Italy !
What a World Cup Final, one hundred and twenty minutes of football decided by bloody penalities. From a thrilling first half, with a goal each, to a classic arm wrestle for the remainder. A period France dominated and looked the likely winner but that's football.
What isn't football and overshadows a wonderful game is the sending-off of Zidane, in his final match of a stellar career. At the beginning of the game he was slated to join immortals Pele and Maradona, only to destroy it all with a brutal head-butt. Madness.
This for me is the biggest disappointment of the whole tournament, such a terrible act by a great player. If anyone finds out what was said to provoke Zidane - not that it can excuse his classless reaction - please leave a comment. I'm off to bed, exhausted.
Congratulations Italy !
UPDATE : Zidane mystery
UPDATE 2 : Zidane named World Cup best player. More World Cup awards here.
I saw the head-butt. I was glad to see he got the red card. I fell asleep during the last few minutes. I had to google the finish. Dang cab driving gets us.
Posted by: joann | July 10, 2006 at 08:39 AM
What a anticlimax..... and Zizou WTF?????? He's a bit prone to that sorta stuff, but what a time and place ta let it get to ya......Give him plenty ta talk about for the start of his new TV career as a sports commentator!
Posted by: Ian | July 10, 2006 at 09:44 AM
I found the whole last half pretty boring, actually! The only excitement being the head-butting incident, which, I must add, was a totally ridiculous childish act, but then from my own personal, humble perspective there seems to be a lot of infantile actions within the game as a whole. In saying that, I'm glad Italy won! The best part of it all was the aftermath celebrations of the game in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane as shown on 'Sunrise'. At least now I can get some sleep. I was up until all hours watching the men's final at Wimbledon, snatching a couple of hours before the World Cup final!! My sporting commitments have been keeping me exhausted lately!
Posted by: lg | July 10, 2006 at 10:11 AM
They talked about the Headbutt incident on Sports Tonight just before. Zidane said he will reveal his side of the story within the next week or so.
They think that Marco Materazzi may have said something about his mum but who knows.
Posted by: Huggies | July 12, 2006 at 12:00 AM
Who cares what was said to him. He let his team down and will be remembered (in this part of the world at least) for a brain snap in stead of his enormous talent. Wouldn't cricket be livlier if sledging resulted in a headbutt or two.
Why shouldn't he be in the same category as Maradona, ambidextrous cheat!
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