July 10th, 2006 by Phil Frangos
Italia! Italia!
An epic World Cup final was witnessed yesterday by many as the Italians rallied to tie France at 1, then beat them in penalty kicks 5-3 to capture their 4th World Cup title.
Zinedine Zidane’s reactionous header to the chest of Marco Materazzi for what is being speculated as a racial slur against him was vicious and will no doubt leave a black eye on his legacy to say the least. All in all, the game was entertaining to watch and featured lots of chances, more so for the French side, and some fine goalkeeping from the Buffon of Italy, especially with that remarkable save on the header from Zidane in overtime.
I still would rather have seen the game end in overtime until someone scored without having to go to penalty kicks. That is a brutal way to end any tournament in any sport. It’s just doesn’t seem right to see games of this magnitude end it such a fashion like this. Whatabout having like 5 on 5 or something, giving you more fresh guys on the bench if need be later on in overtime. I mean let’s open the game up a little. Here’s a idea, howabout removing the goalkeepers for overtime? Ah why even bother, who are we kidding here, this dumb format will never change. I can’t wait to see what changes, if any, we’ll see 4 years from now when the focus shifts to South Africa 2010, until then, A piu tardi!
RELATED POSTS
Leave a Reply