World Cup? What World Cup? Now the World Series...

[doczinn]

the French are the best footballing team left. They outplayed Brazil.

As much as it pains me to say it, that's not such a hard thing to do this time around. I've been saying since Brasil's first game that if that's all they've got this Cup, they won't even make it to the semi-finals.

[Dannyboy]

Well, it's over.  I'm glad Italy won but I really hate penalties.  What I want to know is, what the hell was Zidane thinking?  I think Cannavaro should definitely get the Golden Ball.  He was amazing in every game I saw him play.

[Iain]

I don't know what he was thinking. I also don't doubt for a second that Materazzi said something awful to him, but that doesn't justify it.

In some ways this World Cup was a big disappointment. Obviously partly that is because England woefully underperformed and I'm an England fan, but so did so many others, the Brazilians collectively did for example as doczinn says.

But also some of the less pleasant aspects of the game rose to the surface too often - McBride got a faceful of elbow, Carvalhao got a groinful of boot, the Australians were robbed by a dive, Cristiano Ronaldo was Cristiano Ronaldo and the World Cup final was decided by penalties.

[Warren]

I don't watch much soccer but I tell you I hate the idea of PKs deciding a match.

They should play on until players start dropping from exhaustion. And just leave them on the field. Pretty soon you are down to just a few upright players and eventually someone will score a goal.

[Dannyboy]

Cannavaro was robbed.  They gave Zidane the Golden Ball as a going away present.  He played well but Cannavaro was much better and over the whole tournament, not just the knockout stages.  What a crock.