2006 World Cup
by Charlie

France and Italy played in the 2006 World Cup Soccer Final on Sunday, July 9. Although France dominated play, Italy defeated France after ninety minutes of regulation play and two 15 minute overtime periods. France’s star player and captain of the team, Zidane, sadly ended his career with a red card, after just missing a goal. It was a very exciting game, especially in the first half when the only goals in the game were scored (one goal by Vidane for France and one goal by Matterazzi for Italy).

During the first half of the game, France scored a goal on a penalty kick by Vidane in the seventh minute of play! Then Italy came back to score on a corner kick during the nineteenth minute! After that goal, Italy took over possession of the ball.

When all seemed lost for France, they pushed and dominated during the beginning of the second half. This push lasted for pretty much the whole second half, but there were two blemished that hurt France’s chance of winning. First, Italy scored, but they were called “off-sides”, so the goal did not count. The second blemish was that France did not score, in spite of many opportunities because Italy’s defense was pretty strong.

At the end of regulation play, the score was tied, one to one. During the twenty-sixth minute of overtime, Zinadene Zidane ended his career in one of the worst possible ways. He was red carded for head butting an Italian player. After two overtime periods, the game ended in penalty kicks. Each team had five shots. France scored three shots and missed one. Italy scored all five shots.

For more information, Charlie recommends a visit to:
www.fifa.com