“However, I just don’t think Zizou is going to allow France to lose.”
Could I be any worse of a footie writer? Honestly, how did you guys manage to put up with my dross for the past month? I couldn’t have fared worse in analysing and predicting matches if I’d sat out in a pasture, surrounded by mounds of bovine dung and overseen by football-ignorant constellations, and simulated each of the 64 matches in this World Cup using dung beetles as players, frozen feces as the football, and LSD-induced hallucinations to choose my formation and formulate my strategies.
“Her moment of weakness cost me a lifetime of happiness.”
When Manigault wrote those immortal words about a woman he had once loved, those words could’ve been mine if I’d substituted Zizou’s for “her”, “me” with France, and “happiness” with glory.
I wonder how the French public and media are going to treat the near-deity Zizou–we’ve already seen that Raymond Domenech, his manager, “understands” Zidane’s as-yet inexplicable gaffe while not necessarily condoning it–but I’m not going to let him off so easily.
I have no problem with the headbutt, per se, as when I first saw it, I laughed my ass off, but I have a huge problem with the timing of it. How can the leader of the squad, the man to whom all of France looked for inspiration and guidance, the man so lionised in all corners of global media for his recent resurrection on the pitch be so unequivocally boneheaded? I don’t care what Materazzi said to him, how long he may have been winding him up, or in what manner he was obviously provoking him, but you do not do something so asinine with ten minutes left before penalty kicks in a World Cup final, especially not when three of your teammates–the very three who, along with you, are the obvious first choices to take penalties in a PSO. If Henry, Ribery, and Vieira had not already been substituted for, I’d have less of a problem with Zidane’s momentary lapse of judgment; however, being your nation’s lone remaining grace brings great responsibility to keep your composure and Zidane blew it.
In one of the wackiest and most unusual World Cups I can remember, this ending couldn’t have been more fitting. I suppose if one cannot go out in a blaze of glory, scoring your nation’s winning goal in a world-championship-winning match, I suppose going out in such a ferocious and controversial manner is a close second for a grand exit.
We got to see the best of genius, all in a span of one hundred and eleven minutes: from Zidane’s cheeky and very ballsy chip shot penalty take to give France an early nil-1 lead to his ball-handling and clever passing to his rocket header on goal magnificently saved by Buffon early in extra time to his impossible-to-stop bullet header to Materazzi’s chest.
Ahh, but all of this obsessive writing about Zizou overshadows the fact that Italy are once again world champions. They move into second place behind Brasil for the number of stars (4) on their strips indicating the number of World Cups won.
Until Zidane’s act of lunacy, the outcome was still a toss-up. Italy dominated the first half, France’s early lead notwithstanding, but nearly capitulated several times after the restart and in extra time while Zidane was still on the pitch. Buffon rose to the occasion on several occasions to keep the Azzurri in it, while other times it was the defence, led by the sensational Fabio Cannavaro, who stymied the French attack.
Though France had lost Vieira and Henry to injury and Ribery to substitution, France were the better team for most of the last hour of play. Even when Zidane was sent off, France had the better of possession and the better chances, as Italy were content to sit back and wait for PSO, knowing that France were going to be without four of their penalty-takers in the shootout. Italy’s decision to pack it in and wait for the shootout was typical Italy, but disappointing, especially given the fact that they had gone all out in the semifinal extra time against Germany.
In the end, however, Italy were the better side and, based on their play the entire tournament, were deserving winners. I may not like Italy, but credit and respect for their accomplishment must be meted out, even if the style in which they succeeded is not always welcome or respected.
This is the final World Cup post involving games in particular, but there will be shortly at least one more piece reviewing the tournament as a whole because, contrary to what I’ve read on some American sports web sites, this was an enjoyable and entertaining World Cup, to say the least. It deserves a recap…
Again, congratulations to Italy for winning their 4th World Cup.
23 Comments
And congratulations to you, Dave, for such a great job here at Marmot’s Hole!
good stuff the whole way brother!!! good job
however my final comments are this
Zidane what the hell was he thinking!
france winning would have been a better story but oh well congrats to italy
seems like they win it every 12 years so we wont have to worry about them for awhile
Dave.
Lucia’s right, great job!
After a month of sacrifice, you did — somewhere along the way — learn to capitalize.
pretty bone headed for sure….
So, in soccer, they don’t even use their hands to hit a guy?
On the Italian Job: The first 20 or so minutes were exciting, and the rest of the match was mind numbing.
I say we strip the game down to 20 minutes each way and then do the shoot out thing.
How hard is ZiZou’s head? The Italian guy went flying after he copped one in the chest…That’s right it’s football, you don’t even need to actually be touched to hit the ground clutching one limb or the other in (mock) pain.
I wonder how the French public and media are going to treat the near-deity Zizou
Early reports off L’Express en ligne indicate that the French public still loves their hero. He’s got an overall record to be proud of; a single incident won’t erase that in their minds. The French media, however, seem to be evincing much the same shock and confusion about Zidane’s behavior as you are, DD.
Kevin
At least next year we’ll see a world cup that is *about* hitting your opponent. And where Italy is a very minor player! – Farking Aussies and Kiwis though could be a problem…
It really is too bad that Zidane lost his head. I still can’t believe that the finest player of my generation went out on such a low note….
Rumour has it though that Materazzi called him a ‘terrorist.’ It’s only a rumour of course, but he clearly taunted Zidane, and given his reputation I’d hardly be surprised if Materazzi did aim a racial slur Zidane’s way.
Italy played wonderful football and their defensive philosophy earned them their 4th cup: shame that it’s tarnished by the words and actions of twits like Materazzi.
Strange that no one seems to be criticizing the French for their diving. Malouda was the worst offender, but Henry and Zidane also had a handful of beautiful dives.
Anyways, congratulation to the Italians. A pity such an amazing player like Zidane had to go out like that. Materazzi is no angel (just search YouTube for Materazzi and revel at the majesty of such a great kickboxer/football player) but Zidane should have knowned better.
Racial slur or not, Zidane’s been around long enough to know better. You ignore that crap on the pitch and take it up with the guy after the game. Getting yourself red carded for a stupid move like that is selfish. You punish the whole team so that you can protect your “honor,” meanwhile you do exactly what the other person wanted you to do. How does it feel to be an Italian puppet?
Anyway, thanks for your commentary, Dave. It’s been a great read all the way through the tournament, even if you picked the wrong winning team every single time.
This has been a very exciting World Cup; Beckenbauer and Germany have much to be proud of. We’ve seen some great football and we saw some surprisingly good shows from teams we’ve never seen before in this forum. Officiating became an issue early on, but that is not unusual in the World Cup. It seems that almost every Cup I’ve watched had some sort of officiating issue. More often than not, it comes down to FIFA rule changes and guidelines.
Now, I’ll have to find some way to fill the sudden absence of football on the TV.
Well, the French team impressed me. They passed with laser accuracy and ball-handling skills were superb. Henri was a efficient killer and Zidane a good ground general. And, their defense was impressive.
Italy did some nice headers, one of them resulting in a goal. They deserved to win.
However, the world will remember only one thing out of this world cup. The fact that the French beat Brazil for the second consecutive time. This clearly shows that French soccer is superior than Brazil soccer.
Maybe the French has achieved something that the rest of the world has to measure up to. They maybe THE soccer power in the world at present time.
I believe so.
Great posts dave, and I too think it’s too basd Zidane had to go out like that. But I’ll have to agree with the American reports — that I haven’t read — saying this was a shitty World Cup. Shitty may be a little strong, there were tons of great stories, and plays, but there wasn’t enough early goals to open games up. I mean to of the 4 quater finals go to penalties, and the final, and the winning team more or less sat back and did nothing for the last 80 minutes, only to win on stupid penalties.
This was an enjoyable World Cup. I don’t know how we North Americans can by and large find football/soccer so boring, when baseball and American/Canadian football are much more lethargic.
After watching their underwhelming performance in 2002, I thought (naively) that the Italians were overrated. But they’ve really shone, especially in their last two matches against Germany and France. Last-minute back-to-back goals and 5 for 5 on penalty shots…impressive stuff!
That looked like a serious, full-on headbutt to me. I’ve grumbled before about Italian diving, but I’m sure that was a hard blow to Materazzi. That was the kind of headbutt you see rams do on nature shows. That was serious stuff. To end it all like that…. Maybe he’ll have to announce he’s not retiring after all, so he can play another 4 years and leave on a more graceful note!
I’m glad Zizou did that to Materazzi, who has had it coming for the longest.
Madne0: The French dive, as all nations do, but nobody hits the turf like the flopping Portuguese.
Reports are coming out from lip reading experts that Materazzi called Zidane’s sister a prostitute twice.
dissidentdave, don’t beat yourself up. These have been some wonderfully interesting, and well-written posts, adding to the excitement of following these ‘06 games.
I noticed that FIFA, in their infinite wisdom have rewarded Zidanan’es childish pranks with the Golden Ball. While the one act of playground-like stupidty doesn’t negate his game play, that was a sour way for FIFA to close the book on a cup that was more out of hand than “Fair.” So much for fair play…
FIFA should just acknowledge its own farce and award Zidane with an honorary Fair Play Award so that we can all have proof that they have indeed lost their minds.
and now we should begin the campaign to initiate post-game yellow/red cards. and, please add another ref to the mix even if its an off-field ref viewing monitors to give the on-field refs more perspective…doesn’t have to involve replay.
Baduk: “This clearly shows that French soccer is superior than Brazil soccer”
Not really. it just shows the French team was better then the Brazilian team in two ocasions. When it comes to the sheer amount of talent generated the French don’t hold a candle to the Brazilians.
So, now that the soccer match is over, can we get back to something interesting on TV?
From the Daily Mail:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pag.....ge_id=1770
I don’t condone violence but I don’t fault Zizou either.
Italian team knew that Zidane’s mother was in the hospital. And, they used the fact to make Zidane angry.
Italian soccer team…they love this type of thing, “I am not talented as you are but I am going to use this little thing to screw you”. KJI must be an Italian soccer player inside.
God will punish these evildoers in the next dimension. “It is appointed to a man once to die, but then comes the judgment”.
I already knew what Materazzi said to Zidane. Easy. It’s either concerning sex or race ! What else could it be?
I bet that even in Zidane’s official announcement, this will be shown to be true.