I'm a sobbing fan today

As I write this, I'm still not able to get over the disappointment of seeing two of my favourite teams - England and Brazil bow out of the World Cup. The former, rather unluckily - through a penalty shoot out (and ya my prayers have'nt been heeded to) and the latter- rather unceremoniously.
I backed these two teams for obvious reasons. The English Premiere League is arguably the most entertaining of the football leagues. And most of the English players play for top teams in EPL. But you could easily say England were not playing to their potential. Most of the times they lacked the firepower and the will to succeed and played a waiting game all through their campaign. One wonders if these highly paid English had enough motivation to do well for their national team. How else would you explain somebody like Frank Lampard not being able to score even once while he might have had 25 odd shots at the goal. And yes this is the same Lampard who scored virtually in every match for Chelsea, sometimes even converting half-chances. David Beckam didn't exactly look to be his true self.
Having said that, I still feel England fought really hard yesterday after Rooney was sent off, rather harshly just for pushing his fellow Man United player, Chritiano Ronaldo. Refereeing during this world cup has been nothing short of shocking. England,with just 10 men, defended valiantly for almost an hour. But ultimately were let down by their star players in the penalty shoot-out. Lampard, Jerrard and Carrehghar missed their shots too easily. I was'nt very happy to see Portugal, who are looking to be real menacers on the field(remember their 16 yellow card blood-bath match with the
Dutch), go through to the semis.

And now to Brazil. Before the finals started, Brazil were the over-whelming favourites. And for valid reasons. They had the golden quartret - Ronaldo(start of the last 2 world cups), Ronaldinho(FIFA player of the Year for last 2 yrs), Kaka(AC Milan's charismatic forward) and Adriano(InterMilan's start forward). And then they had lesser known players like Robinho, Ze-Roberto, Juninho and others who still were leading players for their clubs. But during the worldcup, the star-studded Brazil didn't live up to their reputation at all. Part of the reason, for me, is that they didn't put in enough preparation. They always looked like eleven great individuals, but without any team-work between them. Kaka and Ronaldinho failed to showcase any of their skills as they really looked tired of their busy club schedule leading to the Worldcup. France, who proved to be their nemisis again(after the 98 paris final), didn't really have to sweat to beat Brazil. Zidane, after all the initial criticism, seems to have found his magical touch once again. And to me Zidane looks inspired enough to win another world cup and bid-adieu to his national team in style. His display last night against Brazil was just spell-binding. He created all the chances and mermerized the unorganized Brazilian defence.
With my favourite teams out and Germany, Italy, Portugal and France in the semis, I predict a Germany vs France finals. And I feel Germany is gonna win this world cup because they are the only side that has never looked like loosing. Knowing how bad my predictions can be, I expect more drama to unfold in the concluding week before the Jules Rimet trophy is gonna be hoisted by the winner.

Getting the KICKs

You really don't need any reasons to explain why everyone is gripped by the world cup fever.
Its too obvious, to say the least. Its there for everyone to see and enjoy. Its been pure magic ever since Philip Lahm opened the flood-gates through a beautifully driven goal just 6 mins into the cup finals. There's been the far too many moments of brilliance for me to remember. And considering that I have'nt been able to watch all the matches, World cup'06 is more than living up to all the hype and expectations. Awesome, Breathtaking, Superb, Magnificent, Incredible, Amazing - you need to find more superlatives in your dictionary to expain whats being displayed in Germany since 9th June .How about discussing some of these moments?

Consider this,Argentina put in a record 24 passes for a goal in their 6-0 thrashing of the, not exactly minnowish Serbia & Montenegro. Brazil got the better of it during the goal they scored through Ze Roberto against Ghana later in the 2nd round.
Ronaldo silenced all his critics, who only seemed to talk about his supposed lack of fitness, by breaking the record for most goals( held my German Gerd Mueller). Whatever the critics might say, he does still have few magic spells left. And if chooses to silence his critics by scoring more goals, would anybody complain, other than his opponents??
The Aussies, playing the cup finals after a long gap of 30 yrs, showed why Australia can't be counted out of any sport. Reaching the second round, and almost causing a major upset against mighty Italy, if not for the dreaded referee pointing his finger to the penalty spot- that for me was the most shocking moment yet of this worldcup. It was as if the referee wanted to gift the match to Italy when the Socceroos seemed to be running away with the match. It was just heart-breaking to see Roma's Totti netting the ball in. Another of those disappointments, Ivory Coast couldn't 'coast' into the 2nd round inspite of their commendable performance in the group of death. I am so very sure, looking at the speed and skill that the African nation posessed, they could have caused some damage had they been in a different group, or for that matter had they been a little more luckier.

Now to England. Anybody who watches the English premiere league wouldn't have believed it was England's best 11 playing, when they were struggling hard to score their own goal 170 minutes into the worldcup. It needed the charismatic Rooney, whose metatarsal injury got more newsprint than anything else in the English media, to inspire them to the next round.
As i write this, I'm still trying to come to terms with the harsh reality that the most talented side on display in the Worldcup so far, Argentina, is out. Riquelme, Crespo, Tevez, Messi (whom Maradona declared to be his successor) had showcased so much of the Argentine magic. So many believed they were the best team as a unit.
It felt sorry to see Argentina, who promised so much, go out through the dreaded penalty shoot out. Moments like that really make me think there ought to be better ways to decide a knock out match than just 5 spot kicks. Because so much depends on the luck factor. To put it in simple words - the goalkeeper falls on one side, if the kick happens to come on the same side he has greater chances of saving, or else he's got no chance at all. However naive this argument might look, i'm sure there are people who can buy into it.
I'm hoping against hope, that there won't be another penalty shoot out in any of the remaining matches.