The Fifa 2006 World Cup Film - The Grand Finale (2006)

Not seeing most of the goals is frustrating

I am a little bit upset about not seeing many of the goals scored in the tournament. Just key games were included in the video and most of them were qualifiers. Visual quality is very good, camera angle in the games is so great that it makes you think you are inside of the stadium.
May 12, 2008

Great for any soccer fan or historian

This is a great product for anybody who is a soccer fan. If you are interested in behind the scenes or the player's view of the game scenarios, this movie is for you. If you are a soccer historian, this movie is for you. If you want to learn moves, or teach someone about soccer, this movie is not for you, this is strictly a historical perspective, it may motivate you or your team but it's not for training purposes. Great product. March 11, 2008

A beautiful presentation of The Beautiful Game

The 2006 World Cup was a truly great spectacle in sports, and this DVD is nearly perfect. The video quality and editing are superb, and the time and attention to the final matches is exquisite. However, the video does have shortcomings. The Argentina-Mexico game, in which Maxi Rodriguez scored the FIFA Best Goal of the World Cup in extra time, is not even mentioned, and Maxi's goal is not shown. Some footage of the USA national team is thrown in, seemingly in a shameless attempt to draw American fans. I understand that some cutting of corners is necessary to reduce a 50-plus-game World Cup to less than three hours of footage, but I question some of the choices of what was included and what was omitted.

What is shown, however, is an outstanding spectacle. Even though I saw both the England/Portugal matches and the Italy/France final when they were on TV, I was still riveted by their presentation on the DVD. As I said, the camera work and action are out of this world and sure to please any soccer fan. (Take special note of the England/Portugal match; when Wayne Rooney is sent off and a Portugal player tries to console him, Wayne can clearly be seen shouting "F--- off!") For anyone who wants to celebrate the World Cup and all the personalities that made it shine - Cristiano Ronaldo, Stephen Gerrard, Michael Ballack, Fabio Cannavaro, and the others - you really can't go wrong with this DVD. February 8, 2008

Give the film a break!

I do not own the DVD, saw it last night on HBO, and thought of going online and buying it to watch it with my family, huge Italy fans. Remember this was one whole month of the worlds finest teams playing against each other, so trying to squeeze all that soccer into a 2hr film would definitely result in a lot of things being left out. It was great to re-live those glorious moments for Italy. Although I agree that it would have been pleasing to re-live Brazil's elimination as well. Go Italy!!! February 5, 2008

Too Many Games/Info Missing from DVD

Being a huge Italian soccer fan, I was extremely disappointed in this video since it is a recap of their glory to World Cup triumph. There are many games not including the Italian team that are not featured or let alone mentioned. Perhaps the best game of the tournament, Mexico-Argentina is not shown let alone mentioned. The Brazil-France match also has no video footage. The Portugal team has features on 3 of their games, the same amount as the Italian team that WON the World Cup. The DVD fails to show any highlights of the second round games of Australia-Italy or Italy-Ukraine. No highlights of many other matches and the continued stereotype (this time by narrator Pierce Brosnan, who was good but did not have much of a script to read from) depicting the Italians as ultra-defensive but failing to mention they scored the second most goals in the tournament and had the most multiple players to score at least one goal (10). I hope there is a better DVD of Italy's 4th World Cup so that I can enjoy it years from now because this current DVD is in my trash.
-Eddie "Baggio" December 28, 2007

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