Sunday, July 09, 2006
Final Score read: Germany 3 - 1 PortugalBastian Schweinsteiger was the hero for Germany as they officially ended the 2006 World Cup as the third-best side after demolishing Portugal 3-1 in Stuttgart.
The host nation may have been craving for the final, but they proved they were still hungry in the `mini-final'.
to me, oliver kahn is the best player for germany yesterday
with every contribution he made to the game, the crowd responded with a loud applause
yesterday match was his last match for his country soon announcing his retirement after the game
he showed no signs of old-age or fears throughout the enitre match
so stand up for oliver kahn mann!
He told reporters: 'That was my last international match. It was a beautiful time but you have to know when it's all over.
'The atmosphere was overwhelming. You have to stop and think for a moment what it would have been like if we had won the World Cup.
'It was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, emotional moment that I can remember.
'That was my last international match - and you could hardly ask for a better match to go out on. But you have to know when it's time to go.'
Kahn, who had 86 caps for Germany, was captain of the team that went to the World Cup final in 2002, where they lost to Brazil 2-0. He won the Golden Ball award given to the most valuable player of the 32-team tournament.
But Kahn was demoted by coach Juergen Klinsmann two years ago when he took over.
Klinsmann first stripped Kahn of the captaincy in favour of midfielder Michael Ballack. He also made Kahn compete with long-time understudy Jens Lehmann for the first-choice goalkeeping spot.
Kahn, 37, lost out to Lehmann just before the World Cup. He played in the match against Portugal as a gesture of thanks for his loyalty to the team after being demoted.
Klinsmann paid tribute to Kahn after Saturday's match, praising him for dealing maturely with the decision in favour of Lehmann.
'It's unbelievable how he dealt with that,' Klinsmann said. 'I can only speak about Oliver with the greatest respect.'
Kahn was captain, for the 49th time, on Saturday because Ballack was out with an injury.
He played his first match for Germany against Switzerland in Berne on June 23, 1995 - a 2-1 victory for Germany.
The Bayern Munich captain has been named the world's best goalkeeper three times and Europe's best keeper four times.
yeah yesterday was feeling damn scared throughout the entire match
when the first-half ended with no goals, i thought i had lost my bet
bcos going by germany's past few matches, if they did not score in the first match, they will not score in the second-half.
but ytd's game proved otherwise
yeah so congrats to those who bet correctly ytd
my $120 earn is enough to recoup my losses for the past two matches.
ITALY VS FRANCEGianluigi Buffon will try to establish a new mark of excellence if he keeps a clean sheet for the first 63 minutes of Sunday's World Cup final against France but the goalkeeper admits the record will count for nothing if Italy fail to lift the trophy.
The Juventus star has not conceded a goal for 453 minutes, the second best run in the history of the tournament behind compatriot Walter Zenga, who went an incredible 517 minutes without being beaten at Italia 90.
france derseves to be in this final after shaking off spain, brazil and portugal en-route to the final
yeah they might have start off shakily during the start of the world cup
but they have improved by leaps and bounds
perhaps they want people to know that 98'world cup was not achieved with pure luck
italy on the other day, has one of the best defence in the world, with only one goal conceded during the world cup campaign
this goal actually came from their team-mate ironically
so it is hardly a surprise if this final match come down to penalties
italy will try to win this world-cup after suffering a major knock on their country's league seria a
several big clubs are expected to be demoted after they were involved in a cheating scandal
one way for italy to win is try to give zizou as little space as possible
zizou when played to his best potential, no one can stop him
so for me, italy got to cut off zizou's head
not literally of course, but a headless chicken running around the pitch, making little contribution.
so my best bet will be on italy winnning the final match
while the star of hope she leaves him; 12:07 PM
