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la nazionale italiana è troppo forte!
Regole di Buffon. le loro maglie sono ancora meglio. Buffon è il miglior portiere e tutta la nazionale italiana è troppo forte.≡ Click to see image ≡
(you have no idea how happy I am right now)
I wonder what the guy said that made him turn around and do that during a dead ball. Still, that was the retiring Zizou's final play ever, right? Loved it.
But congrats to the Italians: as the game went on, it became more and more clear who would win. They were better all over the field, and especially in goal. Great game. And the only game Italy didn't win outright in the whole tournament was the one vs. the USA, so great tournament altogether by Italy.
Trezeguet's a goat, and as soon as he came on I knew he'd blow it. Especially since he plays for corrupt Juventus. Now he'll be a hero when he goes back to the freshly sanctioned gobbi for a little Serie C action.
I haven't really apreciated Cannavaro until now. When the penalties were going on, every italian player would jump at each goal and he stood there, with ice in his veins staing intesly at the goal as if he was mentally willing Italy to win. (Maybe he didn't wanna jinx it by cheering before it was up). He just looked so damn cool.
Yeah it did look like he did some touchy stuff. But that still right off the chart. Maybe Zidane was cranky from having his arm pulled out of whack earier.
(when that happened he was supah-cool, just waving a little "hello, over here, look *points* arm hanging all wrong. Come fix. ktx.")
Who cares what Materazzi did to Zidane, and who cares that he (Zidane, that is) got a red card? He played a great game and it was hardly his fault that in the end, his team lost. Italy won this one deservedly. Yay for Italy!
I care. I was pretty disappointed in those last ten minutes. It could very well have been his fault that his team lost. Because of him they had a man down in the final minutes of the match and missed their number one penalty kicker in the penalty kicks.
And France had most of the momentum in the second half, but despite being exhausted, Italy's defense held out. It seemed to me the match was France's to lose.
But lose or no, that was a pretty shitty note to end your career on.
Actually, danf, it became clear Italy was on the way to victory when France subbed both Ribery and Henry out of the game once both teams were ready to clamp it down and head to a penalty shootout. Replacing Henry with Trezeguet on the PK schedule, no matter how exhausted Henry might have been, was a recipe for disaster -- Thierry is terrific at fooling goalies, and David has always been disappointing. Missing the frame on a PK is a hell of a lot worse than having one saved, and hitting the crossbar is missing the frame. You can't score if you don't shoot on goal, as the three players who shot right down the middle clearly knew. Not so Trezeguet, who aimed high and gave himself a small margin for error.
I also base my "more and more clear who would win" on my nephew's prediction in the middle of the second half, when I asked him who would win.
Yeah, but Hugh, they might not have needed to even bother with the penalty kicks if Zidane hadn't sacrificed France's offense. It seemed to me they were bound to score at some point, before the idiocy...
ififif...
and anyone can miss a penalty kick...it happens to the best of 'em.
Yeah, I felt the opposite, like Italy was really sewing it up there towards the end, even before Zidane lost his head. But that's just different soccer minds at work; interpretations always differ. The Italians obviously knew how to get under Zizou's skin, Materazzi prolly called him a dirty Berber or something. The Azzurri managed to do the same thing to Michael Ballack in the semi, but Ballack blew his fuse much earlier in that game, became angry and useless, and I think the Nationalmannschaft really suffered for it.
I think the talent on display was very even, and it came down to master tacticians versus hard work and old legs... tactics won this time. Guys do stupid things when they're tired, and France looked tired during the extra periods. So did Germany in the semifinal; Italy stayed fresh and still looked good (even though they didn't look too pressed for a score. with a goalie like Buffon, why not take it to a shootout?)
And I know anyone can miss a penal, but it was no surprise to me at all that the only one to do so was David Trezeguet.
but I'll join you in one litany, fa sho: ifififififififif!
hmm, some random thoughts, excuse me but I just got back from celebrating in the streets for the last three hours, and all the screaming and car horns and public nudity made me a bit groggy
see, Yasid (it's Zidane's real name, did you know that? that's how he was known to the Marseilles young thugs he used to hang out with) is not really the nicest guy evar -- I guess many of you guys must be unfamiliar with his long history of red cards (17 or 18 in his career, TV commentators disagreed tonight, and that's a fuckload especially for a guy who doesn't play defense), and almost all of his red cards are for violent attacks away from the ball, just like tonight.
I remember that in in 2000 when he played for Juventus he did something awesome -- he played against Hamburg in the Champions League and he was coming back from a 2 game suspension for a red card. about an hour into the game, he head butted a German, almost breaking his cheekbone, and he got an almost unheard-of UEFA five game suspension.
Real Madrid fans will tell you similar stories about Zidane's famous temper, and his memorable red cards.
pro soccer is not like the WWF -- trash talk does not equal kicking a guy's ass. Materazzi almost certainly told him something (please don't believe that silly nipple-twist story from the Guardian, Materazzi just holds on to the front of Zidane's jersey, over his heart, where the red stripe is, just that), Zidane began to walk away, you see Materazzi's mouth moving (it's a medium shot and not even on my 42-inch screen I could read Materazzi's lips)
after he gets hit and comes back to his feet, in close up, Materazzi yells at the assistant ref on the sidelines, and it's very easy to read his lips. he goes, in Italian:
"Tutto il mondo ha visto, tranne te? Tutto il mondo! E tu?"
which means, "The entire world saw that, and you didn't? The entire world! What about you?"
simultaneously, Buffon, the Italian goalie, who was the closest, runs towards the assistant ref yelling "Hai visto? Hai visto?", "did you see, did you see?"
keep in mind that the refs have little radios with mikes and earphones to communicate throughout the game. right then, the assistant ref on the sidelines (the balding guy) must tell something, via radio link, to the ref in the middle of the field, the gray-haired tan guy. the ref meets with his assistant on the sidelines, they have a VERY brief exchange (my Spanish is not that good, sorry), then he comes back to the center of the field and he shows the red card to Zidane.
then the French coach, Domenech (Zidane threw a water bottle at him ten days ago, remember?) loses his shit.
cut to Materazzi, who in extreme close up now yells (and this is genius) "Stai muto!" three times (Shut Up!, literally "Stay mute")
I'm sure tomorrow we'll know exactly what, but the point is in soccer you don't get red cards for trash talk (unless you insult the refs of course), you get red cards for head butts. one figures a guy with Zidane's experience knows that you just ignore trash talk. he didn't, and was sent off, for the 17th or 18th time in his pro career. google it up for yourself, it's a fuckload of red cards, and he didn't always play against Materazzi, really.
was it a racial slur? well, you have to take Zidane's word for it, only he and Materazzi know unless we can really read Materazzi's lips enhancing the footage. it'd be strange because France had eight black players, a racist would insult them way before he insulted Zidane. we just don't know, really.
anyway if you're really interested bookmark this thread, if things become clearer I'll post the mean, mean things Materazzi must have told Zidane. maybe he even glared at him, or something. of course racism is despicable, but at this point it's a theory. what we know is that Zidane did headbutt him.
the game itself was very disappointing, it was Italy's worst performance in the Cup (the USA match was the second-worst, Germany and Ukraine were the best by far, they played Ghana pretty well and Australia pretty weakly). and yes, it hurts to lose a world cup on penalty kicks, Italy did in '94 and I still remember that crap night.
Zidane demonstrates that, like Caravaggio, you can be a marvelous artist and a thug. it's misleading to romanticize artists -- or soccer geniuses -- like that. Maradona was a cheat and a cokehead, but he was also the best player there ever was. I miss him and I'll miss Zidane
it'd be strange because France had eight black players, a racist would insult them way before he insulted Zidane. we just don't know, really.
Except Zidane was the captain, and is a notorious hothead, and a tactical team like Italy isn't gonna miss the chance to put a little psych on the star. I doubt Materazzi has a racist bone in his body, but if he knew it might help win the game, I'm sure he'd talk just about any trash to just about anyone. But it's true, it's a mystery, and the fact remains that Zidane's temper certainly shook up the game and ultimately helped Italy.
But yeah, Zidane is a total sonofabitch, like Michael Jordan. And brilliant like that, too. By the way, I respectfully disagree about Maradona -- Pele was more fun to watch. De gustibus... uhh... delendum est?
That was a fun World Cup -- every single prediction I made was wrong; every single opinion I had, of players or teams, was wrong; my national team lacked heart and discipline; I missed most of the good games because of work -- and I enjoyed the hell out of it.
Again, congratulations to the Italians, and matteo in particular.
Was an awesome headbut though. Do you think he really knocked dude off his feet or was he playing it up like they do in basketball, to emphasize the foul? Did he get him right on the solar plexus? It seemed like he did. That was art right there. I'd wig out like the rest of the world does about the copa if it was the copa mundial de headbutting.
...Especially since he plays for corrupt Juventus.
Considering Del Piero, Cannavarro, Buffon, Zambrotta, Camorenesi, Thuram, Zidane, Viera, Trezeguet and others all play or have played for Juve at one point or another, I'd say that's a pretty moot point.
Heh. Your headline fooled me. I only saw the front page, prior to watching the TiVoed game, so I just *thought* you'd spoiled the outcome for me. Still, we did agree not to have spoilers on the front page, and I suppose that also includes misleading ones. Not a big deal. I still enjoyed the game, until Zidane started acting like an asshole.
I'd say it was a joke, but if I had to say so, it wasn't a very good one. And sorry about the slur on the Old Lady. They've been awesome to watch over the years.
D'oh! The joke flew over my head last night (or rather this morning). Sorry Hugh. I was PUI.
I've lived in Rome for the past 8 years, but Zidane got me started following Juve & footie. By the time he left, well, my loyalties were fast pinned to Juve.
Gianluca Vialli and Fabrizio Ravanelli had that effect on me for awhile, but when Vialli transfered to England, I found it pretty easy to transfer my loyalties as well. And I'm not much of a Pavel Nedved fan so I haven't followed Juve very much at all.
Too bad about the match-fixing scandal. There are a lot of big clubs under scrutiny. Could end up being a serious shakeup (though the World Cup victory might distract a few folks). Match-fixing sucks; it can really drive fans away from the game.
And it sucks that your favorite team looks slated to disappear, at least for a while. I loved a girl who was a Fiorentina fan once, and she was heartbroken when they fell apart.
Yeah, C1 is gonna suck. But if Fiorentina can manage to bounce back (and erm, go back down) and Napoli I think will be in Serie A before to long...so there's hope. My fan loyalties are Azzurri, Juve & anti-Roma* in that order, so last night's win will keep me going for a while.
*that stems from a myraid of things, which, were i not heading off to the Circo massimo for the player's homecoming party, i would go into more deeply. Drives the SO (a former Juve fan, now rabid Romanisto) batshitinsane. Ha!
Viva Italia. I wish I were in any-town-Italy to celebrate with the crazy kids.
I loved Zidane. I was shocked. I still love him. People make mistakes, and so did he. I hope he never regrets it, though, otherwise it was not worth the shit he is taking. Fuck the legacy ZZ. You are the greatest around now. Those who believe in superhuman heroes that make no mistakes deserve to be let down. I have not been let down.
Materazzi is a little piece of shit. A little one. Like a shoot out of a constipated butt. Fuck you, little nothing.
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