World Cup Final question

[moo]

I think I can ask this question here but I'm not sure. So if it shouldn't be here, sorry and please move.

I didn't get to see the Final but I know that Italy won (yay!) and Zidane got a red card. What I want to know is what did Zidane do to get one?

[SRKFanatic]

He basically hit someone on the Italian team. Just turned around and drove his head into the guys chest. I wonder what he said.

[Amz]

Yeah it was a totally unexpected headbutt and the refs didn't even see it.

I seriously can't believe Zidane did that. He must feel like total crap right now.

[**Sam**]

You can read about the incident here.

The sheer force with which Zidane hit Materazzi was unbelievable, but I don't understand why people were so "shocked" that Zidane would do such a thing. I was personally surprised that he did in what is purportedly his last game, in an international arena, in a World Cup final, where his team had a very good chance of beating the Italians, and where, I believe, he ultimately made the difference (had he not been ejected, he would almost certainly take the penalty shot No. 20 missed). France may have still lost, but he almost guaranteed it because their spirits broke when he got ejected.

But I wasn't surprised in that he has done that in the past. Specifically, he butt-headed someone in a Humburg game (I can't remember who it was now) and got a 5-game suspension and stumped on a Saudi Arabian player in the '98 World Cup and was relegated to "cleaning duty" during camp for punching someone in the mouth, etc. It is well-known that he has a temper, but in recent years he had managed to control it a bit more, though apparently not all the way.

I don't care what Materazzi said (I'm sure it was horrible), but when you are Zidane, you can't react like that. I love that Spiderman quote: "With great power, comes great responsibility." When you are Zidane, you don't get to be a regular thug, especially when people have criticized your "ghetto" upbringing (I find that characterization offensive and it isn't mine) in the past and you should be above all that.

[everhard]

sorry sam, but i don't agree...
Zidane is a man like the other... He is not an idol, he is not superman... And we don't know if france could have won the game with zidane : france team is not zidane, it's with zidane... We have great players in our team ( thuram, viera, ribery... ) and you know, it's always the luckiest that won when you end a game with "tir aux buts ". Trezeguet didn't make it but who knows if zidane would have done it...
And remember it's only a game...
here, we are proud of all the team. We thanks them for putting stars in our eyes. Only stupid newspapers and tv are trying to make this zidane head more important than the drama in india... 20 minutes on tv about football and only 2 minutes about india...
That's really disgusting...

[moo]

Thanks you guys. And I saw the replay of it, finally, on the news. I was really expecting something bigger but you know publicity. From the article Sam referred to: "Materazzi said: "I held his shirt, for only a few seconds. He turned towards me and scoffed at me, looking at me with super arrogance, up and down.
"He said 'if you really want my shirt, you can have it later'. It's true, I shot back with an insult." " If what Zidane said was true, I can sort of understand why Materazzi would insult him back. I just don't see why he would insult him so badly to turn him into a ram.

everhard said:

sorry sam, but i don't agree...
Zidane is a man like the other... He is not an idol, he is not superman... And we don't know if france could have won the game with zidane : france team is not zidane, it's with zidane... We have great players in our team ( thuram, viera, ribery... ) and you know, it's always the luckiest that won when you end a game with "tir aux buts ". Trezeguet didn't make it but who knows if zidane would have done it...
And remember it's only a game...
here, we are proud of all the team. We thanks them for putting stars in our eyes. Only stupid newspapers and tv are trying to make this zidane head more important than the drama in india... 20 minutes on tv about football and only 2 minutes about india...That's really disgusting...

I agree. That is pretty sad.

[veracious]

"If you want my shirt, you can have it after the game" to me isn't an insult, it's not even mean, it's a healthily jokey quip at someone who committed a minor foul (shirt-holding is against the rules, after all). Materazzi shot back with an insult because it's a defender tactic, to get underneath someone's skin to mess with their game and possibly make them do something stupid - which is what Zidane did, a stupid foul, and got sent off (correctly so, I have to emphasize - a foul is a foul, there are no buts no matter what the provocation).

Materazzi may have not wanted a headbutt in the chest but getting Zidane off the field can't have helped France in any way so all in all, not too bad a resolution, to him anyway.

I don't like violence on the field, even less than I like verbal violence, trashtalking, but trashtalking is easier to accept because it really has become a part of the sport by now. Zidane boiled over though he shouldn't have but he's just a man and I can understand it. I don't accept the violence but I can understand why he did it and I certainly won't have any of that "He's done this a hundred times, the man is a ticking time bomb..." (A hundred times? Please list them to me. Time bomb? A time bomb gone off, I'd say) and I don't think this ruins his career as a sportsman. It's a shameful end, no doubt, but he's still Zinedine Zidane, one of the best players the world has seen and that fact won't change.