Land of Oz

World Cup

I'm not a soccer/football fanatic, but I do enjoy watching games. I even spent several years as the web master for a local (and very good) USL PDL team, the then Mid-Michigan Bucks. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of soccer on network TV - come to think of it, not a lot of sports at all. Occasionally ABC will have a game, and they did have a few World Cup games that I managed to watch. I also happened to be able to watch the final game between Italy and France.

Have spent a year in Italy, I was rooting for them. And honestly, until that game, I'd never heard of Zidane before. From what most say, he's a legendary player in soccer, one of the best. Unfortunately all I saw of him was yet another professional sports player throwing away his team's success for his own personal revenge. From what I understand, Materazzi isn't exactly what you would call a good sport either, but he seems to have quite a talented mouth. Supposedly he called Zindane's mother or sister something or another - the phrase "your mother wears combat boots" from childhood comes to mind. And then Zidane retaliated by assaulting the Italian. (Try convincing me that a head butt by someone capable of hitting a soccer ball with it accurately and powerfully isn't assault.)

The way I see it, Materazzi didn't really win the game for Italy as much as Zidane lost it for France. Zidane lost the game for France by letting a motor mouth get the best of him. It should have been obvious to everyone that PKs would decide the game and Zidane already made one. (In fact, I think that thought is what kept France's coach from subbing Zidane after his injury) If he really wanted to take revenge for his mother being insulted wouldn't it have been so much better to win the game, then pop Materazzi in a pub someplace later? Winning the game and being a hero to your nation and your team would seem to be so much sweeter revenge than getting thrown out for a stupid move and probably losing the game.