I patically thought this was a poor tournament,in terms of footballing quality,we didn't see a team that impressed through the whole tournament,only Argentina for maybe 2 games,there was no games to remember as there normally is,a very low scoring tournament

England was probley one of the worst teams in Germany.

The whole finals was spoiled by players cheating to gain an advantage for there teams,

The highlight for me was Trinidad and Tobago's performance against Swedan in which they got a 0-0 draw,also Joe Cole stunning volley against Swedan

So overall very disapponted with the finals,i'll give it a 6/10

Be interested to hear what other members think of Germany 2006

Pleased for Italy.
Saddened by England's no-show!
Impressed by the Argentinians & the Spanish who looked the 2 most impressive teams early on.
Never saw the best of the Dutch.
Jealous of the French and the way they manged to drag their old bones all the way to the Final!
Also impressed by the Mexicans,the Australians and the Ghanaians.
Let down by Brazil who never turned up till it was to late.Where was Ronaldhino and why was Ronaldo 10 stones overweight?
Heart-warming stories belong to Trinidad & Tobago,Angola & Ecuador!
To much diving and cheating to try and get fellow pros sent off. Lots of guilty culprits but Portugal were the worst which is a shame cos it detracts from the fact that they are a good side.
anyone else who has'nt had a mention probably does'nt deserve one!
Roll on 2010

Big apologies for not mentioning the hosts Germany!
Did a great job of running the Tournament and had a great run playing super football.
Well done to them

Germany and Australia impressed me most out of everybody. I thought it was a tournament full of gritty wins.

No flair, no flair. But fascinating to follow all the same.

All hail Zidane.

Italy's impenetrable defense, France's "old men" Ghana with their Spirit, Beckham and Zidanes free kicks, and Germany as host and reborn nation impressed the most. Portugal's dirty play and US non-play were the most disappointing.

Also Switzerland who concede Zero goals in the finals,what a shame

Zidane got the Golden Ball, hah!

if you want my most true thought, here it goes: this World Cup SUCKED big time!!

I sat down to carefully watch pretty much all the game and I watched TV shows about it almost 24 hours per day in a daily basis, so I feel like I'm in a good position to talk about the World Cup. well, it's still the World Cup, I got the fever and all, but the quality of the games was damn too low. I think all the teams achieved a great physical state and set their defensive system really well (okay, maybe Brazil not) and the games were too slow paced, with the midfielders walking and passing the ball back and forth and not producing anything.

if someone should win a tournament like that, it was Italy. they deserved, and the Cup is in good hands.
France sucked 4 out of 7 matches, but when you have Zidane, anything can happen. the guy acts like he's on a mission when the World Cup begins. even his header at Materazzi was cool. it was a childish, stupid move, but it shows the state that guy was. Germany was the big surprise, and a big winner, too. Portugal was a great team that could've easily won it all. I don't understand what's the deal with everyone saying they "cheated" and played dirty. I personally think that's a shame. they wanted to WIN. if I was on the World Cup, I'd try to cheat too if I had to. I'd rather see a team like this than England or Brazil, whose players were almost falling asleep in the field.

They should try hosting a world cup in Austrilasia(SP)when its there winter,then maybe alot of teams won't complain about the climate

Tony, I agree with almost all of what you said, all but Portugal; even without the cheating accusations, what team plays 11 men against 10 men without any forwards on the pitch, like they did against England? Dodgy, rather negative tactics.

Notice all the boo's whenever the ball was passed back to a keeper throughout the tournament? Too much negative play, I think; too many teams were more frightened of losing than wanting to win, summed up perfectly in the Switzerland and Ukraine game in the last 16.

And I also agree with the Zidane comment: even his headbutt was cool. I love him.

Portugal playes in a 4-3-3.
-------Carvalho-----Meira-------Valente
Miguel
-------------Costinha-----Maniche
------------------Deco
------Figo---------------------Ronaldo
-----------------Pauleta

In the small final they even played 3-3-4 at some time, with Nuno Gomes, Simão, Pauleta, and Christiano Ronaldo. Plus Deco.

Same thing with Italy, some say (not this tournament, but they predicted it) Italy played defensive but in the prolongations of the match against Germany they played with 4 strikers, Totti, Toni, Del Piero and Iaquinta.

True; but in the England game didn't they take Pauleta and Figo off? And Deco was suspended; I'm sure it was only Ronaldo, but he was playing on the wing at one point.

You are indeed correct, Costinha didn't play either.

Striker Pauleta was taken off for winger/offensive midfielder Simão. Winger Figo was taken off for striker Helder Postiga. Defensive midfielder Tiago was taken off for offensive midfielder Hugo Viana.

Portugal was chosen the most beatiful / best playing team of the Cup in a worldwide poll on the Fifa website, with 4.6 stars out of 5.

Accept it Capo.

yeah Capo I absolutely agree with the "negative play" thing. there were lots of it in this World Cup.

as for the Portugal-England match, I think it was most merit of the english team than "negative play" from Portugal. only when they were down with 10 players and with the Cup on the line, the english players started to play for real. I really like Scolari but I think he made very bad changes in his team in that game and they didn't take advantage of having one more player.

now, man, about those Fifa polls, I NEVER seen a valid one. it's like the England-Ecuador game when nothing happened during the 90 mins and the only player who almost gave up a goal for the opposite team - Terry - was chosen the man of the game.

just remember that when Zidane decided the World Cup 98, Ronaldo, who choked and got beaten 0-3 in the final won the Golden Boot. then when Ronaldo was the top scorer and scored both goals in the 2-0 final, the goalkeeper who failed in one of them - Kahn - won the Golden Boot. then when Zidane lost the finals and got ejected, he won the Golden Boot.