For me, the clinching angle is the one directly in front of Malouda as he runs in. There seems to be absolutely no sudden deflection of his right leg, as you’d expect if it had clipped the defender’s body at some point. It just looks like he tucks it behind his left calf (deliberately or not) and goes over. At full speed I’d defy anyone in the world to call it correctly from one view, so I completely agree; the ref can’t be faulted for giving it. I probably would have, to be honest. Overall I thought the ref had an outstanding game; initially I was worried that he was going to be too fussy, but he let the game flow as much as possible.
Generally, the standard of refereeing in the latter stages has made the earlier games seem like a distant nightmare. I think FIFA has to either abandon this practice of sharing out matches to referees from lesser federations, or has to get certain international referees much more experience. I think the early stages of the tournament were absolutely blighted by the refereeing, which is a travesty when you consider how well officiated the later stages were.
elfkin477: well, I count myself a real fan, and I largely agree with Mr. Octopus here; Italy were the consistent quality team of the tournament, and probably deserved to win, penalties or not. I don’t think they were a great team, but I think they were consistently top class. France showed flashes of brilliance but in the end I think revealed why they were unfancied prior to the tournament.
As I’ve said in other threads, I don’t actually see penalties as a problem. After 120 minutes, open play as a spectacle is dead; the teams generally don’t have it in them to continue, really. You can argue all day about whether penalties are “fair”, but I don’t think any other method of resolving the match is really going to be any better. After 120 minutes of play, if you’ve got a draw you’ve got two very evenly matched teams, and neither deserves to lose - but one must. At least penalties mean the match ends with a bang, rather than a whimper.
I was cheering for France, simply because of Zidane. Zidane has been known forever as one the most classiest players in this decade and I wanted to seem him go out on top.
They he went crazy and I lost all respect for him. What the hell?! Instead of all of his hard work and his magic over the years, he now forever will be known as The Headbutter.
And I no longer cared if France won or not. What a weird final.
Zidane is a great player but he does have a history of vanishing in huge matches particularly when an aggressive midfielder marks him. Even in '98, not enough credit goes to Blanc, Deschamps and Thuram.
I’m awaiting the conspiracy. Maybe some video evidence that the line judge was staring at a pair of tits in the stands and in no way could have seen the head butt. Or maybe a bookie comes forward with Zidane’s stub. Something like that.
The commetator I was watching (on TSN, I think… I don’t even know the channel name for sure!) said something about how it wasn’t shown to the stadium because of a rule or agreement or tradition of not showing controversial replays. If I understood him correctly, basically anything that shows a difference from what the ref decided, or something that might stir up the crowd, doesn’t get replayed live. I presume for security reasons? I definitely got the feeling from the noise in the crowd that they didn’t understand what had happened.
Dramatic? Classic? I don’t agree with those here who said that both teams played well. I found the game often almost excruciating to watch, even without the goat-like head butt. Sloppy play by both sides and too much fouling and flopping. I supported Italy so was happy they won, but wish it had not been via a kick off. Better to say that France lost than that Italy won. The one French kick that didn’t score wasn’t even blocked by the keeper. The Italian team doesn’t have a great penalty kick record, so good for them for making all the shots.
When will we find out what was said to ZZ to make him go overboard?
Gangster Octopus, you need to get the space key on your keyboard fixed.
Twelve red cards (almost one a season) is vivid testimony to Zidane’s dark side. Watching the endless replays of the events leading up to his assault on Materazzi, the most salient aspect was that so little happened. A bit of a shirt pull, a few words exchanged (mostly at a distance); no shouting, no yelling, no gesticulation.
Still, the incident (which arguably had little or no effect on the game - both sides had already settled for penalties, and Trezeguet would have taken one anyway) was almost worth it just for the reaction of two French eminences grises: coach Domenech, who range of gestures was superb, and President Chirac, who, in true Arsene Wenger fashion, said he hadn’t seen it.
Partly because he’s a very good player, partly because he’s humble and down to earth, partly because he’s lasted a long time, and partly because of the tendency to sentimentalise minorities and portray them as healers in a country like France with so many ingrained racialist attitudes. Being half Algerian and half Tunisian and the son of poor immigrant workers, he has been a mediaperson’s gift in the age of the soundbite and the image.
Very true, but I don’t view Mexico as a weak source of refs; they’ve got a decent enough league. I am somewhat perplexed by the English FA’s decision to send Poll; he’s not even the best ref in the Premiership. And that said, while Poll’s gaffe was ludicrous, I don’t think he was actually out of control of the match. Sure, he made a massive cockup, but I think it marred a decent enough performance rather than just typifying his level.
I think the general problem was caused by FIFA’s apparent desire to book everyone at least once; the less well-established referees perhaps felt under more pressure to toe the line. Certainly once you got the world class referees picked for the later group stages, things got immeasurably better (unlike the quality of football :)).
