Yazeed:
Carlsb3rg and I started this blog out of our passion for football. A comment on his blog was the start. World Cup Fever grew to be a bigger thing that what we imagined. I never thought we would get this many users. We have worked hard in trying to making this thing work, writing up reports, previews, news, uploading goals and highlights, in the end its all worth it. We are both proud at what we have achieved here. It has been a nice compliment to watching the matches. We achieved all our goals. We covered each match, each goal, major news, basically everything that matters. I always have fond memories associated with past World Cups, World Cup Fever would be one of those for this year’s World Cup.
I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. I hope everybody appreciates the work we have done here.
Carlsb3rg:
No, the world cup didn’t feel like it started yesterday. I feel a sense of happiness with it’s ending, as I return to my routine life. Perhaps because I wasn’t that excited overall with this world cup. Neither was I excited with the last world cup in 2002. Refereeing is a major part of my disappointment. The new trend of playing defensively is another factor. Controversial refereeing decisions were part of the excitement in football. Not when the winning team wins 1-0 through a bad penalty though. Not to mention the leniency towards host nation Germany, and South Korea in 2002.
If FIFA should learn one lesson from this world cup, it’s that it’s time video evidence was introduced. We don’t need a second official. Zidane was dismissed through video evidence as the match official asked the fourth official, who saw the replay. Based on FIFA’s laws, Zidane should not have been dismissed as the official and the lines man did not see the incident.
We saw new and young players rise (Pudolski, Lahm, Gilardino, Ribery, Torres, ..), we saw old players rise (Kahn, Ronaldo, Zidane, Figo), we saw good players fade (Brazilian squad, Henry, Ibrahimovic, Nistelrooy, Nedved), and some players we wanted to see, but did not have the chance to (Messi, and all the bench players who did not figure in the tournament).
There wasn’t any big surprises in the tournament, but all the new qualifiers made a good showing (Ivory Coast, Ghana, Ukraine, Togo, T&T), some of them return powerfully (Australia, Switzerland, Ecuador) some of them made history in reaching later stages, and some teams were just disappointing (Poland, Serbia & Montenegro, Czech).
In any case, Italy has won the world cup. I think Italy was blessed with Alessandro Nesta’s injury. His replacement Marco Materazzi proved vital in his nation’s success. An Evertonian won the world cup! I guess there is some good in the ‘other’ team in the city of Liverpool!
Best World Cup 2006 moment: Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt.
The world cup is over for some, but the football season is just beginning, with the English League, Italian League and Spanish league all starting in August and not to forget the Champions League. International football will not stop, as the Euro 2008 qualifiers are coming soon. While the coming month will see some hot news regarding player transfers and movements. Be sure to check all the latest in football news at footyinaweek.wordpress.com
Final Notes:
This blog will always be here. I will let the goals here too. Everything will stay.
Both of us have our respective blogs, pay us a visit sometimes.
44 Responses to “The End…”
- 1 Trackback on Oct 24th, 2007 at 6:52 am
- 2 Trackback on Apr 9th, 2008 at 12:04 am
Farewell to a great World Cup Blog.
It has been very enjoyable to be able to see video replays of goals and catch up on World Cup news. Congrats on a wonderful achievement.
See you in Euro 2008
great job ya shabab… i really enjoyed ur reviews … even the guy next to me in amseterdam airport checked ur site to see the video clips ….hahaha
I wanna thank you guys for the great effort, and wish you all the best.
Thank you guys for a job well done.
cool cool..
love what u wrote, especially calrsb3rg, u had it all written down… but henry did not fade at all.. i think he rose highly in the very last match…u should hjave mentioned buffon, gutuzu, and patrik crouch. all in all, i enjoyed this world cup alot. and i definitely enjoyed ur blog
MyVy,
2008 aint that big 
Thanks, it has been a fun ride.
See us in 2010
Rick Shames,
Glad you enjoyed it dude, thanks for letting the blog go global
Ahmed,
you’re welcome, but dont thank us, thank football!
bo_ghazi,
you’re welcome.
Vintage,
I agree with you, Henry did well today, but there was no support and there were too many Italians, He goes through 3-4 defenders and then the 5th or 6th intercepts his ball 
he’ll do well in the EPL 
well my part was the farwell part, Carlsb3rg wanted to write his mini review on the final and the world cup as a whole
Vintage, I still disagree. Bring someone who has heard praise about Henry all season in the english league and never saw him play, then show him Henry playing in the world cup. My bet is he’ll say ‘What’s all the fuss about?’
Thank you Yazeed.
Thank you Carlsb3rg.
Reading your reviews made the world cup more fun than it already is
Well 2008 may not be that big to you.. But being an England fan and having lived in England for half my life It’s gonna be big for me.. Even better if Gerrard becomes the next captian
Thanks for everything guys..
Goodbye World Cup Fever…
carlsb3rg, alot of players, especially ones who play for english clubs (for a weird reason) play differently for the team than they’re norm play.
Yousef,
Glad you enjoyed it, see in 4 years
MvYv,
well its is big to me, but not to the global audience,
theres something special about the world cup, and you just dont get the same feeling with the Euro Championship, I would think Europeans would feel that way too
Carlsb3rg & vintage,
well tara henry did a lot in the final. He tried really hard, but mako fayda ma3a difa3 italy. Henry got the goal against Brazil, the penalty against Portugal, both vital moments in France’s progress to the Final. I wont say he was the most influentual player, cause he wasnt, but he had some influence.
And dont forget, they way Arsenal play is around Henry, everything is built around him, to maximise his strong points in his game. In France its all about Zidane. My bet is if France played the way Arsenal plays, they would have strolled through this World Cup. They should have started building the team around him after 2004. Now they face a really tough task for 2008 as Zidane, and Maklele stated that they would retire from international football atleast (zidane). Probably, Thuram and Barthez will follow soon. So very key players in their game are leaving.
It would be interesting to see their new team, they got the players that would support Henry, but will they go that way? He has got 4 good years in him, so hopefully he’ll be there in the next World Cup.
yazeed,
i’ve got a suggestion.. post up a blog for the coming eauropian leagues.
i’ve watched all worldcup games, and i can safely say the french team seemed to kick off to a renewed shape just at the brazil-france semi final game. when Henry had a near faint at the start of the finale, i was expecting just the same.. collective french not so on target play, but then henry kept a forward after another, italians are classic defenders, but observing henry sveral trials.. u would think eventually he would come thru. it was a mistake to get him off the game (unless he was too tired). he was not the most influential in all france games, but he certainly was the pivotal forward player in the last game.
vintage,
he has never scored in a final with arsenal, and now its the same with france, even though he played well, but he couldnt get the ball into the net.
to me the leagues is more exciting, plus we get to see a higher standard of football. it would take a lot of work to maintain such a blog. I think Carlsb3rg would slightly cover european football, espcially the english and champions league.
well henry look really tired when he went off, he couldnt even walk! hes had a long season with arsenal, and played in all the games for france, alone! being the only stiker is a lot of work, thats why we didnt see the “great” henry display we see with arsenal, plus henry doesnt really preform in finals
well ur suggestion requires a lot of work
Well my friends and I take part in a fantasy game, its from the premier league and we have a lot of fun chatting there.
i was thinking of setting up some kind of forum or blog to accompany that, since we are all into the same league and so forth, some place where everyone gets to post, an open blog or forum should do.
if you would like to join the fantasy game (the league kicks off on the 19th of august) let me know.
I will post about the league on my blog when the league creeps upon us.
Thanks a lot for the great coverage guys, it was awesome enjoying this glorious festival with both of you…..
Now if I could just find that one Brazilian chick to hold me over for four years…..
definitely.. but is it the kind of an online forum where i have to exist at a certain time, or my own?
nass64,
anytime dude
vintage,
i dont get what you mean
u can check out the site here.
http://fantasy.premierleague.com/
our league code is : 1299-371, if u want to join
got in. brainiac team
14970 - good site. Lollypop
31654 - good site. Lollypop
16517 - good site. PeterPan
8920 - good site. PeterPan
2418 - good site. PeterPan
17225 - good site. PeterPan
28631 - good site. PeterPan
11172 - good site. PeterPan
22728 - good site. PeterPan
25949 - good site. PeterPan
24675 - good site. PeterPan
31660 - good site. PeterPan
9996 - good site. PeterPan
9033 - good site. PeterPan
7596 - good site. PeterPan
8399 - good site. PeterPan
15550 - good site. PeterPan
27018 - good site. PeterPan
10771 - good site. PeterPan
3046 - good site. PeterPan
17491 - good site. PeterPan
17964 - good site. PeterPan
28440 - good site. PeterPan
2330 - good site. PeterPan
10160 - good site. PeterPan