Purple Coco's Musings

Thank God, the long wait is at last over. With the FIFA2006 WORLD CUP final match between Italy and France on Sunday 10th July 2006 coming to an end, I finally win the battle of going to bed early at night.

I had been staying up till wee hours in the morning and lacked enough sleeping hours since the start of the tournament to decide on which team would march from winning the quarter final to the final game, which was scheduled last Sunday, 10th July 2006.

“The beautiful game turned vicious, even venomous Sunday. It was all still beautiful to Italy. Italy not only won its fourth World Cup but also stretched its unbeaten streak to 25.”

Before bringing down the curtain, here are a few interesting shots from the game which brings a smile to my face and lots of memory to treasure for a long, long time.

Always mind the ball!

Hand ball is a no-no!

No ifs or buts about it, but its "BOTTOM-UPS" from Italy's Captain Fabio Cannavaro with Italy winning the FIFA2006 WORLD CUP Football beating France 5-3 in a penalty shoot-out, after a 1-1 draw.

Well, all eyes on Africa now and perhaps we’ll meet and talk about "ball” again when the next FIFA2010 WORLD CUP Tournament is here soon. Afrika! Afrika!

As for now, I am looking forward to retiring early tonight (wink) and hopefully I needn’t have to count sheep to get a beauty sleep.

~ Men of influence, rulers, and judges will be honored, but none of them is greater than a person who fears the Lord.~ Sirach 10: 24

Labels: Sports

Match fixtures 1st July 2006 1700hrs (2300 hrs Malaysia Time) England vs Portugal. Portugal won 3 goals via penalty kicks and England didn't managed to strike an even or more penalty kicks to get it's team to march into the semi-finals. My favorite team, England, lose the match against Portugal but it was a fair way to exit the World Cup 2006 football arena.

This was a heroic England performance, especially with ten men following the sending-off of Wayne Rooney in the 62nd minute. Despite this disadvantage Sven-Goran Eriksson's team continued to both defend and attack intelligently, creating more goal chances than their opponents.Owen Hargreaves was the best player on the pitch. The whole of the back four did extremely well. If you pick out one it would be Hargreaves, who encapsulated the England performance. His work rate was incredible with the number of balls he won in midfield and he still found the time to get forward.It was a pity such a game had to be decided by penalties but once the game goes to penalties, it becomes a question of which team can handle their nerve and once again England were found lacking in a shoot-out. But over the 120 minutes they were the better team and Portugal can consider themselves quite fortunate to have survived this one. Source

Labels: Sports

Football air is now everywhere here in Miri. Last night at the Saint Columban's Patronal cum farewell dinner for Rev. Datuk Made Katib's Retirement (Rev. Datuk Made Katib's is the Anglican Church's Bishop for Sarawak and Brunei Darussalam) held at East Valley Resort and Golf Club, Miri, most of the patrons were talking about football. Happy Father's Day greeting was short and brief and football was the talk of the night. :) The next match was between Brazil and Australia and most of us there were very confident in Brazil winning the game and which was proven true as reported in the medias.

Labels: Sports