World Cup Final - Italy in PK's

So Italy are Master's of the Universe, for another 4 years. Can we move on now?

I enjoyed this World Cup, more than I did the last one in 2002. I deeply regret not going to Germany as I had planned to do when I watched the end of the 2002 tournament. I will attend the 2010 tournament, this time not taking a large trip a year ahead of time as I did last year. Anyways...

The final was a good match, but even before the overtime, the players were getting gassed. The Italian defense looked like they would wait until the ball got to them to walk to it. Is it me or were the final matches, about from the second half of the Quarter Final matches on, look slower than the first round matches? These guys all play so much for their clubs teams, only to have to perform at top level for a month, something gets lost in the last matches, which don't help when they don't have a Golden Goal to save them from still running a possible 15 more minutes. The club level organization needs to change, maybe along the lines that FIFA has "demanded" with lowering the number of clubs in the First divisions to limit the number of matches. I don't know.

What the hell was said to Zidane? That was one great head butt, one that should be used in training classes on how to head butt a guy in the chest. However, is he the dumbest Frenchman in the planet? It sucks that he had to leave like that in his final match. Bye ZiZu, you were great, but that is one helluva temper.

So, now I get to return to DC United full time, await the EPL season once more (Ronaldo and Ruud are giving SAF level 10 heartburn right now) and whenever the hell the USSF gets its house in order with the coaches and starts playing USA matches again. Next summer is the Gold Cup, maybe the Copa America, then 2008 is the Euro Championships, 2009 is the Confederations Cup (which the USA should be involved in), then 2010 we are in South Africa. I am going, not sure if alone or if I con convince my girlfriend to go with me for almost three weeks, we shall see.

Good bye FIFA World Cup 2006, we all enjoyed you very much. Germany was a great host. ABC and ESPN need better broadcasters and really need to just show the damn matches, none of this fly in graphics shit. They can also leave the tickers off for 2 hours, sports fans can wait two hours to find out what the American League scores are during a match.