Yes, the second half was good but the French defense was stellar. The official shot count is 7 but only one really threatened Barthez. I didn’t think Zidane had so much talent left in him. There was one little play that I wished they would have replayed. Three guys were drawned to him as he was slowing down and it looked like he was trapped. Then he made a fast pass from his left foot behind his right and ran to complete the give and go and leave the three brazilians behind. It was just a great little piece of work. If you recognize it and have it on Tivo, you should post it.
The clip should be a bit before the goal or not long after. Zidane is in the center top of the screen going towards the bottom. The pass is made towards the left of the screen ( his right). It’s a quick movement of the feet followed by a short sprint.
Ok, I think this is it…
Attached as a quicktime mpeg-1 file.
[original attachment deleted after 2 years]
That’s not it but that is another sweet move by Zidane. He is not doing this against any team, he is doing this against the # 1 rank and he is succeeding. How amazing is that? Even Ronaldinho, who is supposed to be the best player in the world, didn’t show this kind of skills.
Ronaldo was taken down with a questionable tackle in the penalty area with about 2 minutes to play. I was certain that he was going to get a penalty shot especially after the one that was awarded to Italy in their game with the Aussies. I thought that the Ronaldo tackle was more blatant. Good game though
Sorry to see England out of it. To me they are to Soccer like Canada is to Hockey. They fought hard and held off Portugal being down Beckham, Owens and Rooney but the Portuguese goalie was incredible in the shootout.
I was actually pretty disappointed with the France/Brazil game, not just because Brazil lost, but I was expecting more chances, more goal scoring opportunities. Kudos to France for holding Brazil to one shot on goal for the game, but it far from a classic. It was cool to see Zidane show the world that he is still one of the world’s best players.
As far as Ronaldo getting taken down, there was nothing questionable about any of his attempts. At times it looked as though he was more concerned with trying to draw a foul rather than make an attempt to score. The play where he was “taken down” at the top of the box near the end of the game was almost embarassing. The look on his face showed it all when the call wasn’t made. He knew he wasn’t fouled and replay backed that up ten-fold.