		Fields Of Dreams A look back at the tournament

		Seeing Red Red card after red card

		Win Or Lose You can see it in their faces

		Crowd Pleasers Brazil has fans like no other team

		Launch Party Glamor, spectacle in Munich

		Great Moments Scenes from World Cup history

		Fever Pitch Fans soak up the atmosphere

Past Issues

		Euro 2004 [06/21/2004]

World Cup 2002

[02/06/2006]

Matches

Sun, July 9 – 20:00*
FINAL: Berlin


Italy	v	France
1 (5)		1 (3)

*local time (CEST)

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christof stache / ap

victory >>>>
Germany's Podolski celebrates

The World Cup

The Joy Of Kicks

Great play, happy fans and a buoyant host — too bad someone has to lose

Posted Sunday June 25, 2006; 16.22BST
You've got to hand it to the Americans. They did a great job at the World Cup. Not the team; the fans, who made their best showing ever as a traveling unit, landing some 20,000 strong in Germany. They've got the hang of this global football thing. As for the American team, well, here's the evaluation of Ghana's Serbian coach Ratomir Dujkovic in his chopped, yet effective English: "They are very strong, very good, very skillful. Unfortunately, they have to go home." Right on, Rato, and it's not only the Americans who were not quite strong, good or skillful enough to hang around the Teutonic love fest that this World Cup has become. See ya, Saudis. Auf wiedersehen, Angola, and au revoir, Côte d'Ivoire.

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The cut was made last week at the World Cup and as it often does, the knockout stage sorted itself out into those classic Old World/New World, northern/southern hemisphere confrontations. The Old World made a strong case with nine traditional European powers, plus Ukraine, getting through. We got a glimpse of the traditional battles in the Netherlands-Argentina first-round match, a sprinting contest between two skilled sides that ended scoreless. It didn't really settle the issue as much as it hinted how delicious a finals matchup would be, as exciting as their 1998 quarter- final encounter in Marseille. Argentina's electricity continued in a riveting 2-1 victory over Mexico on Saturday, which saw the tournament's most breathtaking goal so far, a soaring left-footer by Maxi Rodriguez.

The Germans couldn't be more pleased, or amazed at themselves, either as a team or a nation. The nationalmannschaft showed that Jürgen Klinsmann's focus on a high-pressure offense could pay huge dividends, with Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski regularly menacing opposing keepers, fed by a steady stream of passes from Michael Ballack.

On a perfect afternoon in Munich, the FIFA World Cup Stadium was brimming with white shirts, and three huge banners — for the championship years 1954, 1974 and 1990 — were raised by the fans before the game. Within minutes, Sweden was finished, courtesy of a Podolski rebound after he had neatly set up Klose in front of the Swedish net. Then Klose became provider as Podolski pumped one past Swedish keeper Andreas Isaksson for a 2-0 lead in the 12th minute. Then, in the 35th minute, defender Teddy Lucic was dismissed for a second yellow after holding Klose's jersey. It was the closest he'd been to the guy all day. After Isaksson pawed away yet another German blast, he ran screaming out of the goal mouth to yell at his defense but, of course, he couldn't find them. They were missing all day.

And however far the German team progresses, it continues to light this country up like a summer firefly. Germans still can't quite figure out why they're so damn happy. Sitting in a café in Nuremberg a few days before the Sweden match, Andrus Kubicki, 39, from Cologne, was drinking it all in.

"I am surprised by this much enthusiasm," he said. "Normally, the German people are not so enthusiastic about anything." Germany wasn't the only country that has gone bonkers. The thrilling Australia-Croatia encounter confirmed the Aussies' status as the surprise package of the tournament. The antipodeans twice clawed back into the game, the last time on the foot of Harry Kewell, the Liverpool man whose scrambled 79th minute score gave the Socceroos a 2-2 and a place in the knockout round, and put the country at the bottom of the world on top.

"The fans got an exciting game tonight and this is what the World Cup is all about. We're going to go out now and enjoy every minute we are playing," said defender Lucas Neill. Australians were at their tellies at 5 a.m. to watch their team reach the final 16 for the first time. In South Korea, virtually the entire nation stayed up for the 4 a.m. kickoffs, but this year they were not rewarded. The Red Devils, who reached the semis on their home soil in 2002, couldn't get past Switzerland, which will entertain Ukraine in the next round. Neither looks like a semifinalist.

It's amazing how one game can change everything. France looked old and slow in its first two contests against Switzerland and South Korea, both draws. And Brazil's Ronaldo was being criticized for resembling a dumpling more than a footballer. Then he netted twice in Brazil's magical mangling of Japan and his physique changed. "When he doesn't score, he's fat," noted Brazil's exasperated press manager earlier in the week. "Enough about the weight." As we were saying, Ronaldo is looking svelte these days.

In its third encounter, with Togo, a desperate French team attacked with the vigor of youth, and without their midfield maestro, Zinédine Zidane, who spent his 34th birthday on the sideline after getting a yellow card in each of the previous two matches. The pressure paid off in the 55th minute when Togo conceded a Patrick Vieira goal. Thierry Henry doubled the margin minutes later. "We took risks, played down the wings, but the Togo goalkeeper played a blinder and I despaired that the ball would never go in," Henry said.

That sets up a classic encounter with a Spanish team that is absolutely flowing with energy. Spain opened its account with a 4-0 thrashing of Ukraine, ripping vast holes in the Ukrainian defense with its interior passing. Tunisia slowed them down for a half, but when Spanish coach Luis Aragonés inserted Joaquin and the former first-choice marksman, Raúl, into the match, the game realigned. Combined with the lively David Villa, Spain is going to be a handful for France, even with their Real Madrid "galáctico," Zidane, back in harness.

Against Togo Zidane was idle, courtesy of FIFA's refereeing directives in which yellow cards are being handed out for everything short of untied shoelaces, turning world-class players into spectators. Lunging to get to a ball of which the grounded South Korean goalkeeper had momentarily lost control, Zidane shoved his way past a Korean defender — who promptly fell earthward as if he'd been liquefied by a speeding truck. Mexican referee Benito Archundia swallowed the act whole and carded Zizou. Michael Essien, Ghana's $69 million midfielder, will have to watch his team take on Brazil. "The insistence on yellow cards is crazy, it's taking good players out of this tournament," said U.S. coach Bruce Arena after his team's loss to Ghana. "Taking Essien out of the next game isn't fair; this mandate to show yellow cards has gone overboard" (see following story).

Ghana demonstrated that it was the class of the African entrants. It is well organized, unlike Togo, whose coach got involved in a nasty feud with its football officials days before the tournament began. Ghana showed poise and power, not getting rattled by an opening loss to Italy. "They got better each game," noted Arena. Brazil did the same. After two desultory performances, they once again looked like world-beaters against Japan — then again, so did Australia. The insertion of Robinho for the human bull Adriano has given the yellow shirts the flair, even the arrogance, they lacked initially. "We really showed the brilliant art of Brazilian football tonight," said the brilliant Kaka.

If any region could be called a loser in this tournament, it would have to be Central Europe. That the Czech Republic is now a spectator lies largely in the strength of its initial group, where it joined Italy, Ghana and the U.S., and could manage just one win, a 3-0 beating of the Americans, who themselves went on to draw with Italy before losing to Ghana. Italy still looks the strongest to come out of the group, and for once didn't struggle to qualify for the knockout round. That marks the end for marvelous Czech midfielder Pavel Nedved, who led a generation of fine footballers for that nation. The Czechs opened brightly in clobbering the U.S., but lost their towering center Jan Koller and were never the same.

Serbia and Montenegro, drawn into the so-called Group of Death, was dead on arrival in Germany. This team was so bad, losing six-zip to Argentina, that Montenegro voted to split off and form its own country. OK, maybe politics had something to do with it too. The Central Europeans placed three teams in the knockout round in 1998, and that year Croatia reached the semis just brimming with verve and creativity. The current outfit couldn't beat a weak Japan team and struggled to hold off Australia. "It's not great when you've been in the lead twice but can't protect the result until the end. We had no luck at all, and we've fallen a long way short of our own expectations. It's terrible," said midfielder Marko Babic. Maybe he should be consoled by the fact the Aussie team featured 7 Croatian-Australians.

Once again, German fans poured into the streets of Munich and Cologne and Nuremberg to celebrate their victory. You couldn't help feeling that Germany was exhibiting what seemed to be a lunar pull toward the final in Berlin, as France did in 1998. In some places, there are paired posters displaying a picture of Pope Benedict with the number 2005, and next to it a picture of the Cup itself, with the number 2006. Not too long ago, people here would have scoffed at the chance of either of those things happening. Now they are starting to believe miracles are delivered in pairs.

With reporting by Bruce Crumley/Cologne