Customer Reviews

The Fifa 2006 World Cup Film - The Grand Finale

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Even though the quality of footage is good, this DVD misses so many exciting points of the last world cup. The group stage is dealt with in basically 5 minutes, with a few highlights of selected games.
Argentina - Serbia, for example, only 1 goal shown. France - Brazil game omitted, France - Spain game also ommited. Nothing said about controversial Italy - USA, or Italy - Australia game. About half of the teams competing were not shown, let alone mentioned!
Highlights of England - Portugal (1/4 final), France - Portugal (semifinal) and Italy - Germany (semifinal) each goes on for 10 minutes, way to much for these games that produced 3 goals in total!!! waste of time, they should have used that time for more group games.
Overall, very dissapointed, although the highlights of the final game and the interviews were good. Not what I expected. The 1982 and 1986 world cup highlight videos were the best, in my opinion. If I knew it would be like that, I would not have gotten this DVD.

The Fifa 2006 World Cup Film - The Grand Finale is an Exciting DVD and is Narrated by Pierce Bronsnan. The DVD Is in letter box format and looks and sounds beautiful. Special features include interviews with players Cannavaro; Nakata; Lehmann; Ballack; and Drogba as well as an interview of Final game referee Elizendo.

The Film starts off with a sand lot soccer Game and then proceeds to the fan feasts and on to the game. We get the Beautiful game quote from Pala and off we go. We start of with he opening game of the round of 32 round Robin type set up-where 16 out of 32 teams move on to the next round. The first game is Germany the home nation VS Costa Rica and Germany goes on to win 4-2 in the highest scoring opening game of world cup history. The film process to highlight key games as Germany; Australia; Spain(who true to form win all three fist round games and then lose in the Quarter finals); England; Argentina who wins 6-0 in the first game; Italy; Brazil the pre tournament favorite; Ghana; Switzerland; The Ukraine; France; The Netherlands; Portugal; Mexico; Sweeten; and Ecuador. The USA had a disappointing showing this time with the one highlight of fighting the eventual World Cup Winner Italy to a 1-1 tie.

The next Round is the round of 16 nd now its win and you move on and lose and you go home. The elimination rounds begin. The DVD Highlights key games in both the first two rounds but does not cover every game. later on in the semis and the finals we get extensive converge of al those games. England over Ecuador 1-0; GERMANY BEATS Sweden 2-0; Argentina BEATS Mexico 2-1; Portugal defeats the Netherlands 1-0; France knocks off Spain 3-1; The Ukraine over Switzerland 3-0 in a shoot out; And Italy defeats Australia 1-0 in a tight one where Italy plays one man down, due to red card, most of the game.

Now we move on to the Quarter finals and again just key games are covered. Germany defeats Argentina 4-2 in a shoot out after a 1-1 tie in regulation and extra time;Portugal wins 3-1 in a shoot out over England (0-0); France stunned Brazil 1-0; and Italy easily defeats the Ukraine 3-0.

Now we move on to the semi finals and we get extensive converge of these two games. Italy defeats Germany in a tight well played game with many scoring opportunities for both teams, 2-0. Italy scored both goals very late in the game. And France beats Portugal 1-0 in a nail bitter. Both of these games was excellent and the Italy Germany game is a top 5 world cup game. It was very exciting.

Then we go to the finals. Italy Vs France. It is a very good game but is marred by a few things. One France scores on a penalty kick after a dive early in the game, they need replay on this type of thing. Two Italy has a goal taken away on an off sides call, another bad call. and third Zadine gets himself tossed on a red card in extra time with a violent head [...]. But despite that the game was an exciting 1-1 draw then went all the way to penalty kicks. Italy had never won a game on penalty kicks and even lost the 1994 World Cup to Brazil on penalty shots, but this time there were perfect scoring on all five shots and winning 5-3. Congratulations Italy a great win; Italy's 4th World Cup.

In conclusion the The Fifa 2006 World Cup Film - The Grand Finale is a great watch and a must have for soccer fans everywhere.

Overall - A top quality documentary that provides a flowing tour through the last rounds of the World Cup. Brosnan provides interesting commentary without distracting from the mood. Loads of exciting action with many longer segments that immerse you into pivotal (and sometimes unusual) moments of the matches.

Video Quality - Created from original HD footage and made into 480p 16:9 format. Looked very nice even on our 110" (279cm) HD projector, but knowing that HD World Cup content exists I am hoping for a future BluRay Disc release.

Sound Quality - Lots of great sound of the crazy fans, (but seemingly no DD 5.1, only Dolby Pro-Logic?).

Extras - Have not watched interviews yet.

If you love the game, then this DVD will put you head over heels.

Would have liked to have seen more of the goals, Brosnan sleepwalks through the very skimpy and unrevealing commentary.

The best Video FIFA ever produced was GOL!, the 1982 World cup summary, with a great commentary by Sean Connery. Would like a DVD of that one!

I found this DVD less than mediocre. It is difficult to understand how such a exciting sports event could produce such an underwhelming product.

The commentary is sparse to say the least. Almost all actions (literally) are not commented at all, and often you have no clue about who the players are (unless you are a true expert...). There is close to no soundtrack. Most of the action is filmed from a really annoying low angle that makes it almost impossible to appreciate depth of field. About 20% of the movie shows unmemorable actions. Some of the best goals of the tournament are not shown at all, and some non-memorable matches are given way more time than they deserve. An example: we have to see ALL the innumerable yellow and red cards of Netherland-Portugal.

It is hard to understand how FIFA could produce such a sub-par product. You can find much more exciting extracts on YouTube. Really not recommended, not even (or maybe especially) if you are a soccer fan.

Es un gran recuerdo de ese mundial, aunque falta resumen de algunos partidos, pero no importa ya que en la final hicieron un trabajo completo, me trae muchos recuerdos.

its fantastic!!!! I love the way and style that they review the matches, the camera angles the narration. Easily the best thing you will watch on the 2006 world cup. Not as good as the 1982 world cup film but this one is really a winner

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.

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.

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.