World Cup Hangover

It is just a little 2 weeks after the World Cup final and I am starting to feel the vibes from the lack of football action! World Cup 2006 has certainly been a wonderful and exciting tournament from the start, all the way to the final game in 10th July. This year's World Cup tournament is certainly no different from the others, a time where young stars emerge and the veterans bowing out in style.

The opening match of the tournament was a cracker and it became one of the highest ever-scoring opening matches in the history of the World Cup. Host nation Germany's young defender, Philip Lahm opened scoring against Costa Rica just within 6 minutes. Within 17 minutes, 3 goals had already been scored with Germany leading 2-1. At the end of the match, the score was 4-2 in favour of Germany and 2 players, Miroslav Klose and Paulo Wanchope secured a brace each.

The opening match was just one of the few high-scoring matches that the tournament had. Argentina smashed Serbia & Montenegro 6-0 and Group H saw two 4-0 matches in it. Germany, Spain and Argentina emerged as the best attacking sides with 8 goals each. Despite that, there were less goals overall in the group stages compared to previous tournaments. The goal tally was worsened in the knockout stages with 4 matches having to be decided by penalty shootout (2 of them ended in 0-0 and the other 2 with 1-1). However, football fans were still entertained in the tournament with the high end drama on the pitch. World Cup 2006 saw the most amount of cards being flashed out by the referees. The highly charged Portugal vs Holland match single handedly garnered up 20 cards and had 4 players sent off.

The German team certainly had an exciting run with their own countrymen backing them. They won all 3 group matches and overcame Sweden and hot favourites Argentina in the knockout stages to reach the semi-finals where they eventually met their stumbling block. It was quite a painful defeat for the Germans, with them losing 0-2 in the last two minutes of extra time. Despite that, it was clear that the 2006 German squad received more support than the 2002 German squad that went to the Final. The 2002 German squad was seen as boring and square team that seem content with its defensive responsibilities. Klinsmann's revolutionary style of bringing the attacking best out of the German squad drew huge applause from the German fans. The entertaining style and free flow of attacking football threw the crowd into a frenzied mood and silenced even the harshest critics of Klinsmann. The most significant impact was that the German national team really united the whole country as one. For the first time in many years, the Germans were proud to proclaim their heritage and culture after being in the bad limelight for much of history. The German team eventually won 3-1 against Portugal in the third place playoff with spectacular goals from rising star Bastian Schweinsteiger.

The all-blue final was an exciting match-off, with many people constantly relating it to the Euro 2000 final match. Italy was seen as the favourite to win and this was reflected in the fact that the only goal that Buffon had conceded in the entire tournament was from his own team-mate. France on the other hand was the unexpected package and they actually beat reigning champions Brazil in the quarter finals. Nevertheless, it was a very tense match which dragged to 120 minutes and a penalty shootout. The climax of the game was in the 110th minute where retiring French legend Zinedine Zidane was sent off for head butting Italian defender Materazzi. It was indeed, a shameful send off for one of the greatest players in the world who is playing the last match of his career. Italy finally won the penalty shootout with Fabio Grosso's final shot and the entire team burst into an ecstasy of joy and celebration as they claim football's most prestigious prize. Italian captain Cannavaro lifts the golden trophy in glory, Italy's 4th in history.

Well, now that the World Cup has ended, so have the late nights. There is not much to see now, except for the transfer window in which you may want to find out what new players your favourite club has bought. So, we wait for August to come and when the time comes, bring on the English Premier League...

By: Stanley Lee