KO-GO SPORTS:
WORLD CUP FLOPS
By Molly & Claudia, Staff Columnists

       
  (This will be the last regular sports column by Molly & Claudia, as they are leaving Crete for personal reasons and retuning to Holland. We wish them the best of luck and hope to have a "guest column" from them in future issues of The Ko-Go Khronicles.)

As the world cup came to a stunning finish and Italy were crowned champions (as we predicted in our column), there were many exciting moments to remember. Unfortunately, there were also the shameful ones, too. Many great names didn’t live up to their reputation; one, in particular, was disgraceful. Here are the five that stood out the most:

5. Lionel Messy, Argentina. Praised like he was God’s own son, even by Maradona. Adidas went all out and created a poster of him almost the size of Dia Island. The kid failed to start a single game for his country. He did score one goal and gave one good assist but that game was already in the pocket way before he came on the field.

4. Frank Lampard, England. Had around 50 shots on goal and none were successful. Even when Chelsea’s midfielder was up to take the penalty that could keep England in the competition, he didn’t score! The disappointment was visible in his eyes as he is already 28 and who knows if he’ll be there in 2010. He missed his opportunity to shine!

3. Ronaldinho, Brazil. Golden ball winner, dubbed the best player in the world by many. He was totally invisible for his team. No beautiful passes, no awesome goals. The only time we got to see the real him, was during team practices but, hey, that doesn’t count now does it. Overrated? Too much pressure for him handle? We’ll never know! Ronaldinho were you even there?

2. Wayne Rooney, England. Was doubtful to even play due to a serious injury. He sat on the bench for the first two matches and then the time came to shine. Unfortunately, his bad temper took over again and, just like in the Euro 2004, he got a red card against Portugal. Totally unnecessary, leaving his team-mates, fans and a whole country wondering, why did he do it again?

1. Zinedine Zidane, France. Praised by some as one of the “big” ones of the game, but leaves much to be desired by his non-sportsman like actions on the pitch. In the last game of his professional career, yet again he received a red card (#14 of his career and #2 in World Cups). His infamous head-butt to Marco Materazzi in the World Cup final just 14 minutes before the end of the game was downright disgraceful . . . and for that we present him with The Ko-Go Khronicles WORLD CUP FLOP award. Even after Italy received the cup, he couldn’t let this rest and a few days later he appeared on French TV to give his version of the situation. This is what he said as an apology: “I want to apologize to the children that witnessed the incident. I tell myself that if things happened this way, it's because somewhere up there it was decided that way. I have no regrets and would do it all over again.” Even after this, he was still named best player of the world cup by the media, which should have been given to Italian captain Fabio Cannavaro, who played every single minute of the world cup with passion, courage and determination.

No spikes, no plane: Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell, the world's co-fastest man, pulled out of a Cretan track meet after officials at the Venice airport refused to let him take his spikes as carry-on baggage. He wouldn't trust the airline to transport them for him. And, with the way airlines are loosing luggage these days, can you blame him?