was considered the most entertaining team and are even wondering at how the hell it happened (already making up your own theories about how Fifa controls all this) but the fact is that it was a public poll and FUNNILY ENOUGH Portugal got in first place with 47% with Italy second with 42%… Argentina got 3%.
So, it was the public’s opinion, too bad if you don’t agree (I’m not saying I do).

“Here is your chance to look at human garbage called Materazzi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq6HosVlskQ&search=materazzi ”

This guy is the bad guy…like a “goon” in hockey.

I strongly disagree with what Vitali spoke!

“Whatever you think about Zidane’s behavior, I am with him. It is the matter of honor and honor is more important than awards.”

It’s honorable to headbutt an opponent on a world-class stage? HARDLY!!! Thats not honorable at all. If you’ve ever played football (nay, any sport) you know its chalk full of trash talk. It’s to some degree a brilliant strategy to mess with your opponents mind, sike him out of his game. In this particular incident, it showed Zidane’s true colors. No one can argue Zidane is a great footballer but for FIFA to award a loose cannon such a coveted award is very disrespectful; to the game and to the fans. Soccer is a game, its not life or death, he wasn’t defending his country by his actions. There was absolutely nothing admirable in his actions… he tainted his entire career, still a great player, but with no respect. So who cares how good one is without respect?

best younger player:C.ronaldo
Most entertaining team:portugal
i found portugal as a very good team this year .
best keeper:buffon.italy

To P Diddy (what a strange nickname)
“it showed Zidane’s true colors. ”

Ah yeah??? Could you explain me what for you are Zidane true color?? And who is your model of fair play??? As a player i prefer receive a theatral headbutt to an italian tackle which could be break my leg or my shoulder(see the match). With my sympathy.

Portugal the most entertaining? Could be true because we never knew when they would pick up another yellow. Portugal was as entertaining as watching my belly button. Germany was very entertaining and scored more goals than anyone. Argentina was also entertaining. Being german I naturally pick my team. At least Germany should get the fair play award since they had the lowest number of yellow/red cards of anyone in the tourney. I guess the Frings imitation of Mike Tyson did them in. Spain making their racists chants to France certainly shouldn’t be given this award. Most unsportsman like award should go to either Argentina for their behavior after the PK loss or to Italy for the foul on McBride, the dive against the Aussies, getting Frings suspended (I know it wasn’t the team but it was done to help their team), flopping all over the field against Germany and for whatever was said that set off Zidane. Lehmann should also be included in Bob’s goalie list.

Zi Zou??? Very BAD Precedence for FIFA’s FAIR PLAY campaign.

Bad campaign also for ADIDAS to promote their products :)))

If the ballots take up to 2000 votes then it must be collected before the final match (CMIIW), but the juror must take the minus point into account (may be 1000 votes :)))

RICARDO of Portugal have more ACCURATE FEELINGS of ball Direction, ESPECIALLY during the PENALTIES MATCH, there are LOTS LOTS of pressure for Goalkeeper during the PENALTIES Match than regular 2X45m or 2X15m.

Rgds.

Zizou would make a perfect spokesman for Red Bull. red BULL that is.

Golden Ball: Fabio Cannavaro, Italy. I would argue that Cannavaro held the Italian dfense together, and was a strong captain. He led a team that has been swarmed with media about the Serie A scandal, and kept them focused. Despite the reputation many of the Italians earned for flopping Cannavaro proved to be a genuine player.

Most Entertaining Team: Arentina. Watching Argentina play was amazing. They moved the ball all around the field with beauty and was entertaining to watch the pieces they put together. Its a shame their keeper went out, disrupting the tempo of the German game. Otherwise things would have been much different.

Best Young Player: I was most impressed with Podolski and C. Ronaldo, and once I finally watched France play, Ribery was worthy. I think these players played with a lot of heart and skill, and even at such a young age was able to lead their teams.

I know some of you out there don’t have access to ESPN/ABC so you may not be aware that the Berlin Olympiastadion was where Jesse Owens was snubbed by the Fuehrer after winning 4 gold metals. ABC made sure to repeat that remark at least 3 times in the final lest we all forget. Naturally they reminded us of that every time a game was played in Berlin. Well I guess ABC sees it as their mission in life to stir up anti-Germany sentiment every chance they get. I hope Fox gets to televise WC soccer in the future or maybe I should learn Spanish now so I can be proficient by 2010. Then ABC had to run sports scores the whole time at the bottom of the screen. If I wanted to know how Tiger Woods or the White Sox were doing I wouldn’t be watching the world cup. DUH!! Then they linked Zidane’s retirement to be like Elway and a few US football players retiring after the Super Bowl. I really needed to get that comparison so I could understand the concept. There is an old saying about some people not talking because they are afraid people will think they are fools and talking and removing all doubt. The ABC/ESPN crews never leave any doubt after every WC. If these announcers had any ethics they would donate their whole WC salary to the Special Olympics or some other charity. That means you too Mr. Balboa. I hope that in 2010 that Marcello goes and discovers the Pacific Ocean like that other Balboa did 500 years ago. A second rate player critizising the world’s best players. Now isn’t that a joke? What’s next Benoitt Benjamin critizising Shaq?

The whole Adidas advertising campaign was a flop. Here in the US we’re having imigration debates and people are upset about immigrants being granted citizenship without even having a rudimentary knowledge of English. These idiots run a commercial where the only spoken words are Spanish. They wouldn’t even let us punch 1 on the remote control for English. I still don’t understand why I should get their text messages? At least Nike had Brazilians speaking English.

Golden Ball: No player has really dominated in the tournament. I would have still gone for Zidane after his red card, since he represented the beauty of creative and attacking footall.

Most Entertaining Team: I would have to go for Argentina who have played some magnificent passing football games.

I really enjoyed Adidas commercial. I only saw it once so I couldn’t tell who all the players are. I saw Kahn, Ballack, Zidane, who else were in the commercial? Using Spanish was perfectly acceptable. Can you imagine an American 10 year old playing such wild game without a couple of lawyers on the sideline?

Argentina: most skilled team (passing the ball around
isn’t that entertaining)

Germany: most entertaining, cause they played football the way its meant to be, fast and agressive

“I know some of you out there don’t have access to ESPN/ABC so you may not be aware that the Berlin Olympiastadion was where Jesse Owens was snubbed by the Fuehrer after winning 4 gold metals. ABC made sure to repeat that remark at least 3 times in the final lest we all forget.”

maybe they should’ve mentioned that the street in front of the stadium is named after Jesse Owens

Thierry,

I’m not condoning Italys unsportsman-like qualities! I’m simply commenting on FIFAs disrespectful winner of Golden Ball. With regards to Zidane’s “true colors”, this isnt the first time he’s acted like an ass on the field. Zidane would be an idol if he had class, but as the world knows now, he’s simply without. Especially considering what was said, granted what ive read is all speculation, but if they are true, calling someone a “dirty terrorist” is down right hilarious… it makes NO SENSE! Plus if Materazzi called Zidane’s sister a prostitute, really!??!, Zidane gets his feelings hurt that easily? Evidently the kid didn’t grow up in a public school. At any rate, i dont see how anything said can justify his actions. The pitch is mean’t for soccer, and soccer only. What happens on the field stays on the field. The mark of a true athlete.

Dear P Diddy(can’t understand why this nickname),

Regardless your opinion, Zidane IS AN IDOL, and not only for french people. I don’t care what about americans medias say, (do they ever confessed they have consciouly tell lie for Irak?)i sufficiently know Zinedine Zidane to understand he certainly not give an headbutt for no reasons even if like americans say “boohhh it’s bad.” He ’s already act like an ass” Are you sure?? I suppose you had saw a lot of Zinedine Zidane’s matchs to be so affirmative. Or like numbers of people in the world(i don’t say american)did you forged your”own” opinion with what it had been said.
With all my respect.

P.S Who are your idol?

so Materazzi pinched Zidane’s nipples – maybe Zidane should wear a bra next time.
BTW most of the French fans have been cool and I read that their reception of the team at home was warm, especially for Trezequet who must have felt terrible in front of the crowd cheering for him. It also broke my heart to watch Lilian Thuram crying. still think the golden goal should have gone to Cannavaro, the reason he wasn’t so visible was because he hasn’t fouled much. When I checked the popular vote yesterday I think Buffon and Zidane were close (27% and 25%) but Cannavaro’s popular vote was low.

To Ms. Catenaccio,
Nice to see a cool italian supporter. I didn’t understood all these mediocrity and arrogance in italians ‘ comments. Usually we respect us deeply. Pherhaps a long period of defeats made them bitters. Or pherhaps there a lot of morons on this blog( it ’s another possibility too). I Think Cannavaro is a dopped man, but i could understand your admiration. You had already won the trophy, do you really want to run down Zidane and frenchs more?Congrats.

The awards are a joke, like many of the FIFA things… FIFA wants to give this clean picture of the game, wants to have the usual suspects in the last 8 but also to give some chance to underdogs, etc… So, FIFA wants a lot and manages very little…

The Golden ball was given to Zidane. I understand and the man deserves it, for all he made in his career (not especially in this WC, cos beating a weak Brazil, Spain with a dive and Portugal with a penatly is as weaker show as beating ENG on penalties, HOL with 1-0 and loosing to FRA for failing to get on in).

But C Ronaldo didn’t get the best kid awards due to lack of fair play (dives and etc). This naturally implies that Klose DID NOT dive… As everybody knows, this is total rubbish…

This also implies that Zidane is simultaneously awarded for fair play…

;-)

In the match against HOL, everybody jumped on Figo, saying he was the luckyest man on Earth, cos he headbutted van Bommel and got away with a yellow. Now, for Zidane, there’s already one million excuses for the deed. Eventually, we will discover that Zidane was actually right…

This wouldn’t bother me (I am sure he wouldn’t do something like that, in THE Final – in HIS Final, unless he felt he had a good reason), if it wasn’t the Figo case. Check the images, and you’ll see Figo only touching van Bomeml’s forehead. van Bommel dropped on the floor half an hour later, only whn the ref turned around.

It’s very clear and plane for all to see both cases are considerably different… Or better said, two very different “head-butts”…

The same with England and Rooney and C Ronaldo. Rooney stamps somebody’s balls and Portugal become the cheaters, the actual culprets of that stamping and C Ronaldo becames the Devil encarned…

About diving, about the WC’s being more and more goalless, I mean, one must realize that it’s a defense that wins the WC. Last time we had a Final with Italy (best defense in the world), it also went to penalties. So what…?

Wanna promote attack in the World Cup? Give the golden ball to a clearly attacking team, even if it was kicked out early (like Spain). Don’t “steal” an imaginary free-kick from a team playing pretty, putting a team like an almost death FRA, to almost win the WC eventually…

And about diving, I guess nobody can truelly say much, when one of the finalists got there out of dives in 2 crutial matches (they’d probably win those games anyway, but the fact remains that Henry DID dive against POR and SPA and also against ITA). ITA had dived to get that penalty against Australia.

However, apparently only Portugal does the diving, right…?

So, all of this to say, this “most entertaining team” award tastes very little. To me…

@Bob: Agree on your point of the goalless minutes. But remember… ENG also didn’t score against POR and FRA did it with one goal against Brazil plus on a penalty, two times, final included…

In my opinion, the only team in the same cathegory would be Argentina. And everybody knows they’d get that prize if they’d have reached the last 4. But hey, they weren’t as entertaining as POR defending the penalties. ;-)

ps – Portugal was the team that has the highest nr of shots on goal, one of the highest with fouls suffered (which one should think about, before talking about dives), one of the highest with corners gained, one of the highest nr of short passes, etc… Italy scored more but was much more efficient – shot much less (they have god knows how many strikers, POR doesn’t have much there)…

Anyway…

Congratulations (AGAIN) to Italy – also to France… :-)

I saw Materzzis videos he is dirty player but Zidane this time was loser because of him me and i belive many fans liked franch

The only one I would change from your list is Fair Play Award to Togo. Giving an opposition player a leg message in the middle of a WC match has to rank up there in terms of sportsmanlike behavior.

Italians were not able to defeat France, they won only by cunning, filthy dishonest tricks. It was the only way to win – they got rid of Zidane by provoking him to scandal behaviour. Zidane is the best, and Italy would NEVER win if he was there to the last minite. Materazzi did it deliberately, that means they were AFRAID of Zidane

Zidane does have a temper, but (with a few exceptions) he is usually a man of class. He and Figo demonstrated the best sportsmanship in the Cup when they traded jerseys at the end of the France vs Portugal match. Unfortunately, he lost his cool at a most inopportune moment. As a fan of France, but more generally as a fan of football, I was extremely disappointed by his actions. I’m still shocked that he would let his team and country down like that. But this is not his legacy. People who truly follow football will remember him by his singular vision and brilliant style, not one glaring error.

Golden Ball:I like Zidane for this one. I felt up until the final he was able to take his game up to the next level. Sometimes it seemed like it was just Henry and him. Although I did consider Pirlo- I felt he was the true core of Italy’s team.
Most entertaining: Germany- mainly because they took the home field advantage and really made a run with it despite the weak defense.
Young Player: Podolski’s fine with me.
Keeper: Ricardo. Bufon was fantastic but he was on a better team. Ricardo was fantastic and kept his team in it longer than they should have been.
Golden Shoe: Klose. No way to argue this one.
Team fair play: Probably could have skipped this one for this cup.
Now about Zidane. I think the guy stands there with the all-time greats, but it must be said; that was perhaps the dumbest foul in the history of football. His country needs him and he decides to throw it all away on a head butt? How about meeting the guy after the game? It was inexcusable to leave his team in the lurch like that. Most of us have played ball;, and I’m sure more than a few of us have been called a variety of evil things; how can this response be justified. Someone mentioned honor; his personal honor in a moment of passion should be more important than trying to lead his country to victory in sport’s most prestigious game? What is honorable about that?

i agree with you Claude. the drumbeat of criticism has been so loud from the Wall Street Journal to the NY Times, we can only hope that ABC/ESPN shows a little more respect and intelligence next time. doubtful though because as bad as it was you must agree that it was only marginally worse than the vast majority of sports in american where there are too many graphics too much talking and general stupidiity.

yes learn spanish or get satellite so you can watch the TSN (owned by ESPN !!??) telecast where the pipe in the BBC and everyone is happy. F U DOB and marcello and the entire studio crew. they all stunk and worsened the world cup for anyone with a few brain cells.

Oh yeah the italians worsened it too for their lousy play acting, violence (dr rossi i mean you) and ugly tattoos (matarazzi I mean you)

yuck.

If the a..hole called Zidane a terrorist, completely understand the reaction; 10 minutes left and running on empty, the game clearly headed for PK’s, he saw the need to stand up to that sort of skulduggery. Six months from now, the only thing we’ll remember of this game is Zidane teaching this scumbag a lesson with the Dive Team’s win on PK’s a statistic.

cristiano ronaldo should have won the best young player award…he’s an amazing talent and if anyone would watch how he handles the ball, he would be impressed. i think he deserved it, and the fact that he was booed during the last two games for portugal was absurd. by the way, zidane and no one else deserved the golden ball. no matter the scandal, this award is his for his talent, brilliance and the way he led the french to the final when everyone claimed that the french would get nowhere. these awards are for best players, and ronaldo and zidane are outstanding

Why would Italy be afraid of Zidane? The man has reportedly told his team that he is a homosexual so maybe they were afraid of him like homophobic. He told sources that Matterrazzi called him a “finocchio” translated a faggot.

To all you Anti Italian cry babies, take your diapers off, bend over and take it in your azzzzes.

“Here is your chance to look at human garbage called Materazzi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq6HosVlskQ&search=materazzi ”

This guy is the bad guy…like a “goon” in hockey.

I think Zidane is one of the greatest players that has ever existed…a step behind maradona, pele’, and van basten, but at the same level of platini.But giving him the golden ball for this tournament is absurd!!!His only good match was with Brazil….his first round games were a joke of what he used to be…On the other hand there are Buffon and Cannavaro that were absolutely fantastic from the start til the end of the tournament…i am pretty sure that italy would not have won the WC without them!!!and i am italian…..u can say all u want about provoking zidane and everything but that does not change that what he did is disgusting( probably even materazzi is but i doubt that he called zidane terrorist out of the blue…there must have been something from both sides b4)…remember each person is what they do!!!!

Zidane getting the Golden Ball award is a tragedy! The guy put a black eye on soccer and on top of that LOST the world cup. Cannavaro should have won the award hands down. Unfortunately the media wanted the great story line of Zidane. Italians never got any respect. In the end the team that performed best in the tournament took home the cup.

I stand corrected. Zidane is probably by far the best player of this tournament. He commanded his team for victory against Spain, Brazil, and Portugal.

While Cannavaro with Italy? Win against Ukraine and diving on the last minutes against Australia can’t be called as a great commandership. Nor does a lotere penalty kick win against Germany.

So yeah, Zidane does commanded his team superbly and deserved the golden ball.

“Nor does a lotere penalty kick win against Germany.”

Did you even watch the world cup?

People may question what Materazzi said, if anything, to provoke Zidane but nobody is questioning what, if anything, Zidane said to provoke Materazzi’s sentiments to Zidane. No matter how much admiration one may have for Zidane, he has always had a dirty streak in him. He has pulled these types of stunts before so why are people so shocked that he pulled them this time around. Fact is, though, Materazzi is one of the best players on Italy and was a key factor is having them win the World Cup. Zidane’s dismissal had no impact on Italy’s win. Whether he was on the field or not, Trezeguet still would have taken a PK and missed. This game should never have gone to PKs anyways. People can say that Italy cheated to win because they got Zidane kicked out. However, France’s goal was on a non-foul resulting in a PK, Italy had a good goal disallowed, and Zidane got himself kicked out. Zidane was a mere shadow of himself in this tournament except for a few games and he “won” this joke award on reputation. Cannavaro and Buffon were the 2 best players of this tournament and could easily have shared the Geolden Ball award as without them Italy would never have won.

Those who support racism may lament all they like. But the fact remains — Golden Ball Winner: Zinedine Zidane, France! Congratulations Zidane.

agreed Zizou won on reputation, reflects very poorly on the quality of the press who voted.

FIFA should consider some sort of maximum card requirement for people to win the award (eg. if you’ve gotten a straight red card or say 3 yellows you should be ineligible), otherwise their whole ‘fair play’ mantra is a joke.

Zizou forever!

got bad temper? so what! watch more closely; they all do it. Some are just ’smarter’ at it…

That said, Zidane played the Brazilian like no others. Pure magic!

How ironic it would be to have a racist lifting world cup, in the “say no to racism” world cup.

IF it was a racist comment, of course…

Best Young Player – Javier Mascherano – He showed the maturity of a veteran. Argentina’s brilliance was based on his solid foundation.

The tragedy is that we fail to look beyond attacking players while bestowing individual honours.

I suppose Cannavaro suffered due to the same mindset for Zidane, for all his greatness and magic against Spain and Brazil, was not consistently brilliant.

Golden Ball: Cannavaro should’ve gotten it. Why do FIFA allow everyone to vote for this award BEFORE the final match?

Most Entertaining Team: Argentina and Togo. Argentina for playing attractive football. Togo for Otto Pfister and all the drama.

Most entertaining person: The hillarious Graham Poll, the only referee who allowed a player to stay on the pitch after two yellow cards.

Best young player: Barnetta should’ve gotten it. He can tackle, pass and score. The complete package.

Best goalie: Buffon.

Team Fair Play Award: Australia should’ve gotten it for not protesting against Mr Poll’s decision on keeping Simunic on the pitch after two yellows.

ZIDANE IS THE BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD … WON GOLDEN BALL , YES , WE LOVE ZIDANE , FRANCE LOVES ZIDANE , THE WHOLE WORLD LOVES ZIDANE

Itay won thats all folks

A lowlife like Mothrfckerazzi surrounded by fakers and divers (Totti in the semis was a clown, diving away) there’s a great team role model for aspiring kids. The one half-way decent guy, Grosso, he wasn’t above it either when threatened with a man disadvantage over 30 OT minutes against Australia. And this is the team that scores over the head-butting Zidane in role modelling? The only thing we’ll remember of this team in 6 months is the bleeding McBride and a disallowed goal, a 95th minute penalty to deny the Aussies and a taunt-filled final with a lot of clownish divng along the way. Pity noone is going to remember the great football of the semis. Brazil’s 94 win, despite the asterisk, is a win; yours will be a mere statistic and an empty star. Outside of the 75M people that speak your tongue, the 06 team you sent will forever be remembered as the Dive Team, go mass-produce 75M blue one-piece bathing suits.

Zidane was fantastic during the games, he well deserved the golden ball , his plays against Spain and Brazil was unforgetable. He did the right thing against MOther Fucker Mterazzi.

To “No honor in your win”, from what you wrote it is pretty evident that soccer is not your strength, maybe you know much more baseball, basketball, american football, fishing……I understand that you cannot understand what does it mean to win a soccer WC and especially winning it for the 4th time. Maybe in the future you nephews can live this fantastic experience. Italy is the Story of soccer and even in this WC has ben fully proven No one can beat us!!!! Even France needed a penalty to score a goal. Forza Italia, and as red skins siad “Molti nemici molto onore”

You know what? Materazzi did the right thing not getting up and belting that french piece of garbage right in the face! Like who would do that. Racism. Racism is just a rumor. Zidane is just a poor sport and deserves to be stomped on, headbutted in the chest and then two nice cleets to the face! Zidane sucks and Italia rules!!!!

Golden Ball: Zidane : his weakness was giving away to materazzi provocation to get him out of the way.

Most entertaining: Germany-love their playing except that they kept kahn untuil the last match.

Young Player: Podolski

Keeper: Ricardo.

a lot of words had been said on zidane. he was a great player, respected and feared by the opponents for his skill and creativity. how strong a person can be to withstand provocation is unknown. however each person has their limits. What he did was wrong and should be penalised and he got it from the refree.
But what about the provoker with such a low moral and values with such eagerness to win? the world and football fans will punish him.

Well-said ikelah, What the point of bringing home a racist tainted trophy from the most “anti-racism” sporting event” ? Shame on the italy, cup without glory and admiration from people around the world comes to nothing.

Pirlo was definately the best player of the tournament for me.

The incedent that led to Zidane being sent off summed up the whole tournament. Grown men; vastly overpaid, with limited talent resorting to shirt pulling, shoving in the back, head butting, tripping , diving, play acting, time wasting and all manner of dirty tricks, brought absolute disgrace to the World Cup of 2006.

Very few of these golden wonders could keep the ball from rising above the crossbar of the goal; or showing great skills in dribbling and on the ground footwork.

Kick and rush was the order of the day.

Boring, boring, boring. So much so that out of the six games I actually switched on to I did not see the end of any of them. but switched off.

Soccer has become like Grand Prix car racing. Mind numbing to watch. Excesses of money; computer game plans and technology has ruined the sports.

The really sad thing is that when I go to watch schoolboy soccer matches the contestants ape their so called heroes and do exactly what they do. We are breeding sporting hooligans.

No more football for me. Grand Prix’s I gave up long ago.

don’t like soccer? don’t watch it but don’t come whine about it.
If all you can do is focus on the negative and forget the overwhelming positive feeling; it’s your problem. Thing is WC is one of the few events that brings together this f… up world. The only other coallition of that magnitude is busy bombing the crap out of some poor civilians. great role model!

@Jack: As a portuguese, I must feel flattered and thankfull to see how many people appreciated Ricardo. WC record on penalty saves… Cannot be just luck! :-)Even defending Zidane’s, he WAS there. The shot was excellent and just too fast for anybody to catch, I guess…

On the other hand, I must disagree when you say “a team that should have gone home earlier”, or something like that.

WHY?

Of the last 4, POR is the one that had to struggle the most. Not because we’re worse, but because we took the most dificult teams (HOL and ENG). BRA was frightfully easier for FRA than Portugal was, and against Spain it was a goost free-kick that put them back in the WC (FRA was also dead tired), Ukraine was no-oposition at all for Italy and no use talking again about the penalty against AUS, Germany had a super easy ride with SWE (and that swedish sent off was a joke) and nobody beats Germany in penalties. BUT also took a heavy weight out – Argentina. So, Germany had 1 hard one, POR had 2 and France and Italy had ridiculous easy rides getting there. Brazil is Brazil, but when Brazil doesn’t thrash, they’re usually quite beatable with a well organized and experienced defense.

We all know Portugal went down as the major diver, but France and Italy dived when it counted. Even in the final, the first penalty wasn’t a penalty. OK, later there was one the ref didn’t give FRA, and he did all right.

Had Portugal had a striker like Henry, or any italian, we’d have been in the final. POR was the team with the biggest nr of shots on goal. No play in the portuguese team happens with a lot (actually, too many) passes. The nickname “brazilians of Europe” was not asked for, but it’s there for decades.

So, I think not only Portugal deserved to be there, it also made a very good tournement. Contrary to most teams, we always had a lot of people against. Starting fromn the dutch, ending in the english. Quite unfair, but OK. POR didn’t start shouting “rape” because of all the dives and unfair dutch play (to which POR also responded in a less than desirable way – true), nor the Roony stamping on Carvalho and etc… The english even had the nerve of trying to pull this one on POR, saying the sending off was CRonaldo’s fault… I measn, this is plane ridiculous and my biggest surprise is to see people actually listen to it…

The comments I made about FRA and ITA don’t mean I feel they got there with less merit. It’s the game and both are superb teams.

About the fair-play, well, in a WC where the last 4 are mainly veteran teams and considering in the last 15-20 years it’s always the defense that keeps you in the WC (not like 40 years ago), something like this would be more than expected, no…?

what I don´t understand about Zidane: Why did he take his head? Why didn´t he take his fist and smashed it right into Materazzi´s arrogant face? This way he would have had to leave the pitch too.

Another thing, if FIFA would be worried about coherence, it couldn’t possibly give the golden ball to Zidane. Because he deserevs this award. But not for this WC in particular.

If so, it’s only for his lewdership in taking to the final the worse and the least fit of the last 4 teams. Of course I find it fare that he gets it. He is a genius and more than a legend of alltime football.

But C Ronaldo didn’t get the best youth prize for diving. OK, FIFA wanted to make a statement. But in that case, one must demand them for a bit of coherence. The german kid who took it also dived a lot.

In the match against Germany, Costinha saw a yellow for nothing (after receiving a harder tackle that yielded nothing for the german player and Ricardo Costa for touching (literally) a german, who threw himself down “in agony”.

Everybody is so fast looking for CR’s dives, nobody sees the others… Nor the merit and value the POR team had.

One last thing, in the best 23 WC06 selected, only 3 portuguese are there: Figo, R Carvalho and Maniche. C Ronaldo should no doubt be there, cos when most are saying he’s selfish, he’s actually taking with him 3-4 enemy players. He’s never left alone. When he is alone in danger zone, he’s lethal – you never saw him alone, did you…? Also in a WC, as a winger, he cannot be 100% attacking.

Everybody liked Ribery but C Ronaldo was just miles above…

Oh anyway… Now we must all wait 2 more years for the Eurocup, to get back to the football fever, and even worse, 4 years to the big one again…

This time in Africa. Maybe then the african teams won’t go home too (they never really get an 100% fair chance at it) early, as they did now (I remember Ghana)… ;-)

Zidane and his Golden Ball award can be considered joke by many. Oki he was not at his best, but when he was did anyone is this tournament match his excellence. Example being Spanish and Brasil match.

Another point is I don’t know what was said to Zidane, but I am sure in many cultures mothers and sisters are sacred, people get killed on small insults. Zidane is human being with his flaws … I wont feel too bad about what he did.

Racism may be accepted in Italy or Europe but if it was a strategy to instigate Zidane, I feel it was a last desperate attempt and I guess it paid off too.

I probably on disagree on the Best Young Player Award: Should have been Christiano Ronaldo’s.

As for Zidane’s award, I do suppose he would tie with Cannavaro.

Ricardo as a GK deserves special recognition as well. I’m glad that was noted.

The remaining, I would have to agree with.

Most entertaining? I cant put my finger on one!

If Henry’s dive was a card and not a free-kick against Spain; if Italy’s fake penalty was a yellow against and not a penalty in favour. I mean, when in doubt, when in less than 100% sure, you don’t give that penalty – you let it run; the other way around in an off-side case. But we simply see the opposite… When the ref couldn’t possibly be sure, he gave the penalty. I never saw an offside that really was being allowed to go and saw a million of NOT offsides that should have been allowed to go on and were stopped. And then they talk about attacking football…

If every diver would get a yellow, THAN… Than you wouldn’t see C Ronaldo jumping in the pool…

You probably also wouldn’t see FRA and ITA in the final. And I guess this says it all. Because, on the other hand, these are two excellet teams, who also have a lot of merit and also, one way or the other, did deserve to reach the final.

I still say the overall level in refereeing, in WCs, is super low. Much lower than any european championship. With Colinna, Anders Frisk, Sandor Pull (this one retired long ago), and co, certain things wouldn’t happen so much.

I mean good ref is one you don’t notice, is one the players respect (so, they wouldn’t dive out of respect and if they would and receive a card, they would accept). This is what you see when you have a good ref.

Everybody saw too many dives, cos the refs have been buying them like crazys, or decided not to consider them (look the other way) and allow them to be the punishment in itself – people will see it and complain against the team that dives.

But sometimes, they do have a role in the game being played… And it shouldn’t ever. Not the times C Ronaldo jumped in the pool, though. But in other cases, it reaaaaaaally did…

So… A card here and there, make the players see it won’t work with as least cards as possile, should put them on the right way…

To all you teary-eyed whiners that continue to cry like babies about Italy’s win: Suck it! Your teams lost and no amount of kindergarten blubbering will change that. Italy is top of the world and will remain there to remind you what sore losers you are for the next 4 years. Why can’t you let italians enjoy this? Man, I wish I could sit here and remind you losers everyday for the next 4 years about it.

As to Zidane and that disgraceful pick for golden ball, he only played two good games: against Brasil and Spain. He was nowhere for the first two ties (SUI and S Korea) and was BANNED from the third game for his two yellows. He played like sh1t against POR and France only won b/c of a fake penalty. Then he goes and does that butt-ugly and disgusting thing in the final. To compare him to Cannavaro (or worse to think him better at this WC) is to show one’s complete misunderstanding of the game. FIFA dropped the (golden) ball on this one and the rest of you are speaking out of your Italian-hating asses and have the lack of integrity to call Italians racist.

I liked POR receiving that prize. Naturally. But to be 100% honest, I miss the Portugal that would never go far, out of playing like Spain did. ;-) Or Portugal playing like they did in the EC04. With grip, playing lovelly diagonal moves, not worried about getting caught when going forward, etc…

I mean, everybody really wants the same: we want to see OUR teams wiining, BUT attacking, doing the pretty stuff,

beit Italy going fast as thunder through the middle and clinically scored,

beit Germany with the same mechanical movements in 95 minutes and still scoring some 3-4 goals,

beit Portugal with a galaxy of passes and dribbles before the magical mid-height cross that defenders never know if they must defend with the leg or head and then it’s in (or the magical back-pass for the surprise midfielder, supposed to be 20 meters behind),

beit France (well, their game is quite similar to Portugal’s, only they have a decent striker) with the magic of somebody like Platini or Zidane (sooner or later there’ll be another of this calibre for them)

beit Argentina with that excellent midfield that also englobes 3 strikers and that can do basicly anything in the book, and not just,

beit the samba magic of Brasil making you feel like YOU are seeing it in slow motion and when you notice it’s already finished,

a strong England with their direct, “long-balled”, physicall and pashioned football,

Spain’s “no-defense” concept of a football team, etc,

I mean, it could be so much nicer… ;-)

LU…LU…LUKAS PODOLSKI!!!

I don’t know what all the fuzz is about. Zizou lost his head, it happens to everyone, just because he didn’t camouflage it behind a play it doesn’t make it worse than DeRossi’s elbow on McBride, and other million agressive plays I see on every game anywhere in the world. People is very quick to judge, and everybody seems to forget what this player has achieved along his career and his contribution to football. On the other hand France didn’t loose because of this expulsion, they lost because Trezeguet missed the PK. Don’t talk about what you don’t know. You have to be on the other person’s shoes.

Materrazi —- symbol of Italian Mafia.

Couldn’t agree more, Bob.

I matched your choices exactly, except I didn’t have Argentina tied with Ivory Coast.

Argentina was easily the most exciting team.

I think if Messi would have played more, he would be the Best Young Player… but as it goes, I give it to Ronaldo.

Yeah, he’s a ball hogging, cocky dude, and he didn’t really carry the team, but he’s really, really good.

argentina most definitely deserves most entertaining team. they put together the most spectacular plays and goals i witnessed in the world cup. if by entertaining, they mean pugnacious, and like to dive, then of course it belongs with portugal, but otherwise, the argentinian games were the best to watch and learn from

Such a shame…now the americans at my work who are not into “soccer” suddenly turn their attention into it and are laughing at FIFA and the game at how someone gets the “Best Player of the Tournament” after headbutting someone.

For people who don’t know about soccer and Zidane, this would seem like a joke!

And this is how fair play image is promoted?

Given these circumstances, this is quite embarassing for FIFA. Another climax for a tournament that’s been raged by cards, dives and fouls.

Zidane is a POS, part of being the team captain is to have self control and lead as an example your team to victory. How can he ever say anything to a teamate that reacts bad to a call or another player. He’s the one that probably cost France the cup and should not get the Golden Ball award and should be severely punished!!

golden ball winner: Cannavaro. i think he played better than zidane did and was more consistent in games than him.

most entertaining team: probably argentina

best young player: sure maybe podolski but def. c. ronaldo, he may have dived a lot, but that boy has talent. he kept it going even when his team wasn’t really there to run with him in some matches and when the crowd started booing whenever he touched the ball.

best keeper: ricardo definetly. but hislop had his fair share of great saves early in the tournament.

golden shoe: klose

team fair play award: i dont even really get this one.

the negative comments on materrazi are totally not needed cuz all the players talk trash. i think zidane could have tried to keep his cool considering he was trying to lead his team to a title, that a TON of cameras are all focused on the field, and he was most likely gonna get caught.

Dirty match…
Hi Matterazi…how are you? one question here..just for you…
So if Zizou is true a terrorist, what makes you worried? scared? affraid? do you really affraid with terrorist? uh…uh..how poor you are…what a shame..

Because of you, Italian got its bad name..everybody in the world knows now that Zizou was the best player ever..and your team was a poor one..you did all the suck one just to got your victory..pok..pok…pok..a chiken..what an abysmal ignorance person you are, really dumb ya…dont you have any other way to reach your victory?

Well, my suggestion is just one..please put a very wide screen of mirror infront of your face in every corner…take a look at your self, then ask..am i really proper to be called as a -world cup soccer player?- and the mirror will answer ”No your the worst one, you are not proper,you like cheating a lot, so you better go away from Italy..your brain was out of order…” ha..ha..ha…a clever mirror…

Zizou..you are a genuine best world player ever..its an excellent..a beautifful closing..everybody in the world will consider you as the truth winner…VIVA ZIZOU….

Nothing the many crybabies in here say will take anything away from the fact that Italy won. Fair and square, I might add. Let us not forget how you beat Portugal on a fake penalty, how your goal against Brasil was the same as the one taken away from Luca Toni in the final for an offside, and how the penalty you got against Italy was also a dive if the world ever witnessed one. To complain that Materazzi (Grazie, grazie tanto, Signor M.) was able to get under Z’s skin is the height of childishness. Booo hooo. A true champion would think about his team and how they labored to get to play for that beautiful piece of gold on the sidelines. A true champion would think about the country he represents. A true champion would not put his personal feelings over those of his team and – above all – his country. Zidane is not a champion and his thugishness and disregard for friends and country are deplorable.

Portugal: most entertaining team. This is a bigger joke than Italy’s Serie A.
Maybe its not a joke … hmmmm … let me try and guess the criteria
1. Most entertaining football:
Oh definitely, couldn’t score against a 10 man England who probably had the better chances. Didn’t even look like scoring against France in the semi & totally outplayed by Germany in the playoff.
2. Fair play:
Given the amount of times Portugese player’s went down I thought there was 45,000 snipers in the crowd for every game they played.
Sportsmanship
Ronaldo helping the ref to point out Rooney’s stomp
Sportsmanship:
Rondaldo again for diving & crying
Quality of football:
I was hoping someone would wake me up when their matches were over.
Sure they got 4th, what a disgrace. If we never see these dirty boring cheats in a major tournament again it won’t be too soon.
I’m glad Fifa gave this award to Portugal. It confirms what a joke this organisation is.

@Sepp Blater: You can say whatever you want… We (POR) still went to the semi’s, fair and square (actually more hindered than anything else). No matter what you say… Let’s see how YOU react when AUS goes to the semi’s (hopefully not like S. KOrea 4 years ago)…

I somewhat disagree when Zidane was given the Golden Ball. According to the official website, the Golden Ball is given to the “most outstanding player”. By most outstanding, I assumed that the player chosen would be a good role model to everybody.

Zidane headbutting Materazzi – good role model? Never mind the racist insult. He should have never let himself be provoked in the first place.

^ Just an amateur observation.

It is amazing how people continue to justify ZZ reaction. ZZ is guilty as was guilty De Rossi and Rooney. Lets assume to have Materazzi doing what ZZ did, how many people would have written something in favour of Materazzi? Guess? NO ONE!!!!!

Pedro, you’re right indeed. You got to the semi’s & i’d like to say because of you’re great players like Figo & Ronaldo.
Unfortuantely I (like most other non Portugese) will only remember Ronaldo and Pauletta for diving and throwing themselves on the turf like they’re playing paintball. No-one remembers who came 3rd or 4th in world cups & I bet more people know Eusebio than the last time time you guys got to the semi’s in 66. Figo should be remembered for doing the same thing.
For the record, the Aussies aren’t my preferred team anyway & I hope there is never a repeat of Sth Korea 4 years ago. No matter what people think of the Italians, that effort in 2002 against them was disgraceful.
Let me ask you why Ronaldo did not get best young player when clearly he was by some margin ?
That to me explains what people think of Portugal’s style.

Some people in this room need some help. FORZA ITALIA

Italy was the best side in the WC. No question…Amazed how many people are defending ZZ for shameless head butt. I wonder if an Italian committed this cowardly act how many people would be sticking up for him regardless of what was said.ZZ has lashed out at opposition players many times in his career and is the most arrogant player on the planet.
Also amazed how little media the france penalty (joke) has been given. Why has this player got off lightly for his shameless dive. Must attend the same school of cheating as Henry.

so if blatter is now talking about snapping the trophy from zidane, and if the investigation into materazzi’s insults proves to be a violation to fifa’s “rules” (whatever the hell they are at this particular minute), will the WC then go to les blues??!!

what a freakin mess.

anyone know of live feed for french tv re. zidane’s interview today at 2pm ET (NA)?

I completely agree with you man!

Hy guys, you are completely out of the mind!!! World Cup is in Italy and there will remain for the next 4 years. Do not make any dream. Rest in Peace

Matterazi’s insults had got zz losing his cool and headbutt him. Thus zz got red card and bcos of that France lost.
Attemp that worked well by Italian team.
What France did with Spain, Portugal (dive to get PK) was also a strategy.. And they made it to the final.
Matterazi is the bad guy? Nahh.. he was doing whatever he could to let his team win. Fair play? Never!
So those who are pro-France and ZZ, get over it! It’s part of the game.. Both team did some ‘cheating’ along the way.. So why so bitter?! Just bcos France losed? LOL! Who asked ZZ to lose his cool? He got emotional, he lost!

zidane to speak:

http://www.kickitout.org/index.php?id=9&StoryID=2670

So I can tell now the story. ZZ told me ” if you want my shirt I can give you after the match” my reply was ” I prefer to get the shirt or even the panty of your wife” That’s all folk.

HAHAHAHA IS THAT REALLY WHAT WAS SAID? IF SO, IT’S F*CKING FUNNY!

@Sepp Blatter:

What I say can boil down to this: why are underdogs, that reach higher stages, usually appreciated and with Portugal is the oposite…?

Because we dive? What, the others don’t…? OH, actually we dive more. Really? My oh my… Just open your eyes, all of you!!!

I’ll write a bit more… The strongest case anybody could make against Portugal would necessarily be based on the Holland match. In which, though, 2 of the 2nd yellow cards that meant sending off were not by fouls/tackles. One was Costinhas (stupid) hand ball, the other was Deco’s stopping the ball (which didn’t hapen “just like that”, but OK). In my mind Figo also did exagerate when he fell, but there was an elbow in his face. Tiago also exagerate, to get the dutch a card, but there was a clear nasty foul there anyway. For the rest, there were some heavy fouls on our side.

And what about them…? What everybody seems to forget is that on the 7th minute, C Ronaldo had his leg severally kicked twice (and in the second, the images show clearly what Boularuz’s intention was) and 2 yeallow cards (these were not fair, as the second should be direct red, but OK – this IN the 7 MINUTES of the game) for the dutch. 7 minutes…

Through it all, the suposed “clean and honest and I hate diving” dutch threw themselves on the floor more than anybody else in this WC, came in super heavy in every single tackle, etc…

However, nobody said anything against Portugal then. In this case, I also understood not a lot of people praised us. Doesn’t mean I agree, but it’s a free world.

Also, nobody even bothered to check Portugal’s previous matches in group stage – super clean, super smooth, not even 1 complain to the ref, nothing bad. C Ronaldo was a sand bag, so much battered he was, Figo got a boot in his face and there wasn’t even a card for anybody, etc…

About all this, be my guest to check the matches fully and prove me wrong.

Then there was the ENG match. A match Portugal didn’t manage to score, but neither did England. We beat them in penalties. So did Germany against Argentina. Is it any shame? Ricardo even broke the WC record. Is this any cheating? I see merit in here.

The result: Portugal was not praised for a win over England, after a disputed game between 2 teams that share the top 10 in FIFA’s ranking and all the galaxy of players both DO have. Portugal was, instead, cruxified for being cheaters and divers and people even tried to say C Ronaldo is a bad person, because he called the refs attention for the Rooney event. Something everybody does… Some even said he’s not loyal to his team for that. Mind his team is Portugal. NOT Man Utd. Rooney stepped on Carvalho’s balls. But was England considered a team with little fair-play? Of course not. Portugal was the obvious guilty party… The devil… If this isn’t an infantil attempt to kinda disguise what the english themselves did, at the expense of a cheap excuse and lies, then I don’t know what it could be… Blind discriminations against Portugal? Could it be? In the developed world? In the world were a french headblows an italian, IN A WC FINAL where millions watch the game, for assumingly racist comments? Nah…

You might not know, but I listen and read BBC (also wrote in their blog sometimes) and what I saw was a hate campaign. Not to mention what I hurde and hear in the dutch TV about the portuguese team, and ultimatelly about the portuguese.

By the way, C Ronaldo’s house in England was later thrashed by english “fans”…

So, when people talk about diving, I remember Henry who got freekicks and penalties with it, I remember some germans and some argentinians and some italians. When people talk about negative playing, I remember Rooney, I remember the dutch, etc…

But I also say: although it’s not right, you’ll always see it until you get a proper ref, and FRA and ITA, dives or not, did deserve their place in the final. And, like it or not, Italy DID deserve the victory.

You say you’ll remember seing Pauleta and C Ronaldo diving in the pool. First I must congratulate you, cos you actually managed to find Pauleta. I am portuguese and after the game against Mexico, I never really saw him again…

So… Everybody dives, to a certain extend, more or less.

I could hide behind Henry’s foul not being a penalty. Because I don’t think it was. Like Pauleta’s off side when running in excellent position to score, like other little “details”. But I won’t, cos these things always happen, no game is 100% fair for both sides, and Portugal SHOULD have been able to score against FRA. The way I see it, Portugal’s team was stronger and had that goal came in, FRA wouldn’t have the legs for the extra time. The backbone maybe, not the legs and they’d already substituted attacking players, to be able to get back in the game.

Still they won, and I still find them worthy oponents and worthy finalists. Like Italy. Like Germany or even Argentina – I’d wanted Portugal to have met one of these 2 in the final (not to mention Brazil), but at the end none got there.

Unlike Croatia in 98 (a super team, built of stars, people we’ll never forget) or Turkey & S Korea in 02, Portugal has been along the years consistently showing up at the highest level.

WORLD champions in 89 and 91 with the kids (the so called golden generation, of which Figo was the last survivor). Our players are in the best world teams. Final in EC04, semi’s in EC00 (also in 84), last 8 in 96. OK, we failed the WC qualification in 98 and 94. But hey, so did HOL in 02 and they still find themselves, like the english, each and every WC, natural contenders. At least France keeps a lower profile and shows more modesty, just like Italy who actually won it 4 times. Or Germany, who were super happy reaching 3rd, after all the doubts.

England won 40 years ago and Holland never did.

Just for the record, Portugal has especialized in loosing to France on a semi final, as it was the 3rd consecutive time… Also in beating England (also 3rd) and Holland (these we’ve been beating more often)… ;-)

I can understand Portugal annoys these 2 a lot, especially if on top of threatening their positions in world football, we also usually beat them in direct confrontations.

So, I hope the world will be more attentive with everything not related to Portugal (I also believe that if people gather to see the matches, even if it’s just to put us down, I guess you might like us just a bit) and friendlier TO Portugal… Cos, quite honestly, you don’t imagine how hard it is to get up there (not being a “usual suspect”); moreover with the world against us… Those guys gave everything they had, some are some of the best players in the world – which is very special for us as a country, not being a member of the WC winners/usual suspects – and we were 100 times more hindered than helped, and the world STILL feels it’s fun to chose one to be the “ugly kid” and just put down…

ps – About Zidane I guess everything is said and done. It’s wrong, he did it and took the price, Italy won the WC. FIFA denied CRonaldo the award for diving. So they gave it to a guy who dives a bit less but it’s a much more limited player. At least they could have given it to Messi… They wanted to give it to Zidane for his career, because Blater (the real one) dislikes italians and for having lost the final. But then he does that and they still give Zidane the award. I mean, I guess they’ll (FIFA) never win the Nobel prize, right…?

Cheers to all.

Pedro….Well said…I think you spoke for many others…Portugal did what it was suppose to do…”even when it seems the ref’s were on the other teams”)..Portugal played the game …like others…but they were punished each time they won…because they won…I guess it is difficult for many to think a “small” country should/could win…….c-u @ next wc…

Pedro, excellent retort & you do have some merit. I’l agree you have probably been villified by the English media for various reasons.
Podolski isn’t a 1/4 of the player Rondaldo is so obviously Fifa took Ronaldo’s antics very hard not to give him the award.
My other can of worms of offer is that Zidane didn’t lose the WC, Henry did.
Someone should explain to me how week in week out he tears apart defences at Arsenal, & for 10 mins he did so against the Italians. For the other 80 he was a passenger & he seems to do this a lot in big matches. Sometimes when your a superstar you need to stand up and be counted. He never does for France. Everyone can accuse Zidane’s madness as the excuse, but if guys like Henry played with Ribbery’s passion & running France would have lifted the trophy in normal time.
Ok everyone, get ready to slam me. Remember though Zidane left with 8 minutes to go, not 80.

Henry is a bit like Pauleta: a “fierce animal” with the club shirt, a shadow of himslef with the national jersey. Although, Henry is far better than Pauleta, I never understood if Pauleta just chokes in the final stages or if he’s just not good enough or somewhat old. He does score, even against hard teams. Just not when it matters…

But you also have the oposite case… Nuno Valente is far better playing for Portugal, than for his club in England… Ricardo is a 5 star goalie for Portugal and at Sporting (Lisbon) he sometimes makes me wonder if it’s the same guy…

Going back to Arsenal, it is true Fabregas is going there, just like Kuyt, right…? Man Utd just blocked CRonaldo’s possible tranfer (I’d love to see the guy at Barca, but they’ve already got Messi for the same role and Real is NOT a good club to go to, right now).

This is super hard on Owen… The man isn’t guilty of getting injured…

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=373649&root=worldcup&cc=5739

For obvious reasons, I couldn’t help smiling a bit… :-)

Some more outrageous portuguese dives… It would be funny it wasn’t so sad…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeaJXMmJfcM&search=portugal%20world%20cup%2006

Let’s forget the headblows…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW8Z1a-h-wg&search=portugal%20world%20cup%2006

And some “portuguese classic rock”… ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9u4VPSZ1wk&mode=related&search=portugal%20world%20cup%2006

Portugal should never have gotten past Holland…I was in Nuerenberg that night, they killed my buzz (but not completely because……HOLLAND RULES anyway!!!!!!)
Even after that loss, the Dutch were GREAT!!! Very honourable losers…I reminded the Germans in Dortmund after Italy smoked them…..thanks Holland!!

Pedro,

Total agree with you.

Could not understand why the English blame C.Ro for Rooney’s red card. Thie Rooney man is known for his temper, his bad reputation. At any match, his teammates need to make sure he is not enaged in any arguement with the oppennents and the ref. At that momoent, even a few secs before that, the English should get Rooney away, out of the ref’s sight. Instead of doing that, they let this guy standing in front of the ref, and pushing C.Ro right under the nose of the ref. That is called stupid. The English.

Any consideration of retracting the Golden ball award from Zidane will be worse than what the terrorist #1 of European and Italien Soccer Marco Materazzi have said to provoke such a great player to act the way he did.
In fact FIFA must do all it can to control the racism plaguing the european clubs and fields. It is a human right issue.
Jay

For Mr refree of the final: did not you notice that Canavarro hit hard Henry within the 1st minute? Henry surely was not acting! Then did you not notice that the same Canavarro later came hard against Zidane?
FIFA MUST MAKE SURE that the 2006 extreme mediocrity should never fre-occur again! It truly ruined this world cup which I consider as a ttal failure given how the final ended: the less deserving team won. It is wrong. 100% wrong. And has the referee was good things could have ended differently.

Here’s some more of things nobody is really proud of… Just notice the english comentator… Little did he know…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU-EaTDx7vo&mode=related&search=portugal%20world%20cup%2006

I just hope if POR and HOL meet again we’d have as good a match as all the times we’ve met before. And EuroCups are never so much defense obcessed as World Cups… ;-)

With spanish soundtrack… ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGLFdLAl_sE&mode=related&search=portugal%20world%20cup%2006

And now, with portuguese soundtrack… ;-) People, this almost made me feel like I was listening to it in the radio, with the comentators freaking out, like it was Sporting vs Benfica (Lisbon derby)…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmEvaXIpT8A&mode=related&search=portugal%20world%20cup%2006

All in all, POR had a better team in 2002 and played like s##t, much better individuals in 98 (much better flowing and attacking football) and failed to qualify… Some called us cheats and divers, others called us entertaining… C Ronaldo didn’t get a prize he deserved for diving, but Zidane got the golden ball after throuwing Materazzi on the floor with a head blow… :-) Buffon (for me, still the best goalie in the world) took the Lev Yashim award but Ricardo broke the record in WC penalty saves and took just that back home…

BTW, please correct me if I’m wrong, but speaking of attacking football and etc, I believe the last hat-trick in a world cup was Pauleta in 2002, against Poland… Pitty he was kinda sleepy this time…

Quite honestly, who cares about these awards… This time we went 4th and nothing can take that away. Portugal is super proud of its team and its achievment.

Something that I just couldn’t find at the “ihateronaldo” site… ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lpvQaBdiXc&mode=related&search=portugal%20football

And this one… This one’s just tooooo funny… :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku57D1k78Vo&mode=related&search=portugal%20football

i p’pple should stop critizing ZZ,he had really done a lot 4 d soccer world is just on fortunate dat he can control his temper cos is human.And what mater.had said to him must be terriblly bad.

—–Zidane hits Materazzi—–
Press and journalists and Chirac: poor Zidane.. he is a man, the guilty is that bastard italian that provoked him

—–Materazzi hits Zidane—–
Press and journalists and Chirac:
Those bastards italians are not able to play football and have to headbutt great players

YOU HYPOCRITES !!!!
SHAME ON YOU!!!
YOU ETERNAL LOSERS !!!!

The finals was bittersweet.As an Italian American I have seen the response,and criticism.But the patriotionism sung during the national antheum said it all.The French players were not like other countries .Basketball was revelation .Argentina,Lithuania beat the United States in Basketball.Matterazzi is Sicilian,Zidane is Algerian,Sicilians are very emotional.But instinctual.