Who's going to be the Champion at World Cup Germany 2006?

[Cookie]

Everyone who's love Football know that Italy hasn't been better than teams as Germany, France, England, Argentina or even Portugal. They were lucky, that was their advantage on the others. But as I said, I don't like "lucky" winners, as I don't like unfair players, too.

Ok for one thing England were shit, even I can say that. For another Italy weren't lucky, they let in 2 goals in the whole competition, 1 a penalty and one an own goal. And they were the better team in the final over the first half anyway.

I was routing for france as it happens but you can't call Italy lucky. And even if they were, which they weren't, I'd hardly take anything away from them considering they went out of four world cups in a row on penalties (one being a final).

Well done italy. And Zidanne your a complete muppet, 10 minutes and you would have been a world cup legend. Now, like Frank Rijkard is remembered for spitting at people you'll be remembered for your headbutting, your own fault you nonce.

[Phalynx]

And Zidanne your a complete muppet, 10 minutes and you would have been a world cup legend. Now, like Frank Rijkard is remembered for spitting at people you'll be remembered for your headbutting, your own fault you nonce.

I agree entirely, if I was a French fan, he'd have to cross the street pretty fast!

[KiNG KiLL]

No team reached any greater level this tournament. Sure, a game or two, but no-one was consistent. I think italy deserved the win as well as anyone.

Since some of you are from the UK, I want to ask you... is it just the media or do you really blame baby Ronaldo and Sven-Göran Eriksson form the exit out of the world cup? A lot of people in Brazil blames Ronaldinho and the rest of their supposedly star players. I think Beckham and Cole was decent, and perhaps owen Hargreaves. The rest of the team sucked. Lampard was of course the worst of them all, but the best player in the world, Gerrard, wasn't a hit either. And losing on penalties when the team had practised it a lot... well, it just wasn't your tournament. So don't blame anyone else other than the usual great players of England. Even though Ronaldo is a cheat... and Sven-Göran is a bore...

[Phalynx]

We live in a media driven society and so the papers and tv coverage will say one thing, opinion perhaps another.

For what it's worth I don't blame Ronaldo, although I wouldnt fancy being him on his next game at Old Trafford! I blame Rooney he should have held his cool then he could have avoided a red card, and he might well have given the team the confidence they needed to win the game on penalities, not withstanding being able to take one himself - the same situation with Zidane. I think both of them could have been said, as their teams best players not being able to take penalites at the end, to have been at least partly responsible for them going out!

As for Sven, he made a massive tactical error in relying on Rooney and Owen, both far from match fit at the start of the tournament. I think it was a mistake to bring Walcott along as a striker as a totally untested player but he then compounded this stupidity by not playing him in the Sweden match when the result was unimportant - what better chance to give the boy a chance to show himself - perhaps he was good enough to make a difference - we will never know.

Anyway I'm sure others have a view!

[Cookie]

The general opinion here is that it was Svens fault and that players who underperformend did so because of how he played them.

As for Ronaldo he's kinda became the last straw in cheating foreigners, the kind of people who have driven the idea of sportsmanship out of our game.

[Kev Milsom]

Regarding England’s performance, or lack of one, I agree pretty much with the comments of Phalynx and Cookie.
On paper, we had the kind of team that looked as if it could truly go all the way, but sadly, as per usual, we failed to perform in key areas.
Sven’s tactics, both in picking the initial squad and the distribution of his players are still a complete mystery to me…why Walcott was even there in the first place is simply baffling…as Phalynx says, we shall never know what kind of difference he could have made, but surely it would have been worth a shot, instead of just having one lone striker up front and constantly pumping long balls down the pitch, in the vague hope that somehow Crouch or Rooney will perform some kind of miracle.
When Lennon was allowed on to play, his pace did make a difference at times, but with Lampard and Gerard not performing as they could, and the key injury to Owen, we always seemed to be on the back foot.
It was sad also to see what was possibly David Beckham‘s last major tournament, as he has been a fine captain and ambassador for the team.
I just hope that Steve McLaren proves to be a far more worthy successor to Sven and allows the team to play the kind of fast paced, flowing football that they excel at in the Premiership.

As for the rest of the tournament, I have to say that I enjoyed it immensely, especially the teams from Africa, such as the Ivory Coast and Ghana, and also Australia who were unlucky to lose to the eventual winners.
Few teams appeared to perform to their usual high standards, which made it more of an open tournament.

Fair play to the Germans for putting on an excellent tournament and already looking forward to the next one in South Africa, in 2010.