The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th staging of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international association football world championship tournament. It was held from June 9 to 09-07-2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six populated continents participated in the qualification process which began in December 2003. Thirty-two teams qualified from this process for the final tournament.
The tournament was won by Italy, their fourth world championship, defeating France 5–3 in a penalty shootout after extra time finished in a 1–1 draw. Germany defeated Portugal 3–1 to finish third. The 2006 World Cup stands as the most watched event in television history garnering an estimated 30 billion non-unique viewers, compiled over the course of the tournament.The finals tournament of the 2006 World Cup began on June 9 with a group stage for which the 32 teams were divided into eight groups of four teams each.
Within each group, the teams competed in a round-robin tournament to determine which two of those four teams would advance to the 16-team knockout stage, which started on June 24. In total, 64 games were played. Although Germany failed to win the Cup, the tournament was considered a great success.The stadiums and transportation systems were state-of-the-art, and the German people were lauded for their hospitality and enthusiasm and gained new friends world-wide. One big innovation was the Fan Fests, where millions of people watched the World Cup matches in public viewing areas.
South Africa has already declared it will emulate this idea for the upcoming 2010 tournament. Germany also experienced a sudden increase in patriotic spirit with unprecedented flag waving, traditionally frowned upon by German society since World War II, whenever the German team played. Despite early success by Australia, Ecuador and Ghana, the tournament marked a return to dominance of the traditional football powers.
Four years after a 2002 tournament in which teams from North America (United States), Africa (Senegal), and Asia (South Korea) made it deep into the knockout stages and a relatively unheralded UEFA side (Turkey) finished third, all eight seeded teams progressed to the knockout stages, and none of the quarter-finalists were from outside Europe or South America. Six former champion teams and 2004 Euro runners-up Portugal all took part in the quarter-final round, with Ukraine as the only relative outsiders.
Argentina and Brazil were eliminated in the quarter-finals, leaving an all-European final four (for the fourth time after 1934, 1966 and 1982 tournaments). In terms of on-the-pitch activities, despite the early goals that flooded the group stages, the knockout phase did not live up to the expectations provided by the group matches. Instead, teams generally played more defensive and cynical matches, called by some "negative football", which was reflective of the low average goals per game and high number of cards awarded.
A prime example of the dearth of goals was Portugal, who only scored at the 23rd minute in the round of 16, and they did not score again until the 88th minute of the third place match. Italy, Germany, Argentina, and France were the only teams to score multiple goals in a match during the knockout round. Germany was one of the exceptions to the rule, tending to play an attacking style of football through the knockout stages, reflected in them being the team that scored that most goals(14).
Germany's Miroslav Klose scored 5 goals to claim the Golden Boot, the lowest total to win the prize since 1962, with Argentina's Hernán Crespo winning the Silver boot for the second-highest total of 3 goals. No player from the champions Italy scored more than two goals, though ten different players had scored, tying the record. For the first time ever in the FIFA World Cup, the first goal of the tournament was scored by a defender and the final goal of the tournament was also scored by a defender.
Philipp Lahm the German wing-back scored the opener against Costa Rica after only 5 minutes of the first match. In the final Marco Materazzi, the Italian centre back, outjumped Patrick Vieira and headed in what proved to be the last goal of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. In comparison to earlier World Cups, the tournament was notable for the number of yellow and red cards given out, breaking the record set by the 1990 World Cup.
Players received a record-breaking 345 yellow cards and 28 red cards, with the round of 16 match between Portugal and the Netherlands accounting for 16 yellow and 4 red cards, by itself. Portugal had two players suspended for each of the quarter-final and semi-final matches, respectively. FIFA President Sepp Blatter hinted that he may allow some rule changes for future tournaments so that earlier accumulated bookings will not force players to miss the final, should their teams make it that far.
The tournament also saw English referee Graham Poll mistakenly hand out three yellow cards to one Croatian player in their match against Australia. The high number of yellow and red cards shown also prompted discussion about the referees. FIFA Officials and President Sepp Blatter received criticism for allegedly making rules too rigid and taking discretion away from referees. Italy progressed with a strong defense, conceding only two goals in total. They finished the tournament with ten different players accounting for their twelve goals.
A close call came against Australia in the Round of 16, in which an Italian team with 10 men against 11 for a red card prevailed after Francesco Totti converted a penalty near the end of stoppage time to give Italy a 1–0 win. The foul was one of the more controversial ones awarded during the tournament, highlighted by those that criticized the tournament for too much diving.
Subsequently their 3-0 quarter-final against Ukraine, beaten thanks to two goals of the Italian Serie A top scorer Luca Toni, and then the 2–0 semi-final win over Germany, runners-up from 2002 and host country. Although Germany had never lost a match in Dortmund, Italy scored both goals in extra time (through Fabio Grosso and Alessandro Del Piero). The opportunity for the second goal opened up when Germany, desperate to equalise, moved defenders into an attacking position.
France overcame a slow start in the group stage, but they gained momentum in their final round robin match and went strongly in knockout stage. The team's golden generation veterans who came out of retirement, like Zinedine Zidane and Lillian Thuram, combined with more youthful talent like Thierry Henry and Franck Ribéry found their form as they defeated Spain in a 3-1 come-from-behind victory. Then they knocked out favourites, defending champions Brazil 1–0 in the quarter-finals, holding Brazil to only one shot on goal.
In the semi-finals, backed by an anti-Portugal crowd and a strong defensive effort by Thuram, Zidane's 37th minute penalty stood as the winner in another 1-0 win. On July 8, Germany beat Portugal 3–1 in Stuttgart for third place. In the final, played in Berlin on July 9, Italy, led by coach Marcello Lippi, beat France on penalties after extra time, winning the FIFA World Cup for the first time in 24 years, and collecting their fourth title. The final started with each side scoring within the first 20 minutes.
Zinedine Zidane opened the scoring by converting a controversial penalty spot kick, which glanced off the underside of the crossbar and into the goal and Marco Materazzi levelled the score from an Andrea Pirlo corner. The corner might have gone out of play on the line as Pirlo crossed it in, and the BBC during half time even did a replay of it and mentioned that it may have done.
Both teams had chances to score a winning goal: Luca Toni hit the crossbar for Italy; he later netted a header which was disallowed as offside; France was not granted a second penalty in the 53rd minute when Florent Malouda fell in the box. After the regulation 90 minutes, the score was level at 1–1, forcing extra time to be played. Italian keeper Gianluigi Buffon made a potentially game saving save in extra time when he tipped a Zidane header over the crossbar.
Near the end of extra time, Zidane headbutted Materazzi in the chest in an off-the-ball incident after being verbally provoked. Referee Horacio Elizondo did not see the confrontation, but sent Zidane off based on the intervention of the fourth official Luis Medina Cantalejo. The extra time was goalless and a penalty shootout followed, which Italy won 5–3 as France's David Trézéguet, the man who scored the Golden Goal against Italy in Euro 2000, missed.
It was the first all-European final since Italy won the 1982 FIFA World Cup, and the second final (1994 was first, with Italy's loss) to be decided on penalties.
