At last, its over!!!

I'm talking about the football worldcup. I say 'at last' because almost every afternoon we would slip out of our lab to watch one of the games and this would be followed by the guilt of having done that (although most of us didn't have anything else to do). At the last stages of the tournament, it was taking way too much of our time and energy. Although the quality of football in this worldcup was not as good as in the previous one, it was exciting because the results of most of the matches were decided in the last 15 minutes.

The contest between Le Bleus (French) and the Azzurris (Italians) was nothing compared compared to the one between Germany and Portugal. Its a pity that the Germans couldn't make it to the finals since they were playing like champions throughout the tournament except for that lacklustre semi-final against the Italians. I have never seen a hungrier German team and with the likes of Klose, Podolski, Borowski, Schweinsteiger and Schneider in their ranks, they would be my favourites to win the next world cup to be held in South Africa in 2008.

Coming back to the final match, I wanted Zidane and Co. to win it but destiny had a cruel twist to it. Italy dominated the first half but seemed to have run out of gas in the middle of the second half and this trend continued till the end of extra-time. Had Zidane been there for the last 10 minutes, France might very well have lifted the golden cup. I don't want to attach pictures or videos of Zidane's antic here since you can find them in numerous other sites and blogs. I don't care what Materazzi did or said to him but what Zidane did to Materazzi was absolutely unwarranted and highly deplorable. We know that sledging is pretty common in sports like cricket and football and should be taken in its stride. If its too much, you can just talk back and/or lodge an official complaint after the end of the match and let the officials deal with it.

People call Zizou a 'gentleman' but the fact is that he has done this before in a European championship and hence he doesn't qualify to be called one. One witnesses such incidents in club-level or street football. Zidane has had an illustrious international career but people will keep questioning his school-boyish behaviour for the rest of his life. What a way to end the last international match of your life!!!