The End of Another Football Season

I woke up 12 mn Sunday evening just to watch the Finals of the World Cup 2006 between Italy and France. Earlier that day, I watched the replay of the third place match between Germany and Portugal. I was riding on high spirits that day, ever since Germany won 3-1. I know Germany is a great team but I was really impressed with what Portugal had shown that day. C. Ronaldo may not have scored but his skills are very apparent and very impressive. Anyway, it was really fun riding along with friends to watch the games first at Westin for the first half and then at Podium for the second half. At Westin, it was more of a French confederation while at Podium, it was Italian (or so).

The game was really great except for those first few minutes where there were a lot of fouls and sort of "injuries" incurred by some players. It was really frustating to watch that. But the best was when Zidane gave the first goal of the game on the 7th minute by penalty kick. Everybody on Westin were really having a great time except for this single Italian watching the game behind us. He was always muttering to himself and probably cursing everybody else there! Hehe

At Podium, it was a really different matter. Though the company was great, the screen was not. It was too small. For such small people like me and my friend, we had to stand on our toes just to get a good view. And there was this guy behind us, who keeps pestering us with "wash the time, wash the time?," as if he couldn't see it on the screen! We found out later that that guy was one famous actor that got drunk during the game!

Back to the game, my friend and I were really feeling that France will win until Zidane gave his now famous (or should I say 'infamous'?) head-butt! My friend was just saying a few seconds ago what a nice, clean player Zidane was and just suddenly, there it was on the screen, Zidane and the head-butt. It was really a bad end to a great career! I just hope he can defend himself when FIFA makes the investigation official.

In the end, Italy won by penalty kicks 5-3. But nonetheless, the game was great, the company even better. We went home at 5 AM amidst the cries of the French fans: Vive le France!

Well, I will see you in 2010, then. This time, Germany and Portugal will even be better!

By the way, the Adidas' Jose commercial is really great!