A New World Order

 Ghana 2, United States 1

 

A penalty? Really? (No.)

 

The Italian Job

 Italy 1, Australia 0

 

Are you sure? (Maybe.)

 

Euro Cup 2006

 The 8 teams in the Quarterfinals

England

Germany

France

Ukraine

Italy

Portugal

Argentina

Brazil

 

Euro and South America Cup 2006 

 

The 4 teams in the Semifinals

Germany

France

Italy

Portugal 

Portugal vs. Netherlands

How many cards? (16 yellows, 4 reds)

 

 Zinedine Zidane's head-butt seems to be dominating the headlines more than it should be. While he was declared winner of the Golden Ball shortly after his international creation of a new attack move, the replay of his head landing squarely in the chest of Materazzi has been played more than the coverage of the Italian celebrations. But that's not saying much because the Italian celebrations are being overshadowed by the Serie A match-fixing scandal anyways.

Nowadays, FIFA will launch a probe into anything a respected player says, which obviously leads to questions of bias. Also, I'm wondering how they expect to probe into what might have been said between two men on a relatively large football field with no mics, reporters, or expert witnesses. I officially claim that FIFA is just putting on a charade, mimicking the TNA Wrestling League.

You have to respect a sport that can end a war, create cause for murder, and allow men to exchange sweaty shirts without suspicion of sexual preference. When they call the Los Angeles Lakers the World Champions, it really means nothing since the NBA is played in two countries (yes, Canada has the Toronto Raptors I believe). The FIFA World Cup is really a WORLD Cup. FIFA has more members than the United Nations. It's also very nice to watch the South Koreas and the Croatias and the Ghanas battle against the odds versus the world's football (soccer) superpowers.

 Brazil had a disappointing performance. Ronaldinho was invisible in terms of what we're used to seeing from the 'best player in the world'. Ronaldo was flaunting his beer belly and whenever Brazil doesn't make it to the semifinals it is sure to raise a few million eyebrows.

Thierry Henry could have stayed up if he wanted to against Portugal when he got tripped in the penalty box. He went down and won the penalty and I guess it was a foul but outside the box if that had happened he would have stayed up kept running and the referee would have thought nothing of it. But controversy is FIFA's middle name. FICFA...

France deserved another penalty kick in the final match. Maybe. Not sure if you caught the replays or the highlights of the final but Malouda got tackled yet again in the penalty box and it seemed to be a penalty. Replays showed that the defender just missed the ball while bringing down Malouda with his left leg tackle. But I'm sure I could find some replay of a foul on Italy in the box that could have been a penalty. Whatever let's mortem the post-mortem and celebrate. Viva Italia.