Football World Cup finale

After much stewing over this game, I've finally got down to commenting on it. The final was contested between Italy and France.

The start of the match was rather uninspiring. Both teams seemed nervous and defensive. In the very first minute, Thierry Henry bumped into Italian skipper, Fabio Cannavaro, which left him rather dazed, but fortunately he was able to recover. In the 6th minute, he earned a penalty, that was converted by skipper Zinedine Zidane, albeit with a bit of luck. This brought some life into the game with the Azzuri being forced to go forward. They eventually equalized in the 19th minute, when Marco Materazzi rose above the French defence to send a powerful header into the back of Fabien Barthez's goal, off an Andrea Pirlo cross.

The rest of the game, including extra time, was littered with chances but both sided failed to capitalize. Notable ones include a powerful Zidane header in extra time, which Italian forced keeper Gianluigi Buffon to tip it over the crossbar, a Luca Toni header from a corner which hit the crossbar, and another Toni conversion, this time from a free-kick, which was ruled out for offside. Thierry Henry and Florent Malouda also made some penetrating runs into the Azzuri defence.

Then came the great Zidane incident. It was obviously a red-card offence, but it was definitely provoked by Materazzi. But it is a sad way to end such a glorious career. Unfortunately, it also left France without all their mainline penalty takers, Vieira being injured, and Henry and Ribery substituted, which eventually proved costly.

In the penalty shootout, David Trezeguet was unlucky to see his penalty come off the crossbar, but it was enough for France to lose. The Italians scored with all their penalties to take home the trophy.

All in all, the final was well-contested, though the Zidane incident did leave a bad taste in the mouth.