79 World Cup related deaths

Stabbings, heart attacks, accidents and a machete.

"Des mots très durs"

Les raisons d'un tel geste? Zinédine Zidane les a confiées sur TF1 : "Il m'a dit des choses très personnelles, cela touche à la maman, à la soeur. Il dit des mots, des mots qui sont très durs et il les répète plusieurs fois. C'est plus dur que des gestes. Vous les écoutez une fois, vous essayez de partir. C'est ce que je fais parce que je m'en vais en fait. Vous écoutez deux fois, et puis la troisième fois...J'aurais préféré prendre un coup de poing". Zizou n'a pas souhaité révéler la teneur exacte des mots prononcés par le Milanais. Mais s'excuse de son geste auprès de ceux qui l'ont vu : "Ce n'est pas un geste à faire. Je tiens à le faire surtout pour les deux ou trois milliards de téléspectateurs et tous les enfants."

"Je ne suis pas fier de ce geste mais je ne le regrette pas. Sinon, ça veut dire qu'il avait raison de dire ce qu'il a dit ", a ajouté Zidane. Le coupable c'est celui qui provoque. Ça suffit de toujours sanctionner la réaction. Dans une finale de Coupe du monde, à dix minutes de la fin de ma carrière, je ne vais pas faire ce geste gratuitement. Il y a eu une provocation très grave."

Evidemment, Zinédine Zidane n'avait pas envie de finir comme ça : "Dans une finale de Coupe du monde, à dix minutes de la fin de ma carrière, je ne vais pas faire ce geste gratuitement. Il y a eu une provocation très grave. Ce n'était pas calculé. J'étais à dix minutes de la fin de ma carrière et je pouvais terminer de la meilleure des façons. " Sa présence sur le terrain aurait peut-être changé le cours de l'histoire ? "Je ne sais pas. Peut-être que oui, peut-être que non ? En tous les cas, les tirs au buts... Un jour c'est pour vous, un jour c'est contre vous. Mais je ne peux pas vous dire avec certitude que cela aurait changé la fin du match."

Lip reading

Materazzi apparently told Zidane, "I wish an ugly death to you and all your family...go fuck yourself."

Sticks and stones?

Rooney - Carvalho

BBC review of Rooney's stomp.

Zidane-Materazzi video game

If you time it right you can knock out two Materazzis with one headbutt.

Tournament All-Star Team

This roster will change as the votes come in.

Starting XI
Ricardo - Portugal

Fabio Cannavaro - Italy
Lilian Thuram - France
Philip Lahm - Germany
Lucio - Brazil

Andrea Pirlo - Italy
Riquelme - Argentina
Tevez - Argentina
Riberry - France

Klose - Germany
Crespo - Argentina

Substitutes
Keepers:
Gianluigi Buffon - Italy
Jens Lehman - Germany

Defenders:
Roberto Ayala - Argentina
John Terry - England

Midfielders:
Genarro Gattuso - Italy
Kaka - Brazil
Maniche - Portugal
Patrick Vieira - France
Zinedine Zidane - France

Strikers:
Ronaldo - Brazil
Carlos Tenorio - Ecuador
David Villa - Spain

Player of the Tournament
Cannavaro - Italy allowed two goals in 7 matches, an own-goal against the US and a penalty against France. Neither were Cannavaro's fault. Buffon should be considered but he wasn't tested often enough.

Italy 1 - France 1 (5-3)

Italy owned the ball in the 1st half. France dominated in the 2nd. Italy went from outmatched to exhausted in the overtime. France couldn't finish, Italy didn't try, Zidane lost his mind and thug supreme Danielle de Rossi is the 2006 World Champion. Heartbreak in Paris joins elation in Rome to offset yawns from the rest of the world.

Prom night and other excuses

The wives and girlfriends of the Green Cobra have long known of fast starts and premature finishes. To make amends we offer a lame analogy; does our own fading mirror that of the tournament's play? The group stage gave us Ecuador, six goals (and 24 passes) from Argentina and mighty Shaka Hislop in the 2nd half against Sweden. It gave us Lahm, Frings and the Dutch and the Argentines really trying to score (at least in the 1st half) in a meaningless-ish game. It gave us Australia's ten minutes v. Japan, Bakary Kone's run and goal v. Holland and Lavolpe smoking furiously on the sidelines.

And afterwards? Maxi Rodriguez's goal against Mexico, of course. France's ten minutes against Spain, fair enough. But not much else. Of the 14 elimination games only 3 included goals from both teams. 11 clean sheets could have been off set by spectacular play and end-to-end attacking. Alas. Like the girls that agree to go home with the Green Cobra we can't help ask, "Wasn't something more supposed to happen?"

Dispatches from Kaiserslautern

16:17 We just arrived into the stadium.  The crowd is
starting to fire up to cheesey Italian music and INXS.
I can't wait to hear ACDC.  Italians have entered the
pitch.  The brats are great and the Bud sucks.  ACDC is
now playing -- Shook Me All Night Long.

16:23 Three beer limit. Rosemary told me she plans
to drink more beer today than she has since the last WC.

Sitting in front of Jap business dudes.  Hottie Aussie
in a bikini airs on the jumbotron.  Japs smile and wave
Aussie flags.

The stadium is fantastic.

16:28 Rosemary polished off a Brat.

Seats are on the 18 -- 12 rows up.

I think the Aussies outnumber the Italians.  Tell your
buddy we are in the Socceroo camp.  Let's go Cahill.

18:01 German chant translated by my neighbor.

"Without Nederland we drive to Berlin" sang late in the
first half.

Ukraine 1- CH 0 (3-0 in pk's)

The antidote to Portugal v. Holland. The ref forgot his whistle. After the first hard challenge from Switzerland he waved Play On and was consistently blind until the end. Going into half time both sides looked ready to play for penalty kicks. Then Scheva missed the first for Ukraine, then Streller, then Barnetta, then Cabañas missed the first three for CH. Italy has an opponent next Friday and Shovkovsky (above in green) won't be fooled as easily as Schwarzer.

Italy 1- Australia 0

95th minute. Oh, the humanity.

Portugal 1 - Holland 0

They scheduled a diving meet and a fight broke out. 16 cards and 4 expulsions. Chippy but Portugal advance to face England on Saturday.