Viva Italia!

[Penn]

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/worldcup

David Trezeguet hit the crossbar with France's second spot kick to give Italy its fourth World Cup title, and Fabio Grosso made the deciding kick.



In a bizarre sidenote:

Zinedine Zidane, playing his farewell game at 34, was sent off for savagely headbutting Materazzi in the chest in an off-the-ball incident 10 minutes from the penalty shootout. Despite playing with a man more Italy could not make the difference.

 

[Penn]

Just saw this news item:

http://in.sports.yahoo.com/060709/137/65qud.html

Chirac hails Zidane despite red card shame

"I don't know what happened, why he was punished. But I would like to express all the respect that I have for a man who represents at the same time all the most beautiful values of sport, the greatest human qualities one can imagine, and who has honoured French sport and, simply, France."


OMG!!

 

[Ken King]

I was watching the game when Zidane and Materazzi were pushing for position and then barking at each other and as Zidane was walking away he all of a sudden spun around and went back and did the head-butt. To me it seems that Materazzi must have said something rather offensive. Zidane must have one powerful head and it was one hell of a shot to knock a guy off his feet like that when hitting him in the chest.

 

[rack'm]

So you can relive the headbutt over and over...

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/bloodylamer/bastardly-photos/0505/album26/zidane.gif" alt="">

Thanks Barbie..


Yes it took the guy off his feet, but I'd wager that it was an act to get the dude taken out to increase their odds of winning.

 

[Larry Gude]

In surfing...

I was watching the game when Zidane and Materazzi were pushing for position and then barking at each other and as Zidane was walking away he all of a sudden spun around and went back and did the head-butt. To me it seems that Materazzi must have said something rather offensive. Zidane must have one powerful head and it was one hell of a shot to knock a guy off his feet like that when hitting him in the chest.

...some world cup forums, it seems that Materazzi called him an 'Algerian ######' or 'Monkey' which, it seems, has the same impact as '######' does to us.

Also, we find that Zidane has had numerous on field, err, on pitch incidents over the years; he's lost his cool before. And our pal Materazzi is a noted trash talker. It also seems the two are somewhat pals in real life.

It is also noted that trash talking is common place in soccer though crossing the line is frowned upon in world cup play.

In any event, Zidane hurt his team by losing his cool.

 

[Penn]

Ah, it looks like Materazzi made some comment about Zidane's wife.....

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=373706&cc=5901

.....and that's what made him angry enough to headbutt the Italian soccer player.


"Materazzi, 32, told Gazetta dello Sport: 'I held his shirt for a few seconds only, then he turned to me and talked to me, jeering.


'He looked at me with a huge arrogance and said, `If you really want my shirt I'll give it to you afterwards'. I replied with an insult, that's true.'


Materazzi has not elaborated on what he did say, but one report suggested he responded with: `I'd rather take the shirt off your wife'."