Decade in review: 2006

Zidane loses his head
This was like a pitch for an old Clint Eastwood movie: a maverick cop is about to retire after a working life married to the badge. Here’s the rub: his last day at the office isn’t going to be uneventful.

Zidane — the brightest talent of his generation — already had a World Cup medal on the sideboard, a European Championship win, European Cups, Ballon d’Oors — enough baubles to decorate your Christmas tree essentially. But Zizou will forever now be remembered for his rash reaction to a Marco Matterazzi jibe as the world watched on in shock.

By scoring a seventh-minute penalty he had become only the fourth player in World Cup history to score in two different finals. However, in extra time in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium he headbutted the Italian defender in the chest. The flash of the referee’s red card sent the curtain falling on a glitterring career.

Italy, of course went on to win the penalty shoot-out 5–3. Aptly, he kept the Golden Ball award for best player at the tournament.

War of Attrition strikes gold at Cheltenham
Michael O’Leary heralds his airline’s obsession with arriving on time. His horse War Of Attrition clocked in early after little turbulence — stopping the stopwatch at 6min 31.7sec.

In the past 50 years only two Gold Cup winners have gone faster, Looks Like Trouble (6:30.3) six years previously and Norton’s Coin (6:30.9) in 1990.

In 2004 War Of Attrition left Cheltenham as a courageous loser, beaten a neck by Brave Inca in the Supreme Novice Hurdle. In 2006 however, he went one better than his old rival with victory in the Gold Cup, as Ireland’s dominance at the Cheltenham Festival reached unprecedented heights.

This success was the ninth at the meeting for an Irish-trained horse, and the 10th, Whyso Mayo, came in the next race, setting a new record. It was all very easy for jockey Conor O’Dwyer who settled his horse behind the early pace and moved towards the front of the race with about a mile left to run. The Celtic Tiger purred and Cheltenham’s Irish partied on.

Munster finally reach Holy Grail
They say you have to lose one to win one. But you have to lose two to really appreciate one. Munster at last found the holy grail and 63,000 Munster natives in Cardiff drank deep from it. A jumbo screen on Limerick’s O’Connell St attracted thousands, while the scenes on Shannonside inspired a flagging Munster to push on and achieve the win. It wasn’t to be Limerick’s last street party.

Ireland deliver Triple Crown
It may not be celebrated as wildly now, but this Triple Crown win was a vital building block Ireland’s Grand Slam victory this year. And typically, they didn’t do it the easy way.

Wing Shane Horgan’s brilliant 78th-minute try sneaked Ireland ahead of England on March 18 at Twickenham before Ronan O’Gara slotted a touchline conversion to finish England off. It left Ireland celebrating a second Triple Crown in three seasons.

Ireland hosts perfect Ryder Cup
So one-sided was this contest at The K Club that at times it seemed the impossible was likely: a Ryder Cup devoid of drama.

Fortunately there was enough raw emotion in the air to ensure the final day will live long in the memory. Ian Woosnam’s victory address will not trouble Barrack Obama’s speech-writers but the Welshman showed a canny touch when he sent Darren Clarke out in the seventh tie of the day.

Four points ahead overnight, Europe needed 4½ points to win the trophy. This left the Irishman, whose wife Heather died from breast cancer a mere six weeks previously, with the maximum chance of producing the ending the home crowd and his team-mates so desperately wanted.

Clarke duly delivered his victory, sweeping aside Zach Johnson by 4&3. The Irishman broke down in his caddie’s arms on the 16th green. Though Henrik Stenson pipped him to holing the decisive putt, Clarke sank a Guinness on a crowded clubhouse balcony to round off a wonderful weekend’s work.

I was there…
Though neither myself nor Richard Dunne will be in South Africa next summer, at least I can console myself — unlike the Villa man — with the fact that I was at the last World Cup.

In a bier-soaked scrapbook of memories, Italy’s quarter-final win over Ukraine in Hamburg on a balmy Friday night was the pinnacle. A day that ended by ‘singing’ Stone Roses in a Korean karaoke bar on the Reeperbahn, began by eating breakfast at the bar of an Irish pub. And in between I saw some great football.