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I Iran's football team is good, just inconsistent as the players occasionally struggle to find the ideal team dynamic. They are vast improved though from the team I remember a few years back. Though they fell three places, Iran is still ranked 18th. Here are the men's soccer statistics.
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Cannavaro, Ronaldhino and Zidane vie for FIFA's Player of the Year award
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Totti was taken to a hospital, his left fibula smashed, the ligaments torn from the bone. He was surely out of contention for the summer World Cup?
Not so. Totti is known for many things, for artistry, for loyalty to his boyhood club, Roma, for sometimes less than applied intelligence to his game and his life. But in 2006 he was to become a true man. He worked to resurrect his World Cup dream, and did that. He worked at fatherhood, and is enjoying that. And he has dedicated the second half of 2006 to one sporting ambition, leading Roma to the Italian championship.
By the start of December, Totti led the Serie A scoring chart, with nine goals and
two assists in 14 matches. He has moved forward from his playmaking role to take main responsibility as a striker, and the volley that he scored with that once-damaged left foot against Sampdoria on Nov. 26 was proof that the injury does not trouble or inhibit him.
There remain 10 metal screws in that ankle joint, and it was one of the quotes of the year when Totti explained why he ruled himself out of the Azzurri, the national team, at least until the new year.
"I won't play for the nazionale a long as there are screws in my ankle," he said. "My mind is only on Rome."
Totti was the comeback of the year. The departures included Telê Santana, 74, a Brazilian who truly coached the Beautiful Game, and Ferenc Puskas, 79, the Hungarian who played it as well as any man could.
With respect to those men of the sport, the abiding memory of 2006 was not what happened inside the arenas, but outside them. Germany had a plan to open up the game truly to the masses, with its concept of the "Fan Mile" at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and other venues. It was a simple, but a daring idea: Give the people a way of sharing World Cup euphoria even without the price of a ticket. By putting the games on giant screens in open places, Germany invited millions from all manner of nations to the party, and the world responded.
The Beautiful Game redefined. Quite a legacy, and a challenge to anyone else who takes on host responsibility for the biggest single sporting show on earth.
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