Nerve Endings Firing Away

After almost a month of frenetic football, it boils down to the final two teams to battle it out on Sunday for the title of World Champions. France and Italy have surprised everyone by making it to the finals and in my opinion, is the dullest possible combination to end this World Cup. Mind you, both teams are deserving of their place in the finals and have peaked at the right time.

The France-Portugal semifinal was a boring affair and we didn’t see the flashes of brilliance from Zidane that crushed Brazil. The other semifinal, Germany-Italy was hard fought and only the brilliant goal at the fag end of the second half of overtime helped avoid the dreaded penalty shootout. As if that wasn’t enough, Italy managed to pump in another goal within a minute just to drive the last nail in Germany’s coffin. But Germany could hardly be blamed as they put every man on the frontline to put in an improbable equalizer. Portugal tried a similar stunt when even Ricardo, the Portugese goalkeeper joined his teammates to score a desperate equalizer. Alas, Scolari’s record victory streak was destined to end today.

I don’t have a favorite for the Sunday final but if hard pressed to choose, I would pick France just because they have Zidane. The Italians will take their dramebaazi to new levels in hope of getting free kicks. I hope the ref sees through their devilish ways and give his whistle a rest. Heck they even train for it. Don’t believe me? Check out their training video.