Italy Are World Cup Champions 2006/What Was Zizou Thinking?
July 9, 2006 by admin
Filed under Past World Cups
So it took a penalty shoot out to seperate the teams and in the end I’m happy to see the Italians lift the World Cup. They’ve stuck together and shown a willingness to overcome the problems i ntheir domestic game throughout the tournament and what more fitting a finale for them than for Grosso to slide home their fifith successful penalty and for Fabio Cannavaro to lift the World Cup on his 100th appearance for his country.
Other than Italy winning, the main talking point for a long time about this World Cup Final is going to be about Zinedine Zidane. Before the game we fully expected it to be all about Zizou trying to coax his ageing teammates in one last tilt for glory but instead we are left with the terrible feeling of seeing this great player’s last ever game ended by a senseless sending off in the World Cup Final for headbutting Marco Materazzi.
There can be no excuses for headbutting and to do it so blatantly in the biggest game in world football was sheer madness. I’m still in shock and it may take a few more bottles of the Corona Extra I’ve been partaking of while watching the Final to make it sink in. Why Zizou, why? You have been one of my heroes for so long and to tarnish your reputation like that just doesn’t make sense. Maybe the full story will come out in due time but for now we can only shake our heads in sorrow for the end of Zidane’s career and celebrate the Italian victory.
I’ve a funny feeling there won’t be much sleep all over Italy tonight and give it nine months and we may have a whole rush of new Italian babies as those exuberant Latins really celebrate in style!
Forza Italia indeed!
they replayed the incident on german tv and beckenbauer and the other guys were trying to assess what happened. zidane and materrazi were having an argument. after which, zidane (who understands italian, btw)walked ahead but then materazzi said something again which led zidane to lose his temper: stop, turn around and head butt materazzi.
there is no excuse to what zidane did but i sure would like to know what materazzi said to him.
Melissa,
You beat me too it. Without excusing Zidane, what did Materazzi say? There are only two people in the world who know, and one will never tell.
Zidane was playing with an injured shoulder to the point that he left the field in pain, asked to be changed, but went back on. Materazzi tugged on his torso and through extreme agony and emmotion he lost it on the guy.
italy don’t deserve the trophy at all. france played better in all ramifications. zidane sending off was a sad moment for everyone. for a player of his caliber it was an inglorious end to a glorious career.