The London Guardian's review of the World Cup is a hoot .....
football.guardian.co.uk
It goes along with some of my assessments: the majesty and joy of the 24-pass Argentine goal (#2 on FIFA's website); the electricity of the Argentina-Mexico game, climaxed by Maxi Rodriguez's wondergoal (#1 on FIFA's website); the passion of the Italy-Germany semifinal, being decided by Fabio Grosso's left foot (#5 on FIFA's website), completed with a "Tardelli-esque celebration," "the guiltiest of pleasures" known as the Portugal-Holland game; and that Argentina "would and should have been the best world champions since 1970" had it not been for their coach, Jose Pekerman, "bottling it."
These are excepts that I found oh so true. I wanted Argentina to win so bad. Their pathetic exit caused me not to have to choose between Italy and Argentina. It brought us the match of the tournament in Italy-Germany. No questions asked: Viva, Azzurri. A scoreless draw for 119 minutes and not one accusation of Italy being defensive. Then, the explosion of sheer beauty in as hostile an environment as one can imagine, unless, of course, one saw any games involving Argentina in the 1978 World Cup. Grosso's goal to stun all of Germany could barely be digested before Alessandro del Piero put a nail in the coffin in the 121st minute. It almost made me forget Maxi's wondergoal 10 days earlier. Barely.
Zidane rose to stir incredible nostalgia and show how weak a team called itself "Brazil." The stage was set ... Italy-France ... Then ... the headbutt.
What a strange and glorious tournament. I haven't enjoyed the World Cup so much since 1982. Oh yeah, Italy won then too. Does anyone remember Paolo Rossi?
/john |
