Just what gives someone the 'right' to call themselves  a "World Champion" ?

Do you have to be simply  be the best that plays the game in the world ? And just what does that mean ? What if no other Nation plays of cares about that sport. Say there were only 3 teams and they were all in one country....if you win can you say World Champion ?

My Tae Kwon Do Grandmaster said back when he competed in Korea, they competed - but you were either an Army Champ or National Champ. World Champ was never coined since they knew no one else in the world competed.

Ok so what about if you have players from many (at least over 7) countries in a domestic league - and these players were collectively some of the best - could you be World Champ ?

Well - the premiership in England is like that but they don't call themselves World Champs when a team wins the FA Cup.

So World Football (Soccer) Champs , World Tennis Champ I can see. Perhaps even Cricket (barely), and Rugby (barely) .

But how do you get to win the World Series ? How do you become an NFL or NBA World Champ (is that term used ?) .........and explain again who would be World Basketball champs between the NBA Champs and the Olympic Champs ? Wouldn't the Olympic Champs have a greater right to that title ?

Ok..Italy, France, Brazil and Germany play 6 games league style....

Lets be honest ....what do you think the standings would be at the end of the league ?

Do Italy and French fans STILL believe that they would take the two top spots ?

I wonder if the World Cup should not consider a second 'league type' competition at the end of the tournament instead of a one game elimination. Or perhaps a best of 3 like the NBA playoffs.

I mean this is to crown the World Champion for the next 4 years ! Thats a pretty long time, only the olympics competes and I dare say that less people care as much about that.

If this were so then a single bad call or lucky break could not make you the Champs. You would have to get lucky consistently or it would be pretty obvious that someone was cheating.

Does anyone (except the French) believe that they would beat Brazil 5 of 10 let alone more than 50%. In addition each of the top 4 or 6 teams should face each other. That would eliminate one team having an easier path (eg. Italy vs Australia and Ukraine).

Makes for a much longer tournament.... but I think less controversy and hey I don't mind 4 more weeks of football.

Leo Beenhakker rides into the sunset after taking tiny Trinidad & Tobago to futball's biggest stage (taking 1.3 Million hearts for the ride of a lifetime)

Actually Leo is taking up Poland's top job for the coming Euro 2008. He becomes the first foreigner to coach Poland after turning down similar coaching offers eg. Australia (and ####mp;T for a 2nd time...but he comes back in 2 years maybe ?).

Leo's accomplishments are pretty sterling.....3 titles with Real Madrid, 2 with Ajax etc. But I think his time at ####mp;T puts him in the record books, elevating him from Great to Legendary.

Lets put the ####mp;T accomplishment into perspective. ####mp;T are the smallest nation EVER to qualify for the Cup Finals with only 1.3 Million people. The qualification road - the longest with 20 games played. The Soca Warriors as they are called have a few known players like Dwight York, Shaka Hislop and Russel Latapy, but by and large the rest come from small Caribbean Teams, the MLS and League 1 and 2 in the UK. For a team comprising of mostly lower league players to qualify and  play at the World Cup is astonishing.

Its the equivalent of one small town in say the UK or the US putting together their best 23 players and setting off to qualify for the WC Finals. Its like a high school basketball team in small town USA going to play in the NBA playoffs. Incredible doesn't even begin to describe it.

But then again per capita ####mp;T does seem to produce quite a lot of sports beaters. If you took all the people in say a suburb of some small town somewhere in say London.......would you be able to find a Brian Lara (Cricket Record Holder), Ato Bolden (3 time olympic medalist) , Dwight York (treble with Manchester United) in one generation ? I think ####mp;T are also the smallest nation to win the 100M gold at the Olympics. Even in Olympic Tae -Kwon- do, ####mp;T has qualified twice. To qualify you actually have to be Gold, Silver or Bronze in either the Americas, Africa, Europe or Asia. So ok there may be something there.........

But still I never thought I would know how it felt to watch a WC Finals in which my own country was playing. What a tremendous feeling.....what passion...

Thanks coach....thanks for the memories....thanks for the passion .......thanks for showing us that truly .."Impossible is Nothing".

 Is that weird ? Does anyone else share that ?

Somehow seeing a great goalie save fantastic shots entertains me more than most goals.

Unless of course the goal is scored with a tremendous amount of individual skill like a Maradona goal or maybe even a Ronaldo goal (when he runs at the keeper and defense and fakes them - not the lame ones ok).

I rather find that Goalkeeping is the most athletic aspect of the game. Superfast reflexes, strength, speed, thought AND balls of steel (to go charging at a striker to take the ball from his feet).

Some find penalty finishes to be bad. But hey I relished watching Ricardo save 3 penalties - that was amazing ! It can't all be luck ....I mean 3 times ? Nah.......

Is Zidane the best ever ? Is this French team the best to ever play in the World Cup ? Should the French have won the Cup this year ?

Is ZZ better than Maradona in his prime ?

Nah....

I really don't think so. But I thought that title might get both the French and the non- French going !

But really who could really take the title as the best ever. Pele was pretty upset about having to share Player of the Millennium with Maradona.

Well I don't know about best, but Maradona was probably the most entertaining in my opinion. Up to now I've never seen another player who could win the game on their own and captivate the imagination like he could. Once Maradona was playing, his team could be 5 -nil down (they never were) and you could feel that Argentina still wouldn't lose.

Its amazing how far you can fall. I think there is an e-true hollywood (or football) story there.

Pele was a bit before my time, but the game I think was different then - slower I think.

Somehow today's stars don't seem to be cut from the same cloth - even the superstars today don't seem that super ! ZZ, Ronaldo, Ronaldhino etc. have skill above par yes, but they aren't the game winners like ole Diego.

What's the diff ? Is it a faster game, is the field so much better that its harder to stand out ?

To me there was no more thrilling thing to see in Futball than to see D Armando M, move at full pace through an entire field of players, zigzagging his way through - the commentator having to speed up his commentary and speak in short......"..he passes , one, two, three....GoooooooooooooooooooL, GoGogogooooooooooooooool !

Hey Diego, you may have fallen, but you're still a star !

What do you guys think ?

Goodbye to one oif the game's greats.......Roberto Carlos !

I wonder how much of the Brazilian team can survive another World Cup in 2010.

Spain, Germany, Holland and Argentina with young teams will surely be powers in 2010. But Brazil , Italy, France are surely going to be very different come South Africa.

Much has been said about Zidane and Totti etc., but not many have speculated on just how many icons of football will no longer be with us in 2010. Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos for sure.......Cafu definitely !

End of a era ...........one wonders about the next great Brazilian wizards......Brazil's well never seems to run dry.

Did anyone (other than French and Italians of course), really anticipate a French / Italy final ?

Personally I predicted and wanted to see a Germany / Brazil final.

Spain as usual started with a ####, and I was sure the French would not be able to contain them. Then I thought Brazil surely will stop their run. After the Portugal penalty .....I had to say that France had to be the luckiest team in the WC. I mean yeah they have good players and are playing pretty good.....but boy are they lucky.

The Italians played well, but a World Cup Champion ? I dunno.

It could be said that the Italians were really really fortunate to face the teams that they did:

Australia, Ukraine ( not to say that these aren't good teams, but nobody expected them to lift the cup). Even in the group stage, I think they were fortunate against a CZE side missing Koller.

The only real test came against Germany. And yes they showed lots of grit, but that match should have gone to penalties. A lucky break.

But hey that doesn't matter now. Congrats to Italy the 2006 champs. As they say....its better to be lucky than good.

# 5 ...Bloody hell

- That italian guy's (what's his name ?) elbow on Mc Bride. This was probably the worst foul of the tournament. Deserved of a 4 match suspension. Pretty bloody stuff. It was also impactful as it affected that match and future Italy matches. Although the worst foul - it makes #5 and not #1 because the US couldn't capitalize and the Italians lifted the cup anyway.

#4....Hair pulling son of a...

- #4 was Crouch's hair pulling incident with Trinidad's Sancho. Seems insignificant, and wasn't even called. But arguably it gave England a goal in the dying 10mins of the game that probably would have ended in a goaless draw without it. This could have set up a situation for Sweden and Trinidad & Tobago to go through at the expense of England. An elimination in the group phase would have been an enormous upset for England.

#3...... Boys, boys

- Rooney's red card, foot stomp and push. Although its debateable whether Rooney could have made a difference against Portugal will never be known. But the fall out for Manchester United's Rooney/Ronaldo earns this #3

#2.....Is it or isn't it...to be or not to be...

- # 2 is a tied French affair. France's penalty against Portugal looked like a Henry dive..sort of  but it was enough to send them through. Tied is France's free kick against Brazil that scored them the winner.

#1......ohhh Zizou

- Could have Zidane worked his magic one more time and ended it in a stroke of brilliance before the end of extra time ? Could his penalty have made the difference in penalties.....we will never know.

It is beyond belief that Zidane was actually sent off in his final football swansong.

Sorry ....that Zidane got himself sent off....I mean...a headbutt ?

What is it with with football stars these days ? I mean I put Rooney's sending off as due to his age, indiscipline and inexperience. But Zidane ? What could have motivated such a talisman and modern footballing legend to do such a thing ? How do you live down such an event topping off such a sparkling career ?

French fans ? Anyone have a comment ? 

Prediction 5mins before the game.

Italy scores first, France equalize. Tied at the half.

Italy scores to take the lead and Zidane equalizes. Or perhaps the other way around.

Italy scores the decider in the 25th min of extra time.

Just thought I'd put here some comments made by the UN Secretary General on the ..."Beautiful Game" taken from the FIFA website.....

"....The World Cup makes us in the UN green with envy. As the pinnacle of the only truly global game, played in every country by every race and religion, it is one of the few phenomena as universal as the United Nations. You could even say it's more universal. FIFA has 207 members; we have only 191. But there are far better reasons to be envious. ........

........For any country, playing in the World Cup is a matter of profound national pride. For countries qualifying for the first time, such as my native Ghana, it is a badge of honour. For those who are doing so after years of adversity, such as Angola, it provides a sense of national renewal. And for those who are currently riven by conflict, like Côte d’Ivoire, but whose World Cup team is a unique and powerful symbol of national unity, it inspires nothing less than the hope of national rebirth. ......."

Truly this is the only sport that can lay such claims.

The World Cup .....Soccer, or Football as the rest of the World calls it may be the world's most popular sport, the beautiful game watched by billions.....

But it will never make the impact it seeks in America.....

The World Cup is everything that the Olympics aspires to be and is not......national passion, pride and frenzy about sport in a manner unparalled by any other sporting event in existence. Not even the Super Bowl comes close...arguably the most watched US event.

In fact even the UN admits that there are things about the World Cup that it covets.

The US is the one Nation soccer has not conquered and the one it wants the most......perhaps because its the one it can't have. The US is the only Nation on the planet where when their National Team plays at the cup - that the entire Nation is not watching. In every other country that qualifies and plays....heads of state are either at the event or glued to TV sets as is every single man, woman and child during the game. Entire Nations shut down.....

Why can't FIFA have the US ?

It is not the rules of the game, not the low scores, nothing like that - No matter what the sports fans and writers say.......they are just too close to know why.

It really a matter of Culture.....History.....Tradition.

American Football, Baseball and to a lesser extent basketball are part of the American psyche......a tradition passed down through generations. The Superbowl party may be as much a tradition as Thanksgiving Dinner.

Soccer on the other hand has no such ties. Yes it was a good ploy to try and instill the tradition at the 'kids' level....build new traditions. It sort of worked.....'soccer mom' is now part of American culture......it probably deserves a place in the dictionary.

As a serious sport ....it just has not been taken seriously though. That probably because in heartland USA and most other places in the US, nobody's Dad takes them the 'Big Soccer Games'....talks to them about the big Soccer Teams and has a World Cup Party.

There is just no ........Tradition.

How do you play catch up and make new traditions ? Well thats why the guys at FIFA get the big bucks......they just haven't gotten it right yet. So here goes the reset button.....maybe the next try .....we'll see in about 28 years.....the 2034 World Cup for sure !

Maybe if the US team wins the World Cup.....either way we are back to 2034.

What if Ronaldo played for every team ? No.....not Christiano ... you KNOW who I mean. Brazil's leading scorer at the World Cup, and record holder for World Cup Goals.

Truthfully I never really liked Ronaldo and always thought he was overated. But tperhaps because of all the criticism this time I started to take a second look.

Fat or not. Ronaldo demonstarted that he can not only 'tap' in the winning shot (like many strikers at this cup) - But can run with the ball straight at the opposition, dribble then ball and create goals from almost nothing. No two strikers would I trade for one fat Ronaldo.

Brazil's exit at the hands of France I still say is an aberration of nature ! Their win against Portugal unbelieveably lucky, not to mention Spain. Will they make it 3 against Italy ? Depends on which Zidane comes out to play I think.

Each of my picks has now exited the tournament. I wonder though if Ronaldo played for each team - I wonder who would win ? Surely the great chances that Portugal created would have been converted by the cutting edge of Ronaldo.

With Brazil (or as I refer to them 'the Kryptonians') out of the Cup, can it be that Portugal could lift the cup ?

Lets look at this for a minute.............

France seems like they can only perform against Brazil. Perhaps because the Kryptonite only affects the Supermen of Brazil. It won't have any effect on Portugal.

And hey .. Zidane...what did you drink before the game ? Because hey gimmie some of that stuff ! Fountain of youth fur sure.

The match between Germany and Italy seems pretty even. However an Italian team beset by politics and a clouded future may not be able to prevail against a German team playing at home, that seems by the way to have been bitten by a radioactive spider immediately prior to the tournament start. I mean ...where the hell did THAT come from...? Even Germans I knew were not optimistic in the months prior to the kick off.

So a Portugal vs Germany final ?

While this suggests that Germany will lift the cup once again on home soil....... I really do get the feeling that a team speaking Portuguese will - and if it can't be Brazil ? Then why not Portugal themselves ! If not Ronaldo, why not Christiano Ronaldo !

Could be a profitable bet...........

The refs are doing a much better job now.

My theory ? Fifa wants the footballing powers to go to the quarters to produce 'EPIC' games:
Viz: Argentina, England, Brazil (who don't need much help), France, Italy, Holland etc.

These teams pull in the crowds and are the stuff of legend.

But when pit against each other, the ref becomes more fair. That's why Rooney was red carded ! If England were playing Trinidad say, Rooney would have gotten a yellow or no card at all. If you looked at the other games that Rooney played in you would note that his attitude and behaviour was essentially the same as before - he just wasn't disciplined.

Of course this is just a theory.

I agree you can't help a BLEEP poor side overcome Italy, England etc., but if the difference is small, a foul call or card makes a world of a difference. Would you dare say that if Rooney were still on the pitch that England would not have had a much better game against Portugal ?

Having said that , England's real outstanding qualities lie in 'dead balls' (enter - Beckham) and their great defense - Rio, John Terry (who I think is the real reason England made it this far) etal.

That brings me to BRAZIL.

My Theory ? The Brazilians are really from Krypton and can defeat any mere mortals. But the French discovered Kryptonite several years ago and carry it onto the field when they play Brazil.

The Kryptonite does not affect humans however and the Germans (who seem to have been bitten by radioactive spiders this year) if not the Portugese will end France's run. If not then France must be the luckiest team on the planet to always seem to perform best against Brazil. Zidane you ole fox. Nuff said........