France 1998 had favourites France in the final against an attacking Brazil. But with Zinedine Zidane in the best of form, scoring two goals to give France the winning edge, France never looked like a team going to lose. In fact it was Brazil’s misery that their best player Ronaldo played even after reporting sick on match day.
Image not recoveredHowever come South Korea & Japan 2002, the Brazilians were back in form. They romped home with the World Cup with Ronaldo scoring both goals in the final.
Germany 2006 looked to be a fine World Cup for France right until the final. They beat Spain in the second round, Brazil in the quarter-finals, Portugal in the semi-finals. It was one of the toughest routes to the finals before the lost on penalties to Italy which meant an end of the road for France right at the very end.
Italy however were extremely lucky with Australia in the second round being awarded an unfair penalty at the very end and facing Ukraine in the quarter-finals followed by a lacklustre Germany in the semis. And last but not the least, Zidane was sent-off for a head-butt by the fourth official in consultation with the referees after looking at replays which is not allowed according to FIFA rules. Well, I am a France supporter and to me Zidane’s sending off looked to be a botched decision never to have been made by the fourth official.
Well that’s all in the History Series, now let’s look forward to South Africa 2010
Gopal Sea writes for FootballKerala.com
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Thursday 27 May 2010, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.