Jak King wrote in 2002 about watching the World Cup and the subsequent celebration on Commercial Drive in Vancouver, so this time around, I didn't want to miss it. I ended up at the Paris Bakery on Commercial and Kitchener, where the Vietnamese guys sitting outside made fun of every time the fans screamed "Oh!". After about 15 minutes of the second half, I gave up trying to look over people's heads (the people in front of me were doing the same), so I walked around and ran into Cathy Wang whose boyfriend wisely parked his pickup truck in front of a restaurant with a big screen TV and open window. (A little later, while bemoaning the fact I couldn't see the game, my friend Paul and his girlfriend Dani came up and said hi.) I caught the two final extra time periods at the Portuguese Club of Vancouver, after which I took some video of the post-World Cup celebrations that were going on and a set of photos.

Lost in the celebration is befuddlement over Zidane's had head-butt to Marco Materazzi (mais pourquoi?), the red card taking out the game's best penalty kicker when France would end up needing him most. Jason Kottke has more headbutt-related links.