FIFA May Take Back Zidane’s Ball

Zidane is the best player in the cup. Leave him alone. But Blatter should take away Materazzi’s medal, for instigation. Zidane toujours!

Thats stupid Nate!
Why should one player lose their prize for words and another keep theirs even though they committed an act of violence?
That makes no sense, think before you speak

What a bunch of whiners! Is this the French Whine they are famous for? Zidane is an idiot…he was pissed because he couldn’t score against Buffon (the only way he scored is via the unmerited penalty kick….Italy should have won 1-0). I’m sure Zidane is an innocent little lamb, never trashed talked, never got a yellow card, never got a red card before, never stomped on anyone? What a farce! (another French word). The Azzuri deserved every bit of the win….the French are very poor losers!

Zidane and ronaldino

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5OpaklUYyo&search=zidane

love you zidane, you are still better!

let materazzi have the medal, but he can never have a legacy of zidane. NEVER NEVER NEVER!

This just shows why FIFA has so little respect, rather than making up good rules to ensure that situations like Zidane getting the golden ball don’t arise, they say ‘oh we don’t like that situation, we’re going to set a bullshit inquiry to overturn it’.

There is little doubt that someone who has acted as violently as Zidane shouldn’t get the award for the outstanding player of the tournament no matter how good he was, no professional sport would sanction such a move. But FIFA’s response is a joke, they should have ruled him out BEFORE giving him the award, not wait for public reaction and decide to act after!

Be Zidane!

http://www.isnichwahr.de/redirect12982.html

Try it, it’s fun

A bunch of divers, and 70M people around the world that exult in this win, you will never get any credit for this “win” from the other 99%. The enduring pictures from this world cup are a bleeding McBride and a disallowed goal from the US game, a 95th minute dive PK against Australia, clown Totti in an otherwise excellent semis, and of course the taunting Mothrfckerazzi deservedly drawing Zidane’s headbutt. The asterisk against your statistic of a win will forever be associated with an underhandedly-denied Zidane. And if you think you’re going to see a tourist bounce because of this, keep looking….And UEFA competitions are not going to miss your cheating Serie A clubs. FORZA ITALMERDA.

And moron Blatter: STFU.

Hey, SFTU Blatter….you’re the biggest whiner of them all!

STFU Blatter, go to Hell with your low QI.

poor blatter,im sure team usa would have made it far if it wasnt for that italian draw.please stop crying on your american flag.You guys cant play soccer for crap.So return to your 25 cent supermarket soccer parks.While italy returns to a glorious march.

This so funny Super MARIO zidane..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnXhplwD1m0&search=zidane

Hey guys! I dont think Zidane would object Golden Ball taken away from him. He already said that he did not deserve it.
Let Materazzi have it! Let these Italian jokers choke with WC, and Golden Ball too.
LEt them make happy, they are miserable anyway in the eyes of anyone who at least has some idea about footbal.

Bravo Italy! Your win was “WELL DESERVED” YOu desrve every single medal of this WC! YOU ARE “THE BEST”!

If I was Zidane, I would suggest to give Golden Ball to Materazzi… Bravo FIFA, Blatter, Argentinian referee, and 70M miserable people who will forgive anything to thug, if the thug is their own…
VIVA ITALIA!

wats new
another american whos broken hearted that his team didnt win.Let me pass you a kleenex

Zidane, you are my hero!!

Goazzuri, what is a QI? Is that what Mattrazzi would call an IQ?

jericho – no, i am broken hearted that footbal lost. Everytime Italy wins WC, footbal is dead. Italian team plays antifootbal, defensive footbal, plus if you add to this mixt, all dives, provocations and other dirty stuff that Italians are well know for, you get an idea.

Let Materazzi have Golden Ball! VIVA ITALIA! ITALIA CHAMPIONS – BUT FOOTBAL IS DEAD!

footbal-fan
the italians have always had one of the best defense teams ever.From the beginning,they were always know for defense.Weather it be with zenga,zoff or buffon.As for dives.You cant point only the finger at the italians,pretty much all teams have played dirty at some point during this world cup

DEFENSE…..is critical to win games. If you don’t have a defense, your offense has nothing, since you will be outscored and LOSE. Italy and many other teams play to win, and creative, agressive defense is the key. Italy had the edge in this world cup match, which deserve the cup! If it wasn’t for the early penalty kick, the final would have been Italy 1, France 0. End of Story!

one act of violence has nothing to do with the golden ball

he head butted him big deal

he deserves the ball for leading france to the final

baltter is out of line

jericho – yes they had great defense, and they have the dirtiest players also. Do you remember what they did with henry on 3rd minute? That was warning, like Mafia used to do. Same with Vierra. And Zidane was playing with his right hand frozen. I guess you could take only so much from dirt bags.

Italy really deserved WC, footbal is dead. YOu are killers of beatifull game.
Go and choke with the cup, and be happy

The italians are really shameful and shamless to think they win the WC but actually they are dirty players. yucks

Nice headbutt should have aim the mouth!

Really, footbal-fan, you have completely lost the plot – “dirtiest players…Mafia…dirt bags…killers”. You complete objectivity is a marvel, and your generalisation is something you must never lose in your life. Keep it safe in your small mind.

I’ve got to say..I don’t think anything happened to Henry in the 3rd minute. The replay looked like he threw his head back without it being contacted. He seems to do this alot. It just looked like a ploy to get the referees affection early. I’d say it worked. We saw a penalty kick awarded for a dive within minutes

Oh do grow up, Blatter. What a petulant, petty and absolutely ridiculous thing to do. Boo-hoo, you don’t like what Zidane did in the last match so now you’re goin to take back the ball, even though it’s not FIFA who decides. I think this ridiculous, power hungry child just wanted the award to go to someone else and is using this as an excuse to bend the rules to his liking.
What a disgusting human being. He makes me gag.

Without his head being contacted is what I meant to say. Therefore his head never got hit but he acted dazed and confused.

Try and look at it from another angle, Tati. Cannavaro was just behind Zidane in the votes for the Golden Ball. And the votes were declared BEFORE the final. So imagine Cannavaro was given the nod by the media representatives, and during the final it was Cannavaro who head-butted Zidane. Everyone would be saying Cannavaro did not deserve the Golden Ball and it should be taken away from him – because – because – he is Italian, and Italians are not the flavour of the World Cup. It’s simple bias.

@ roger
Totally agree.
So many bloggers talking about how Materazzi is a racist blah blah, but their comments seem to be based on racism.

Ryan — Yeah, Henry faked it, and it took some 2-3 minutes to get him back to game, right?

If you dont want to see dirty tactics employed by Italians, just admit it, why argue…

Also imagine for a second (I know it is hard to do but..) that Zidane did to Materazzi, what Materazzi did to Zidane (i.e. twisting nipples, calling him, his mother and sister whores).

Now what do you think Materazzi would do? I am sure, he would say nothing, but at convenient moment, he would have kicked Zidane’s leg, or something else in a way that Zidane would regret it, and referee would never saw it).

That’s is the difference between real man, and Italian dirt bag. That’s why I have even more respect for Zidane than before. You dont go cowardly and sneaking like Italian, you respond to it like a man.

That’s so dumb.

He’s already been given the award.

If you had reservations and doubts, you should’ve said something BEFORE giving him the Golden Ball.

Get serious footbal-fan, anyone can fake anything, some unconvincingly like Thierry Henry, others convincingly like Meg Ryan faked it in “When Harry met Sally”, and it took her more than 2-3 mins.

football-fan, you’re the first coward staying at home and spitting on Italians. Racist idiot!!!

are you sure the votes were declared before the final? my understanding was that they were submitted just after the final.

i believe the final votes were cast around halftime, or during the second half. certainly before the headbutt and its aftermath.

They had to substitue Henry because of constant kicks from Italians, they had to substitue Vierra because the same tactics worked. You know well what happened with Zidane.

Now, remember 1982? Remember Gentile, Cabrini? Remember their hunt for Maradona and Argentinians, or for Zico, Socrates, and Falcao??? Well at least they beat Germany, and Poland clean, but so did Italy of 2006, they beat Germany and Ukraine clean.. So, they dont use dirty tactics in every match, only when they need it, only when they see superiour team, and they understand that normally they would lose.

Same is true, magnified by 100% in Italian league, read any book writtent by footballer describing Italian league! It is HELL. But I guess you should be into footbal to really know this stuff. Most of people posting here have no clue as I see…

Ninly – your belief is wrong. Anyone had a chance to change their vote, because it was collected after the game. It is a different question if journalists had desire and time to do it, but in theory anyone who wanted to change their vote, if they really wanted could go and change it.

CANT DO THAT is fianl zidane won it

If they take the golden ball from Zidane, they should definitely take away the cup from Italy.

TSN :) Do you think zidane really cares about Golden Ball? He himself said he did not deserve it… Although there is not doubt he is the best player (common who else???), I think the good gesture would be if he gives Golden Ball back, and asks it to be presented to Materazzi :) Would it not be fun? :)

I would certainly like the idea to make clowns out of these Italians, who already made clown of themselves, because of what Materazzi did. One good thing that came out of all this (head butt) is that the World one more time has a chace to focus on Italian dirty tactics. Maybe because of a pressure from the outside world something will change in Italy and Italian league… But again, it will be hard to imagine, unfortunately… Just look at all postings from ITalians, and Americans of Italian descent… It is sad.

football fan u are the racist, read what u write. u should be locked up and never see light of day!

This is the official rule for the votes:

“Votes from journalists covering the World Cup for the best player award must be submitted by midnight on the day of the final”, which means the ballot box was open until after the end of the final, making it unclear how many votes were cast before or after the incident.

Hey footbal-fan. You are making yourself quite clear from your blogs that it’s YOU who are the racist here. You seem to have something with the Italians and with no other country. There are postings from many ethnicities present here, that also support the outcome of the game. I’ll tell you what, why don’t you boycott anything made, invented or associated with Italians and see how far you can go before you start jonesing or craving for it. It is really sad to view your immature comments, which are not representative or qualitative by any means…are you American?

there are a couple of options for FIFA:
* introduce new criteria for the golden ball meaning players can be ruled out for behaviour not in the spirit of the game – a maximum card/foul requirement would be the least arbitrary way to do this
* not accept any votes on player of the tournament until the end of the final – in this particular situation if they did accept significant no.s of votes prior to the final whistle then the vote should be considered invalid

of course it would be nice if they tried to make sure this never happens again, but its FIFA so they won’t.

Americans now know more football than ever, especially zidane being great (talkin bout midfielder). Then who is Figo (tat guy who received more physical abuses from the French team during their showdown)? How bout lampard, ronaldinho? These guys can whoop his ass anytime and all he could do is just stampin…he’s just so over-rated. But I dun agree wat tis dumbo blatter have to do wid zidane’s ball.

Fair-Play_Boy:

You cannot compare Figo or Lampard with Zidane :)

Maybe Ronaldino in couple of years, if he does for Brasil something comparable of what Zidane did not France :)

Zidane is level of Pele, Maradona, Croyef, Platini, and Beckenbauer.

Figo, and Beckham just did not do enough to be at the same level, and talking about Lampard being there is a joke :), Although I am England fan, I dont see anyone except Beckham being close to Zidane, Maybe Rooney, or Gerrard in couple of years, but they need to do more. For Gerrard very close if he does what he did for Liverpool, for ENgland

Sepp Blatter should have listened to the lyrics to the song in those Adidas ads.

footballfan,do you have a problem with italians? you talk about italian footballers being so dirty, but go back and take alook at fuls commited by italy and france to see who is the dirty team then go back to each world cup and compare again and give your head a bang againt a concrete wall,then maybe you racism against italians will disappear,because you wiil truly see who is dirty divers

Materazzi IS a racist, people aren’t just claiming he is because they hate Italians (well, some might be, but that’s immature and another issue entirely). He has a history of racism and foul play. Zidane was more classy during that headbutt than Materazzi has ever been in his whole career. I have absolutely nothing against Italians and am taken aback by all the racism directed towards them, but I do not like the way they play football. Their football has no dignity. Zidane showed a lack of grace in the final moment of his career, but that does not begin to compare to the antics of the Italian team/leagues. Italy is a very, very good team with the best defense in the world, but they too often resort to cheap tactics to win. I don’t understand why they do so when they are clearly good enough to win without those things. Anyways, the point is that Materazzi is a dirty player, no matter what you think of Zidane’s headbutt.

If Zidane gets his Golden Ball taken away, FIFA will have hell to pay.

Did anyone else find it extremely suspect that neither Zidane nor Materazzi would tell the press exactly what was said? Why do you think this is?

To footbal-fan
You surely posted a lot out there, but I couldn’t agree with you more. You are absolutely right. Why do some people like to say sth to Zizou’s behavior, which we can actually see, why not use their little minds to really investigate what Materazzi said. It was Materazzi who started it and provoked this incident. If this is not solved, may be in the next WC, some teams will imitate Italian’s tactics: use one of the players insults their opponent’s influential players, and try to make him react and sent him off.

The anti Italian (racist) comments on this site are amazing. And in the same blog you idiots call italians racist. Have a good look at yourselves!!
What Materazi said is pure speculation at this point. ZZ violent and cowardly attack is pure fact.Add this to comments made by a french player how he wanted to “smash italian heads in”, and the shameless dive that earned france a penalty and you realise the idocicy of some peoples comments. Regardless of materazi comments, Italy played the tournament with great control and fair play..Small minded people make small minded ignorant comments..

Nola,

That’s because 1 fella knows he’s dumb for having said anything.

The other knows he’s equally dumb for reacting to what was said.

To whoever is running this post: you have just deleted two fair comments I have made. You should be sacked.

Everyone watch how this comment and the above will disappear, just as my other comments have disappeared. Can’t be critical of this host.

TAKE IT BACK!!!
give it to the runner up Cannavarro. Zidane was unable to score off cannavarro, what does that tell you. One of the themes of this cup was” fair play”, how can you give the golden ball to aplayer that was suspended two times in the same tournament. Once for three yellow cards and second for a vicious assault on an unexpected player.

Zidane has done a great disservice to the Beautigul Game. He has disgraced his team,sons,children,fans,and France. He is not bigger than the game. Justice was done-France lost. Take the award from him-I say. He is an idiot and after his half apology remains a super idiot. He needs his brain examined by a medical doctor-he went mad,bonkers,loco.

Dino
Have you visited the France blog? Majority of the comments are from Italians bad-mouthing France after they just won the WORLD CUP. As for your pure suspicion of Zizou…well look at it this way. I think that the REAL racists are Materazzi AND FIFA itself. Can you tell me why Figo’s head-butt was not dealt with seriously? What about that blow to Bastian Schweinsteiger’s head that almost left him unconscious (performed by a really wise Argentinian player). How about Gattuso’s claw attack on Ballack? If you taped the Italy-Germany match, you’ll see that in the last few minutes of the second half, Ballack and Gattuso fall and Ballack apologises and hugs the italian just before Gattuso claws at Ballack’s neck when the referree turns his back. Do you honestly think that Zidane would act like that without clear provocation that obviously triggered his nerves in the worst way. WHy else would zidane apologise for the head-butt but “not regret it because that would mean that what materazzi said was right”. Materazzi is in denial and is obviously distressed at how things are turning for him. I think that Italians are really cool (I really love that hot Luca Toni and Gianluigi Buffon!!!) But I deeply despise Materazzi and his racist comments. Zidane’s reaction to that was of one defying racism in a desperate and impulsive way. Zizou is a football legend. DO you honestly think that he would do such a thing for no apparent reason while so close at winning the CUP?. He is amazing and everyone is proud of him, for his superb performance in FIFA and for standing up for what was right. Here in Canada, giant pictures of his are on all the bus stops surrounded by small pictures of other great WC players like ronaldo, podolski, klose, messi, etc. VIVE Zizou et les BLEUS!!!And congragulations to Italy. They are also a talented team.

In all honesty, why would Cannavaro even want the Golden Ball now? FIFA has once again messed things up. They should stick to whatever criteria was initially set up for the golden ball winner, if necessary, put new criteria in place for South Africa. Leave the award with Zidane. After all, didn’t Maradona win the Golden Ball in ‘86 despite the ‘Hand of God’ incident?

Hey Jericho; Did Canada make it to the world cup?

some should learn respect for their betters

Syrup slurping mountee

the problem for FIFA is that one of their members came out and admitted that Ronaldo didn’t get the young player award for his ‘antics’, so to be in any way consistent they shouldn’t have given the award to Zidane, so they are screwed either way.

FIFA should not take back Zidane’s ball. If they do so, they also should take back Italy’s trophy.
What Zidane did to Materazzi was bad of course, but what Materazzi did was much worse. He should have given red card, too. Think about influence on children. If Materazzi’s “verbal violence” is admitted, some children might think it is all right to insult other people and have them get out of the game for that. It is not fair that only the one who acted against “verbal violence” is punished and the one who said those bad words win the game.
We do not want children to think that this is the case.
Some children are hurt so much by, for example, class mates’ verbal abuse. Some even think about suicide because of that. It is a big problem. It should be strongly expressed that “verbal violence” is also bad, or even worse.
Zidane said Materazzi insulted his mother and sister. If my son gets mad at someone for me, I should be proud of him.

Dino,
Of all people you should be the most bitter towards the Italians after they robbed your squad of their match with an opera act in the box. I have earned so much respect for that team and lost so much for the Italian side.

i’m totally agree with Allez Zidane. Zidane will not be angry if there’s no something that can hurt his heart like insulting his family and mocking his status as a moslem. No moslems in the world will not be angry if someone insults him/her like he does to zidane.
Zidane has done a very beautiful game. i think materazzi didn’t understand what the motto of this game is. he didn’t understand what ‘Say no to racism’ means.
He is a racist!!!

football-fan:

Just bcoz zizou looks like your ordinary fictional “Star Trek” character doesn’t mean tat he’s all great. Theres still alot good midfielders around (not forgettin Ballack too).

Zidane diserved and got the Golden Ball. if FIFA back tracking for any reason, it might as well give it to Canavaro, he is another favorite person i wanted to recieve something. But Zidane needs to keep the ball for conributing to the world of football like the great players before him had done.

I’m sorry, but I can’t see Cannavaro accepting the award from FIFA if Zidane is stripped. It would be like taking a hand-me-down. You either win it outright, or you don’t win it at all.

Zidane won it outright.

FIFA is beginning to look like that spoiled kid we all know from growing up (those who played football) that takes up his football and goes home when he’s not winning.

Zidane earned the Golden Ball — he was far more valuable to France’s run to the final than Cannavaro was for Italy’s. Hopefully someone at FIFA will realize Blatter’s foolish statements are nothing more than to get his name in the press. (Having said that there should have been some award for the best defender so Cannavaro could be recognized.) And Zidane’s headbutt should not be overblown — while true it was simply wrong, it probably was the only time in the Cup that Materrazi hit the pitch without acting or whining, and the headbutt was not as severe as the elbow from another of Italy’s defenders which broke the nose of the U.S.’ Brian McBride which left him him bloody.

P.S. to football fan — you need to grow up or get help.

FIFA should have no right to take back Zidane’s Golden Ball award and the reasons are:

1. It is the individual media representatives who voted, not FIFA.
2. To override the media’s decision is basicall passing a no-confidence motion in the media, to which FIFA has given the authority to choose the winner – this is illogical.
3. If the Zidane’s Golden Ball is taken back by FIFA, then the media will rightly conclude that this will set a precedence and the media’s selection can always be overturned at FIFA’s discretion – so why allow the media to choose the Golden Ball?
4. The selection process should be improved and the votes must only be cast after the final.
5. Football supporters must also realise that the Golden Ball is a vote from the media, and if the winner is perceived as one not worthy of the trophy then the media is responsible.

Personally I do not think Zidane deserved the award, but my opinion is only that and not worth once cent.

Just take the stupid ball. Zidane doesn’t need any balls to become a legend.

‘the golden shin’ for the best defender!

Hey footbal-fan–
I’d say the point of this is to discuss the Zidane/Golden Ball issue, not to bash the other teams and players. Looks to me like you’re just bitter because your team didn’t win. You have every right to be disappointed-but NO right to insult other people because of it. (On that note, Materrazzi shouldn’t have insulted Zidane, but Zidane most definately should not have reacted the way he did.) I just wanted to remind you that everyone is entitled to his or her opinion, as you are to yours, and NO ONE should be insulted because of it.

Wait a minute! do you mean to tell me that a player used swear words on the pitch? OMG!!what is this world coming to…Good for you Zizue..fight the fight against potty mouth in soccer.

Are we actually condoning this??

Trash talk is trash talk and nothing is sacred…and guess what, mothers and sisters are first on the list….Never should this happen again! Zidane has some deep rooted issues…what he did was freakish, to say the least.

An example needs to be made quick…take the ball away now and put him in jail…the kids are watching.

Does anyone but Materrazzi know what was said ??? How can any of you comment !!!!

I have a sneaky feeling that if the roles were reversed, and Materazzi had head-butted Zidane after a Zidane insult, nobody would be willing to justify Materazzi’s behaviour, no matter what Zidane said.

But because Zidane is a soccer ‘god’ he gets the breaks…

What ever happened to Sticks & Stones ?
BOTTOM LINE
Italy 1
France 0
SEE YOU IN 4 YEARS

Summed it up well, Mary. Italy are the champions. France lost. Zidance was red-carded. Materazzi verbally abused him. FIFA is responsible for the mess-up in the voting system for the Golden Ball, and hasn’t got a clue how to prevent players from “diving” and feigning injury. FIFA hasn’t got a clue how to regulate a form of consistency with the rulings by its referees, eg. in one game a goal is considered offside because an uninvolved player is in an offside position, and in another game an exact situation the goal is allowed. We can all go on and on and on until the next World Cup Final, but each Final brings the same controversies, and it will go on ad infinitum.

FIFA is making a big mistake.

To defend the honor of women, especially that of your mother and sister, is a noble act. In today’s world, where women are used as object of satisfaction, there is one man who stood up defend the honor of the “defenseless women”.

Quite true Patrick…but all players for 2010 be warned… South Africa’s NOT THE PLACE TO BE DROPPING RACIAL SLURS!!!

Sorry Kruman, I believe in equal opportunity insults! lol….just kidding!

If Zidane don’t deserve it, then i don’t think the Italy deseve the world cup. If FIFA really wants to take the Golden Ball back, then take the Cup too.

Italy deserved this cup, but have this feeling that we won’t be able to hold on to it for longer. France, Argentina, Brasil, the USA and even(heaven forbid) Australia are all hungry for revenge. Australia is fast becoming a worry,after this world cup.

Guys, I have a strong feeling that this is not an isolated or a random act of provocation.

Zidane almost scored before halftime of overtime. Italians looked ashen and alarmed after that.

According to a friend of mine Italy is the only team in the world with a psycho analyst in staff. During halftime an ugly conspriacy is hatched i.e. provoke Zidane.

This is what FIFA needs to investigate. If this is true Italy should be stripped of the title.

jflo, without commenting on Zidane or Materazzi this whle episode is real ugly.

This just shows you why good moral upbringing (no obscenities and sledging) and self-rastraint (no head-buts) are so important for a peaceful world.

I am just waiting for feminists to get involved. I can already see this episode getting used for Italain and Algerain bashing and stereotyping. So ironic.

Materazzi is a classic bully, no doubt. But Zidane is an idiot for doing that with precious little time left in the game. Win it and have your poetic justic afterwards. Send him to anger counseling with Wayne Rooney.

In Zidane’s own words the turning point of the World Cup for France was winning their group match against Togo.

This was a game that Zidane missed as by the time of France’s third match he had already received two yellow cards and been suspended from the tournament. Zidane did nothing in the first couple of games. Domenech substituted Zidane in the game against Korea and said not a word to his star player when Zidane came off the field.

All this seems to be forgotten by journalists, coaches and even the French nation. Zidane’s red card is slowly becoming seen as an injustice to the game. French logic is that Zidane’s head butt was not seen by the referee and should therefore not be punished.

The French are willing to forgive Zidane as he was provoked and taunted by Materazzi the bully boy. Trash-talk is a huge part of sport; we see it in the Premiership, in test cricket and consistently bounced round in the NBA. Despite the prevalence of trash talk in professional sport we rarely see head butting.

Again Zidane’s logic is the incident would not have happened had he not been provoked by Materazzi. However from all accounts it seems the verbal exchange was started by Zidane frustrated after being manhandled (and generally boxed out of the game) by Materazzi.
Zidane the son of immigrant parents raised in Marseille, a port city with a hard edge. Zidane raised in a country, where Jean-Marie LePen a high-polling politician publically criticised the number of black players in the French national team. Zidane who has played four seasons in Italy with Juventus and five seasons for Real Madrid in Spain. Zidane chooses the World Cup final to finally respond to a comment that may have been made about his race, mother, sister, father, possible link to terrorism, hairstyle?

There is no doubt Materazzi is a tough customer. Defenders are the notorious hard men of the game. Look no further than France’s own William Gallas’ comments of wanting retribution against Materazzi and of wanting to smash his face.

This is a sad reflection on Zidane, the French team and of France. It seems provocation justifies all. You can see how and why last year’s riots in France happened. We have been provoked we will therefore resort to violence and that is ok.

In a poll of the French public published in Le Parisien newspaper on Tuesday, 61 percent said they forgave Zidane. Does that mean that 61% of the French public forgive the rioters? Do 61% of the French public who were looted or had property damaged forgive the rioters? Do 61% of the French police who were injured or harmed forgive the rioters?

After all were the rioters not provoked? Zidane, seemingly France’s new Jean Valjean, says “I was the one who was provoked and I reacted. It is always the one who reacts who is punished, never the one who provokes and this is not fair.” Is it time for France to rethink its justice system?

Zidane converted two penalties. The first against Portugal, following a foul against Henry; the second against France, following a foul against Malouda. It is universally agreed that both penalties were questionable. It seems both Henry and Malouda were tripped by the same invisible force that seemed to arise when French strikers entered the goal box of different German grounds.

Maybe physicists should compare the force that it took for Henry and Malouda to go to ground with the voracity of Zidane’s head butt against Materazzi’s chest?

Italy’s victory in the World Cup has been scarred. What would we be saying if Zidane had of been allowed to stay on the field?

Can we say Zidane was the tournament’s best player despite his being red carded in a World Cup final? Leaving his team to play with ten men in sport’s most watched events? Not being able to control his composure because of what an opponent said? Is this “star” behaviour for someone playing in front of millions of children; many of whom see Zidane as a role model?

Zidane did not consistently play well throughout this World Cup. His two yellow cards in the first two games suggest he was troubled from the start of the tournament.

It was clear that his relationship with Domenech was preventing him from playing his own style of football. By the end of the tournament it became apparent that the French team (lead by Zidane) were largely ignoring Domenech and his antics of kicking bottles on the sideline.

Was Zidane really the tournament’s best player? The real victim was Fabio Cannavaro. The Italian captain, Italy’s Bobby Moore, who played 690 minutes of football and accumulated no yellow or red cards.

Cannavaro lead a defence that conceded only two goals throughout the whole tournament: an own goal and a penalty. Why is Italy being criticised for being defensive they after all scored 12 goals, France scored 9 (two of which were penalties). Only Germany scored more goals than Italy in the whole tournament (with 13). More telling Italy had 48 strikes on goal while France had 35.

Cannavaro made defence an art form. Goals weren’t scored in this tournament because the quality of defence was high. Don’t forget defending is also part of the beautiful game. Not everyone who plays football is an attacker. Strikers struggled to convert opportunities. Cannavaro openly concedes they were tough on France. Zidane was a frustrated man.

Is it time for football to honour players who play competitively, fairly and who are genuine role models. Cannavaro sums it up best himself “Whatever Marco (Materazzi) said, it cannot have deserved a reaction like that. It was totally unacceptable.”

Zidane’s Golden Ball award is unacceptable.

hey football fans,

Ok if everybody thinks Zidane deserved the golden ball, but we are talking about the golden winner should be a fair player. And showing another player how to be, how to behave in the game what did the other players learned from the ZIDANE. should they do the samething or this act should be stoped. i think FIFA, has a right to take the golden ball back from him. And there shouldnt be any failure like this in the football field. CONGRATULATIONS TO ZIDANE BUT SORRY. We got to be a better to win the golden ball.

Strip the ball? I’m not praising his actions, but Materazzi is no saint and has a worse record. Zidane said it right, the one who provoked should be punished as well. And of course he embellished because he seemed fit to play after Zidane left the pitch.

The World Cup is about unity and against racism. To persecute Zidane, but not Materazzi is unacceptable. That makes verbal insults appropriate in sports as much as violence.
Wounds can heal, but words scar deeper.

The ugliest thing about the final game of the world cup was the fact that the Italians won. I think no less of Zidane after the ‘attack’ if anything, I respect him more. He apologized, but still stands behind what he did. Materazzi obviously said something that shouldn’t have been said and for that I think he is the one who should be getting criticized. He is the bully, the provoker. He started it all.
If they do take back Zidane’s ball, they’ll be setting a horrible example.

And as for Wayne Rooney… There is no possible way to tell that Rooney did that stomp on purpose! HELLO! He was being shoved and knocked around by two defenders trying to get the ball from him. He didn’t have control of his own footing! No one can possibly say he did that intentionally! I don’t care what kind of history he has, that wasn’t intentional. If anything blame the ref for letting fouling trio go on for as long as they did. There were enough fouls in those seconds, pick one and call it, but instead they were let go until someone got hurt. There should be no suspension for Rooney.

“All the same, the FIFA executive committee has the responsibility of intervening when it is a matter of conduct which goes against the ethics of the sport. ”

So why have the responsibility if it does not plan on fulfilling it ? Voted by media or not , if it is FIFA’s role to intervene then it definitely should. Zidane’s action should not be overlooked because he is a “legend” .

As far as Materazzi’s alleged slurs goes ,where does one draw the line ? The only option is to outright ban any and all verbal taunts. No one can tell which words will/can provoke a given player in a given situation and ban those alone .

But that might just be counterproductive. In tight high pressure situations when tempers go very high, to put a cork on every kind of emotion/verbal action might just end up increasing the players frustrations and pushing them further .

joemaica: question? if zidane was not a great soccer player in france, what do u think hed be doing for a living, that is, living in france? yet, the french keep tossing that race card all over the place. never heard of people living in glass houses?

Joemaica, you pretty much took the words out of my mouth and everyone elses…..Bravo! I totally agree with you and couldn’t have summed up the game(s), character of players and what is expected from defense/defenders as well. Let’s hope the majority of all soccer fans, including the French fans, understand this rationale. But then again, like the polls showed, 61% of the French forgave Zidane…Lets hope at least 61% or more of the world’s soccer fans respect Italy’s team and the Cup which they have well deserved from playing the sport smart, agressive and giving it 110%.

I think its about time they took some action. Zidane does not deserve that Golden Ball. Even though I am COMPLETELY against wat he did and am PASSIONATE bout it being taken away since he definately doesnt deserve it, I dont think it should be flat out taken away.

I suggest a revote. A new vote by the same journalists now that the final is over. How could u vote the best player of the tournament before the most important game? This should be changed in future cups and here should be the starting point. I mean come on, if you need to wait till all is done in AMERICAN IDOL before you can vote, I think the FIFA world cup deserves the same respect…:-P

This issue would have been in great importance- before the award was given out. Taking this award away would be like stripping an Olympian of his medal. Sure, Zidane did do something wrong and he’ll be the first one to admit that he did. But he was given the award by the FIFA representatives. If Blatter has an issue with anyone, it should be the international journalists that awarded Zidane the golden ball, NOT Zidane himself. He has already said he does not deserve it, and he did not ask for the award. So I suggest Blatter takes it up with the journalists instead of causing all this controversy. This could have been taken care of quietly and discretely. Too bad everyone now a days is media hungry.

On that note, I still don’t think that Zidane deserved to get the Golden Ball. He deserves an award FOR CAREER EXCELLENCE AND ACHIEVEMENT. He’s done more for the sport than most of us can ever imagine. He made a generation fall in love with soccer and that merits several trophies- but not the Golden Ball. The GB is given out for OUTSTANDING TOURNAMENT PLAY. I personally think people were surprised at Zidane, since it is no secret that lately the french star has been lacking. He practically set himself up for media coverage anyways; guiding his team through a rather easy group but having a struggle, and then miraculously getting his feet on the right legs just in time for when it really counts. His lackslustre start more then caught people’s attention when he started playing to his full capacity.

Whatever though. Personally, let him keep the damn award and put this to rest. Why taint such an amazing world cup with such controversy? We should be celebrating the soccer players, not stripping them of awards.

beautifully said joemaica!!!

Joemaica, you are a person of commonsense. When someone writes objectively its always a pleasure to read.

cheers

joemaica i salute you!

“Guys, I have a strong feeling that this is not an isolated or a random act of provocation.

Zidane almost scored before halftime of overtime. Italians looked ashen and alarmed after that.

According to a friend of mine Italy is the only team in the world with a psycho analyst in staff. During halftime an ugly conspriacy is hatched i.e. provoke Zidane.

This is what FIFA needs to investigate. If this is true Italy should be stripped of the title”

Wow… so many things wrong with this post. Ive heard from somebody else that it was all a “conspiracy by the Italian team to provoke Zidane and cause this all” Yep… I am here to tell you as a representive of the team, you are correct! MUAHAHAHAHA! It was our plan ALL ALONG! We decided at half time that we would not score again for another 45minutes. We would then wait until 20min into extra time, once again not scoring some more, and then, THEN would be the PERFECT time to provoke him! Oh yes… it was perfec… with a whole TEN minutes to spare… brilliance…

I’d say more but “Joemaica” you have said it all. So in honour of that well thought out post I shall say…: Ditto

“Strip the ball? I’m not praising his actions, but Materazzi is no saint and has a worse record.”

Really? I dont think there is much of a worse record then yellows and a red in one world cup. I also dont think there is much of a worse record than 14 career red cards. Compared to Zidane… yes… Materazzi is a saint.

I thought Id enlighten you all with an interesting tidbit of information. So Zidane never made a statement at all about anything yet. And today, 3 days later he was gonna do that. Wel anticipated, he was gonna say what was said. And then… he didnt. He said it was something bout his mother and his sister… so i see. what was said was so bad that Zidane HAD to do somethin right away about it. But actually saying what was so badthat would cause him to do such a thing and give some sort of explanation for it…naw! He’ll just let the press assume! Cuz he knows that anyting he says will be FAR LESS than the press can come up with! Shameful…

Adam, don’t forget the part of the plan where Italians decided not to score in the last ten minutes as well and bank upon on of French’s own missing in the penality.

I some what agree with Joemaica, but at the same time I’d doubt Cannavarro would take it. He deserves it, but he just won the World Cup for Christ’s Sakes. Pretty sure he’s content right now.

But what moreso I’m disturbed about is how this is going to affect the World Cup as a whole. Because I know in 4 years time, people are going to remember Zidane’s final moves and his red card. And if he get’s his award taken away, it’s going to have a HUGE impact on the days to come. How come the news lines aren’t printing pictures of the Italian’s walking off the plane as they come home? Why is a “dejected Zidane” on the front cover of my newspaper? How come I don’t have Fabio Cannavarro triumphantly holding the cup above his head on my TV screen? And HOW MANY TIMES IS THAT STUPID HEADBUTT GOING TO BE SHOWN?

This issue that is Zidane and the red card has plagued such a fine point in Italian history- only one more and your caught up with the Brasilians! It’s sort of overshadowed the fact that they just won their 4th World Cup because like I said, there’s so much media hype around one stupidly taken red card that it’s practically erased from history that Italy ever one.

All I can say is that the quicker this dies down, the better it is. And give the Italian’s their well deserved media coverage and get this bald guy off my TV screen. I still don’t understand why I need to suffer through 5 minutes of Zidane news when all the Italians got was a 30 second reel on the sports report…

“In Zidane’s own words the turning point of the World Cup for France was winning their group match against Togo.

This was a game that Zidane missed as by the time of France’s third match he had already received two yellow cards and been suspended from the tournament. Zidane did nothing in the first couple of games. Domenech substituted Zidane in the game against Korea and said not a word to his star player when Zidane came off the field.”

A couple of inaccuracies in your article. Zidane was taken out after the 2nd yellow card when the game was all but over. Coaches often do that with their star players in round 1 when they consider games over.

You’ve basically taken various incidents and tried to protray a certain picture of Zidane that is not correct.

You are totally subjective in yout article. The discerning minds will not buy your arguments.

We are all overlooking the true villain of this World Cup. FIFA! Football fans are again the victims of their poor judgment and obvious corruption. Football is at an all-time low and not because of a headbutt. It is since the heads of FIFA have allowed “the beautiful game” to lose all substance. Originally they said that they would crack down on bad referees. However, after the group stage they said that the refereeing was fine. As any fan can see, it was obviously not! I wish the World Cup still had the best Italian of them all, Pierluigi Collina, to show everyone how to referee a game flawlessly.

I agree to many things said above. Zidane is the greatest footballer of our generation! Cannavaro was the best player of this tournament!
However, in my opinion, the best team did not win. That Italian team could not even step out on the same field as Italy ‘94. The dirtiest defender in the game won something he definitely did not deserve. Go check out http://www.youtube and type in his name. Football is serving a great injustice by allowing players like Materazzi to play in any top league.
This world cup will be remembered for years about the “famous headbutt”. Rather, it should be remembered for the lack of skill compared to other cups, the horrible refereeing, and how diving and whining gets you closer to the ultimate prize.

My country went out in the first round as I expected. Poor Rooney and England (even though I am not a fan of them); poor Australia; for shame on Portugal and Italy (diving, whining, and not being respectful to fairplay); shame on the young talent (Ronaldhino, Kaka, etc.).

Lastly, I feel the headbutt was a final message to FIFA from the fans. Get your act together! They probably didn’t understand the message like usual. Instead, they are looking to shoot our messenger.
Isn’t it amazing how a country under such as huge match-fixing scandal is allowed to not only play in, but win the world cup!? The fans are the victims of this!

Kristen, I couldn’t have said it better myself. Although I am totally angry about the awrad beng given to Zidane and i think Cannavaro, Buffon or Pirlo deserved it MILES above him, its too late.

The award has been given. If it is taken away this would be remembered as the world cup that had the Zidane controversy. It already is, but lets grasp on to the last bits of glory we have. This is Italy’s 4thw rold cup. They are second in the world now! They have also FINALLY won a shootout (an event more important t us Italians than others can understand;)) Lets remember it THAT way.

“A couple of inaccuracies in your article. Zidane was taken out after the 2nd yellow card when the game was all but over. Coaches often do that with their star players in round 1 when they consider games over.

You’ve basically taken various incidents and tried to protray a certain picture of Zidane that is not correct.

You are totally subjective in yout article. The discerning minds will not buy your arguments.”

What that person said is TOTALLY correct Kruman. Zidane received a yellow card in both his opening games meaning he would miss the 3rd. And in the second one versus Korea he actually thre down his captain’s armband on the floor in anger at being subbed. So yes… your right. Discerning minds wont buy arguments that are incorrect. perhaps you should learn what incorrect is.

I am not surprised that the following article has touched sensitive nerves. Truth always hurts.

Yes, it looks like a halftime consipracy. Italy was completely out of the game at that point. France looked likely to score at any time.

“Guys, I have a strong feeling that this is not an isolated or a random act of provocation.

Zidane almost scored before halftime of overtime. Italians looked ashen and alarmed after that.

According to a friend of mine Italy is the only team in the world with a psycho analyst in staff. During halftime an ugly conspriacy is hatched i.e. provoke Zidane.

This is what FIFA needs to investigate. If this is true Italy should be stripped of the title”

“for shame on Portugal and Italy (diving, whining, and not being respectful to fairplay)”

Really? You think so? When it was a Malouda dive in the box that was able to even keep France in the game in the world cup final. And how bout the game before when another penalty called against Portugal was controversial. It seems in both these teams France faced they definately outdived them

“Isn’t it amazing how a country under such as huge match-fixing scandal is allowed to not only play in, but win the world cup!? ”

The match fixing scandal is between the officals in the Italian soccer league. No players have charges against them and it does not invole them. Why should a country be denied access because of some retarded corporate people?! Or as it seems in this comment they should be allowed but just not be allowed to WIN! Oh i see… that’s logical. The match-fixing scandal hindered the Italian progress if anything. Its quite hard and stressful to play in such a big tournamnet when u know that your career can be in peril when you get back home. That statement was both ignorant and cruel

France was ready to score? Really? Ready to score on a team that hadn’t allowed a single goal in the tournament by an oposing team in open play?

And yet France STILL couldnt do it in 65 minutes before Zidane was sent off? Give me a break

well said dp.

In Basketball refs pretect big players like Jordan and Shaq. In the WC the most talented players in the world: Rooney and Zidane seemed to be at the receiving of dirty play and refs refused to protect them.

Two examples:
Zidane getting his shoulder dislocated in the 70th minute in the final.

Rooney getting mobbed ty the defenders just before getting a red card.

Adam in all fairness, Italy’s defense is the best in the world, no deying that.

The only “midfied general” in the world who could rip that denfense apart was Zidane. And they almost did it on several occasions often after great passes from from Zidane. Ribbery and Henry showed great talent too.

To sum up, Italy’s defense is the best in world. But it was not looking good enough to sustain relentless French assault.

People who hate Italy have been trying to take the shine away from its World Cup victory on this site and others around the net. It is ridiculous to suggect France dominated the game and that at any single point the Italians were out of game, ready to concede a goal at anytime. France were lucky to have gotten its goal off a dive resulting in a PK, which is ironic considering Italy are supposed to be the notorious divers, and Italy had scored a perfectly good goal which was called offside because a player that had nothing to do with the play was passively offside. Similar goals usually stand as in ARgentina’s second goal against Ivory Coast. Italy actually won the Final 2-0, or at the very least 2-1. France not Italy were lucky to have taken to extra time. The people just don’t get it, and don’t want to. They hate Italy, or perhaps they are so jealous, that they cannot admit that Italy deserved to win and were the best team of the tournament. Sure this Italian team may not be a classic like its 1982 counterpart but there was not a classic team among the 32 in this World Cup. It was a mediocre tournament, but the same can be said of the last several tournaments. It is difficult for those who hate or are jealous of Italy to admit Italy was the better team this tournament and in the Final so they have to live in self denial and try and demean Italy’s accomplishemnts in their own minds. In the end, nothing cantake away the fact that Italy is the World Cup champion and a deserved champion at that. As far as Zidane is concerned, he only had a few good games this whole tournament and he gets the Golden Ball Award? Obvioulsy he must have gotten due to his reputation rather than his play this time around. As one report I saw suggested, FIFA reps argued it would be nice to allow Zidane to go out on a high for what he has meant to the game.

What game were you at? When did Zidane get his soulder disloacted? And in fact this is not even mentioned in the FIFA play-by-play on the world cup website.

And as for Rooney, he ws dumb. I still dont get how anyone can condone that. He stepped on a guys balls! I think it was an accident, so did the ref. THAT’S not what he got a card for. He got a card for being mouthy and having an attitude and then pushing a guy. As for the being “mobbed” What is being mobbed? A bunch of guys running up to the ref and askinmg him if he saw what just happened?

Im sorry. did they get in his royal highness’ personal space? Give me a break

Adam,
incorrect = nipple tweak
incorrect = abuse
incorrect = sledging
incorrect = head-but
incorrect = Materazzi is an innocent boy
incorrect = FIFA

Shoulder disloacation happened in the 70th minute of regular play. The team doctor snapped it back in.

The midfield obviously wasnt good enuf, Kruman. In the whole game France got 5 shots on goal as opposed to Italy’s 3. Do u really think in 10 muntes hey would have even been able to get another shot with or without Zidane?

This game was largely in the midfield, as we see with that low shot total. France is known for having the better midfield, but obviouslt it wasnt good enuf and dint make that much of the differnce. In fact Italy had more ball possesion as well.

We can beat this topic to death and back, but there are clearly two sides.

SIDE ONE
We stand for Zinedine Zidane. He was outrageously targetted by Materazzi and replied to the Italian’s instigations with a headbutt to the chest. We see no such reason to have Zidane’s award taken away. He very much deserves it after having such a fine tournament. Marco Materazzi is a shameless soccer player (added this for dramatic affect) who used a pathetic ploy to get Zidane thrown out of the game. It is irrelevant whether or not Materazzi was aware of the hospitalization of Zidane’s mother. Disrespecting someone’s sister and mother is disgusting and totally unacceptable at a professional level of sports. We think he should keep his award.

and

SIDE TWO
We believe that Zinedine Zidane should have his award stripped. The Golden Ball is an award for outstanding play in a tournament and we feel that Zidane’s only moments of talent were penalty shots and a few tricks our three year old cousin’s could perform (added that for dramatic affect). His headbutt was a clear display of unsportsman like behaviour and he should have his award revoked. We also frown upon his behavior and think the award should go to ( Insert Italian Player’s Name Here ). We also see Zidane as a dirty player and are sad to see that his theatrics in the final overlooking the fact that Italy won.

Is that about correct or did I miss something?

Meh… i didnt even notice the “dislocated shoulder” and it obviously wasnt that bad cuz he played on. Stuff happens. Look at the Germany-Argentina game. Klose smashes into the goalie causing him to be injured. Right after the sub goalie lets in a goal as well as not even getting close to saving a penalty shot and thus single-handedly losing the game for Argentina.

Mater-Nazzi should pay

Kristen,
You are right. The values that need to be learnt from this episode are:
1) importance of respect for others
2) self-restraint

As you mention Zidane is at the heart of this discussion. Many people believe that he was provoked in a vile manner. You’d only defend Zidane if this is how you see things.

Those who didn’t see a vile provocation take the other side. Again, I can understand their angle though I disagree.

Whether he was provoked or not this is as immature as a kid on a schoolyard saying “Well he called me a name first!”

I LOVE ZIDANE NO MATTER WHAT
ZIDANE I’M HOME ALONE CALL ME

Adam,
Headbutting is immature when viewed in isolation.

But when a head-but is preceded by
nipple tweaking, abusing one’s mom and sisters it is neither immature nor egregious.

Adam Ruppolo – you are moron, if you think that any Italian deserved Golden Ball :)

You have bunch of mediocre players vs talents like Zidane , Henry and Vierra and you think Italians deserved Golden Ball???? They deserve laugh and shame from anyone who undesrtands a bit about footbal

Mater-nazzi, how clever.

FIFA needs to do something though. Because I’m a true soccer fan and I don’t like where the sport is going. There is too many theatrics invovled with football now. Whether its Cristiano Ronaldo diving (I’m Portuguese and I’ll be the first one to admit it that the boy, however handsome he is, miraculously always gets tripped) to Henry’s feet miraculously giving way, it’s time to put an end to this.

CHETALIA, and POR-CHE-GAL two greatest teams of WC! Diving cheating, provoking, Italy masters, Portugal mediocre students :)

VIVA ZIDANE, HENRY, GERRARD, ROnaldino, VIVA FAIR PLAY!

For every villain there is a hero.

For every tyrant Pharoah there’s a Moses.

After darkness there is light.

For every Materazzi there’s a Zidane.

Ronaldhino? Are you kidding me? Where WAS he during this tournament? For being the International Footballer of the Year two times in a row, he certainly didn’t show up this time around.

Wow football-fan thanks for that graceful and articulate post. We are glad that you can elighten us with your bias and ignorant opinions.

Firstly, between the 3 balls (gold, silver, bronze) Italy won 2 of them. This is the first time in World Cup history that this has happened. Also, Italy was the team with the most nominated players of the 10 (with 4).

Secondly, Cannavaro played a better tournament than Zidane with no doubt in any logical person’s mind when they look at the statistics. He played an outstanding 690 minutes, more than Zidane. In all this time he followed the FIFA way of fair play, not receiving a single card as opposed to Zidane’s 4 (including the one red we all know so dearly of). He also made 31 tackles as opposed to Zidane’s 4.

Moving on we can gve it to other Italians. How about Pirlo with one goal and an amazing THREE assists. Also having 20-something tackles, about 690 minutes and STILL no cards. He was also man of the match an unbelievalble THREE times.

Or how about Buffon with more saves than any other goalie in the tournament? A goalie who did not let in ONE goal in open play by an opposing team.

Zidane was nothing BUT meidocre (at best) in this tournament. Henfry did alright but had more fouls and more ofsides than ANYBODY ELSE in the cup. Viera played admirably and its a shame that he would be the last to receive the award because he is not a big name.

Kaka and Ronadinho will be watching Brazil vs France QF for the next 4 years learning form the master.

You guys don’t realize, Zizou is the greatest footballer since Pele. Maradono had more talent but not the same vision and execution.

Football as a sport is the ultimate looser here.

I totally agree that the sport is the ultimate loser. This game isn’t about dramatic dives or miraculous trips. It’s suppose to be about skill, honor, joy, heart, and team. Look at that Joga Bonito stuff. They totally speak the truth with that stuff.

I am a neutral fan, and everyone saw the dislocted shoulder, unless you were busy only watching the guys in blue and paying no attention to the opposing team. But, I can excuse that for that is pure extremism not a fan.
I am not condoling Zidane’s action, but again what he did is only understood by people who actually played the game and true fans of the game. I noticed most people who are quick to judge him are the ones who never kicked a ball in their lives and can never understand the circumstances. We the true fans have seen our fair share of headbutts and rough play, though we never agree with it, but we carry on and forget about it. That is how it’s been in the beautiful game and that’s how it’s going to be.

Play ball!

Adam Rupolo – your mind is fixated on American sports. Sorry but you have no clue in footbal. If you were talking about american footbal, or baseball you might be right, but this is real footbal we are discussing, and if you cannot see what Zidane did in every match he played whether it is this tournament or in general, then you are clueless. Sorry for calling you names though…

Fair play does not necessarily mean not getting cards, you can make vicious fauls and not be noticed by referee, You can talk trash like Materazzi and still not noticed by referee. But I guess trash talk is considered OK in american sports, right? So in your mind, Materazzi is OK…

As far as Buffon goes, he is very good, but I dont think he is better than Lehman or even Kahn.

Overall I am sorry you cannot appreciate the real beauty of a footbal, but maybe someday. My advice is watch old tapes with Pele, Eusebio, Croyef, Maradona, Zidane. Hope it will help…

Zinadine Zidane or Zizou is THE BEST PLAYER ever in World Cup 2006. No one suitable to be the best player and No ONE suitable to get the GOLDEN BALL execpt Zidane. The Golden Ball JUST FOR Zidane ! Everybody realized it. We know that Zidane will never headbutting to Materazi without provocation from Materazi.

Fifa have to fair! That Zizou was provocated by Materazi ! Materazi should pay !

And the truth are :
*Zizou was provocated by Materazi.
*Zizou is a HERO.
*Zizou is The Best Player in WORLD CUP 2006.
*Zizou is The Best Player in the world.
*The Golden Ball just suitable for Zidane.

We will always give our support for Zidane.

Zidane is a HERO =)

footbal-fan is what I call a descerning mind, who understands the sport.

Keep up the good work!

Kruman, you are right, footbal is real loser here. But guess what? Everytime Italy takes World Cup, or Italian club takes Champions Leaugue Cup footbal becomes loser. Is it coincident? Or is it the Italian footbal culture that grows bastards like Gentile, Bergomi, or Materazzi?

footbal-fan is what I call a discerning mind, who understands the sport.

Keep up the good work!

But please but cut down on Italy bashing. We are not against Italy, we are against “thugs” and “felons” like Materazzi.

Of course we are against thugs and felons like Materazzi. All I am saying that for some reason Italians are being noticed more for that. Probably for a reason, right? But of course there are more of them out there almost in every team…

But fortunately before 2006, there was no instance where thugs and fellons would actually make a difference by being on a team that won the Cup. In 1982 Italy had thug – Gentile, and they hunted down on maradona, zico, Socrates, Falcao, but no one remembers this, because italy played 2 good games in semi against Poland, and in final against Germany, so everyone had perception that Italy deserved to win, Argentina and Brasil were forgotten.

Footbal-fan,
The conspiracy was hatched at half time of overtime to provoke Zidane.

That was the only way Italy could win. It was premeditated. There should be an inquiry and if Italian coaching staff and players are found guilty, they should be stripped if the title.

Kruman – you are probably right, but unfortunately it is not realistic. Do you think FIFA will ever do something like this? It will be too scandalous for them, although I agree that it should be done.

For me on Sunday the Footbal died. I never had such a terrible feeling after WC. And please note that I am not a French, and more I am not a France fan. I am supporter of a fair and beautiful footbal, whoever plays it. If Italians ever could play good footbal I will be first to support them

You conveniently play down Zidane’s act as an reaction to provocation and so it seems “okay” to you.

On the other hand you harp on materazzi’s alleged provocation and condemn the WHOLE italian football industry. Is this bias or what?

YOu say “fair play does not necessarily mean not getting cards, you can make vicious fauls and not be noticed by referee”. I’m very sorry but i have to say that you are unreasonable to make such statement.

This is a competition and there’s rules to it and a referee to preside over them. So they make the calls whose right and whose at fault. This WC is organized by FIFA dont forget. And if any party – repeat any party – is found to contravene to the rules of the game, he or that team will be penalized. In this WC in particular, the referees were given additional lessons on 8-point isuses concerning fair play and discipline (check out BBC sports page) on the field. So how can you conveniently ignore referee’s and fifa’s ruling, and instead blatantly accuse Italians as cheats in favor of what you see or hear?

Let me remind you. Zidane’s headbutt could have been missed out by the referee. So by your own words, actually Zidane could have engaged in “you can make vicious fauls and not be noticed by referee”.

Also, Materazzi’s case has a recourse. Fifa can open an investigation to his ill conduct and if he is found guilty of misconduct that qualifies as an offence, he can still be penalized by retrospective action by FIfa. this is all in the fifa rule books. So dont go making up the story as an injustice to football yet.

Kruman and football-fan, what movie did you see? Cospiracy??? Premeditation?? Inquiry???
Oh what wonderful spy-story movie!!!!!!
It is really tru the mother of donkey is always pregnant.
Be serious pls think about facts and not fantasy. But did you know the story of Italy, I guess it is useless to tell you how many WC Italy won and how many champions league. I do not know where you come from but for sure you are jealous of us. Lets wait for 1461 days for the next WC for now we are the Champions this is the only fact.
Ciao INVIDIOSI!!!

I would love for FIFA to open an investigation so as to put an end to all these speculation and allegations. Whose guilty will be punished. Who cheated will be stripped of their title. who pinche the nipple will be given a fine. etc etc. So to all those who keeps complaining like its end of the world — please go petition to FIFA. I really want justice to be served, as quickly as possible.

And if FIFA really does open an inquiry and found no basis for such action, then those anti-italian bashers should shut up. And If FIFA does not wish to carry out the investigation, it is also their rights to do so. Why?? In case you didnt notice, its in their rule books. Just like whether FIFA would like to make an investigation into Zidane’s golden ball case, the same thing goes for materazzi’s case. These are their rules. They call the shots. Not you nor I.

Someone commented football should be played fairly, eh? Thats why we have rules and regulations. Thats why we have referees to enforce the rules during play. Thats why we have FIFA as a governing body. And thats why the teams have to play in accordance to the rules set by fifa and to defer to the ref as the ultimate guy in the field to decide whos right whose at fault.

If this is not fair play, then what is?

zidane is just soooo over-rated, I mean like he can still keep tat ball but just stop babblin crap like he’s some kinda football god or sumthing…it’s pathetic and just show how shallow u americans know bout football.

Zidane should be awarded by the Italian Football Federation for helping Italy win the world cup.

Thanks Zidane

zidane massed up and that is it.

Zizù…thanks…you made me happy…and you deserve the ball or whatever..

HA Ha Ha! Bla Bla Bla….shut up anti-italian losers!! We are the champions! Forza Azzurri.

Looooser

We are the whores.

Do any of you seriously play any sports whatsoever? Trashtalking is abundant. I coach 12 year old kids with fouler mouths than anything materazzi has been accused of saying, and I dont see players responding to the taunts in such a manner as zidane did on sunday.

I am also a Juventus fan, Real Madrid fan among others. And I am sorry aside from his skill, Zidane is a bit of a lose canon. His reaction to materazzi’s “comments” is expected, he has gotten redcards numerous times in his career for jumping off the wagon like that, it isnt unexpected and nor was sunday. The Italian team obviously knew zidane is a hot head and took advantage of it, and who better to use that a hot head in his own right Materazzi. Nough said, you accuse tactics, if I was the coach of france I would have had people taunting Materazzi for duration of the game, he would have snapped and awarded a probable penalty (australia did it). Seriously what is racist is the comments many of you people are sending around… These things happen in sport all the time, and lesser paid individuals have reacted more admirably than zidane. When a child is spoiled do you not spank it??? Pathetic excuse and has absolutly no class, good luck zidane and all the racists on this board.

Geeze I aint even close to Italian, yet I can see where they are actually coming from now!!!

Golden Zidane!

I am so happy for Zidane on winning the Golden Ball Award. France would never reach the finals without Zidane who powered his country right after the group stage. He seldom showed any semblance prior to the group of 16 which does not matter, because l…

to italians mothers from singapore your mothers a whore and living in a huvle like your country you are probably inbred

Having played soccer in high school and some in college and caoched youth for 12+ years, I have never seen a more childish event in a game tahn taht of Zindane. He is supposed to be a big boy and should be able to control his behaviour, but instead he reactd like a spoiled thug and deserved to be red carded and should have been exclueded from any award realted to the World Cup. He may have been a great player in his time, but that has obviously passed by. His play during the World Cup was mediocre at best and he only recevied the votes for the Golden Ball out fo sympaty on his retirement (again). FIFA should clean up everyone’s act and strip him of this award. There were players on teams not in the finals that deserved the trophy more that Zindane. Get over it, give the award to someone that really was the best player and move on. 2010 should be very intersting.

take the cup from RAGING BULL ZIDANE and give it to Cannavaro!

“67:43 If I needed someone to defend my life I would choose Fabio Cannavaro. He is unflappable.” nuff said,blogger bob!

Zee great artiste, zee genius Zidane is also a short tempered suck…why didn’t he just square up with Matarazzi fairly. Or mouth back at him, or insult HIS family?? He lashed out like the goon that he is (and yes, he’s also a great player). He’s done it before…WHERE’S THE VIDEO COMPILATION!?!?! Italy fans, put that compilation together of Zidane smashing that guys face and crushing toes!!!
FIFA, GIVE CANNAVARRO THAT GOLDEN BALL AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!!!

Youth Coach — All I can say I feel sorry for youn footbal players that you coach. What are you teaching them? It is clear from your comments that you have no clue about footbal, aside the fact that you call it “Soccer”. Go change the sport, and coach baseball or smoething….

To all Italians posting here, you WON! Congrats! Go choke with a cup! CHEATALIANS! VIVA CHEATALIA!

I guess cheating also includes scoring the only REAL goal of the game (and then A 2ND, but of course, called offside..yeah right). I guess that penalty kick they got (and Zidane almost didn’t put in) wasn’t a dive. I guess those penalty kicks weren’t perfect enough for you…ha, ha….”WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD…NO TIME FOR LOSERS, CAUSE WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS….”
Zidane missed 8% of that game…stop crying, he wouldn’t have gotten past Cannavarro or Bufon (by the way, how’d you like that save on the Zidane header??)….hee, hee

To football fan. Go headbutt someone!! Cry baby.

Well put A.W.!!

hello keep crying..i see ur back!

where’s our foul mouthed friend dinslo? only ppl like him support france!!!

quite co-incidentely, i see that the worst insults on most of the blogs come fm the french supporters!!! im sure these guys must head bang as good as well…

whoa, look at the anger here !!! just bcoz the better country won????!!!

the golden ball award should be taken away from him, what a disgrace. he said what he did is not forgivable but also says he doesnt regret his action. what kind of person is this guy?

has he not had any personal growth since growing up in his tough youth neiborhood?

the golden ball should go to the player that had the greatest impact for his team and also played consistently throughout the tournament….I dont think that was zidane!

Zidane cost his team the world cup. He dosent see that because he never grew up I guess. Just like Henry said…..”you cant take the neigborhood out of the boy”.

It seems that many French (not all) are so desperate for a hero that they forgive him. Too bad. His is actions will remain the topic of discussion for years. Very childess act I think. Strip him of his golden ball and give it to someone who demonstrates better HUMAN qualities.

FIFA we are waiting….strip strip strip

Yeah! Strip and give it to Materazzi :)
VIVA CHETALIA!

Hey Pia, I am also back :-)

Still in the office?

ciao max!

ora sono a casa. domani e la loro festa nazionale cosi e gia il weekend per noi cui! solo che gli italiani hanno robinato tutto per i francesi! lol..

questo blog non fonziona??!!!!

There is to be no question about removing the golden ball award from Zidane. It is not out of Zidane’s character to headbutt his opponents, so why all this incredulous surprise from the public? He acted disgracefully and under no circumstances was his reaction justified, no matter what was said. As a professional, and a captain there is no excuse.What would have happened if that headbutt had caused serious damage, like a seizure or a heart attack from that blow? And what a blow it was.What would Zidane have said about his action then? “I’m sorry, but I have no regrets.” Was it still justifiable? Fifa need to take serious action against this despicable behaviour,otherwise there’ll be a serious question mark over the ethics and standards that they have set. Right now Fifa is not looking good in the public eye, allowing the endorsement of an award to a head-butting red-carded, hothead. I’m afraid that if Fifa do not impose strong measures regarding this situation, their credibility as the world governing body of soccer will be suspect, since throughout this tournament they have reiterated on fair play and tough of foul play.(not on foul mouth)

Im confused here. How is it that Zidane cost his team the world cup. Its not like he left the game in the 15th minute and the french net got pumbled due to playing with 10 men. He left the game in the 110th minute, for what was certainly a childish move at the very least. But lets be serious here, the Italians simply beat the French in penalty kicks and Zidane, playing or not, would have had almost zero influence on the outcome of the game. While the french looked strong in OT, its unlikely they would have scored with Zidane in the final ten minutes. In any case, I do believe Zidane earned the Golden Boot and should keep the award, but the Italians won the game. Zidane did not lose it for the French.

Viva Italia. Viva Azzurri
The italians played like the champions they are. You can whinge and moan and name call as much as you like, at the end of the day, it was my beautiful Italy that won. The ‘Italian Job’ done, and oh what style. Four well deserved stars!!! to the campioni del mondo. The fifth star is on the cards. France dived for the first penalty kick, and Italy equalized with a brilliant and valid goal. The second brilliant goal from Toni was disallowed because his team mate was so called off-side (yeah). But France scored against Brasil in exactly the same way. Viera was in an offside position, but Henry wasn’t. So Henry’s goal counted. Such double standards it’s sick. The French could never have beaten Italy in a month of Sundays, even if the foot-stomping, headbutting veteran Zidane was playing.
Viva Azzurri Viva!!!!!!!

Strip Zidane of his ball(s), it belongs to Cannavaro !

Zidane’s goal wasn’t even as bonafide as Materazzi’s was in the final !

Franco – congratulations! CHEATALIA WON! CHEATALIA IS WORLD CHAMPION!

MATERAZZI SCORED A CLEAR GOAL! VERY CLEAR! HE WAS SITTING ON VIERRA!

CHEATERS = CHEATALIA = ITALIA!

i think Blatter should resign and give the place to younger generation. his time has passed. he cant even handled the marred world cup 2006. he is just focusing on zidane. what about materazzi? what about a bunch of corrupted players winning the cup for their country? isnt it a shame?

nowadays football is just like politics…. they will defend their action eventhough the truth is revealed. just watch bush with his ‘Weapon of mass destruction theory’, ‘to free the people’, ‘the terrorists’ etc. he will defend his action with 1001 reason as what had happened in Vietnam and the ‘known’ japanese attack of pearl harbour by the presidents at that time. blatter does not want the truth. we want it to be simple and straight forward.

just get blatter off the seat.

It is easy for everyone to judge Zidane. You know, other players, such as MAterazzi, get jealous of the top players in th eworld, and their jealousy drives them to abuse these players, wether the abuse is verbal, as was the case here, or by force (look how many times this happened to Pele and Maradona in previous world cups)…Zidane got punished for his act, but Materazzi also should be punished for th everbal abuse…Verbal abuse can me more damaging than a head-butt!!!!!

if u cant take verbal abuse u shouldnt play competitive sports…unfortunately thats the way the world is, and moreso in sports!

Then, if you can’t take a head-butt in competititive sport, u shouldn’t play either…why is it such a big deal then? Look at hockey for example, they beat each other up all the time and no-one says anything…they go to the foul box for 2 mns and then they’re back as if nothing happened….

Let Zidane keep the award, what’s the point of taking it away now, the damage is done. Let him retire and give Matarazzi a suspension. sony, you are reaching. You don’t know anything about the scandal, no player has been charged with anything, and it is not only italians who play on these teams. Just let the courts figure this one out and stop making pretend accusations just because deep down in parts you don’t talk about at parties you want it to be true.

I think FIFA should strip him of the award.

Definition: “The adidas Golden Ball award is presented to the outstanding player at each FIFA World Cup™ finals.”

He’s been outstanding in his career but not necessarily during the Finals (unless getting a disciplinary action is excellent play).

I agree he should get an award for something, but not this one!

World Cup Final, 2006

The great Zidane drops his head to charge
The bully Materazzi falls
Though Italy may have the Cup
France has the brass and golden balls

:-)

Allez les Bleus!

You’re right :-) o@o

On the following site are all statistics for all games in the 2006 WC. People can come to their own conclusions from the following statistics of the two players that are the centre of this post. I stand neutral, this is just for anyone’s information:

Zidane Materazzi

Goals 3 2
Shots 11 2
Shot on Goal 5 2
Fouls
Committed 9 4
Fouls
Suffered 15 8
Yellow cards 3 0
Red cards 1 1

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/section?id=worldcup&cc=3436

Summary of the WC Final:

70th minute. Zidane’s shoulder is dislocated after an egregious foul. Ref fails to red-card the Italian defender.

102nd minute. Zidane almost scores on a header. Buffon saves but the Itlian team is scared to death. They know they are going to loose.

Half time of overtime. A ploy is conjured to provoke Zidane.

108th minite. Materazzi pinches Zidane on the chest and utters obscenities. As Zidane walks past he continues sledging.

109th minute. Zidane shows whos the lion on football field. He turns around and levels Materazzi.

108th miniute. Zidane is given the redcard. He walks out withoug even casting a glance on the World Cup trophy. He set an example for manking: honor and human values are more improtant than the glitter of gold.

A DAYS LIFE OF A LION IS BETTER THAN A THOUSAND DAY LIFE OF A JACKAL.

Zidane is the hero of mankind. There is nothing more noble than defending the honor of women, espeically your mother and sister’r.

Long live the lion Zidane! Eternal disgarce upon the cheating thugs.

Footballer, Poet, Icon….

These are the words that truly define Zidane. His act in the final was a mistake–a sudden rush of blood to the head in the ultimate competition. We cannot condone what he did, but we must forgive him. As he has given us nothing short of pure magic in his career.

Despite what happened, he is still the greatest footballer of the last 15 years. Few players have maintained that level of magic throughout their whole career. He certainly wasn’t a flash in pan. At age 34, he showed that he was better than Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, C. Ronaldo, Messi, and Rooney. Do you all think that they will be as good when they are 34? This was the best player of the tournament.

His action goes to show you that sadly even our heroes are mortal. That he, like Maradona had his flaws. And this is something that we are going to have to learn to cope with. At any rate, we must remember Zizou, like we do with Mara, for his Magical play.

Perhaps the end of his career wasn’t majestic. Either way, last Sunday, a chapter in football has been closed….And we must all give thanks to one of the most elegant players to grace the pitch…

Summary of the WC Final:

70th minute. Zidane’s shoulder is dislocated after an egregious foul. Ref fails to red-card the Italian defender.

102nd minute. Zidane almost scores on a header. Buffon saves but the Itlian team is scared to death. They know they are going to loose.

Half time of overtime. A ploy is conjured to provoke Zidane.

108th minite. Materazzi pinches Zidane on the chest and utters obscenities. As Zidane walks past he continues sledging.

108th minute. Zidane shows who’s the lion on football field. He turns around and levels Materazzi.

108th miniute. Zidane is given the redcard. He walks out withoug even casting a glance on the World Cup trophy. He set an example for manking: honor and human values are more improtant than the glitter of gold.

A DAYS LIFE OF A LION IS BETTER THAN A THOUSAND DAY LIFE OF A JACKAL.

Zidane is the hero of mankind. There is nothing more noble than defending the honor of women, espeically your mother and sister’r.

Long live the lion Zidane! Materazzi gave up his honor for blinding glitter of gold.

Zidna is the lion who dominated football from 98 to 06.

Materazzi could only by dastardly provocations.

Give it a break, Kruman. It’s over. Next you’ll be saying the American CIA was involved and Materazzi is one of their agents, and the plot will get thicker with ulterior motives being thrown onto this site by you, that the purpose was to create tension between Italy and France, leading to hostilities, then Germany enters the fray, followed by England, soon it will be World War III, all a distraction to re-create borders of countries in the Middle East, Saudia Arabia, Jordon, Iraq, Iran, etc., all so the western nations can grab all the oil. Why don’t you just go home, Kruman, have a good meal and a glass of good wine, relax, and forget all about it.

Zidane is the lion who dominated football from 98 to 06.

Materazzi could only win by dastardly provocations.

The plot ends in the Italian dressing room. I hope it was Materzzi alone though

geez kruman, i betcha u didnt think that when totti spat on an apposing player in 2004…dont recall anyone calling him a hero for defending the honor of his wife. wonder why that is?

Roger,
Provoking hostilities in not my intent.

I just feel this was premeditated provacation, period.

That is my opinion. I’d like to see FIFA investigate.

Roger – no one is saying CIA or England is involved :), it would be too much honor for thugs. All we are saying is that Italians are famous for dirty plots like this, and they proved it once again. So, please dont put England or USA on the same level with dirty Italian footbal thugs.

Kruman – you are the man!

football fan? still cant get a woman?? get out of here!

Thanks football fan. Your passion for the sport and fairness inspires me.

Instead of spending hours of watching video trying to lip read Matarazzi. FiFA should spend hours analizing the so called penalty in the 6th minute. Nobody who sees that penalty believes there was acually apenalty committed. I don’t even think there was any contact. then they would realize France was never even in the Game.

FIFA
spend your time analizing the 6th minute penalty.
you will realize it should have never even went to a shoot out.

but you don’t hear the Italians complaining. They are true Champions!!

FIFA is investigating the incident, Kruman, if you have bothered to keep up with the news. It probably is doing it just for you. All will be revealed and life will go back to normal, which I think it already has, except for you. I know the planet stopped spinning during the spat between Zidane and Materazzi, but the planet is now back to normal, the birds are flying, the sun is shining, night follows day and day follows night. And don’t you worry, Kruman, this incident will go done in the annals of history as one of the most despicable act of mankind, worse than all the war atrocities since man stepped foot on this planet.

agreed brooklyn, as a matter of fact LET FIFA INVESTIGATE the past thirty years…. bet theyd be shocked at who won and who didnt!!!

Kruman and Footbal-fan, you have absolutely no sense of humour. You take everything too seriously; both are as dry as the Sahara desert.

Its Amazing, “So, please dont put England or USA on the same level with dirty Italian footbal thugs.” – How can you defend the dirtiest countries in history – Emgland and the US are filth at everything they do – Sports, politics, women…

Dont Be jealous that Us Italians have and are a) better women, b) better at football, formula one, etc c) nicer country, d) friendlier people etc… maybe you brits/americans should get your heads out of your arses, and learn to enjoy life, then and only then will you guys just maybe look as good as us italians and learn to enjoy the pleasures of life, like only we know how!

Why are guys so afraid of an investiation to determine if other people were involved in planning the provocation?

hear, hear, CHAMPIONS!!,

Ok first of all was that not the coolest head-butt ever!And of course zidane should get the golden ball.I mean he did carry his team past Spain and Brazil and the Czech Republic.I mean come on!

Okay, Paul. Which WAS the coolest head-butt ever? I thought this one ranked right up there. Not that I’ve seen a lot.

Also, does anybody have a link for the hot new french song “Coup de Boule”?

Coup de Boule = head butt

For pure finiancial reasons FIFA will never take away Zidane’s award. Who’s there eafter Zidane as a great football player?

Even at the twilight of his career his skill are matched by none. His departue is leaving a void in the football world which I hope Kaka/Ronaldinho/Rooney/Robinho can fill. Adidas has already announced that their $8.7 million/year contract with ZIdane will continue.

Fifa also seems to have a change of heart. They seem to be shifting focus from Zidane to Materazzi.

i love zidane
why italian men love to suck a d*ck?

“Give it a break, Kruman. It’s over. Next you’ll be saying the American CIA was involved and Materazzi is one of their agents, and the plot will get thicker with ulterior motives being thrown onto this site by you, that the purpose was to create tension between Italy and France, leading to hostilities, then Germany enters the fray, followed by England, soon it will be World War III, all a distraction to re-create borders of countries in the Middle East, Saudia Arabia, Jordon, Iraq, Iran, etc., all so the western nations can grab all the oil. Why don’t you just go home, Kruman, have a good meal and a glass of good wine, relax, and forget all about it.”

Roger get a life man, stop covering up for a nipple tweaker. The conspiracy, if any, started and ended in the Italian dressing room. Maybe it was a solo act, mabye not.

I can understnd your reaction thoug, truth is alwasy bitter for cheaters and those who side with cheaters.

World Cup Awards:
PLAYER OF THE WORLD CUP: Zidane

Biggest cheat of the worldcup: Materazzi. He just can’t win fair and square.

If FIFA President takes away the Golden Ball from Zidane, he should also take away the world cup from Italy. That will be fair. Perhaps, FIFA should replay the final. You cannot punish France without punishing Italy, unless FIFA is 100% for Italy. Go free speech and Bravo to Zidane for showing that he is the best player in the world.

We should hire Zidane to coach our team for the next cup!

steve, USA

Brooklyn — you are unbelieveable! OK, the penalty on 7th minute was questionable, how about very obvious penalty in second time? How about Materazzi sitting on Vierra when he scored his “Goal”/ And you are saying France was never in the game, common this is the stupidest thing I have heard. All 11 Italians were sitting in their half for almost whole match. They wanted penalties, because Buffon is good.

ANyway, you won, and I have nothing to say to you, except congratulations! Congratulations to CHEATALIA, and everyone who supports them (of course cheatalians). CHEATALIA WON THE CUP! BUT THE FOOTBAL IS DEAD! LET”S HOPE IN 2 YEARS YOU WILL NOT EVEN QUALIFY. FRANCE, UKRAINE, SCOTLAND AND GEORGIA WILL SHOW ITALY THE PLACE IT DESERVES.

Hey, Steve, well said. But USA would be better of to hire someone who knows how to deal with dirty tactics from teams like Italy and Portugal.
I think would be awesome if we get Klinsmann.

If the match was held in fairness France woul’ve won 2:1.

The ref denied a 2nd penalty to France.

Klinsmann would be the best choice but I guess he decided to committ his time and life to his family. I guess as Henry said, there is more to life than just soccer, especially when politics and dirty plays get in between. Zidane has also been asken not to retire and keep playing. If he can play 90 minutes at 34 and better than those who are in their twenties, I can see him at 38 play the last 30 minutes and score 3 goals with this HEAD. He is the new champion of soccer.
Viva Zizou!

steve, USA

How about Scolari as the US soccer coach? Has he signed up with a new team yet?

If Zidane scored his second goal (header), France would have won and Zidane would have become the white “Pele” who played soccer on concrete in the toghest neiborhoods of France. FIFA should think twice about stripping him from the Golden Ball unless they take the world cup from Italy and play the game again!

Leva epolitics away from Spolrts and let the journalists decide about the best players!!

steve, USA

Well said Steve!

Not yet! I think we need to get some international players to play for us, give them citizenship as the other countries do. There are numerous international players who would love to play for our country!

steve, USA

So, do you think that FIFA will decide to take the golden ball from Zidane, the world cup from IKtaly, and replay the gamed in Marseilles? That would be grfeat!!

steve, USA

You have a good point.

We also need more passion for the sport in US. I guess that will develop only with good players in MLS.

There are rumors that Beckham may play in MLS, it is a long shot though.

Kruman my friend, I am going to bed since I am wrting with lots of typos! I am half asleep and need to get up early for surfing!
Good night!

Bravo Zidane for showing us the Art of playing Modern Soccer in the 21st. Century.
Control of the ball, elegance, precision of the pass, coup de boule, and above all, thank you for being kind, gentle, and HUMBLE dcespite your greatness. You are HUMAN indeed.

cheers!

steve, USA

funny how so many australians and USA posts bashing the Italians.

Could it be sour grapes?
HA HA HA

I don’t think so. Though the right thing would be investigate if Materazzi’s act was premeditated.

There is a French lawyer who is preparing a case to have the WC final declared void. It is against FIFA rules for a ref/linesman to use replays.
If the French lawyer can prove that the 4th linesman viewed replays then ……

I don’t know, this is all un precedented.

Frankly I don’t care much. Zidane is still the great footballer Zidane, Materazzi the same old cheat.

Good night Steve! Keep up the good work!

MLS is great but the best players will never (including Beckham)risk their fortunes in the US. All the $$$ are in Europe and that’s where you find the best international players. We need to recruit them from there and keep them playing there. The level of soccer, interfest, popularith, endorsements, etc, is far above what we have here. It will take another or 2 generations before soccer becomes a popular sports like Football, BB, BB,etc. Beckham makes 21M a year!! who will give that amount here?

Steve

No denying that.

“funny how so many australians and USA posts bashing the Italians.

Could it be sour grapes?
HA HA HA ”

Quite a few Canandians too. We are just speaking mind after whatwe saw.

By far the best post in this thread, worthy of a copy and paste. Wonderfully put by Joemaica from New Zeland……
—————————–

In Zidane’s own words the turning point of the World Cup for France was winning their group match against Togo.

This was a game that Zidane missed as by the time of France’s third match he had already received two yellow cards and been suspended from the tournament. Zidane did nothing in the first couple of games. Domenech substituted Zidane in the game against Korea and said not a word to his star player when Zidane came off the field.

All this seems to be forgotten by journalists, coaches and even the French nation. Zidane’s red card is slowly becoming seen as an injustice to the game. French logic is that Zidane’s head butt was not seen by the referee and should therefore not be punished.

The French are willing to forgive Zidane as he was provoked and taunted by Materazzi the bully boy. Trash-talk is a huge part of sport; we see it in the Premiership, in test cricket and consistently bounced round in the NBA. Despite the prevalence of trash talk in professional sport we rarely see head butting.

Again Zidane’s logic is the incident would not have happened had he not been provoked by Materazzi. However from all accounts it seems the verbal exchange was started by Zidane frustrated after being manhandled (and generally boxed out of the game) by Materazzi.
Zidane the son of immigrant parents raised in Marseille, a port city with a hard edge. Zidane raised in a country, where Jean-Marie LePen a high-polling politician publically criticised the number of black players in the French national team. Zidane who has played four seasons in Italy with Juventus and five seasons for Real Madrid in Spain. Zidane chooses the World Cup final to finally respond to a comment that may have been made about his race, mother, sister, father, possible link to terrorism, hairstyle?

There is no doubt Materazzi is a tough customer. Defenders are the notorious hard men of the game. Look no further than France’s own William Gallas’ comments of wanting retribution against Materazzi and of wanting to smash his face.

This is a sad reflection on Zidane, the French team and of France. It seems provocation justifies all. You can see how and why last year’s riots in France happened. We have been provoked we will therefore resort to violence and that is ok.

In a poll of the French public published in Le Parisien newspaper on Tuesday, 61 percent said they forgave Zidane. Does that mean that 61% of the French public forgive the rioters? Do 61% of the French public who were looted or had property damaged forgive the rioters? Do 61% of the French police who were injured or harmed forgive the rioters?

After all were the rioters not provoked? Zidane, seemingly France’s new Jean Valjean, says “I was the one who was provoked and I reacted. It is always the one who reacts who is punished, never the one who provokes and this is not fair.” Is it time for France to rethink its justice system?

Zidane converted two penalties. The first against Portugal, following a foul against Henry; the second against France, following a foul against Malouda. It is universally agreed that both penalties were questionable. It seems both Henry and Malouda were tripped by the same invisible force that seemed to arise when French strikers entered the goal box of different German grounds.

Maybe physicists should compare the force that it took for Henry and Malouda to go to ground with the voracity of Zidane’s head butt against Materazzi’s chest?

Italy’s victory in the World Cup has been scarred. What would we be saying if Zidane had of been allowed to stay on the field?

Can we say Zidane was the tournament’s best player despite his being red carded in a World Cup final? Leaving his team to play with ten men in sport’s most watched events? Not being able to control his composure because of what an opponent said? Is this “star” behaviour for someone playing in front of millions of children; many of whom see Zidane as a role model?

Zidane did not consistently play well throughout this World Cup. His two yellow cards in the first two games suggest he was troubled from the start of the tournament.

It was clear that his relationship with Domenech was preventing him from playing his own style of football. By the end of the tournament it became apparent that the French team (lead by Zidane) were largely ignoring Domenech and his antics of kicking bottles on the sideline.

Was Zidane really the tournament’s best player? The real victim was Fabio Cannavaro. The Italian captain, Italy’s Bobby Moore, who played 690 minutes of football and accumulated no yellow or red cards.

Cannavaro lead a defence that conceded only two goals throughout the whole tournament: an own goal and a penalty. Why is Italy being criticised for being defensive they after all scored 12 goals, France scored 9 (two of which were penalties). Only Germany scored more goals than Italy in the whole tournament (with 13). More telling Italy had 48 strikes on goal while France had 35.

Cannavaro made defence an art form. Goals weren’t scored in this tournament because the quality of defence was high. Don’t forget defending is also part of the beautiful game. Not everyone who plays football is an attacker. Strikers struggled to convert opportunities. Cannavaro openly concedes they were tough on France. Zidane was a frustrated man.

Is it time for football to honour players who play competitively, fairly and who are genuine role models. Cannavaro sums it up best himself “Whatever Marco (Materazzi) said, it cannot have deserved a reaction like that. It was totally unacceptable.”

Zidane’s Golden Ball award is unacceptable.

No one is taking anything away from what Zidane has done in the past. Rememebr thats the past. Regardless what the trash talking that was going on his actions arent warranted and quit frankly I cant understand how some of you cant seem to grasp it. Im Canadian and neutral on the issue however Im a soccer fan and can tell you his actions are not acceptble regardless that the French will forgive him. He is there biggest star, they will not hang him out to dry.

FIFA wont do shit about taking the ball back. They did the voting prior to the head butt. If it was done afterwards, theres no doubt that Cannavaro would have got it.

Kruman, are you going to take this hate to your grave? Give up, lad. The cup has been won by Italy and, you or anyone else ain’t going to do anything about it. You can complain and cry until the cows come home and Italy will still be the World Champions until 2010. You can continue with derogatory comments, false accusations, inane ideas, but all to no avail. You are in grief and I understand. It will pass, don’t let the anger destroy you. Peace to you, Kruman, there’s more to life than getting all heated up because of a game called football.

Roger,
Honestly, I don’t give a crap for this incidence. This whole episode was just crap, nothing more.

lighten up:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=js0vOgjBfD8&search=%22A%20New%20Way%20to%20Solve%20Problems%22

Kruman, if you don’t give a crap about this incident (not incidence), the why go on and on and on, about it? You contradict yourself.

Roger, you were told many times, Cheatalia won! Cheatalia champions! Congrats! what else do you need? Kruman, please repeat this for Roger once again, let him be happy!
VIVA CHEATALIA!

Footbal-fan, there is really nothing to add, you said it all buddy.

footbal-fan, you are an irrelevance

football-fan never mind the “materazzis”. It’s a pleasure to chat with people like you on the blogs.

Kruman, you missed it again, it went way over your head. I said “Materazzi” on purpose, you know, the fabulous Maseratti car, you didn’t get it.

Oh God, we really have Materazzi on this blog….aka Roger.

Kruman, there will always be “Materazzis” whether in footbal or life. Unfortunately it is inevitable, there are plenty of uncultured, mean, cheating and lying people. Nothing we can do, man… On the other side, maybe it is more fun this way, you always know who to head butt ;)

Ha, lol!

Football fan,I think you’ve already head-butted this Materazzi.

He’ll keep coming back for more though.

Good night!

To footbal-fan and Kruman…..

seek professional Psychiatric help soon.

your posts are absurd.
Sour grapes at best!

Kruman,

One of the great cartoons by the famous Robert Crumb was “keep on truckin”. It seems you and your ilk will just keep on headbutting but you won’t be famous for it.

“Dirty italian football thugs”, “…Italians are famous for dirty plots like that …”
how dared you Football-fan?!!!! Don’t worry, we don’t put England or USA (LOSERS who couldn’t even go until the semi-finals) on the same level with the Winners of the World Cup. Otherwise, it would be so disgraceful!

If you’re jealous coz we’re the WINNERS of the Fifa World Cup 2006, just say it! Don’t be a sour loser and accept the truth even though it hurts!

The truth is we got what we deserved, the TRIUMPH, no matter how much sour losers (like you, Kruman, Steve) say bad about us.

From Buffon, a goalkeeper who made no error, to Cannavaro, the best defender in the tournament, to Pirlo, the most creative match winner, the Italians had the most balanced squad in the tournament and they shattered your dream: 2006 belongs to Zizou!!!!

I don’t dislike Zizou. He’s even the only player that I support from the French National Team. You know what, Zizou was great at this tournament for only 1.5 of the 6 French performances, but Thuram was solid in all of them.

And Cannavaro, plus Buffon (the best goalkeeper on earth) were even better, near-perfect in a month of ceaseless heat and defence.

France scored 8 goals and conceded 2. But Italy (Forza Azzurri!!) scored 11, and the “only one” goal they LET IN was an “own-goal”.

I like Zizou but his reaction is that of a street fighter, and it is INEXCUSABLE!!! Like it was for Totti who spat at his opponent during Euro 2004.

But Totti was banned for 4 games (well it was reduced to 3)but there was NOT a case open to his oponent. At that time, Mr. Kruman who supports the fairness, did you say that Totti “set an example for mankind: honor and human values are more improtant than the glitter of gold”?

Did Totti’s reaction remind you “A DAY LIFE OF A LION IS BETTER THAN A THOUSAND DAYs LIFE OF A JACKAL”?

Did FIFA open inquiry over Totti’s opponent at whom he spat? Bravo FIFA, for its absurd decision to name Zizou, who was sent off for his violence, the Player of the Tournament. Sometimes, I wonder if FIFA itself REALLY support “fair-play” and “non-violence”.

Here, I agree with “The brooklyn beat”. FIFA, don’t waste your time on lip-reading Materazzi. Prove us that you’re really a worthy federation by analyzing the 6th minute penalty!

For we don’t believe we will ever truly know what Zizou and Materazzi said to one another!

Lion or Jackal? You choose your word, I guess mine is explicit and tell your kids of the good Zizou, using the edit button to erase his final thrust!

Dear lune sacree,
Sorry I can’t comment on Totti for two reasons:
1) I never saw the game or followed the incident
2) I am not the biggest football fan. I watch only to see talented players like Zidane, Rooney, Robinho, etc.

Peace,
Kruman

To Kruman, footbal-CLOWN and cronies.

Dont pretend to be civilized when you are not. Your comments are nothing less than racists and anti-italian bashing.

Hypocrital losers!

Kruman u slime!
Stop pretending to be civilized when u are not. Coz u are every bit a racist, italian hater and constantly in search of a reason to undermine italians. And when someone like lune sacree counter yr arguments squarely, you evade the issue and say “sorry, i am not the biggest football fan”. So if youre not the biggest football fan, then shut up! As far as i know, you have the biggest mouth in this blog! Sore loser and hypocritical whiner.

Actually, I thought some Americans were happy that Italy won. Since Italy and the US tied (albeit on an own goal by Italy), we (the US) are the 2nd best country in the world!

Seriously, though, I think this incident has just shown us that Zidane (the great player that he is) is just like the rest of us – human. Should they take the award away from him? I don’t think so. He has apologized for his behavior.

And though people decry the fact that children will learn from his “thuggish” behavior – it would be a prime opportunity for parents to explain to kids why it was not the right way to respond. And if the Italian defender did insult Zidane and his family, it would also serve as an example of why you shouldn’t bully or verbally attack people (you never know who’s going to fly off the handle in retaliation).

I can’t believe people are still so fired up about this. I heard that “The Daily Show” found out that Zidane and Materazzi are actually good friends and that Materazzi had started to choke on some gum and Zidane was just trying to save his life with a sort of a front-on Heimlich move.

That was why he looked so surprised when the ref gave him the red card – he was just trying to help.

Or something.

Anyway – a ruling should be out soon on the Italian league mess that affects a lot of the players from both teams in the World Cup Final – Check in at http://www.SoccerBriefs.com for updates.

Or…just keep attempting to head butt each other digitally here at the blog – it is a lot of fun to read!

Here’s football-fan’s response to my latest post… wow…

“Adam Rupolo – your mind is fixated on American sports. Sorry but you have no clue in footbal. If you were talking about american footbal, or baseball you might be right, but this is real footbal we are discussing, and if you cannot see what Zidane did in every match he played whether it is this tournament or in general, then you are clueless. Sorry for calling you names though…

Fair play does not necessarily mean not getting cards, you can make vicious fauls and not be noticed by referee, You can talk trash like Materazzi and still not noticed by referee. But I guess trash talk is considered OK in american sports, right? So in your mind, Materazzi is OK…

As far as Buffon goes, he is very good, but I dont think he is better than Lehman or even Kahn.

Overall I am sorry you cannot appreciate the real beauty of a footbal, but maybe someday. My advice is watch old tapes with Pele, Eusebio, Croyef, Maradona, Zidane. Hope it will help… ”

Football fan, you have no actual arguments except to be a condescending, omnius, all-knowing being. You think you know all there is to know about “footbal” and on countless times in this board you have critisized people for not being as exhalted and wise as you. You even critisized someone for caling it “soccer.” My apologies on their behalf for referring to the sport as they know it. Being that you are from AMERICA, I can guarantee you have also heard that term a lot more than “footbal.”

The fact is that I do not condone what Materazzi did because he obviously trash-talked Zidane somehow. And he is not the cleanest player as he ALSO received numerous cards. However, he scored 2 beautiful, clean goals; something that can no be said of Zidane this tournament. But he is not Italy’s normal defender, we all know that the amazing Alessandro Nesta missed most of the tournament. On top of that, Italy was missing Christian Vieri for the whole tournament, a man who has done GREAT things for Italy in previous tournaments and works very well with Totti. All this being said, Italy STILL managed to win the cup, despite losing these two VERY important players.

I’m side-tracking though. People seem to be leaving out another very important question. How was Materazzi provoked to say such a thing? Why is nobody questioning that. If the press is right, simple phsychology tells us that people dont just walk up to eachother and say: “BY THE WAY, Your mother is a terrorist whore.” Then again, according to many people here it was ALL a conspiracy! Perhaps you’ve been watching too little world cup and too many Sylvester Stalone movies.

Football fan, you are nothing but a bitter French fan who has also shown throughout here that he is entirely racist as well. Sound hypocritical? All these Zidane fans are saying that if Materazzi said something racist then action needs to be taken, and here you are insulting the whole history of Italian soccer.

“Thanks football fan. Your passion for the sport and fairness inspires me.”

Wow Kruman. It seems between you, fottbal fan and Steve, we have the 3 stooges! Some of the things said inspire me… to have a nervous breakdown… okay where shall I start?

How about when u said if the game was fair it would’ve been a 2-1 win for France becuz of the second penalty? That would of course be disregarding that the first penalty was totally false. And also disregarding that Italy had a second goal which from what I hear was called offside cuz a player not involved in play was (i was at a bpatism and happened to miss this goal so im going by what i hear)

Another of my favourite comments was when Steve said that “if Zidane would’ve scored on that header he wouldve been the white Pele.” First of all HE DIDNT SCORE! “Ifs” are dumb! I can just as easily say: “Well if Maradona and Pele had some sort of potion to make them young and they became Italian, they probably wouldve beat France 3-0!!!” Second of all it seems these 3 ppl like to band together in their one common ground. Being absolutely racist. They say that you should never put an adjective like that in front of a person because it speaks more of their generalization then their actual personality. For example “the ‘white’ Pele”. Instead of saying something more logical such as “the ‘next’ Pele” you chose to use the word white.

It seems these all American ppl can band together in their anglo way of thinking. As another example, how bout the total disrespect to the name of a nation. Calling Italy (or Italia, really) “Cheatalia.” You should be ashamed of yourself, footbal fan.

“There is a French lawyer who is preparing a case to have the WC final declared void. It is against FIFA rules for a ref/linesman to use replays.
If the French lawyer can prove that the 4th linesman viewed replays then…”

This list goes on with this intelligent comment? Okay first of all the official said that they had not consulted the replay. Whether they did or they did not, I couldnt care less. Can u actually, HONESTLY sit there and say that Zidane shouldnt have gotten a red card becuz the referee shouldnt have seen it?! That seems to be even below you. As for the lawyer, Im not worried. If he was magically able to prove that Zidane would have scored in the last 10 minutes, the cup still wouldnt be revoked.

The fact is that with the recent racist and ignorant statements, this board has not become a personal vendetta for me. For you 3 too, it is no longer abour whether Zidane deserves the golden ball or not. It is now about how much you can insult another person’s country.

Joemaica’s blog entry is pure tabloid journalism. She has taken various out of context incidents and tried to paint a biased picture of Zidane.

Only the naive will be decived by her. The discerning minds will recognize it as pure propaganda.

It is a pretty good attempt though to present her views!

Anti-whiner, Adam , all,
I can’t find anything better to say than:

“Love is my sin and thy dear virtue hate” (Shakespeare)

All men are created equal by God and I hold mankind in the highest esteem, (French and Italians alike).

I have only expressed views against Materazzi because I considered his acts to be vile. I also suggested FIFA should investigate the provocation. What is so inflammatory about this?

If I have hurt your feeling I apologize, it was not my intent. Let me remind you:
Materzzi IS NOT == Italian nation.

Italians are nothing but good people.

Peace,
Kruman

You think Materazzi’s actions are vile? I must ask you: what actions? You are just as ignorant as me and the rest of the world as to what happened. Zdane himself still has not said what happened and my question has still not been answered by your side of the opinion: What provocation do you think Materazzi received to say such a thing (if it was even said)?

If you think Materazzi’s words were vile, then I would ASSUME you would think the same of Zidane’s actions which you obviously dont. This is not out of Zidane’s character. He previously got suspended for 5 games for nothing other than HEADBUTTING a guy. Who’s honour was he defending then?

ADAM…BRAVO!!!!

As for Totti, if I had seen a lynch mob come after him like there is one after Zidane, I’d have tried to bring the lynch mob to their senses. Just like I am doing now.

Anyways,
Zidane is our lion.
Zidane is our hero.
Zidane is the true world champ.

Adam,
Zidane is a hero for mankind. He is a modern day Robin Hood who flattened a chest pinching thug.

Adam, Anti-whiner,
You are shameless liars! I have never said a foul word about any race.

You have run out of argumnets and now you are getting personal.

I have always said that Materazzi should not looked at as the Italian nation, for Italians are good people.

Can we all cut out personal and racial remarks and talk like cultured people???

Or is that too much to ask.

kruman? what are u doing in here? its over… week later france lost. italy won. its time to get a life!! sometimes u have to learn to accept things.

>>He previously got suspended for 5 games for nothing other than HEADBUTTING a guy. Who’s honour was he defending then?

The honor of his…er…golden balls? He’d just gotten kneed twice — once possibly accidentally, the other definitely not! Watch the video.

LOL, you guys are ridiculous.

Zidane is my hero, but BOTH men’s actions were vile, Zidane’s even more so. Anyone who says Italy should give back the cup is out of their mind (and again, I’m a France supporter!!).

The reason France lost was not Materazzi or the red card, but because the match went into penalty kicks. The French were closing in, they were relentless. If the golden goal rule or something like it was still in place, France would have won. They lost because three of their strongest players were not on the field to take the PKs, and because Barthez is a blundering fool compared to Buffon. No other reason.

No match, ESPECIALLY not a final, should ever be decided on PKs. It’s RETARDED.

Also, Zidane should keep the Golden Ball. It’s a slap in the face to give it to Cannavaro now. But next time voting should not even open until the final is complete. They should just leave voting open for all of Sunday night and Monday afternoon, then tally the votes and announce them Monday night. FIFA is ridiculous and Blatter is an idiot.

Nola, I agree with you. I love Zidane, but he shouldn’t have done it and there’s no excusing it. I watched with the same horror I used to feel when my kids were little and would do something like bite a playmate.

BUT Materazzi’s a slimy nipple-tweaking perv who deserved what he got. The moral: Trash talk and fondle the wrong guy and you may end up in a fetal position.

To Kruman.
You said : “According to a friend of mine Italy is the only team in the world with a psycho analyst in staff. During halftime an ugly conspriacy is hatched i.e. provoke Zidane”.

This is an OUTRIGHT speculation and nothing less than italian bashing. Why dont u say the Germans have also hacthed a “national” conspiracy plan – coz the whole 60,000 strong supporters in the semis were jeering and insulting Italy.

You said i’m a shameless liar? I’m just quoting what you said. U pretend to be civilized but you keep bashing the italians.

If you are civilized, you should acknowledge without any prejudice that Zidane’s action is uncalled for and should be punished accordingly by the ref/FIFA. But instead you said : “Zidane is the hero of mankind. There is nothing more noble than defending the honor of women, espeically your mother and sister’r.”. U are crap.

As for materazzi, he should be punished by fifa if he is found guilty of an offence. I dont have any problem with that.

But you are a hypocritical loser. U have this innate desire to search for any excuse to keep bashing italians. U use materazzi’ case as an excuse and made pure speculation it was a “ploy” by italy. You seem like u are well-cultured, but u have deep bitterness of the italians.

I’m not the liar, you are the the one who is lying by your hypocrisy. Keep your comments out of italian bashing and you wont find me crossing you.

You call yourself a civilzed guy?

Actually, the moral of this story is: trash talk and fondle the wrong guy and you may end up in a fetal position, the gasping, gagging, contorted “star” of 37 gazillion YouTube videos. Heehee. He’ll NEVER live this down.

I’m 100% with you, Anti-Whiner, I now refuse to respond to any comment made by Kruman. I have said enough to him and I have found it’s like talking to a brick wall and listening to a broken record.

Cheers.

Well said Allez!

Anti-whiner,
OK, support Materazzi and hate Zidane. Just don’t turn into a Materazzi.

A good article:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1152654613877&call_pageid=1044529386722&col=1044529386490

HERES ANOTHER GOOD ARTICLE:

Zidane should have considered cost of cheap shot

07:52 PM CDT on Friday, July 14, 2006

As I was fighting sleep on the couch Sunday afternoon, I never dreamed that five days later I would still be thinking about the World Cup final.

Or writing about it!

That’s what happens when it’s the dog days of summer and all of a sudden you’ve got the Butt Heard Round the World.

You don’t have to be a sports fan and you certainly don’t have to be even remotely interested in soccer to have seen numerous replays of Zinedine Zidane’s vicious head-butt of an Italian player during France’s championship game loss.

The amazing thing is that the noxious waves of political correctness have blown through the scene, and now Zidane is to be viewed as the sympathetic figure. Marco Materazzi, the Italian player who uttered whatever it is that turned one of the sport’s great all-time players into a WWE headliner, is now to be considered the villain.

Materazzi said something. Maybe it was racist. Maybe it was derogatory toward Zidane’s mother or his family. Maybe it reflected the fact that Zidane is Muslim.

I don’t know.

You know what else?

I don’t care.

There are no words that can be said in the heat of an athletic contest that should rightfully compel a player – especially a great player central to his team’s World Cup hopes and playing in the final game for his country – to go Neanderthal.

I’m sure the e-mails are on the way, friendly reminders that I am white and that I have never had the N-word hurled at me in hatred.

That’s true.

And when that happens in the workplace or on the street, people are within their rights to react, at least somewhat violently.

But it’s those who try to transfer trash talk spoken in an athletic contest to the public streets or the courtroom that confuse the issue and eternally confound me.

Yes, racism is wrong in all its forms and should not be tolerated in civilian life. But an athlete who says something hateful during a game is not the same as a politician running on a platform of hate. Let’s try to remember that.

And consider that Zidane is playing in the game of his life. He’s playing his Super Bowl times four because the World Cup comes around just once every four years.

He’s that close to helping his team win the championship. And he chooses instead to leave it to his teammates to try to beat Italy 10 against 11, or beat the Italians in a shootout in which the French goalkeeper is overmatched?

That’s an outrageous decision to make.

Zidane has apologized to the children and to the fans but said, “To regret it would mean he was right to say those things.”

No, it wouldn’t.

To have told the Italian defenseman he would see him in the tunnel after the game would have been the proper reaction. To make sure he got one final chance to use his head to score a goal, not to attack an Italian player, would have been a fitting response.

Some are lauding Zidane for putting his family ahead of the importance of a sporting contest.

That, too, is laughable.

If his family had been in jeopardy, sure. Even those NBA players who wandered into the stands last season when family members became involved in disputes acted within reason.

But to suggest that a careless and hateful remark directed at them required an immediate response is ludicrous.

What Zidane did was instinctive, violent and unnecessary. It put the four years of sacrifice by his teammates and the dreams of his country secondary to his need to physically challenge a disturbing epithet hurled at him.

That is not a heroic act, but Zidane’s stature as one of the revered figures in the game allows many to suggest exactly that.

Some have even suggested Italy be stripped of the World Cup. FIFA is investigating, although I couldn’t tell you what FIFA stands for nor do I care what that governing body decides.

But if we’re going to use lip readers to make sure that ugly remarks are not uttered in the heat of athletic contests, we should pull out tapes of the six Chicago Bulls championships and the three Boston Celtics won during the 1980s.

Michael Jordan and Larry Bird were two of the greatest players in NBA history, and they were also two of the game’s premier trash talkers. Let’s have the lip readers make sure they never said anything that included race or could have been construed as harmful to their opponents’ sensitivities.

Then, and only then can, we can say that the NBA stands right alongside FIFA in its ability to reward the just and punish the perpetrators

Kruman it seems that your statements get more ignornat as time goes on. Sometimes as I sit here replying to you its as if I’m replying to a robot. Whether you’re countlessly supporting football fan as an intelligent person (is this true or is it a “shameless lie”?) or you’re responding to people in the politically correct way you think will sound intelligent you sure do act like a person who has been kept in a box.

Lets go through just a few politically correct things you have said. You seem to be more of a politician than a person. First you say that “Italians are nothing but good people.” What kind of statement is this? I can assure you it isnt true as no race is “nothing but good people.” Then u ask if we can have a “cultured” conversation. Im not sure how “cultured” fits into the context of this conversation but its one of those words that makes a sentence sound intelligent so hey, why not use it I suppose?

My favourite thing you have said must be this recent one: “Zidane is a hero for mankind. He is a modern day Robin Hood who flattened a chest pinching thug.” Yep Materazzi is the big, bad wolf and of COURSE Zidane is a hero! First of all Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave to the poor. I’m not quite sure what humanitarian actions Zidane has taken… :-S And as for the hero part, he is a hero being looked up to as a role model and due to his talent he probably should be. But heros are mostly important to children who will try to emulate their hero’s actions. With 14 career red cards, including these not one but TWO suspensions for the same act of headbutting; I just KINDA wanna say: “Little Jimmy! Perhaps you should be considering someone else…”

adam, LMAOFOTF!!!!

“The honor of his…er…golden balls? He’d just gotten kneed twice — once possibly accidentally, the other definitely not! Watch the video.”

My response to this? Meh… it happens. The fact that Zidane keeps having these excellent excuses for it and all his fans such as yourself seem to support him in headbutting the guy each time is definately not helping things. I understand that people dont just randomly headbutt someone, they have to be “provoked” somehow. But the fact is that a vengeful, deliberate headbutt is the worst possible response. I honestly cant think of anything worse, short of having an all out brawl with the guy.

One person I seem to admire on this board is Nola; a true French fan. Nola, you are able to support your team and support your players but also recognize when they have done wrong and not turn a blind eye. You are a true fan. This is similar to when DeRossi elbowed the American player in the world cup. I didnt see a single Italian fan saying “Well I’m sure the other guy PROVOKED him to do it!” They simply said it was a shameful act and deserved a suspension. Also, I agree with you that Zidane’s award shoulnt be taken away simply because it would be a slap in the face for Cannavaro and this world cup would be remembered for all the wrong reasons. This should simply be a lesson for the next world cup voting process.

Okay so this is kinda off topic but I was looking up stats and I found this kinda interesting. You see, I heard that Buffon probably wouldnt win the award becuz goalkeepers never win and Kahn only won because of how amazing he was. So I wanted to see how amazing he was and I looked into the 2002 stats (since I was only 11 at the time and only watched a few games) The findings were pretty funny. Kahn did have an impressive record, but the thing was… Buffon has a better one…

I’ll now put out the stats of the goalies. Keep in mind they both played 7 games.

Goals Against
Kahn-3
Buffon-2

Goals Against Average
Kahn-0.43
Buffon-0.29

Total Saves
Kahn-22
Buffon-27

Okay so there it is. It seems Buffon beats Kahn in every category :-S.

Now here’s my theory. I think that in 2002 Kahn did a great job and people thought that he needed to be awarded hugely so they gave him the award even though there already is an award for goalkeeping. Then this year they saw how great Buffon was doing and said: “Erm… Guys I thought that was a one time thing… this award cant go to a goalkeeper again… we already have an award for that… that’d be dumb..” And thus, they didn’t. I dont blame them for this, sounds pretty logical to me and I agree but I can see it happening cant you because these obvious stats pretty much tell a story, eh?

(Okay now I dont want this post inflicting on the whole Zidane thing. Cuz i have a feeling somebody is gonna go: “But this year there was ZIDANE who was so great and amazing and did everything and I love him and I want to have his babies and THATS why Buffon didnt win!” But we all know that Ronaldo last world cup [as much as I dont like him... im not sure why...:-S] played amazingly and this showed in his 8 goals. So yeah… I just thought that was kinda funny. ^-^)

Kahn carried his team to the final, many will claim Zizou did likewise (though I’d disagree), whereas Buffon was not ‘the stand-out player’ for Italy, so its hard to see how he’d get it.

The stats are quite interesting but unfortunately ‘total saves’ doesn’t indicate the calibre of the saves, and the difference between 2 and 3 goals may be more luck than anything.

zidane is a man, like he said in the interview. he has dignity to protect, his family meant much3 more to him thn we the world ever love him. wht he did is wrong in sport profes., but he’s right for being a man. to protect his family, where others do not. he put his family first followed by soccer,understand this and believe he will retired as the greatest ever footballer…
he understand us(fans) for a long2 time, do magical tricks for us, make us believe…we as a fans should somehow pay all the gift which he brings us just by believing him. Don’t put him down when he’s on the losing side rather lift them in spirit so they will not feel left aside.
-this go to ronaldo(phenomenom), ronaldinho, carlos, cafu, van nisteroij, raul, becham, and all who play below expectation-

i cheerish them, not because of the world cup but because they earn them for hardwork and commitment in soccer.

Yeah I would assume that and as to the “calibre” of the saves, you’re totally right and I considered that. But then I looked back at Buffon’s calibre of saves and remembered that one where he actually sacraficed smashing his head into the bar in order to save it, lol. Or that one where he made a save, and then got up quickly and made another one on the rebound. Or more recently that well executed header by Zidane that was nicely put away by Buffon. Once again I’ll say I didnt see many of Kahn’s saves and cant speak for them but Im just saying that Buffon surely did have some hard saves to make.

As to the goals, yes the one goal difference is not much I know. But we also have to keep in mind that one fo the Italian goals was a penalty kick. (We might wanna keep in mind that the other was an own goal but that all depends on your opinion of own goals and if they’re really “different” for the goalkeeper to save.)

But all in all you make some very valid points. As to Kahn “taking his team to the final,” I’ve heard that being used before about Kahn. Did Germany not have a very good defense? What do you mean by that?

Kruman, my man! Thanks for the article! To all Zidane haters and Materazzi admirers here, please read the article and respond with anything if you can.

Zidane is the MAN, Materazzi is dirty scambag!

The Crying Fields of Football
—————————–

Football fields will cry with Zidane no more to bring grace and elegance to the sport

Football fields cried when foul words were the crowning glory of the champions

So reads the epitaph of the “Beautiful Game” which was laid to rest in Berlin on 7/19/06

The Crying Fields of Football
———————————————–

Football fields will cry with Zidane no more to bring grace and elegance to the sport

Football fields cried when foul words were the crowning glory of the champions

So reads the epitaph of the “Beautiful Game” which was laid to rest in Berlin on Jely 7th, 2006

Posted from Italy

The article simply said what you have been saying all along, combined with what us “Zidane haters” have been saying all along. That it was a justified thing he did and it didnt ruin his career or reputation at all (your part) but the punishment was just as much justice and he should not have done it.(our part)

As for the “Zidane hater” comment, I do not hate Zidane. He is an amazing soccer player who has done amazing things. I do however hate his attitude and his aggressive style and believe that we did not see these amazing things in Germany 2006.

Haha one question…. how has Serbia and Montenegro gotten BETTER 8 places?! You wuld think an 0 and 3 tally in the world cup as well as a 6-0 thrashing might, just MIGHT affact you negatively. I supppose not…

Thanks for the article Kruman, that about sums up what i feel about Zidane and that incident.

Loosers worry about rankings and places.

Heroes are still heroes, in victory or defeat. Heroes are the true champions.

ZIDANE IS OUR HERO.

ZIDANE IS THE LION OF FOOTBALL.

Welcome on board OilerFan.

I have been fighting this lynch mob for days now. Glad men of wisdom and intellect like you are still around!

Welcome on foad football-fan, glad you could come!

Oh whoops. Excse my last post. i thought this wa sthe window for the blog about the new FIFA rankings :-P

“Thanks for the article Kruman, that about sums up what i feel about Zidane and that incident”

This is what OilerFan has said so far. This is ALL OilerFan has said so far. This is what you have said about OilerFan: “Glad men of wisdom and intellect like you are still around!”

Okay so lets go through OilerFan’s SEVENTEEN words and find where you found not just inellect but ALSO wisdom! WOW! You must have “the eye!” To find WISDOM in 17 words.

Okay. So this wisdom cant possibly be in the first 5 words cuz thats just a simple thank you. You found WISDOM and INTELLECT in 12 words! That’s like one characteristic EVERY WORDS! Congratulations! I have never known of somebody who can predict another’s intelligence so quickly after meeting them! And to think… this is the internet… you couldnt even rely on attitude or body language… only those 17 words… my my… you are TRULY talented…

(OilerFan, no disrespect to you, but as a rational person I can not have a judgement as to your intelligence in 17 words. This is merely a post not to dsrespect you but to point out how Kruman seems to have judged you as intelligent not because you have shown intelligence and wisdom, but because you agree with him.

Adam,
Stop pumping up your team man. You guys won the world cup. That’s enough.

I like you as an individual, that is why I am giving you this sincere advice. Don’t get so outlandish to suggest that your team is the best in everything.

Host: Hello folks and welcome to the new hit show “Caught up in my words” where we quote people and then prove how stupid they are as they contradict themselves. Today on our show we seem to have a recurring guest! Kruman! Well folks lets see the latest stupid thing he’s said: “Loosers worry about rankings and places.”

Little boy: But Mr.Host sir, why is that stupid? That is a perfectly valid comment, isnt it?

Host: Oh of course little Bobby! Except that Kruman is living a double life and likes to contradict himself! You see Bobby, on this SAME website there is another article about the new FIFA world ranking system! And although Kruman now claims that only losers worry about rankings, he seems to have worried about it enough on THIS board! He’s posted there and even went on to say HIS opinions of what the rankings SHOULD be.

Little boy: Oh yeah… isnt this the guy who is the all-knowing and powerful being who we all should listen to because he is sophisticated and “cultured”

Host: Yes, little Bobby.

Little boy: But isnt it silly to say only losers care about rankings and then to talk about rankings and say that you know what the real rankings should look like?

Host: yes little Bobby

Little boy: Im confused…

Host: of course you are little bobby! But until next time, Im your host on “Caught up in my words!”

—————————————————————-
Kruman | July 15th, 2006 at 4:39 am

The rankings should be:
France
Italy
Germany
Brazil
Argentina
England
Spain

Posted from United States

http://www.worldcupblog.org/power-rankings/shiny-new-fifa-world-rankings.html

“Adam,
Stop pumping up your team man. You guys won the world cup. That’s enough.

I like you as an individual, that is why I am giving you this sincere advice. Don’t get so outlandish to suggest that your team is the best in everything. ”

Say what?!?! :-S. I haven’t been pumping by team, especially recently so please refer to what you are talking about. And I definately havent been pumping my team as “the best at everything.” In fact if u check my posts on the rankings board on this website I actually state that I am happy with Italy’s position of 2nd in the world right now as opposed to many Italians and many ppl from other countries that believe that since they won the world cup they should be 1st. Maybe I missed something. Specify please.

I said heroes are the true champs. Champs are number #1. Therefore France is #1. Champs are always number #1. They don’t need to worry about ranking.

Loosers worry about rankings and places because they’ll never be number 1.

It went over your head, didn’t it. I didn’t think you could make the link.

That makes no sense at all. I dont even know where to begin… ugh… I wanna scream…

You know what… I was wrong. I shouldnt be talking to you. Roger was right. Its hopeless. Your nothing but a brick wall. I just disproved you and instead of recognizing it and agreeing for once, you indtead decided to throw at me some inane equation that makes no sense at all.

So in otherwords France should be ranked number 1 in the world because they are heros… not necessarily soccer players… but heros… but rankings done matter… but they should be ranked 1st. yep… you make a LOT of sense. Farewell, im off to bed.

First off I think a lot of you people are giving zidane wayyyy too much credit. Yes, he is an amazing player and in my opinion he was so good in 1998 that he (imo) carried france to a world cup. But you all are forgetting many things.

First off, Zidane would be nowhere if it wasnt for JUVENTUS. Juventus fine tuned his skills and abilities. Lets not forget that for the first year of Zidane at Juventus, he was benched and they were very ready to get rid of him, Lippi made him into what he became, I have nothing more to say on that. Except all you anti Italian racists you bash the very country that created your saviour, OH HOW WE FORGET!!

Also, Everyone has been saying WOW, Zidane was amazing this world cup, old zidane, blah blah blah. Aside from a few moments the guy way absolutly invisible against Portugal and Italy. His header was the only contribution given during the Italy final.

If you people really are France fans, like you claim, and watch soccer, or have even watched the world cup remotely, you will notice that it wasnt ZIDANE that carried the french team to the finals. It was the collective brilliance of Thuram, Viera, and Ribery. These three players made the difference. Where would france be without those brilliant runs by ribery???

However, the true man of France is HENRY. IMO (and Im italian) he is the best striker in the world. And although he didnt score many goals in the world cup, he was Menacing everytime he was near the defence. Absolutly the best player france had hands down!! Get over the retirement crap, if you ignorant people Hate Italy sooooo much, at least talk about and brag about the people who made the difference for France, not a hasbeen who got two red cards in the tourny and nearly missed a penalty shot. It pisses me off quite a bit, had france given Henry those two penalty shots, he would have had a shot at the golden boot!!! theres some thinking for you “Fans” french fans. I am all for brilliant football, and in all honesty, Italy did show us the best football this tournament game in and game out.

And about the diving… France, Germany, Italy and obviously portugal were all massive divers. I have noticed that actually the south american countries are the worst at this tactic. As long as you can get away with it, its perfectly legit, and that is what is killing the game. Please dont blame one country for doing it, cause EVERYONE DOES IT!!!! ie rivaldo 2002.

onto the original question.
Yes, Zidane deserves to lose the trophy. Whatever Materazzi said, no matter what, should not have gotten a reaction like that from anyone. if he insulted his family, why then would zidane headbutt him in the chest??? I have a feeling zidane is doing what he has done best in the past, being a SUCK… and in all honesty I am a zidane fan, I think his skill is great, but that man isnt classy or nice, like some of you people are making him out to be, the guy is a suck and an arrogant prick, he always has been, and he will always be. I have been following his career since the begining, he just showed his true colors, drop the subject, stop pretending he was the greatest ever.

I cant wait for Beckham to retire. How are you people going to act then? Like its the bloody end of the world!! Geeze..

Zidane, should be remember for his skill, his drive and his fortitude. BUT.. Like Maradonna and drugs, Zidane will always carry the black mark of his dicipline on and off the pitch.

Adam, mate, m-a-a-a-a-te, the sixties rock-n-roll singer, Bobby Rydell, had a hit song called “Forget him”, so, as Eric Idle of Monty Python would say, “say no more”.

“So in otherwords France should be ranked number 1 in the world because they are heros… not necessarily soccer players… but heros… but rankings done matter… but they should be ranked 1st. ”

Complete gibberish nonsense!
No comprehension of figurative speech at all!

“The cranking of the chains of Majnun is the orchestra of lovers
To comprehend this is quite beyond the pseduo-intellects”

kruman,

are you menatally retarded?

He was so illustrious there on the field,
With sunlight on his face.
He would not tolerate the cursing
As Materazzi walked a step behind.
For he was the one with all the glory,
while Materazzi was only strength.
A beautiful face with a Zizou nickname,
a beautiful smile to hide the pain.

CHORUS from Kruman:
Did you ever know that you’re my hero,
and ev’rything I would like to be?
I can fly higher than an eagle,
’cause you are the wind beneath my wings

Good in patcha
Against Ghana, Czeka, Ukraina
None too convinsa
Brilliant footballa
Beating Alemania
Overall rating, half thumba
Star, superscript stara
Go easy on the simulaccia
And the serie A match-fixa
FORZA AZZURI DIASPORA!

Yeesh, are you guys still at this? Did you sleep? Do you have women? Jobs?

ALLEZ LES BLEUS:

I root for the italians, but live in Paris and you know what baby? The best part was getting into the metro(tube/subway, call it whatever) monday morning, ahhhhh what sweet pleasure !!! i hoped it would last long…but then again i snap out of my dream to walk into work and see all of u complaining !!!! aw what a bummer. can’t even take defeat well….

like madonna’s t-shirt once said “the italians do it better”.

sex and “le foot”: something u frenchies dont know much about. ask your neighbours to teach u a thing or two.

tch tch…and yes, maye you should officially have a french word for football, don’t you think so? maybe “calcio” ? just an idea.

just dont call it “le foot” it sounds so horrible. no wonder u can’t play it.

ALLEZ LES BLEUS:

I root for the italians, but live in Paris and you know what baby? The best part was getting into the metro(tube/subway, call it whatever) monday morning, ahhhhh what sweet pleasure !!! i hoped it would last long…but then again i snap out of my dream to walk into work and see all of u complaining !!!! aw what a bummer. can’t even take defeat well….

like madonna’s t-shirt once said “the italians do it better”. maybe she was also talking about football…?

s*x and “le foot”: something u frenchies dont know much about. ask your neighbours to teach u a thing or two.

tch tch…and yes, maye you should officially have a french word for football, don’t you think so? maybe “calcio” ? just an idea.

just dont call it “le foot” it sounds so horrible. no wonder u can’t play it.

Forza Azzuri – you are perfect illustration why birth control pills are such a good thing. But I guess your parents did not know… Too bad..

BTW, CONGRATS! CHEATALIA IS CHAMPION! CHEATALIA WON! FOOTBAL IS DEAD

You know what I love? People who use big words when they talk, not of course because this is everyday vocabulary to them, but simply so that they can fool people into the illusion of thinking they are smart.

These words include “comprehension” and “figurative.” An average person would use words like understanding in their place but a person trying to sound smart will go all the extra mile. Okay… lets see what I can piece together here:

“The Italian football affiliation established their predominance over the French football association in the preceding competetion recognized as the FIFA World Cup Final. Competitor Zinedine Zidane made a ludicrous verdict in assaulting his antagonist, Materazzi.”

Ooooooooh… the powers of a thesaurus, eh? You guys should really try it out some time. Except for those certain people that just might be overusing it a bit…

“Forza Azzuri – you are perfect illustration why birth control pills are such a good thing. But I guess your parents did not know… Too bad..

BTW, CONGRATS! CHEATALIA IS CHAMPION! CHEATALIA WON! FOOTBAL IS DEAD”

Hiya football fan! Im so glad your back. You know… we were chatting on this board for a while before you came… and i thought to myself: “You know what this board needs some more of?! Racism!!!” And then you arrived and if I do say so myself you are DEFINATEYLY fullfilling the goal. Congratulations! I mean how dare those dirty, disgusting, cheating, diving, piece of crap Italian fans say anything racist about Zidane! Dont they know that racism is wrong?!

football fan:

aw cmon sweetie, why do u have to talk about my parents? Be more imaginative!

Just bcoz u love “le foot” so much, all you can keep saying is “cheatalia” ? What about your ace divers henry and malouda then? ah yes, i forgot it was an all-italian final. Juve! Juve!!

U really lack some imagination, man! I guess the truth must hurt, hanh?

4 stelle, zitta!

Liberté, Fraternité, In Cu****
go figure that one out!

Italy waited for 8 years for this and now that they got it ppl like yourself can’t handle it, can u?

Lets look at it this way…let the poor italians win for once in peace, can’t u?

ps: madonna was SO right! :)

Fifa should not take away the golden ball from Zidane, only because Materazzi got non.

and kudos to the French lawyer who will file a suit after investigating what really happened. I wonder how much more dirt people can dig up on the Italian team if properly investigated. Fring’s ban was illegal because it was not based on the refs’ decision but based on a video clip broadcasted by the Italian press. This world cup should stand in the corner until next time around. Italy did not deserve it.

Forza Azurri, I had to drop a bombshell on you but Italia did not win.. still, for some wonderous reason they temporarily own the cup. I doubt, when all is investigate they get to keep it.

Football Fan, thank you for your words of wisdom.

Lions of Zidane triumph over the dark forces of the Materazzi’s in the blog wars.

The Materazzi army attacked in vain the beautiful game and values espoused by it’s fans i.e. honor, human dignity, respect and family values.

Long live the Zidane lions! The Materazzi army is blunted and stands in shame.

“The Italian football affiliation established their predominance over the French football association in the preceding competetion recognized as the FIFA World Cup Final. Competitor Zinedine Zidane made a ludicrous verdict in assaulting his antagonist, Materazzi.”

Complete gibberish nonsense again!

“You know what I love? People who use big words when they talk, not of course because this is everyday vocabulary to them, but simply so that they can fool people into the illusion of thinking they are smart.

These words include “comprehension” and “figurative.” An average person would use words like understanding in their place but a person trying to sound smart will go all the extra mile. Okay… lets see what I can piece together here:

“The Italian football affiliation established their predominance over the French football association in the preceding competetion recognized as the FIFA World Cup Final. Competitor Zinedine Zidane made a ludicrous verdict in assaulting his antagonist, Materazzi.”

Ooooooooh… the powers of a thesaurus, eh? You guys should really try it out some time. Except for those certain people that just might be overusing it a bit… ”

Adam, give up the dark side man. Give up Materazzism. It’s enough.

Kruman and co.,

I’m actually wondering what we’re squabbling about here?

Zidane doesn’t have any balls..oops i meant ball…so what are they talking about taking away?

ps: Madonna was SO right !!!!!

Forza Azzurri,
Not bad, atleast you got a sense humor pal.

Try to imbue a little into the Materazzi lovers on your side. They are too serious about the whole episode.

Kruman

Kruman,

Hey, cmon we’re just defending our side. We have the right to do it man! How would you feel if you world cup victory shared the front page news with zidane’s head butt. It was a guy’s game, a few words were said around, nothing new to football, and then whack.next morning, we’re sharing, or rather our victory is questioned bcoz one man couldnt control his temper???

As for M, I don’t think anyone’s really standing up for him. He did something that has been done a 100 times on the pitch b4, but the opponent reacted completed out of line! Thats all there is to it. I guess even after this episode it will be tough to keep the players from foul-mouthing each other, dont u think so?

all said and done, i can tell u the cooler ones will only end it will – 4 stelle! Campione del mondo!!!

Peace:)

Kruman,

Hey, cmon we’re just defending our side. We have the right to do it man! How would you feel if you world cup victory shared the front page news with zidane’s head butt. It was a guy’s game, a few words were said around, nothing new to football, and then whack.next morning, we’re sharing, or rather our victory is questioned bcoz one man couldnt control his temper???

As for M, I don’t think anyone’s really standing up for him. He did something that has been done a 100 times on the pitch b4, but the opponent reacted completed out of line! Thats all there is to it. I guess even after this episode it will be tough to keep the players from foul-mouthing each other, dont u think so?

all said and done, i can tell u the cooler ones will only end it will – 4 stelle! Campione del mondo!!!

Peace:)

Forza Azzurri,
Congratulation on winning the World Cup!

It was a long wait, 24 years. Interestingly it also took Brazil 24 years to win after 1970.

Now that I have congratulated you it does not mean that I’ll stop bashing ugly face of football, Materazzism . Nor will I stop defending Zidane:)

Peace,
Kruman

LA frings episode happened AFTER THE GAME WAS OVER!!!! doesnt matter WHO gave them a tape YA HEAR?

“Lions of Zidane triumph over the dark forces of the Materazzi’s in the blog wars.

The Materazzi army attacked in vain the beautiful game and values espoused by it’s fans i.e. honor, human dignity, respect and family values.

Long live the Zidane lions! The Materazzi army is blunted and stands in shame”

Does anybody else think this kinda sounds like someone from Lord of the Rings?! I mean I’m kinda expecting to hear something about how Zidane is the leader of the Dungeons and Dragons and will rise to fullfill the prophecy and destroy the one ring to rule them all.

Kruman, I realize that you like Zidane. I like Zidane too. he’s quite a soccer player. But all this lion talk is kinda humourous, donch’ya think?

That being said, I do agree I’m probably taking this a bit too seriously, my apologies. Although I simply cannot read a post by football fan without wnating to go mad. ^-^

Lions of Zidane triumph over the dark forces of the Materazzi’s in the blog wars.

The Materazzi army attacked in vain the beautiful game and values espoused by it’s fans i.e. honor, human dignity, respect and family values.

Long live the Zidane lions! The Materazzi army is thwarted and stands in shame.

Well done football-fan, LA, Steve!

“Lions of Zidane triumph over the dark forces of the Materazzi’s in the blog wars.

“The Materazzi army attacked in vain the beautiful game and values espoused by it’s fans i.e. honor, human dignity, respect and family values.

Long live the Zidane lions! The Materazzi army is blunted and stands in shame”

Does anybody else think this kinda sounds like someone from Lord of the Rings?! I mean I’m kinda expecting to hear something about how Zidane is the leader of the Dungeons and Dragons and will rise to fullfill the prophecy and destroy the one ring to rule them all.

Kruman, I realize that you like Zidane. I like Zidane too. he’s quite a soccer player. But all this lion talk is kinda humourous, donch’ya think?

That being said, I do agree I’m probably taking this a bit too seriously, my apologies. Although I simply cannot read a post by football fan without wnating to go mad. ^-^ ”

Adam if I had read your note I would’nt have posted again, I was just starting to miss you :),so I decided to throw the bait.

Kruman we seem to have a love-hate relationship here, lmao. But one thing’s for certain you CANT say you support LA. Please tell me u saying good job to him was a mistake. I mean you say Italians are good people and then when people say things like this:

“Forza Azurri, I had to drop a bombshell on you but Italia did not win.. still, for some wonderous reason they temporarily own the cup. I doubt, when all is investigate they get to keep it”

Obvious nonsense and hate towards the Italian soccer team. Which side do you support fnally?

Adam,
I don’t support racist statements directed at Italian nation by anoyone. I ONLY SUPPORT STATEMENTS IN SUPPORT OF THE BEAUTIFUL GAME AND ZIDANE.

Heartiest congratualtions that your team won! I have nothing but regards for your sentiments and emotions because they are driven by true patriotism.

Do realize that most people are just against Materazzi and his brand of football, not against Italians.

Peace,
Kruman

“That being said, I do agree I’m probably taking this a bit too seriously, my apologies. Although I simply cannot read a post by football fan without wnating to go mad. ^-^”

Adam, just go to a bar/cafe and have a nice time. It will be far more enjoyable than reading the blogs, especially mine.

Take a cue from Zidane, when he got the red card, he didn’t even galnce at the tropy, walked straight out. You gotta a admire the balls that the guy has. He head-butted Materazzi, FIFA, and perhaps even the racist elements in French society who like ethnic players to just win them the world cup.

Adam,
I don’t support statements directed at Italian nation by anoyone. I ONLY SUPPORT STATEMENTS IN SUPPORT OF THE BEAUTIFUL GAME AND ZIDANE.

Heartiest congratualtions that your team won! I have nothing but regards for your sentiments and emotions because they are driven by true patriotism.

Do realize that most people are just against Materazzi and his brand of football, not against Italians.

Peace,
Kruman

Kruman, Adam,

U guys r awesome! I love u!

Just a pity to see that if the roles were reversed ppl would anyways take up for Zidane.Thats life i guess .

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR…

Enjoy your sunday!

Kings of Football:
1958 – 1970: The rule of Pele
1982 – 1990: Maradona aided by the hand of God
1994-2006: Zinedine Zidane, the lion

Sorry Materazzi, even if FIFA removes The Ball from Zidane, Hon

Sorry for Materazzi, he couldn’t control Zidane in the field, I understand his frustration, but no needed to insult in such that way. Thanks to Materazzi, a new campaign against Mother insults is needed, Zidane will be remembered as the best player, even if FIFA removes the ball from Zidane, he will have the best recognition; Ours.

Verdict of an impartial Scott:
http://sport.scotsman.com/football.cfm?id=1034022006

Here in Italy we laugh at the ridiculous insulting campaign against Italian team and Italians. I am sorry but English (from England) press gives us a shameful image of England:
- Labial experts which do not understand Italian pretend that their conclusions are true. Materazzi is considered A PRIORI the guilty despite the terrible action of Zidane. Remember what happened in the Totti-Poulsen case
- The fact that England played very bad and quit the World cup with absolutely no glory becomes the reason to insult the winning team.
- the strong lack of fairness drives England in the awful jungle of proses and platitudes (that IS a sort of racism)
Hypocrisy, friends. You are full of Hypocrisy.
We Italian have other faults, but, luckily, not that one. If you English are not the same of your press, please, for your honour, try to change it in the next years

—–Zidane hits Materazzi—–
Press and journalists and Chirac: poor Zidane.. he is a man, the guilty is that bastard italian that provoked him

—–Materazzi hits Zidane—–
Press and journalists and Chirac:
Those bastards italians are not able to play football and have to headbutt great players

YOU HYPOCRITES !!!!
SHAME ON YOU!!!
YOU ETERNAL LOSERS !!!!

Andrea,
Can you give me a definition of “looser”?

Here is an example for you.
A vulture is a looser because he does not earn his sustenance in an honorable way.

Eagle is a winner, he prefers hunger to food that will lower him into the domain of vultures.

Materazzi sure won, but chose the lowlieet of acts to get to that end.

I am outta here, these blogs suck you in like a quagmire.

Goodbyte, Italy fans enjoy the cup and stop posting on the blogs.

Non-Italy fans,
Root for Brazil the next time. You’ll see the real Ronaldinho then.

Losers are people which behave as a flag, that goes where goes the wind
Losers are people which talk, talk, talk, believe themselves the best in the world and according to that spit judgements over anyone, but almost never win
Losers are people that justify a violent act in front of thousands of people.
Materazzi probably isn’t fair (however could we wait for some certain proofs about before spitting judgements?) but
Chirac, Zidane and “friends” are unfair AND losers
THIS is the difference
Goodbye

Dear friends, let me show you the european Hypocrisy.
European 2004:
Totti, after being provoked during the match (with unfair faults and with insults), spit to Poulsen. Non-official Danish images let the FIFA send him off from the European competition.
European press: Totti is the “classic” Italian. Unable in self controlling. Poulsen? Like a saint. Thanks and plaudits to FIFA for sending him off. Italy is not worthy of being in the competition
Italian press and people: sorrow and first anger against Poulsen that then becomes anger against Totti for his stupid reaction. Most of people feels that the guilty IS Totti and he has payed for his stupidity
And in the Materazzi-Zidane case? What happened?????

First: realizing hypocrisy and envy
Then: we can discuss about Materazzi and his not fair behaviour
Keyword: Obiettività (yes, I write it in Italian)

A little thing:
for me Zidane was a winner taking into account its wonderful career, also after the head butt, until he did that awful interview at Canal +.

Is this poetry or magic?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYUtKKbBTkw&search=zidane

Neither, Kruman.

Poetry is literature in metrical form and magic is the practice of illusory tricks. The video is just a demonstration of Zidane’s excellent football skills. That’s all. Don’t let it go to your head that it’s anything beyond that.

MClaudio Vigorelli

Materassi’s agent signore Claudio Vigorelli says “FIFA should only take care of Zidane’s behavior” Facile eh ! was Zidane playing alone ? or Italy playing alone in the pitch?. Zidane deserves the red card, no doubt he accepted, now we talk about the FIFA Referee actuation, and FIFA credibility He did not consider just asking why ? He acted one way on Zidane ignoring by far The cause, he did not even consider it,… affecting the result of the game, Materassi and Italy obtained what they worked for. But, what credibility shall have FIFA in the future ???
it’s basic, we always ask why, He DID NOT, rea$on ??

Haha okay this is my last post on this blog. Like Kruman has said: These blogs REALLY suck you in! lol. And it seems even he couldn’t stay true to his word. :-P

Well as a last response to a topic that is *vally girl voice* SO yesterday! I just think it’s interesting what Andrea has said about Totti in Euro 204. Nobody condoned that including Italians and as an Italian I can tell you I ddidnt even know he was “provoked” until now. The verdict? I still don’t care. He got what he deserved whether he was provoked or not. I can also say he is a very talented soccer player (although we didnt see this in World Cup 2006).

Anywhoz, I’m hearing a whole lot of repetitive stuff over and over here; many of which I’ve already responded to in many ways. So it was great talking with you guys and Ciao for now until we can debate about something new yet again one day.

^-^

Okay so it seems like I have lied already. But I found an interesting article and thought that I just MUST post it:

http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news;_ylt=AvPOvpIyn.KV8DrpEHoycjomw7YF?slug=cnnsi-partingwords&prov=cnnsi&type=lgns

Toodles!

Was there ever a rule that a person who earns a red card cannot be awarded the Golden Ball. If not then Sepp Blatter is a hypocrite to even talk about withdrawing the Golden Ball from Zidane.

It is worst still that he want to withdraw a Golden Ball that was not awarded by FIFA. He must be getting to old and possibly senile and its time for him to retire.

Finally are we saying football pitches should now be a haven for abuses? Well done disciplinary committee for the harsh sentence handed to Metarazzi the foul mouthed bad sportsman and cheat. No to not only racial abuses but to sexist abuses.

Ayoola Oke

Very good sentence. FIFA demostrates that there has a lot of mafia. Perhaps FIFA want to give work to Zidane in future, so..
This sentence will be the Eldorado for all violent players of the world! Thank you FIFA for your stupidity.
Strangely, only Materazzy comes out with dignity from this story

For me, France is the WC title of 2006 held in Germany.

Still asleep and dreaming, Khmer? Are you in for a surprise when you wake up.

@Khmer,

That’s cuz ur dumb and perhaps you didnt WATCH the last game. Wow… what an ignorant and pathetic statement…

1) What would it have been the sentence if Zidane was the insulter and Materazzi the head butter?
2) Now if anybody insults me and I beat him up the best I can, do I get a 3 months jail sentence and him 2?
3) Can Italy ask UEFA to disqualify Paulsen for 3 matchs because he insulted Totti?
4) Why did FIFA NEVER apply this principle before?

Try to answer to those questions with cold mind and please remember this, whatever you can tell:
Italy gained the WC trophy on the field because FIFA did whatever they could against.

Why should Fifa have to take the Golden Ball from Z….I would think he would give it back. Wouldn’t that be the honouracle thing to do? Or is honour lost cause on the french?

As far as WC 2006 goes, Zidnae was the true champ. Rest is all bullsh#t.

Take the ball away from ZZ already. Whats taking so long? Every day he has it tarnishes the award…..he did NOT deserve it (BIG) period.

Without Materazzi at his provoking best, Italy just can’t beat France.

Final verdict: 3-1 FRANCE

Italians soccer players are nothing but cheats and losers.

To Andrea Botteri,

Materazzi recognized he had insulted ZZ, read the text, it means suspension.

And Fifa applied this principle a lot of time before:Rudy Voeller vs Ryggard etc…
However, it’s the first time than a player ZZ was expulsed by the video.

Why would ZZ accept this award? Would he keep it in a box or buried in his backyard?

His children will grow up and watch the video’s of WC 2006 and ask him “how the hell didn’t Cannavaro win the golden ball pappa?

Please think of the children ZZ and return the Golden Ball.

regards
john

Italians aren’t cheats!
they are the best team in the world
zidane shudda walked away
not headbutting him
nuf said

Italians aren’t cheats!
they are the best team in the world
zidane shudda walked away
not headbutting him
nuf said

Italians aren’t cheats!
they are the best team in the world
zidane shudda walked away
not headbutting him
nuf said

Damn right m8

I thought ZZ would return the award long ago. Shame on him and all his apologists.