Azzurri all the way- Sad farewell to Zizou

What a cracker of a final it was and the Azzurri in blue beat the French in a heart stopping tie break where they scored from all the penalty kicks. Sad part was the Zinedane red card for head butting in to an Italian defender which was caught on camera as well as by the fourth or fifth official. What a glorious career and if his great header before the dying moments had not been stopped by the marvellous Italian goal keeper Buffen , Zizou would have been on the other side holding the coveted trophy for one last time. Instead due to a mad moment of rush of blood he was sent off and this incident may haunt him for the rest of his life. Great players like Thuram and Meckalele were in tears and understandably so since they might have missed the opportunity of a life time to be on the podium by a whisker with that one missed penalty.

On the whole the tournament was a great success played over 31 days by 32 teams with great organisation skills from the Germans which was evident in all the stadiums. The German team also conducted themselves very well in spite of their semi final defeat and all credit to Klinsman for moulding these young players in to a great team. However there were few sore points like the low average of less than 2.5 goals per match and the violent aggression resorted to by teams and some times you were left wondering whether you were seeing rugby or a soccer contest. The biggest disappointment of course was that players of reputation like Henry, Figo, Beckham, Ronaldinho, and Ronaldo except in patches all failed miserably and goes to prove that this game can be a great leveller when it comes to individual brilliance and collective success

Well on the personal front it would take some time to adjust to the normal routine after being awake till 2 AM on most of the playing days and it was great fun to be part of the extravaganza


RK