[QUOTE=Rysto]
Oh, come on. It wasn’t that bad.
[/QUOTE]
I don’t know maybe I’m a bit sensitive because I’ve known a couple guys guys who died after unexpected blows to the chest. But it seemed to me to be a deliberate attempt to injure with nothing relative to the playing of the game.
If a blow like that could kill a world-class athlete, NHL players would be dropping like flies.
Zidane, you stupid, stupid moron. Ten minutes of your international career to go and you drop a turd like that on your record.
Gotta feel for Trezeguet, I mean, he hit the bar and the rebound landed a foot the wrong side of the line, if that.
Sort of feel it’s the right result after the 2000 Euro final. Not sure what Zidane was thinking.
It’s pretty clear he wasn’t thinking. Very, very sad. Unthinkable. What a way to mar a terrific, absorbing match, not to mention his career.
One does have to wonder what set him off, though.
Video of the headbutt (has foreign commentary)
Maybe it’s a bad made-for-TV movie moment? Italian Mafia has Zidane’s family hostage, and he has to get thrown out and lose the game or he’ll never see them alive again, and Materazzi just reminded him of the horrible horrible death about to be dealt to his family, so he fought back… No? Didn’t think so. Wow, what an unbelievably stupid move.
Both teams played well, IMHO (not that I really know that much about the sport) and good for Italy for winning (although I was rooting for France). That said… well, the rest of the French team didn’t deserve to lose, but Zidane sure as hell didn’t deserve to have his team win!
I can’t believe how quickly that clip made its way online! Stupid stupid stupid. What excuse do you think he tried to give to the ref before getting the red card?
Plus the crazy bastard cost me twenty quid!
[sub]teach me to gamble, I s’pose[/sub]
If it happened in the NBA(US) it would be no big deal.
He was obiously held in the video. I don’t watch soccer. Is this allowed?
He was being impeded/held but that happens pretty much all the time. He just lost his cool. I think Gattuso was gettting to him and not allowing him time on the ball. I remeber a match last October in Dublin during the qualifiers where Zidane started to get petulent because Keane was all over him.
Unless we hear that Materazzi said something particularly vile I think Zidane was just being petulent because he was not being allowed to run the game.
[QUOTE=samclem]
If it happened in the NBA(US) it would be no big deal.
He was obiously held in the video. I don’t watch soccer. Is this allowed?
[/QUOTE]
In what NBA game would an intentional headbutt not involving either player movement for position or with the ball which knocks the other player to the ground NOT result in a flagrant foul or ejection?
I know the NBA has gotten bad, but that bad?
My French is poor but it sounds like the French commentator is asking ‘but why, but why’ after Zidane’s headbutt.
[QUOTE=Garfield226]
In what NBA game would an intentional headbutt not involving either player movement for position or with the ball which knocks the other player to the ground NOT result in a flagrant foul or ejection?
I know the NBA has gotten bad, but that bad?
[/QUOTE]
I assume you understood my comment. The National Basketball Association, in the US, has evolved it’s style of play from the 1960’s, when holding a player was a foul, to today, when holding a player is not called the way it was 40 years ago.
If I’m wrong, please come back.
[QUOTE=samclem]
I assume you understood my comment. The National Basketball Association, in the US, has evolved it’s style of play from the 1960’s, when holding a player was a foul, to today, when holding a player is not called the way it was 40 years ago.
If I’m wrong, please come back.
[/QUOTE]
I’m getting the feeling I didn’t.
I didn’t watch the match, so if there was holding not called, and that’s what your comment was about, you could be right. I just took it at face value: If there was a headbutt like that in an NBA game, I have a hard time believing that it wouldn’t be called. Then again I’ve been following the NBA less and less these days (for this reason and others), so who knows.
[QUOTE=Garfield226]
I’m getting the feeling I didn’t.
I didn’t watch the match, so if there was holding not called, and that’s what your comment was about, you could be right. I just took it at face value: If there was a headbutt like that in an NBA game, I have a hard time believing that it wouldn’t be called. Then again I’ve been following the NBA less and less these days (for this reason and others), so who knows.
[/QUOTE]
Of course a headbutt or anything approaching that would probably be a season-ending penalty, or possibly something that would end a career.
Looking at that YouTube video, it looked like the Italian player was pinching Zizou’s nipple. Zidane starting walking away, then the Italian player said something, and Zidane just head-butted him.
Unfathomable. Mind-numbingly stupid, and extremely disappointing.
And no way is that not a big deal in the NBA. Hell, Jerry Stackhouse was suspended for Game 5 of the NBA Finals for a simple hard foul on Shaq. If he or anyone else head-butted a player - especially in the penultimate game or series - we’re talking a 10- or 20-game suspension at least.
Well, that was dramatic, at least. Not a classic, certainly, but talking points aplenty.
France’s first penalty:
Absolutely no contact whatsoever. Malouda saw the converging defenders, tucked his right leg behind his left and went over. I can’t really blame the referee, as it took me 4 slo-mo angles to come to this conclusion. Justice was done later when France were denied a cut-and-dried penalty in any case. Ho hum. Zizou took a ridiculous risk with his chip, but that’s the fine line between the sublime and the ridiculous, innit.
Zizou’s headbutt:
What? What on earth!? Looking at the replay I think it looks massively pre-meditated; he walked from behind the guy, turned, wound up and BAM! I have no idea what the Italian defender said to him, but I can’t wait to find out. All I can think of is that some sort of Algerian-related slur was used, because the holding beforehand was so utterly trivial that it’s simply impossible that that was what triggered the incident. NBA be damned; in football that’s as straight a red card as you’ll ever see, no two ways about it. Seeing Domenech ironically applaud the referee was just funny; never has there been a more deserved sending-off in football.
Either way, Zidane has managed to cock up the perfect ending to the career of one of the greatest players to walk the earth. I did think, though, as he was forced to trudge off past the World Cup trophy, that he should have grabbed it and legged it as fast as he could. Would’ve been hilarious.
Overall:
Don’t know what to think. I (obviously) thought Italy looked awesome from the set-piece, but they didn’t threaten through open play for the entire second hour, even when a man up. And while France didn’t deserve their first penalty, they certainly deserved the one that wasn’t given. Before the match I didn’t really care who won as long as they gave a strong performance, and I think France arguably gave the strongest attacking performance from open play, without ever quite giving the impression that they actually had the finishing power to do the job. Ribery was a huge disappointment; awful compared to his electric performance against Spain. Henry tried his hardest and nearly showed why he’s worshipped so much at Arsenal, but in the end the chances he was afforded were too few to stand much chance of carving open that Italian defence. As always Cannavaro was huge, Gattuso was also, and I think it’s those individual performances that arguably bought Italy the title; for all their pressure, at no point did it look like France were really going to make the breakthrough.
Ah well. An eventful and dramatic, if not classic, final. Fun, and there are a lot of drunk Italians out in London at the moment. 
The* Univisión * commentator, when the replay showed ZZ walking off with the cup in the foreground said: “And Zizou has turned his back on the Cup and walked away from it.” That’s just so wrong…
OTOH, good for the Italians, what with the diet of scandal that the League has fed the home fans this must have felt like redemption.
Oh, and as for the OP’s comment on the opening act… no malfunction, but of course that wardrobe was meant to emphasize… well… the importance of a fit and well toned Body Core, right, that’s it; very appropriate for an athletic competition 
On the penalty I must sayit is very tough,if ther ewas contactit was very slight. Yet, whenyou are running at speed and you get your ankle clippedinto your other leg and then get runinto by another defender, I don’t know if I can say itwas a dive. Tougth call for the ref, for sure.
Zidane: Thatwas the craziest thing Ithink I have everseen in anysporting event, given the gravity of themoment. I am still in a bit of shock, to tell the truth.
Oddly, I think the wrong team won the game but the right teamwon the tournament. Italy only allowed the owngoal and the penalty goal, and from start to finish seemes to be themost complete and dedicated team. France came on in the later stages but struggled in the group stages.
So, how do real fans feel about the end of the game - decided by penalty shots? Is that more or less exciting a finish? I never liked overtime decisions in hockey, so I wonder if soccer fans feel the same way.
I watched it with a bunch of people from work, and none of us really having a dog in that fight, we decided to root for France simply because that’s what everyone else on our side of the bar was doing
Zidane’s headbutt shocked me, it seemed like he suddenly wanted his team to lose and went out of his way to handicap the team.