The End of the Cup
The World Cup 2006 finally came to a nail-biting finish with Italy taking the honors via a penalty kick shootout, only the second final to be decided thus. France was extremely unlucky to lose especially after dominating the play and making almost thrice the number of shots at the goal compared to Italy.
However, the most tragic incident was the red card given to Zidane and regardless of what the Italian must have said, his actions were uncalled for. What a way to end an otherwise brilliant career. I didn’t even see him on the victory podium collecting the runners-up medal. He may have helped France ressurect during this World Cup but he will be unfortunately remembered just for this incident.
The Italians proved that shoring up your defense will get you the top honors in the end even if you are plagued by a demoralizing bribery scandal back home. I lost my faith in the Italian side after that unsportsman-like dive in the penalty box in the dying minutes against Australia. For similar reasons, I have always hated Maradona for his ‘Hand of God’ in spite of his unmatchable football skills.
Personally, it has been an exciting month for me watching the games mostly at restaurants and bars; inhaling second-hand smoke and cheering with rambunctious Brazilian and Italian fans. Now it is back to my mundane academic life once again. Thankfully, one of my professors is an avowed Wimbeldon fan so any lack of work in the past month was mutually accepted. On the blogging front, my posts on the live streaming of the World Cup via the TVU player got me almost 30,000 hits and earned me three figure income in the Yahoo Publishing Network ads in the past month alone. So I guess, the FIFA World Cup experience was pretty good to me.
The Zidane head-butting incident:
“The End of the Cup” [Short URL: http://www.ipatrix.com/?p=1506] was published Sunday, July 9th, 2006 at 4:38 pm by Patrix, filed under Sports, Weblogs, and tagged as Sports. Both comments and linkbacks are closed.
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Three figure
Wow. That is very good stuff. Nice to know.
4 years ago replyIt was indeed a shame about Zidane. I believe he was not on the podium collecting his runners-up medals because once given a red card you are not allowed to be on the field from that point forth, or something like that.
4 years ago replySad about Zidane. According to the French coach, it was not sudden deicision. Zidane was tired of being fouled.
3 figure! Great, hopefully should pay you for your laptop. :)
4 years ago replyPratyush, it certainly pays to have your blog tracked by Google :) you just have to know what people are searching for.
Ankita, yeah I thought so too but considering that this was a World Cup final, it seems unfair to banish a player just because he was sent off in one match. The award ceremony was a conclusion to the tournament not just this match. Anyway, I wonder what did the Italian say to provoke such a reaction from Zizou.
Confused, I can understand his frustration but he had only ten minutes to go and probably wouldn’t have missed his penalty in the shootout. But thatz just lot of what-ifs.
And the new laptop is a four-figure acquisition…one zero makes a hell lot of difference.
4 years ago replyDude,
4 years ago replyif you EVER knew anything about football, you wouldn’t write crap like this. Stop trying to sound like you know everything. you don’t know shit from food. Zidane was called a “terrorist”. Is that unprovoked you SOB? of course, zidane had balls, unlike you.
Someone, LOL! I think I know where you come from. Your mask of anonymity and choice of words reveals your level of intelligence.
4 years ago replyAnd your comment shows your level of intelligence or the lack of it. as for your come-back, is that the best you can do? I question your writing and you come up with ” I think I know where you come from. Your mask of anonymity and choice of words reveals your level of intelligence.”??? I said your writing is crap and I say it again. let’s see if you’ve got a better answer this time.
4 years ago replySomeone, Looks like you have some latent anger issues. I could be your shrink but you can’t afford me. You made your point about my writing being crap so anything I say is not going to pacify you. So why bother reading my blog?
So any more non-constructive-criticism comments will be promptly deleted (my blog and all that arguments) and reported to Coreco Imaging.
4 years ago reply“I didn’t even see him on the victory podium collecting the runners-up medal.”
– A red carded player is suppose to leave the field and not come back :). That was nothing surprising.
“three figure income in the Yahoo Publishing Network ads in the past month alone”
– Wow. Now that IS something!
S
4 years ago replyThanks for the YouTube link.
Ignore the flame from the likes of Someone. Lack of courtesy, lack of intelligence, lack of a frickin’ life – that could account for his comments.
J.A.P.
4 years ago replyI can just stare at the hits and the revenue.. wow.. i better be getting serious abt this ad business :p
4 years ago replySuyog, I know that a player has to leave the field but I thought he would at least come back for the medal ceremony which in fact was a concluding part of a tournament not just this match.
J.A.P., he/she is already forgotten. I have retained the comments for purposes of hilarity.
Twilight, I knew you would comment on that aspect but as I said, it is the end of the Cup so expect earning to drop drastically too. Until I post a link to Live Cricket when the world cup comes around next year :)
4 years ago reply