2006: Rotten Oranges, Tight Streaks, Unimpressive Machines, and Lucky Bastards

Three games to go until the end of round 16, and the World Cup 2006 holds no surprises, but I wouldn't bet on it any less than betting on Ghana! So what did 2006 tournament hold for us?

Rotten oranges for the kind of offensive play they showed, and even more rotten but well deserving Portuguese, for the wonderful pinning strike that could have stopped the globe from going round had it wished it! The amateur Dutch seemed like going by the book of their commander's orders: shoot to kill! Well that is exactly what they did with Cristiano Ronaldo. The rest was reaction mixed with bad refereeing.

The oranges should have learnt something from the blue streaks when they played the Mexicans producing what I would call real football. Harshly worn down against all speculations, the Argentines most definitely are the heroes of this round.

It wasn't that they played well, but that their opponents did not play at all, that the landlords did not impress me much. The German machine produced nice football, but not beautiful nor convincing.

The English flavour wasn't pretty apparent. No surprises though, they got what they deserved.

With less than 20 seconds left, a total rip-off of the Azzurri sent the Aussies home! This is one game that shows what football is all about. As much as it was an act, I wouldn't tag it cruel since the Aussies did not deserve to win either. With one man down—after a very cruel and unreal red card, and lots of temper to tamper with, they still could not target well. Buffon was the star of the game. Dramatic it was, but those lucky bastards still made it to the quarter.