It was a great week that went by, a sporting week actually...
Sunday, July 9th had great sporting events back to back -The finals of Wimbledon Championship 2006 and the FIFA WorldCup 2006.
At the grass court there was clash of titans. Roger Federer played the clay court champ Rafael Nadal. Federer was extremely cool when he entered the court, where as Nadal seemed hyperactive and too ready to start the match. As expected there was great tennis played entertaining the tennis fans all over. Defending champ Federer made a jump start taking the first set straight away from the spaniard with 6-0 lead. Second set too was taken by Federer with giving away just 2 games to Nadal and was in the lead still. The third set let Nadal make a come back with him winning over a tie break. But nothing could stop Federer from taking home the cup for the 4th consecutive time. Nadals power play couldnt dethrone the champ with his cool play.
At the Olympiastadion, Berlin the italian fans rejoiced upon their team winning theFIFA World Cup 2006. France not only lost the the cup but also one of its greatest player Zinadene Zidane because of a rather disgraceful act which fetched him a red card putting him out of the match at the last moment.
France took its lead as early as at the 7th minute after the start when they were given a very audacious penalty kick. Zidane scored the penalty goal by a very slow kick, which is very unlikely in a world cup final match. Soon the Italians leveled the score when Marco Materazzi headed a corner kick to the goal canceling off Zidanes score. The 90-minute game saw the teams with 1 goal each. Then came the 30 minutes extra time where all the odds accumulated for the French team. It’s very difficult to comprehend that a great player like Zidane couldnt keep his cool, that too in a world cup final and his last international appearance. For his barbaric headbutt Zidane was given a red card and dismissed before the match ended. Having lost Theiry Henry and Patrick Vieira for injuries, France had to play the penalty shoot out without the three key players. David Trezeguet's missing the penalty proved decisive. The match ended with Italy scoring 6 goals to 4 of France.
This final will be remembered by the French not only for losing it but also for losing the so called Golden generation players..