I went to Japan with two friends to watch two live games for 2002 Japan/Korea World Cup. I was satisfied with watching England vs Nigeria (group game) and England vs Denmark (quarter-final) This was also the first time I watch a live football game in person! The two Asian hosts made history with Japan making past the group stage first time in their history while Korea even became the first Asian country to make the semi-final eliminating Italy and Spain in the process. Japanese fans, wearing their proud national team jeresy of Nakata and Inamoto, were enthusiastic and crazy while I was in Japan. Crazy local fans were full of joy and "high-five" with fellow fans on the busy and crowded streets. The football stores in Japan was like a Football Supermarket! I really hope one day I can go back to Japan to those crazy football stores. While the focus for England was Beckham's hair-style, English was efficient and actually provide the toughest test for Brazil in their journey to crown. This was a tournament of shocking upset with pre-tournament favorites France and Argentina both gone home early. Italy and Spain eliminated by the Koreans. Kahn's Germany was very lucky advancing to the final meeting with weak opponents in the process, eventually punished hard by 3R (Ronaldo,Ronaldinho and Rivaldo) in the final.
Germany 2006 World Cup was great for European fans with majority of main European force performed well after their horrible experience in 2002. My team England lost to Portugal, but again in penalty shoot-out! In my opinion, Eriksson was not a terrible coach. At least, he made the Three Lions focus on defense. Gerrard and Lampard never can play well together. The so-called golden generation midfield Gerrard-Lampard-Beckham-Cole never work very well. It's sad to see Rooney affected by injury and run out of steam in the 2006 WC after making his mark in international scene in Euro 2004. Despite their luckluster start in group stage, France was the deserved winner in reality. France eliminated Spain, Brazil and Portugal on their way to final. Host Germany played some exciting attacking football; yet, their defense remains as a weakness. Italy had a deep squad and a balanced team led by experienced coach Lippi. However, they were a lucky team as they should have been eliminated by Australia as early as 2nd round as a referee mistake award them a penalty near close of the game. Italian CB Materazzi was a total disgrace for provoking superstar Zidance for his send-off. I was very disappointed with the result, as I have never been an Italian fan but have had huge respect for Zidance, despite never been a fan of France.
Nicely written. Your posts about your World Cup experience clearly show how much you know and love the sport. And I am envious that you got to see a World Cup game live. Even though I have been a football fan for over 20 years, I have only seen a game in person one time - a friendly between an Eredivisie club and a La Liga club.
ReplyDeleteFunny that you compare the World Cup tournaments in the last 20 years. I think that the current tournament (thus far) ranks as the most entertaining. In past tournaments, there were always a few teams that squeaked into the semi-finals by heavily relying on playing for 0-0 and then winning by shootouts. Hopefully, this will not happen in the last few games of this tournament.
Like you, I also didn't particularly like Italy and West Germany in the 1990s due to their negative pragmatism. But I have since changed my opinion about Germany since the last world cup. Italy in 2006 was also quite progressive and deserved applaud for the positive attacking tactics in the semifinal.
Keep this up. I will visit this blog frequently.