Rebel

great

Then again, looking at his last two performances he also didn't seem to care much about the directives for the World Cup finals, and still he turned out to be one of FIFA's favorites. Apparantly a little rebelion pays off. And it makes the match way more attractive. Sure, he made a few mistakes, could have shown a yellow to Klose for deliberatly stepping on a foot, but not one player stayed lying on the ground, not one player dived and there was hardly any discussion. It's no use lying on the ground acting hurt if the match continues and you are needed somewhere else. After all the mannerisms of Merk and Lubos Michel, it's great to see a referee who knows his place, whom you hardly notice until he is needed. Who can let little fouls be just that and keeps the game going.

Italy

Just the fact that German striker Klose and Spielmacher Ballack were invisible, proves the Italians were the better team. It took them a while but finally Grosso and Del Piero scored. Andrea Pirlo, "the Italian Ballack", wasn't stopped at all and became the man of the match (second after Archundia of course).