Well, the World Cup has come and gone…

In the BEEZHOUSE, this will mean the welcome return of a regular night’s sleep!

The focus over the past month has definitely been on the FIFA World Cup… it has almost been all consuming for some of us! Let’s face it, even those amongst us that aren’t the biggest football fans got caught up in the excitement. Or at a minimum, had to deal with everybody else rabbit on about it! Now, as you all will know, Italy are the new world champions. That said, a quote from the late great Ayrton Senna kept coming to mind today:

Every (four) year(s) there is a winner, but not every (four) year(s) is there a champion.

With our attention turning away from football (at least for a few weeks until the European domestic leagues start), we at the House will be returning to what we do…

The Daydreamer would try his best to convince you that this post is all about himself. Yes, for those of you who haven’t been paying attention - or seen his author’s page - the Daydreamer is a guy. Bet those sweet words don’t sound quite as sweet now, do they?

Don’t know where that came from, so….. let’s get to the point. The year was 1982. I was two years away from living in Vancouver and having the privilege of watching Wayne Gretzky at the peak of his offensive powers. Just over the Atlantic, Spain was set to host a dramatic (is it ever anything but?) World Cup. After a sluggish start with three draws, the Azzurri came alive in the elimination legs courtesy of a livewire Paolo Rossi. Six goals in the last three games (including a hat-trick in a 3-2 win against Brazil, arguably one of the greatest games in World Cup history) ensured the cup would return to Italy for a third time.

Now the last four World Cups:
Italy (1990) - defeated in semi-final by Argentina 4-3 on penalties
USA (1994) - defeated in final by Brazil 3-2 on penalties
France (1998) - defeated in quarter-final by France 4-3 on penalties
Korea/Japan (2002) - defeated in round of 16 by South Korea

Every tournament Italy does not win, there is always some form of controversy whether it was Roberto Baggio’s penalty over the crossbar in 1994 or Ahn Jung Hwan’s golden goal in 2002. Each time the Azzurri came in with a strong saquad only to walk away with nothing. The universal cry of every football fan, irrespective of language, would ring in your ears for weeks afterwards. And then came 2006. (more…)

Italy defeated Australia with 10 seconds to go in regular time. Horrible!

Italy now defeated Germany 1.5 minutes before the penatly shoot out in the semi-final of the World Cup!!!! DEVASTATING!!!!!

Being German this hurts! Credit must go to Italy on reaching the final - well done.
But what a small disaster.

The Italian coach Lippi played with basically 4 strikers at the end. It was quite clear that Italy didn’t want to have a penatly shoot out against Germany (who have never lost a penatly shoot out).

I must admit that I along with millions of other football fans was shell shocked for atleast 15 minutes after the game. How could that happen? A whole nation was quite certain that Germany would be in the final. Throughout the tournament the german fan taunt was “Berlin, Berlin, we’re all going to Berlin!” Well that won’t happen. We’re going to Stuttgart to play for third place at the World Cup. Not bad either, but really, no one cares about thrid place.

So the dream is over. Next is the European Championships, which Germany will win…….

As to the World Cup Final, I am hoping that our neighbours France win, mainly because of Zinedine Zidane and because the French, believe it or not, aren’t as arrogant as the Italians.