world cup 2006 > euro 2006 > food-ball 2006

And... it's won by Italian Pizzas!

World Cup 2006, Euro 2006 and Food Ball 2006, this is how the 2006 edition of FIFA World Cup had become. By the time I wrote this entry, the Pizzas had edged out the 1998 Champion in penalty shoot-out.

Before going into the Final moment in Berlin, we'll review how the final-four were lined up in 2006.

3rd/4th Placing
Portugese Tarts

vs
German Beer


The Final
Italian Pizzas

vs
French Fries/Toast


Yeah, it's all food affair now after how the World Cup 2006 had started. World Cup as the world's most prestigious tournament, had gathered the World's 32 best teams in Germany for the once-every-four-year tournament. After group stage, last 16 and quarter-finals, the tournament had drawn to the last four.

This is where it should be re-labelled as Euro 2006. It's an all-European affair! French, German, Portugese and Italians! It was really saddening NOT to see a single South American team in the final four. It surely lacked spices of football there. (There was a little pinch of South American flavor in the final four.)

Portugese Tarts have Scolari, 2002 Champion with Brazil, and Deco, a Brazillian-born playmaker who managed to obtain a Portugese nationality. But it was enough.



The Portugese Tarts were tamed by German's Tiger Beer. Bastian Schweinsteiger (pronounced as S-ch-wines-tiger) had the match of his young career to steer his home nation to a 3-1 victory over the Tarts. The Tiger Beer scored 1st and 3rd goal for German Beer, while having his hand on the 2nd goal. His free-kick was deflected by Portugese defense, resulting Germans' second goal.

Tiger Beer was later named man-of-the-match. No doubt about that.

Portugese Tarts have two players retiring from football, or international football at least after this tournament - iconic Figo and striker Pauleta. German Beer will bid farewell for long-serving Oliver Khan.

Moving to the final in Berlin, the Italian Pizza and French Toast/Fries affair has much more food issue here.

Let's just have a look at both team's lineup.

Italian Pizzas:
1 - Gianluigi Buffet (Buffon)
5 - Fabio Cannavaro
3 - Fabio Grosso
23 - Marco Macaroni (Materazzi)
19 - Gianluca Zambrotta
16 - Mauro German Camoranesi
8 - Gennaro Gattuso
20 - Simone Perrotta
21 - Andrea Pirlo
10 - Francesco Totti
9 - Luca Toni

Subs:
14 - Marco Amelia
12 - Angelo Peruzzi
6 - Andrea Barzagli
13 - Alessandro Nestum (Nesta)
22 - Massimo Oddo
2 - Cristian Zaccardo
17 - Simone Barone
4 - Daniel De Rossi
7 - Alessandro Del Piero
11 - Alberto Gilardino
15 - Vincenzo Iaquinta
18 - Filippo Inzaghi

The French Fries/Toasts:
16 - Fabien Butter (Barthez)
3 - Eric Adabi (Abidal) *Adabi is a Malaysian local food brand.
5 - William Gallas
19 - Willy Sagnol
15 - Lillian Thuram
6 - Claude MyCurry (Makelele)
7 - Florent Malouda
4 - Patrick Viagra (Viera)
10 - Zinedine JiDan 鸡蛋 (Zindane) *JiDan is egg in Mandarin.
12 - Thiery Henry
22 - Franck Ribena (Ribery)

Subs:
23 - Gregory Coupet
1 - Mickeal Landreau
2 - Jean Alain Boumsong
21 - Pascal Chimbonda
17 - Gael Givet
13 - Mikael Silvestre
8 - Vikash Dhorasso
9 - Sidney Govou
20 - David Trazeguet
11 - Sylvian Wiltord

See? You have loads of food linked in football right? Hence it should be foodball!

Short recap on the final game which the Italian Pizzas came on top. Zidane gave the French the lead with 9th minute penalty, and Macaroni Materazzi equalized on the 19th minute. The match was brought into extra time, and that is where Zidane was dismissed for red card offense (He head-butted (Shaolin Iron Head) Materazzi. Deadlock was not broken, so the game was brought to penalty shoot-out.

The Pizza boys scored a perfect 5 out of 5, and thanks to Trazeguet's miss, they went on to win the FIFA World Cup. So, it's a French Kiss Goodbye to France and Zidane, whom latter had a shameful way to bring the curtain down to his fabalous career. It was total disappointment to see it ended this way.



But I am happy to see this ending. France broke my heart twice - 1998 and 2006.

Viva Italia - The now 4 time winners of World Cup.



Credit: This entry is inspired by my friend, Louis. Hehe, the Pizzas won!.

Some of the photos are 'borrowed' from the Internet, as I lacked resource to produce the visual presentation for the entry. The soccer photos are of properties and copyrights of Soccernet.com.