BERLIN, 10 July 2006 — Winners and Losers at the month-long World Cup:
Winners: Juergen Klinsmann and Germany: Few gave the hosts any chance of making an impression at this World Cup but Klinsmann’s entertaining and attack-minded side made a brave run to the semifinals, capturing the hearts and minds of the nation. The fantastic atmosphere throughout Germany is mainly down to Klinsmann and his team.
Zinedine Zidane: Three-time world footballer of the year Zidane showed that despite his advancing years he is still a footballing genius. The 34-year-old Frenchman’s display against Brazil was probably the best individual performance of the tournament. His penalty against Portugal put France in the final.
Fan Fests: Football supporters from around the globe met here in a good-natured party atmosphere. Celebrations always went on well into the night, but passed off relatively peacefully. Some 15 million took part in the celebrations at the 12 World Cup venues, far more than anyone predicted.
Flag Makers: The nation was awash in a sea of black, red and gold— the national colors. Waved by hand, draped from windows, flying from cars or in the form of sarongs or bikini tops— German flags were everywhere to be seen. A total of 5 million were sold, earning the makers a cool 20 million euros (25 million dollars).
Finalist Italy: Unperturbed by a scandal rocking the foundations of domestic football and the reported suicide attempt by former international Gianluca Pessotto who was linked to one of the clubs involved, Italy improved from game to game and polished its image by reaching the final.
Marcello Lippi: The father of Italy’s success. The 58-year-old proved to be a master tactician, particularly in the semi-final against Germany where one of his substitutes, Alessandro Del Piero, scored the second goal that cemented victory. Lippi kept his nerve throughout, making sure the football scandal did not affect the team’s performance on the pitch.
Horacio Elizondo: The Argentine made history by becoming the first referee to officiate at both the opening game of a World Cup and the final. “We based our decision on performance and not on tradition,” said FIFA secretary-general Urs Linsi.
Guss Hiddink: The Dutchman’s third World Cup saw him extract the best out of an unlucky Australian squad after previous semifinal appearances with the Netherlands and S. Korea. Australia’s advance to the last 16 was the Socceroos’ best ever showing in the country’s history.
Ukraine: The World Cup debutant overcame a shaky start to make it to the quarterfinals before being outclassed 3-0 by Italy. Nevertheless Andriy Shevchenko and his team-mates were among the winners of the World Cup in financial terms, picking up bonuses of 400,000 euros per man for their achievement.
Losers: World Cup coaches: The tournament has seen 11 of the 32 coaches already lose their jobs in the last month while just eight are certain to continue in their roles once the World Cup wraps up Sunday.
Brazil and Ronaldinho: Barcelona’s Ronaldinho travelled to Germany as world footballer of the year and with the Champions League final victory over Arsenal fresh in the memory. However like his Brazilian teammates, the midfielder underperformed and failed to spark at this World Cup as the defending champions went out with a whimper in the quarterfinals to France. The Czech Republic: Talked about as possible contenders before the tournament started, the Czechs failed to make it out of their group as Italy and Ghana gave Karel Bruckner’s team a footballing lesson.
Referees: Never the most popular people at World Cups, this crop excelled as rogues in Germany, even incurring the wrath of FIFA boss Joseph Blatter. The refereeing lows included England’s Graham Poll showed Croatia’s Josip Simunic three yellow cards in the match against Australia while Valentin Ivanov set a new record when he dished out 16 yellow and four red cards in a single game, the match between Portugal and Holland.
David Beckham: The world’s most famous footballer once again failed to live up to expectations as did his England team, which went out to Portugal in a quarterfinal penalty shootout. The low point came in that match as the 31-year-old midfielder cried on the bench after he was substituted due to injury. He has since given up the England captaincy.
Sven-Goran Eriksson: The England coach’s reputation was already ruined by the “Sheikh affair” but the disappointing and negative performances of his team at this World Cup destroyed the Swede’s hopes of a happy end to five-and-a-half ultimately unsuccessful years in charge of England. Serbia & Montenegro, Togo: Chaos reigned with these teams rather than joy at participating on football’s greatest stage. One minute Otto Pfister was coach of the Africans, the next he wasn’t while the Togo players threatened to strike in search of more money. Meanwhile Serbia & Montenegro’s time in Germany will be remembered for fights between players in training, anger over coach Ilija Petkovic naming his son in the squad and an early departure helped by a 6-0 drubbing from Argentina.
