France v Spain

[pmb]

Best game of the world cup so far.

Spain gets an early penalty kick, France ties it up right before the half. In the second half France scores on a goal after a free kick and some headers, and in the final 5 minutes, Zidane runs in, beats a defender beautifully, spins 270 degrees, and shoots left while the keeper dives right. World class player, playing in his last tournament, and he makes the play. Everyone on both teams played full-on for the full 90 minutes, and the referee did an excellent job.

Comments

[coldtortuga.livejournal.com]

I followed this game on the guardian.co.uk blog :-) One of the first things the blogger mentioned was that this particular ref is a "backup", i.e., the ref who FIFA wanted got injured or sick or something, and this guy had to be brought in as a second-stringer.

The blogger guessed (tongue-in-cheek... but correctly!) that because FIFA had not wanted this ref as one of their first choices -- well, obviously, he wouldn't be such a c**k-up! ;-P