mindless ramblings

Despite going all the way to a penalty shootout, it was still a good final. We made our way down to Commercial Drive to soak up the atmosphere and the whole street was PACKED! After passing lineup after lineup of people waiting to get a seat at the many pubs and restaurants, we finally found a pretty decent view in front of a little Italian cafe.

Zinedine Zidane put the French ahead in the 7th minute with a cheeky little penalty (that almost missed), but the Italians struck back with a excellent header by Marco Materazzi just over 10 minutes later. The game kinda settled into a lull, with both sides producing a fair number of half chances but none taken. The managers started making tactical changes, trying to outwit each other. The French lost Patrick Vieira to injury after 56 minutes, and the Italians took off Francesco Totti, who hasn’t had a great World Cup. Despite all their changes, there wasn’t a lot of action until a moment of madness by Zidane in extra time. Materazzi said something, Zidane didn’t like it and BAM! Thanks to Youtube, you can now watch it over and over again!

Click here if the video doesn’t load.

I think the Italians deserve their win. They have been at their best throughout the tournament, with a rock solid defence and goalkeeper. Watching it surrounded by Italian fans (and the occasional Frenchman) was just fantastic. Although I got to smell BBQ smoke for 3 hours, and someone split ketchup on my white shoes and jeans, it was totally worth it!