Your Comprehensive Preview to the World Cup Final
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by user Sayhey-rod
No need for an intro, the article is long enough. A look at the probable starters at each position and who has the edge at each position:
Keeper
- France: Fabien Barthez, goalkeeper, Marseille, 35: Athletic but unpredictable veteran. Played a French-record 16 matches at 1998, 2002 and 2006 World Cups, allowing only seven goals. Still his status as the French No. 1 for this tournament came late. Short for a goalie at six feet but athleticism helps him compensate. Anything can happen with Barthez in goal.
- Italy: Gianluigi Buffon, goalkeeper, Juventus, 28: regarded by many to be the best goalkeeper in the world, Buffon transfered from Parma to Juventus for a world-record goalkeeper's fee €48.5 million or US$62 million). Beaten only once in six matches, on an own-goal during the US group-stage game, is tied with Portugal's Ricardo for a tournament-leading 23 saves.
MAJOR KEEPER EDGE: ITALY Not even close.
Defense
- France: Willy Sagnol, Eric Abidal (left-back seen as future stalwart of France defence. A favourite of coach Raymond Domenech). William Gallas and Lilian Thuram are solid, stylish defenders with loads of experience. Calm under fire. Thuram, along with midfielder Claude Makelele, came out of international football retirement on soon after Zidane announced that he was coming out of international retirement to assist France in WC 2006 qualifying.
- Italy: Gianluca Zambrotta, Fabio Grosso. Grosso excels moving forward and scored the winning goal vs Germany to put the Italians through to the finals, but he can be vulnerable defensively. Fabio Cannavaro: Italian captain has been a defensive rock, showing great vision in breaking up attacks. Great anticipation helps make up for lack of size at 5-9. Coach Marcello Lippi calls him the best defender in the world. Set to win his 100th cap in the final. Marco Materazzi, an injury to super-back Alessandro Nesta opened the door to the starting lineup. Materazzi has had an eventful tournament. Scored coming off the bench against the Czechs, sent off against Australia. At 6-4, can be a player to watch at set pieces.
SLIGHT DEFENSE EDGE: FRANCE - Due to Nesta injury. Italians can cause more problems coming forward, but this may leave them vulnerable in the back.
Midfield
- France: Patrick Vieira, Florent Malouda and Claude Makelele. Makelele is a defensive midfielder doing much of his work under the radar. Frank Ribery is one of the new French speedy, attacking midfielder prototypes who has made a name for himself at this World Cup. Watch the transfer window after Cup where clubs Tottenham and Aresenal are rumored to have interest. Scar on face is from childhood car accident. Midfielder Zinedine Zidane (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zidane) deserves his own article. He was FIFA’s world player of the year in 1998, 2000, 2003 and in 2004 was voted best Europen footballer of the last 50 yrs by a UEFA poll. He is the key to the midfield and France’s counter-attacking strategy. He has confirmed that he will retire from club and international football as soon as the World Cup is over. Boy, is he making the most of his final moments. Zidane has shown off his stepovers, vision and slick passing and his teammates seem inspired by their captain's determination. Since this is the last time you will get to see him play, you will here him mentioned a lot on Sunday. Zidane possesses both French and Algerian citizenship. Fascinatingly, in Zidane’s younger years, the Algerian national team coach A. Kermali denied him a position on the team citing his lack of speed.
- Italy: Simone Perrotta, Gennaro Gattuso: Tenacious hardworking midfielder s, Gattuso is the perfect compliement to Andrea Pirlo. Mauro Camoranesi: Argentine-born midfielder is a bundle of energy who is a danger coming off the flank, both with the ball at his feet or via crosses. Andrea Pirlo: Hailed as one of the new breed of holding midfielder who can control the game’s tempo, Pirlo can win the ball and then trigger attacks. Has a great passing eye. A set-piece specialist.
MIDFIELD EDGE: Even
Forward/Striker
- France: Thierry Henry plays as the lone striker in France’s 4-5-1 formation. He prefers to operate on the wing where he uses his impeccable control and pace to attack flat footed defenders on his way to the box. Can create space out of nothing and then have a go at goal. Unfortunately, he has a reputation of not showing up for the big game, as in Arsenal’s Champion’s League match this yr vs Barcelona and he’s had a tendency to fall rather easily during this tournament.
- Italy: Italy’s 4-4-2 formation there are two attacking forwards. Francesco Totti (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Totti) is a talismanic player who can make goals and score them from his position linking midfield and attack. Coming back from a serious leg injury, seems determined to prove a point at this World Cup Totti is famous for his chipping technique, called in Italian il cucchiaio (in English, "spoon"). He has scored many beautiful goals using this technique. Luca Toni is a big forward (6-4) with good ball skills. Scored a hat-trick in qualifying vs Belarus and a brace (two goals) vs Ukraine in World Cup on June 30th.
FORWARD/STRIKER EDGE: ITALY
Subplot: Juve Link
An interesting subplot to World Cup games (including World Baseball Cup) is that you have club teammates suiting up for their respective nations and facing off against each other. Case in point, earlier in the tournament, when Wayne Rooney of England ‘accidently’ smashed the swingers (read: nuts) of Portugal’s Ricardo Carvalho, Rooney’s club teammate Christiano Ronaldo was seen attempting to influence the ref into sending off Rooney. Ronaldo has received more of the blame, being labled a backstabber by English press, for the situation rather than Rooney.
Since the entire Italy squad plays for Italian Serie A club teams and only two Frenchmen play in the Serie A, Juventus (or Juve for short) is the common denominator.
Juve Players Expected to Start in World Cup Final
- France
- Zinedine Zidane (1996-2001)
- Thierry Henry (1998 – 1999)
- Lillian Thuram (2001 – current)
- Patrick Viera (2005 – current)
- Italy
- Gianluigi Buffon (2001 – current)
- Gianluca Zambrotta (1999 – current)
- Fabio Cannavaro (2004 – current)
- Mauro Camoranesi (2003 – current)
- Simone Perrotta (1998 -1999)
Two interesting subplots emerge. The first has to do with Patrick Vieira. He is a physically imposing player at 6’4”, very good in the air and is trying to prove that he still has worth; his critics claim that Juve acquired him last yr at the downside of his career. He could pose some matchup problems due to his height, so look closely to see how his smaller Juve teammates Gatusso, Zambrotta and Cannavaro attempt to deal with him.
The second has to do with Thierry Henry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thierry_Henry), who played for Juve in the 1198-1999 season. He played out-of-position on the left wing and failed to gain any confidence, scoring only three times in twenty appearances. The strong Italian defensive style was one reason given for his failure. Henry soon reunited with Arsene Wenger at Aresenal, in the English Premiership. Wenger coached Henry at his former French Ligue 1 club Monaco, and has helped develop Henry into one of the world’s best strikers at Arsenal.
SLIGHT EDGE: ITALY
More on Juve: there is a trial (http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/07/04/sports/wcscandal.php) currently underway in Italy to determine whether Juve and some of the other big Serie A teams have participated in match-fixing. Should they be found guilty, Juve face relegation to the third division Serie C. Juve coach Fabio Capello has already high-tailed it to take the managing job at Real Madrid; I would imagine the big players will follow suit and try to arrange for transfers if relegation does indeed occur.
Coaches
FRANCE Raymond Domenech. Donmenech Employs a cautious formation (3 backs – 5 midfielders – 1 striker), with defense first and fast counter-attacking the strategy. Think NJ Devils hockey, sit back, don’t commit too many forecheckers, and then suffocate the neutral zone. Domenech managed the French youth team previously. When he took over the national team, France struggled mightily in qualifying with his inclination to go towards the youth movement and oddly it was veterans Zidane, Makelele and Thuram coming out of retirement who pushed France into the World Cup. Further decisions that were questioned include leaving stars Robert Pires and Ludovic Giuly and choosing Barthez as keeper over Lyon goalie Gregory Coupet. Naysayers are nowhere to be found now that France has made the finals. He tends to sub in defensively and thus leaves on of the best strikers in the world, David Trezeguet (another Juve player) sitting on the bench.
ITALY Marcello Lippi. Lippi is nicknamed Paul Newman due to his resemblance to the actor, has a lengthy resume as manager of various Italian Serie A clubs. He starts two forwards, with one (Totti) dropping back in what is like a 4 backs - 4 midfields – 1 recessed forward - 1 striker. Similar to a 3-5-1 but Italy attempts to dictate play on the attack. Lippi subs in for offense, bringing in Gilardino (who created a fantastic run only to have his short shot bounce of the near post during the Germany game) and Alessandro del Piero, who scored the second vs Germany.
SLIGHT EDGE: Italy
Diving and the Like
No comprehensive preview would be complete without a look at diving, which has become so pervasive during this World Cup. According to Information Builders http://www.informationbuilders.co.uk/ontheball/wcuk.htm, Italy has dove (32) times, more than any other team in the World Cup. France is about average, at (14) dives. Portugal is second in dives at (24). However, the France have far more tantrums (28) than Italy (15) while Portugal, again, is second at (26). France and Italy are even when it comes to referee bullying tactics (each has 5 occurrences) are are often whistled for offsides, with Italy (31) times and France (26) times. Italy players have also faked an injury on (11) occurrences, second to only Paraguay, while France has just twice.
EDGE: depends on the referee
Referee
Argentina's Horacio Elizondo was selected to referee the final. He officiated Portugal's quarter-final win over England, which is why I mention Portugal in the diving stats above. Note this is the also the game I refer to further above, where he sent off English striker Wayne Rooney for stepping on defender Ricardo Carvalho.
SLIGHT DIVING/REF EDGE: ITALY This is by far the hardest item to call. France negates Italy’s diving by throwing tantrums, but then Italy have a high tendency to fake injury. I would think that Elizondo then would be influenced a bit more by the Italians histronics, unless he has been given an instruction by FIFA to not tolerate that bologna.
Prediction
Italy will dictate play with much going through Pirlo and it is with his performance that is crucial to Italy’s success. He will likely struggle to find open players as was the case during much of the Germany game, however, all he or Totti needs is a free-kick from 20-39 yards out to really do some damage. Look for Lippi to bring on Gilardino and del Piero again late in an effort to infuse some fresh legs to cause the older French defenders some problems. Watch out for Totti to try one of his trademark chips (il cucchiaio or spoon) against the adventurous Barthez.
France will sit back and stifle the Italians; with Zidane heading the counter-attack and looking for Ribery and Henry along the wings. Similar to Pirlo, France’s success depends on a steady Zidane controlling the midfield, if Zidane the master shows up as he did vs Brazil, watch out. Henry may get a break or two for France with either one of his trademark dives (hopefully not) or one of his fantastic 40 yard runs (hopefully); afterall Italy is a tad vulnerable at the outside backs. If the game goes to extra-time, fatigue will probably be more of a factor for France than for Italy.
ITALY 1 – 0 in extra time. Pirlo and Totti connect early in extra time
Bonus Analysis
Pre-Game Concert: (http://www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs/feeds/ap/2006/07/06/ap2862481.html) Anna Netrebko is participating in the pre-game concert as one of the three tenors. After serenading crowds for four straight tournaments starting in 1990, Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras have pretty much retired their Three Tenors act. Only Domingo is carrying on; he'll be joined in Friday night's concert at Berlin's Waldbuehne by Mexican tenor Rolando Villazon - and Netrebko.
EDGE: Netrebko While all three tenor’s voices are likely outstanding, Netrebko is far more easier on the eyes.
Date
Fri 07/07/06, 8:32 am EST
