I love video games. [Via Ryan.]

Here is a video of the actual incident if you haven’t seen it yet:

I have watched four world cup finals now. This has easily been the most memorable. People from a generation earlier will compare it to the 1986 final and older generations will look back further. While there will be debate on this, we all will cherish having witnessed Italy win their 4th final.

A Dazed Henry and France 1-0 up

The first 10 minutes of the match was scrappy with Henry in pain and looking as if he had seen a ghost after the clash with Fabio Cannavaro. Henry returns to the field and people are relieved. The short period also saw Florent Malouda go down courtesy Marco Materazzi’s leg. Zidane scores from the penalty spot and it looks like deja vu 1998 with another Zidane goal.

An equaliser and Italian lobs

The Italians equalise with Marco Materazzi jumping higher than Vieira and with better timing. That is the story of the Italian strategy for the first half as well. We saw a lot of lobs with taller players being utilised, some thing Italians didn’t do as much before in the tournament. The Italians dominated possession and looked much more in command though we knew that a moment of inspiration could help win France win as well.

A sizzling second half

As the two teams saw that going into extra times or penalties would mean lesser control regarding the result of the match, they tried to press the issue. As a result, we saw some of the best football from the game. The Italian defense looked tight and if it was not them, Buffon always seemed inpenetrable. It was a question of which side will effect the perfect play for a world cup win. Goals didn’t look likely to be gifted and it was precious and yet attacking football with small but definite chances for both teams - the other team would just not let them capitalise those chances each time.

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