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Match Day 25 > Sunday 9Jul06

CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH

Match 64: ITALY v. FRANCE

Booking: FORZA AZZURRI!!

CLUB OR COUNTRY?

Since the advent of the ‘mega-leagues’ like the PREMIERSHIP, SERIE A & BUNDESLIGA, there has been debate where the priorities should lie for footballers .. .. As the clubs pay their mind-warping salaries, most have felt that players should consider CLUB before COUNTRY .. ..

But ITAs performance today put that train of thought in severe doubt .. .. With 8 of the starters employed by JUVENTUS, they are directly-affected by the possibility of their huge club being spanked down to Serie C and all the consequences that go with that .. .. But the whole ITA team played as though they cared less about their club, but came together and grabbed the WC trophy .. ..

1^st Half >> In a match where you were scared was to become a defensive, tactical contest, the referee actually did everyone a favor with his bullshit PK call on MATERAZZI that ZZ chipped home .. .. Both sides didn’t turn the ball over needlessly or risk coming forward to bombard the GK with shots .. .. MATERAZZI redeemed the ref’s bad call when he crushed his header home from PIRLO’s CK .. .. MATERAZZI later saw his cleared header waived off due his foul and TONI’s header rang the crossbar .. .. ITA could have easily been up 2-1 at the half .. .. ITA appeared hungrier, quicker to the ball and GATTUSO was flying all over the pitch, running from touchline-to-touchline .. .. ZZ barely moved from the middle of the pitch and all the FRA players looked a bit unnerved from the whistle – HENRY went down in the first minute and a FRA player blew a throw-in .. .. 

2^nd Half >> The second-45 highlighted the key weakness in the FRA ‘attack’ .. .. FRA just wore out HENRY playing up front alone .. .. ITA did a great job at winding up the FRA players from the opening minute when ITA players laid a hit on him every chance they got .. .. .. Remember when HENRY went down in the first minute after a hard, off-ball foul?

Every time HENRY went forward, there was very little support from deep, and those who did make runs were easily marked by the ITA defense when they came through .. .. HENRY was so knackered by the 107^th minute, he had to come out despite upcoming PK’s .. ..  

ITA MoM: #23 MARCO MATERAZZI rebounded from the ‘le poo-poo’ PK call against him to score the equalizer and almost head home another .. .. Was the recipient of ZZ’s idiot, unprovoked headbutt to the chest that had him ejected .. .. Converted the second PK which put ITA in front for good .. .. Late maturing 33-year-old has been a stud in the back for the Azzurri that did not allow a legit goal in the run of the play for the entire Tournament .. .. Hope you didn’t forget his warrior-header goal v. CZE .. .. Great send-off for a vastly-underrated centre-back in his last WC .. ..   

FRA MoM: #10 ZINEDINE ZIDANE committed the absolute sin of any Captain > He failed to give his side a chance to win .. .. He completely lost the plot when he head-butted an ITA player in the chest and got himself sent off after HENRY & VIEIRA already were subbed off .. .. It doesn’t matter what was said or done to you – You can’t let yourself get sent off 10 minutes before PK’s .. .. FRA may still have lost with him on the pitch, but he sure didn’t help their odds on winning, did he? Age, fatigue and lack of discipline all caught up to ZZ in what his entire career will be remembered for – When it mattered most, he hurt his team solely for his own motives – UNFORGIVEABLE!!

And, perhaps indicative of the French attitude, SKY SPORTS interviewed French fans as they left and they said that ZZ must have had a good reason to do it and his RC was not his fault .. .. Then they went completely off the boil and started ranting about how BECKHAM never won a WC either .. .. Who cares!? What about your ZZ? .. ..