The Final

World Cup Trophy

Well, here we are at the end of another World Cup and what a final to watch! First France take the lead with a penalty by Zidane. Then, Materazzi equalised in about the twentieth minute or thereabouts. The score then stayed 1-1 for the rest of the ninety minutes and throughout extra time.

The most amazing thing was that towards the end of extra time Materazzi and Zidane had some sort of verbal exchange which resulted in Zidane head-butting Materazzi in the chest and getting a red card, so missing the last ten minutes of extra time as well as the penalty shoot out. Zidane went straight to the dressing room without passing go or collecting 200 Euros, so didn't even see the end of the match. I don't know what Materazzi did or said, but it must have been pretty bad for Zidane to react like that.

Italy won on penalties (Trezeguet's shot hit the crossbar and missed), so the trophy goes to Italy. Zidane did not come out to get his second place medal along with the rest of the French squad. It's a sad way for him to end his time on the French team.

The Italy Squad Celebrate

Here are my other World Cup blog posts:
My Wallchart
The Patriot Game
It's Coming Home...
World Cup Coverage in the USA
Hurry Up England, Come On
England Through to Quarter Final
The Quarter Finals
The Road to Berlin

It is now, with some sadness, that I remove the special World Cup background from the blog and return to the usual Union Jack alone. For posterity, here's the image used for the World Cup 2006 background.