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Cannavaro art-form
Fabio Cannavaro, the little big man of Italian football, bestrode this World Cup like a colossus, earning his 100th cap in Sunday's epic final and becoming the defining symbol of a tournament where centre-halves took centre-stage.
- By Henry Winter, The Telegraph Group Limited
- Published: 00:00 July 11, 2006
Fabio Cannavaro, the little big man of Italian football, bestrode this World Cup like a colossus, earning his 100th cap in Sunday's epic final and becoming the defining symbol of a tournament where centre-halves took centre-stage.
The only Roman centurion toiling in the Olympic Stadium was an Azzurri fan in fancy-dress struggling with his breast-plate and tunic in the men's room.
For this was the World Cup where the shielding players dominated, when anyone seeking to assemble an all-star XI drawn from the 32 teams and 64 games can call upon a proliferation of tacklers and scrappers, but few of genuine flair.
The sad sight of the world's most sumptuously gifted footballer, Zinedine Zidane, departing under a cloud, painted an illuminating picture, particularly as he left that master at capping creativity, Cannavaro, to lift the World Cup.
The voting of Zidane as Fifa's official Player of the Tournament was a nonsense, primarily because the poll was conducted in the early stages of extra-time, before France's captain charged at Marco Materazzi and guaranteed "Zidane's A Nutter'' headlines.
Even before Zidane's still-unexplained aberration, Cannavaro was comfortably the most influential footballer on German soil, for sheer consistency of excellence in his appointed duties.
Cannavaro turned defending into an art-form. Italy's captain was not alone in the protection racket.
Ball-winners and destroyers lurked everywhere. There was Materazzi, all tattoos, theatrics and clearances.
There was Lilian Thuram, still a professor among defenders, and the excellent Fernando Meira, while Rio Ferdinand brought a little credit to England's awkward stay.
Good full-backs abounded: from France's energetic Willy Sagnol to Italy's exuberant Fabio Grosso and Gianluca Zambrotta, Germany's goalscoring Philipp Lahm and, certainly against Portugal, Ashley Cole.
At left-back in the all-star team, Lahm shades Grosso for greater defensive awareness. Grosso, with his hunger for attacking, certainly contributed to the match of the World Cup, Italy's semifinal defeat of Germany in the noisiest arena, the Westfalenstadion.
Grosso's wild, eyes-ablaze celebration captured the joy that football will always generate.
The guards ruled the parade ground of this World Cup, certainly after the more spontaneity-filled group stage. Midfield sentries marched about, examining opponents' credentials like officious security men.
Ghana's Stephen Appiah impressed, as did Italy's all-action urchin Gennaro Gattuso. Owen Hargreaves was probably England's best performer, while Patrick Vieira and Javier Mascherano also caught the eye.
The outstanding midfielder was Andrea Pirlo, who mixed ball-winning and distribution with remarkable stamina. AC Milan's workaholic thoroughbred also delivered some stunning dead-balls, such as the corner from which Materazzi equalised Zidane's early penalty, a free-kick just wide and then a spot-kick in the shoot-out triumph.
(And if the Italians can become deadly from 12 yards, surely the English can practise enough to follow suit). Choosing attacking players was less simple, partly because two potential kings, Zidane and Cristiano Ronaldo, will be remembered as princes of darkness.
Despite the disgraceful wink, Ronaldo deserves inclusion in the team of the tournament for his creativity and energy, but the Portuguese flier now has a reputation for deceit which will take years to escape.
Ronaldo, most effective out wide, gains a place through the middle, where he operated on occasion for Portugal, while the livewire Frank Ribery starts on the right.
In an ultimately frustrating tournament for an ageing French team, Ribery gives Les Bleus hope for the future.
Maxi Rodriguez, scorer of one of the goals of the World Cup, just keeps out Juan Roman Riquelme and the mercurial Bastian Schweinsteiger as support for the prolific Miroslav Klose.
As much as this World Cup was a "time to make friends'' in the noisy but orderly biergartens and Fan Fests, it was also a "time to make falls'' on the pitch.
For those insistent on taking a tumble, like Ronaldo, Maniche and Florent Malouda, Fifa must take a stand, and that means retrospective punishment.
The sooner a citing process is introduced, as exists in rugby union, the sooner the cheats can be caught. The 2006 World Cup was scarred, if not ruined, by diving, an offence which affronts sporting principles but also breaks up a game.
There was nothing more enjoyable than a referee gesticulating at a writhing player to get up and grow up. This has not been a summer of relentless simulation, simply a time for Fifa to take action before the diving malaise becomes a plague.
Winter's XI
Buffon (Italy), Zambrotta (Italy),
Thuram (France), Cannavaro (Italy),
Lahm (Germany), Pirlo (Italy), Appiah (Ghana), Ribery (France),
Ronaldo (Portugal), M Rodriguez (Argentina) Klose (Germany)
Player of the tournament Fabio Cannavaro (Italy).
Coach of the tournament
Marcello Lippi (Italy).
Personality of the tournament Jurgen Klinsmann
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