The World Cup 2006 Under a Microscope

Last World Cup 2006 in Germany was one of the most successful tournaments in the soccer history. The federation of Germany soccer organized this event very well; indeed, it earned approximately € 4-6 billions. This championship started from 9 June- 9 July 2006, and 12 German cities hosted this competition. One-hundred and ninety-eight teams attempted to qualify for the 2006 World Cup; nonetheless, there are 31 teams only qualified from qualification process from every content. Every team had to play qualification games in order to qualify for a spot on final events except for Germany because it was the host of the tournament; furthermore, qualification process usually lasts about 2 years before beginning of the competition. The world cup in Germany was considered as one of the most watched events in TV history; it attracted an estimated 26.29 billion audiences. Moreover, the final match, between Italy and France, lured about 715.1 million people. Eight countries- Angola, Ivory Coast, Czech Republic, Ghana, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine and Serbia & Montenegro- made their first appearance in the championship of World Cup.

Thirty-two teams were divided into eight groups depending on the level and the strength of every team, for example, Argentina, Brazil, England, Italy, Germany, France, and Mexico, were considered to be the first level and the leader of every group, and any of them can not be the same group as other team of the same level or even the same continent except for Europe because it had many teams playing in the championship. Every group consisted of four teams, and every team would play against every team in its group; in fact, two of them only can qualify for the next stage, round of 16 teams. It was called knock-out stage, which means the loser of any match exited from the events. After hading qualified from round of 16 teams, eight teams went to quarter final, and they would play against each other. The winners of them directly went to semi-final. After the semi-final, determining which team would play the final or which teams would play in 3^rd place match between other two losers.

The final was between France and Italy; on the other hand, the 3^rd place match was among Portugal and Germany. In the final match, Italy dramatically won the cup against France by penalties after finishing the normal time (90 minutes) and extra time (30 minutes) and the score was 1-1; the first goal came from penalty and it was performed by Zidane from France and the second goal was scored by Materatzi form Italy. During the match, Zidane obtained red car due to butting Materatzi with his head. Furthermore, many zidane lovers became angry and upset once he got red card. After the match, Zidane declared that Materatzi swore at his mother and sister; accordingly, he hit him. However, Materatzi denied that. The 3^rd place match Germany won that place, and it was a very nailbiting game.

Despite of the adverse situation that occurred, the world cup was the exciting cup I have watched in my life. Finally, there are 64 games played in the event and 147 goals scored in the cup. The top scorer was Klose from Germany (5 goals); moreover, Zidane was the best player in the entire tournament. Most entertaining team was Portugal. Some optimistic player had appeared in the championship like C. Ronaldo from Portugal, Pudoluski from Germany, and Andrea Pirlo and Buffon from Italy. Ronaldo from Brazil broke the record of the greatest scorers of world cup by scoring 15 goals.

I hope you like this journal, and I provided two videos you can watch..

The first video and the second video

Baker