Huhu, finally the World Cup is over, and I've lost an excuse for staying up late. I watched the finals with mixed feelings. Italy's goal was breached in the 7th minute in a penalty - a definite shocker, and a stupid tackle - and I nearly gave up on the whole match. Luckily I didn't. Both sides performed very well (finally!) with smooth, elegant passes and strong attacks. I was extremely impressed by Italy's water-tight defense, led by Cannavaro. The French Fries, no matter how skilful their attack, were intercepted masterfully by the Italians. Buffon was excellent, lightning-fast and accurate in his several saves especially that deadly header from Zidane. Materazzi scored the equalizer with a header and nearly took the lead with another header which hitted the post. Then Toni also nearly scored one.

From the start of second half, French started to dominate and the Italians seemed lame (except for the defense of course). Lucky for Italians that they have world's best defense and goalkeeper. Their attacking power can be decent at times and non-existant at others, which is not good. I was extremely irritated by the fools diving to earn undeserved freekicks, especially the ponytail fool, the strikers weren't much better. Of course, none can top the Portuguese "Diving King" Ronaldo (not the Fatnaldo). The French were tough with Zidane, Henry, Ribery but the defense was impenetratable. Zidane, obviously frustrated by their goaling impotency - the missed chances, headbutted Materazzi, who prior to that offense caressed Zizou's firm chest. I was like "World Taekwondo Federation" when I saw that. Really sad sad shameful retirement for such a talismanic player. I was really saddened but he deserved the red card for making a fool of himself.

Then the penalties. I thought the Italians were goners, but how wrong I was. Everyone scored except Trezeguet who replaced Henry-or-Ribery-I-forgot. What luck for the Italians! But I'd say they did well in the shootout, although I was disappointed by the absence of magnificent penalty saves of those made by Ricardo and the Ukraine handsome Greek-looking keeper.

In short, quite disappointing given a great game at the 1st half. But Italians won! So I'm happy. The referee was good too, nearly missed Zidane's un-Zidanelike beastly act though. The best match I've ever watched though, with both sides equally good - balanced play. Zidane = Ji-Dan (egg). The Italian Job is done, nuff said

p/s: tried to upload a .gif file of Zidane's headbutting but the blog doesn't support .gif files