So sad, this WC I didn't manage to catch many matches, basically I only watched the opening ceremony, the first match (Germany vs Costa Rica) and another match which was Portugal vs somebody. Or was it England vs Paraguay? Shit, my memory is failing me :(
Some thoughts, felt that Zidane did quite well in the final match except for the headbutt combo on Materazzi. Pirlo really got Italy going and his crosses were really of high quality. Totti was rightfully replaced as he was really quiet and perhaps it would have been better to let Pirlo take the reins instead of 2 people trying to playmake.
Congratulations to the Azzurri and to Cannavaro for simply being able to fend off Henry. Henry can seek solace that even if he can get past the world's best defender, still got 1 more world's greatest goalkeeper lah. At least, one of the best. So take heart :p
Oh yeah I also managed to catch the highly exciting Argentina vs Germany match where Argentina was ousted out of the competition. The exciting combination of Riquelme and Tevez together with the ever dangerous durian picker Crespo really charmed me! They were my favourites but the coach made some mistakes with the substitutions and it all went wrong when Riquelme was substituted. Damned..
And they were defensively sound too! With players like Gabriel Heinze, it really was a great squad. Their playing style was the most attractive I've ever seen, cool and composed, think Riquelme fending off 3 defenders, Tevez shielding the ball and then with a twist, nutmeg one defender and with another shimmy + burst of speed.. off he goes!
I was aghast at some of the newspaper articles that commented on Italy's performance though. Italy's gameplay was more of a patient one, waiting for opportunities and shutting up France's fluidity by numbers. I didn't see that they were hungry for success or whatever.
Until now they still don't know that the Italians are the masters of protecting their advantage? Time wasting, time delaying, great theatrics etc..
Jkaiser's highly apt description of the Italian game
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