I’ll never forget the the 2006 Soccer World Cup Final. Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt was one of the most unforgettable moments of the whole tournament
I had been driving around Ireland, staying for a day or two in small towns, wandering around, taking pictures – watching the soccer with the locals in the pubs. It is was great fun – none of us had a dog in the fight – we all enjoyed the soccer, but slipped in a bit of rugby in between pints, and then eventually I was somewhere on the West coast on Ireland and I decided to take a room above the pub so I would miss the cup final.
I’d been holding my breath for days in case the soccer hooligans destroyed all Germany’s beautiful old fountains and buildings, but so far so good.
We cheered as the the final started with each side scoring within the first 20 minutes. Zinedine Zidane opened the scoring by converting a controversial seventh-minute penalty kick. But that was just the begging of a day of controversy for the man from Marseilles.
Near the end of extra time, Zidane head-butted Materazzi in the chest in an off-the-ball incident – he later said the Italian insulted his mother – and Zizou was sent off. Extra time produced no further goals and a penalty shootout followed, which Italy won 5–3
The 2006 World Cup victory also helped Italy top the FIFA World Rankings in February 2007 for the first time since November 1993.
I believe the 2006 World Cup stands as one of the most watched events in television history, garnering an estimated 26.29 billion non-unique viewers, compiled over the course of the tournament. The final attracted an estimated audience of 715.1 million people
Popularity: 7% [?]
This is still a classic. Materazzi deserved it.
Good blog. I got a lot of effective data. I’ve been keeping an eye on this technology for awhile. It’s interesting how it keeps changing, yet some of the core components stay the same. Have you seen much change since Google made their latest acquisition in the domain?