So close

les bleus played well against a good italian side, Zizou had a brain-melt, but it probably didn’t cost the game given that it came so late.
Sometimes the luck is with you and sometimes it aint, unfortunately it was the latter

Zidane showed his true colors today. I’m glad he ended his career on a sour note. No matter what Materazzi said, it did not deserve a head butt to the chest. That could’ve broken his ribs, pierced his heart, and killed him right then and there. The French are sore losers and Zidane is the epitamy of losers. The game should’ve been 2-0 Italy. Zidane was given that goal. Whatever, we still one. FORZA ITALIA!!!

Chriso, pls pls don’t bame Zidane, he is a brilliant player and loves France. I am sure his fellow team mates do not blame him. Lets just wait and see what comes out regarding the situation before we condemn him. This was supposed to be his high, his last match, his glory for France. Zidane is no fool he doesn’t have melt down but something was done to trigger off this headbutt. Zidane did it for the world to see but what we can’t see is what Materazzi said ( I know there are earlier video clips of Materazzi twisting Zidanes nipples) so it had been going on for a while before it fired up. It will all come out and I for one (personal opinion) think if there is any truth in the fact that Materazzi has been at all racist to Zidane his world cup medal should be taken away from him.

Materazzi must have said some personal racist remarks. I would blow his head the same Zizou has done during the game. Italy shamefully won the game.

Materazzi 2

Zidane 2 (1 own goal)

ehheheheheh

Allez les Bleus !!!

Ahmad, awak ialah betul…

Somehow I felt neither team deserved to win, because Italy was the dirtiest team in the Cup, yet France died at the end, with Ribery, and then Henry, benched.

Zizzu is a complete moron .. he will no longer be remembered as zizzu the greate but zizzu the discrace … he would have been better off not taking part in this WC .. and like its been said beforem no matter what matterazzi said to him, he should have thought twice about doing what he did … o well all i have to say is ITALY ARE CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A most unfortunate outburst from Zidane to end an otherwise very illustrious career. While I feel sorry for the man on one level, someone of his experience and position should really have known better. As one commentator here in New Zealand said: “If Zidane really had a beef with the guy, hold it for 10 more minutes, then take the guy out to the parking lot after…” That could have made such a difference to so many things. Too bad.

One must never put his trust and faith on an Arab. They will betray you, because Arabs are the worst kind of sportsmen. i have always said it, and I was proven right. There are a lot of people heartbroken by a bad tempered Arab.

Zidane deserves to go down in history as the biggest dissappointment in the world.

PLAYERS AND COACHES WHOM ASK FOR YELLOW OR RED CARD ACTING IN DISRUPTING THE NORMAL “FAIR PLAY” SHOULD BE SENT OFF IMMEDIATELY ……IF THIS WAS THE CASE FARNCE WILL HAVE ARRIVED (???) IN THE FINAL WITH NO PLAYERS AND COACH ….DOMENECH PRAY FOR YOUR SOUL AS DANTE WILL MEET YOU IN THE “INFERNO” ….IN THE CIRCLE OF LYERS AND ROBBERS ……….(LUIGI).

Massimo, why don’t you go and boil your head you racist mafioso

i am very depressed about this game and still trying to figure out why this happen the way it did. France you guys played and excellent game and in the end Zidane what the HELL did you do that for and Terry you are may favourite and still do remain my favourite but why did you leave when your team needed you? i gues we will never know what happens on those fields, WELL done Italy!!!!!! to ALL the FRANCE players i LOVE YOU GUYS AND YOU WILL ALWAYS BE MY HEROS till we meet in South Africa!!!!!my home land

A person does not acheive what Zidane has acheived without self control. Your comments are idiotic.
He was provoked into doing what he did. That man has to of said something that made him lose his focus to react the way he did.
Unless you have been to the world champions you have no clue what is going through his mind.No one will risk a chance of red card to end it all unless somehitng was said that was really offensive,

I am now more than convinced that it was a racist comment by Materazi, the kind of racist comment made by Massimo (obviously he is Italian)on this forum that triggered such a reaction from Zidane. But let’s wait and see the truth shall emerge. I know the Italians are a rugged team and often resort to dirty tricks to win games. In their own country the match fixing scandals clearly demonstrates the way sport (football) is handled. Does it surprise anybody that many players in the current Italy squad are being investigated for match fixing? Another tactic that world champions like Italia use is to frustrate the adversary through insults most of the time racist and handling of nipples. All to cause the opponent to do something stupid. I urge FIFA to do something before somebody looses his life on the pitch. I for one would have killed somebody if my mother was insulted. After all is said and done i MUST CONGRATULATE THE ITALIANS. THEY HAD THE MOST EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT DEFENCE IN THE WHOLE TOURNAMENT. CANAVARRO FOR ME IS THE BEST PLAYER OF THE TOURNAMENT AND I LOVE GATTUSO, HE IS ROUGH RUGGED SOLID AND A REAL MAN WHO CAN TAKE KNOCKS AND STILL FIGHT ON.

I just heard on the Japanese news that Zidane was voted the most outstanding player of the semi finals (maybe our news is late here)he won by a great margin. I say well done, checked FIFA web also to confirm and its true.

I left one thing out. In closing Congratulations to Italy for the win. I am sure the world country is celebrating.
France should also be celebrating considerating 2nd is better than elimination like most countries.;) Great game.

Jane,

Zidane no atama ga ichiban jozu da…

There should be more clear cut rules pertaining to punishing of provokers… This should punish countries, clubs and players who play to provoke.

doesn’t change the fact that every French supporter of Zidane Fan had great expectations from him.

I mean, they were headed for penalties. How can a player like Zidane not know that France need him more than ever.

There can be no other reason than the fact that he is arab, and something which Materazzi said (which would have never sparked such a reaction from any other world class player in such a time) triggered him. Must be the same thing that triggers those terrorist from killing themselves (going to hell straight afterwords) while taking innocent lives with them.

Zidane is Fraud. For too many years he has been elevated to God-like status, only to show the world he is nothing other than dirt.
Zidane and anyone who supports him after what he did are sick in the head.

I spit on you Zidane.

Well said Mike and I still stand by some of my first comments that if there were Racist comments levelled at Zidane, Materazzi should also be punished and hand back his medal.

Like the rest of the billion viewers, I was absolutely shocked by Zizou’s headbutt. I watched the rest of the match stunned, in disbelief. We were all expecting a grand send off for our beloved hero.

Being an elderstatesman he’s supposed to know better, right? Suck it up, ignore nipple twisting and racial slurs. C’mon! The man played is guts out for 110 minutes! And let’s not forget that shoulder/chest injury that had him signaling for a sub. He was tired and in pain. Materazzi knew what was doing, he caught him in a moment of weakness. It’s just so sad that Zizou reacted.

The most heartbreaking moment was is exit from the pitch, head in his hands as he walked down the stadium steps.

Don’t worry, we still love you Zizou!!! Much love to Les Bleus!!!

Oh, and to “MLee”:
Don’t even think for a moment that if the tables were turned that cooler Italian heads would have prevailed. Please!!! And as for the “better team”, it looked like the only running the Italian’s were doing in extra time was with their mouths.

Jane,

We’re all waiting for that.

To the kuso no otoko, Massimo:
‘There can be no other reason than the fact that he is arab’

Stand in front of this machine gun and say that again, mafioso. Anyone who has actually watched Zizou play knows he’s good.

Massimo, EXACTLY, Zidane knew his team needed him, thats what makes me think that what ever Materazzi said or did was so bad and gut wrenching it made him react in a terrible way. We have to wait until we know the facts. Zidane is not a fraud he is a footballer of extraordinary talent who has led his team with quiet resolution and unfortunately something triggered him to react like this. Wait for the facts to come out.

This is the most popular sport in the world and a great sport at that. Yet, the Italians (and the French)ruin the game by their diving and provocations. Think of it this way, there are millions of kids out there watching this sport and when they see the cheating and the fact that cheating produces a world championship, they all learn a lesson from this that is not limited to life on the football pitch. Zidane’s head butt was inexcusable but so are racial slurs to get that kind of reaction. Again, what kind of example is that for the next generation. As for Massimo’s comments, it is a shame – Mussolini’s brand of fascism is not dead. Pity.

Portugal has been voted in the fifa’s site the most entertaining team. After all the french, dutch and english said, is really nice to get this award.
In my opinion, Portugal wasn’t the best team. Italy play well, just like Germany and Argentina. But, after the game agains Holland, there was a great offensive by the media, especially in England, against my country. And that is something than no one can deny. How many times you saw slow motions of Ronaldo falling and how many times you saw the same thing on the other players? It´s sad what Zidane done. But sadder is trying to point the finger to others. He was a great player (not one of my favorites) but that´s no excuse. If the headbutt was made by another player, no one will be defending him.

dear fellows…

who cares about zizou, trezeguet, henry, what went through their minds, and what and why they did or did not at a point…

this time italy win, france lose.

you bleus are bad losers.

suck it

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/Daryoon/Celebs/Zidane.gif

Yessssssssssss

Zinedine Zidane has been awarded as the best player in the world

The goalden head award.

Hahahahahahhahahhaha

That is seriously one of the funniest things Fifa has ever done.

Fifa spends it’s whole time fighting against racism, fighting against violence, fighting against bad sports.

And now they reward him.

Yessssssssssssss this world cup ends in the best way ever.

forza Italia.

As for Algeria, next time you might win if Zidane had not retired yet.

No matter what he said, it doesn’t justify the reaction of zidane….and it isn’t the first time zidane goes crazy!!!I remember when he played for juventus and for no reason he head-butted a Hamburg player in the head after they both went on the ground for the ball…..and then again in 98 world cup when he trampled a player of Saudi Arabia and got sent off….

Hey let’s leave Zidane alone.

He has done great things for Italy.

Thank you Zidane.

And…people r forgetting that when totti spat at the danish player(which i don’t find as bad as this gesture also for the context of the game) he had been provoked with kicks insults and his game had been living hell made by poulsen which is known for provoking.But when he did get disqualified the italians condemned him rightfully even though he was provoked, becuase u have to admit ur own mistakes……and know the french r proving their un sportsmanship by accusing the italian and saying zidane was right to do it:there is no way that gesture can be right!!!!!!!!!!!!!And anyway knowing what materazzi is like, he isn’t a guy that uses words but uses fists instead, even on the pitch……

i donnu how this match was considered a real worlcup match,it was played really dirty from italy,the hitting they were doing behind the scenes and how that guy succeeded to make zeedan lose his temper,but also france didnt play that good coz they were playing defence only and no attacing,each one was waiting for the ball to run to his feet , it was like a dirty practice game not a match. well at the end no one really deserved to win except that italy was really playing dirty.

everyone’s know wht “materazzi” capable of. he’s dirty, and scum of the worlds…but we can’t blame him entirely.i like zidane, seeing him play…but fans are creating his personality(gentle, kind…like holy saint of footballers).he’s a man capable of expressing xtreme emotional behavior, maybe he tip-off because he’s hurt really bad in 2nd half. maybe he don’t like italian food, who knows. maybe by these accident, people may move on to other new born legend as Zidane have put total stop to his carier permenantly.

@ Mike
I think that the only racist on this blog is you calling the italians ” mafiosi”.
Read some books about the italian history and learn more about the italians that with their hard work have exported their culture with the literature , cooking,fashion, cinema ,inventions . But I think that people like you are only hopeless losers.

materazzi, when match btwn jerman n italian. he played cool and act as good guy.my friend n i, laugh at how materazzi play differently as he use to(dirty n cheap).its was ballack who play dirty nearly 90 mins.

3 yellow cards and one red in six games. Shame on you (FIFA)! The rules must be the same for all, but there are some special ones…

1. Italy’s win is well deserved, even though France played better most of the game.

2. Zidane’s exit though unfortunate, was deserved.

3. Zidane, in spite his great stature in football, is human and susceptible to human error. His footballing feats should not be seen in context of today’s incident. Although there is no excuse for his actions, he alone must live with them.

In the end, we give thanks for a great tournament and look forward to 2010.

=================================
http://www.maximoinvestments.com/champions_italy.jpg
World Champions 2006 – Italy

Massimo I have just read one of your earlier blogs.”never put trust or faith in an Arab” how dare you how racist how uncalled for and how utterly disgusting of you. You are a very small minded person in my opinion, but then you are Italian!! I can only say that I am glad that you do not represent the majority of Italian people.
I hope you are man enough to apologise to all the Arabs of this world. I happen to know many Arabs and they are kind, polite and welcoming people like you will never meet anywhere else. They hate confrontation.

You digust me, you are lowly and small minded.

Je te raconterai
L’histoire de ce roi
Mort de n’avoir pas
Pu te rencontrer
Ne me quitte pas

Au revoir La France
Do not judge and you will not be judged…

Zidane is and has been the best player in the world for a long time now. Pity that he lost his control in the end. France were by far the better team on the night but penalties are cruel for everybody. I do think that Matterazi should give back his medal because nothing short of a racist remark would have provoked such an attack from such a gifted player as Zidane. Zidane, practically everyone in Ireland idolises you and your team. The Italians were lucky, very lucky! although they did take their penalties well but then agin they were outclassed football wise on the pitch….Allez les bleus!!

“Massimo, why don’t you go and boil your head you racist mafioso”

“how dare you how racist how uncalled for and how utterly disgusting of you. You are a very small minded person in my opinion, but then you are Italian!!”

The irony is delicious.

I am really saddened on seein so much hatred and racism among the football fans… the main purpose of WORLD CUP 2006 was 2 make friends not enemies and totally remove the EVIL of racism from the beautiful game called football.
Whatever Zidane did cannot be justified but still he remains 1 of the best players the world has seen……

What a final !

The better team lost. Very sad.

It was a pretty spectacular game!

Congrats to Italy who were the better team on the night.France persevered but could not break the tight Italy defense.

I still really admire France for not giving up!

The game was great but was overshadowed by the Zidane headbutt.

If you wanna see more about the world cup or soccer news check out my blog at: http://the-soccer-locker.blogspot.com

You’ll love it!

lol Trog
still gotta say its pretty poor form from these sods who come on to losing team’s blogs just to bag them out, its kinda sad that its so prevalent really.

Victoria,

By no means did I label all Italians as mafiosi… even though I admit the reference to Materazzi was perhaps uncalled for.

I’m kind of glad the Oscars are over now…

Lets face it Italy won… the funny thing is it seems to me that the italian supporters are more sour then the French and you guys won all you can do is bitch(i am french) and we left with dignity we played fair.. yea ok Zidane snapped… but he got punished for that mistake… the one big mistake he has ever made.. italy played dirty and thats a fact but hey when it comes it sports its all about winning (no matter what the cost as it was for the italians) The most important thing about France is that in the begining we said ‘we rise together and we fall together’

Mike I have just watched the match for the third time, my God is is amazing what you miss the first time watching it. Zidane was wrong in his action but hell there was a lot of other stuff going on!

Zidane,I don’t known what to say.An angle or devil ?
Whoever you are I love you forever.

Players are constantly provoked on the field. Zidane lost it. It is his fault. He should have been the bigger man. He’s 34 years old and has heard all the jeering in other games. He should have built a thicker skin instead of losing his temper so easily. But he is a star class player. Ignore ppl like Massimmo who talk thru their arse. He may just be 10 years old.
France played well, made a few errors in substitution (seems tobe thetheme of this world cup), but didn’t win. It’s too bad.

Zidane is a great player, but the Italians made him almost disappear yesterday so give them their due credit. Maybe that’s what frustrated Zidane a tiny bit.
However, Zidane probably didn’t deserve the golden ball because he did get a couple of yellow cards besides the red card and he has had a history of violence. No matter how skillful he is, he lacked the professional mannerisms of say Lineker which would have made him great.

I support Italy and am extremely happy they won, but it would have been better if they won with Zidane on the pitch.

Troglodyte,
How funny and yes you may use my quotes feel free I stand by everything I say.

Jane can you expand on the other stuff going on?

look at him doing it!!
and the highlites of his career
http://www.oskarlewis.com

Rav we don’t know what was said it is all hear say. However I think if there was any slur or racist remarks (as I have seen on this blog) regarding Muslims, religion, Arabs whatso ever said to Zidane then it is a disgrace. I do not condone what he did but the guy is a professional something pushed the button. Lets wait for the enquiry before we all assume.

I doubt the Italian fans would be the least interested in slagging the French if it weren’t for the fact that as soon as they won all the “greasy, wop, mafiosi, sneaky” comments hadn’t come out.

All we know is that Zidane headbutted Materazzi, and Zidane HAS done this before, but immediately it was assumed it was somehow M’s fault and evidence that HE was a dirty player and that all Italians were racists.

That’s pretty damned ridiculous.

I also think most non-Europeans fail to understand that Italians are on the receiving end of a lot of intra-European racism: not considered “white,” looked down on, etc.

im french but italy won fair play..your team dont always win.. its the luck of the draw.. now this guy talking about Zidane like a terrorist is sick in the head.. get over it world cup is finished now.. the guy is a football player… my favorite french player said this about the final ‘we rise together we fall together’ and the french fans have walked away with dignity.. vive la france…

Yeah, I think the abuse Zidane has taken for his head butt is also absurd. So much talk about the “disgrace” and that he’s stained his career…Just silly.

massimo
you will laugh less when your great players will play on serie B or C. Don t trust an arab ? SOme says don t trust a italian ( mafia, corruption, etc ) > But i am not stupid like you. I am french with an arabic bacground as Zidane. A player that italy won t have in century. A player who was representing la juve,,,
And saying things like that , show your ignorance and untolerance. You must be proud of it. For once you could beat france. IT was time though , since 38 they couldn t beat France.
I was supporting france and italy as well , but people like you don t deserve to be italian and materazzi after his ugly words that made ziadane done that.
One day will come the truth, and one day France will beat again (and not the second time only italy.)
by then enjoy your victory, as you wont have some for long time in your own national ligue.
Sei tanto stupido !

u know.. zidane was smiling when he started running off. Materazzi has refused to say anything and I doubt Zidane is the type of guy to make a big deal out of it. So we’ll probably never know.
But everyone is assuming that the Italians said something racist. And ppl have been passing comments re: the italians not having coloured ppl on their team. THat’s racist and unfair to them.
Quit making assumptions and unless you can lip read, stop making accusations.
And stop calling Italians racist. France had the racism problems in their country for years. Stupid things like this should never happen.
And as i said, you’ve gotta be the bigger man.

The result of this final match was a triumph of anti-football. This world dup has been the most defensive in history. The winner of the world cup was the team that was mostly listless and in near-total disarray. Italy played lousy yesterday.

Anyone watching the match yesterday saw which team dominated the game, which team was attacking the most, which team was in possession of the ball most of the time. That was France.

It is no accident that the two players most talked about this tournament are two defensive players: Buffon and Canavaro. This is classic Italian football, and it’s entirely boring.

The team that deserved to win yesterday was France in terms of quality of performance. Italy won on the basis of a penalty and good defense. That’s it.

As for Zidane, I am devastated to see that as a captain, in a WC final, he lost control. Anyone who knows Zidane’s career knows he is a classy guy. He has done something like this once before, in 1998. But generally his reputation is a solid one for integrity, intelligence and class. He would not lose control like that unless seriously provoked and exhausted.

This French team has been the target of racist insults since they first started playing — with pundits and fans taunting them for not being truly French yadayadayada. I’d be interested to know what the Italian player said to him to set him off.

Posted from Italy

Thank you Zidane. Good job.

Now it’ stime to retire.

can you believe zidane the PIG still won the player of the tournament .. i mean it must have been clearly set up .. how can any one get player f the tourney for playing only 2 good games and then getting red carded for assulting another pklayer (head butting) Cannavaro deserved it so much more .. o well italy now have 4 starts where as france only have 1 .. so much for france bing the best and all this stu hahahahahaha .. shame on u zizzu

Whatever was said to Zidane does not matter. He blew it. Good, another slap for arrogant France. Well deserved.

BY the way, Zidane as been elected by the FIFA as best Player of the world cup, and this despite of this explusion.

Le capitaine de l’équipe de France devance, avec 2 012 points, les Italiens Fabio Cannavaro (1 977 points) et Andrea Pirlo (715 points).

Hi guys, I need a point of reference. I thought Materazzi’s goal was brilliant, until I saw the slow motion from the camera behind the goal (only shown ONCE), I clearly saw Materazzi put his hand on Vieira’s shoulder (as they ALL do) to keep Vieira down. Has anybody else seen this or am I just victim of my own eyes? It cannot be seen from any other angle, so people, please help me out on this one, as my girlfriend and I had a pretty big argument concerning this.

Cheers.

Massimo you dick, Zidane is NOT an ARAB. He is a Berber. I know for fascists like you, it dosent make a difference but he himself dosen’t consider himself an Arab.

Zidane won the best 2006 world cup player. Cristiano Ronaldo got 2nd place for best youg palyer. FIFA said he lost the 1st place due to pretending fouls during the match against France. Moral: it´s not so bad to kickhead a player´s chest then pretending fouls. FIFA at his best. Fair play? My ass….

TV Analysts in Brazil have indicated that through lip reading experts, that the comments from Materrazzi were related to Zidane’s Sisiter. I believe something related to Materrazzi having his way with Zidane’s sister. I think there was definitely a disgusting remark from the Italian intended to provoke Zizou.. The italian was smart and would have got his skull cracked in half if this was not on the pitch.. It’s too bad.. i think Italy’s defender didn’t have to say such a thing.. hopefully Zidane left his mark on Materrazzi’s chest… a broken rib would be in order.

Congratulations anyways to the Italian defence.. they were amazing..

a few questions:
1. what did zidane (yes you read right.. zidane) say to Materazzi?
2. did or did not malouda dive?
3. toni was offside or not?
4. how many goals did france score in the tournament? And Italy?
5. if Italy had not being awarded the pk against australia who would have won… and why?
answer the simple questions and you will automatically know who deserves to be the CHAMPION
…. I just forgot to ask what would have everybody said if instead of zidane materrazzi had headbutted somebody else??
kEEP IN MIND THAT zIDANE HAD BEING RED CARDED IN THE PAST IN THE 1998 WC AND THREE OTHER TIMES IN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FOR HEADBUTTING…….
****
****
****
****

HAHAHAHAHA I am WE ARE the champions OF THE WORLD ALL THE REST IS SENSLESS BS.
grazie ZZURRI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

saint zidane? NOT!!
this is zidane’s 12 red card in his otherwise illustrious career. the guy has a dark side to him and even his first coach discussed this and how he asked zidane to channel his anger towards the game which he did brilliantly. zidane has attacked people before or has everybody forgotten the stamp he left on a saudi player in 98? he is brilliant but he is also a selfish and arrogant person at times and this might just have cost france the cup (or maybe not).

I do not think italy deserved the cup but neither did france. I would have preferred so portugal win because those guys played each and every game which cannot be said of the italians or the french but hey! this is how things came out and the only plus of this result is that all those italians who took merits away from brazil winning the cup on penalty kicks back in the us well, can eat their words…..this was a cup to forget where those who fought hard (portugal, australia) got nothing and the favorites (brazil) disgraced themselves and the cons (italy) won(stole) while the whinners(france) will be self-pontificating for the next two years until the next european cup…..

For everyone saying “Zidane must have been provoked terribly”, “you don’t get to be such a great star without learning self control” etc, remember that this is hardly the first time that Zidane has shown ugly rage in the game.

In the 2000 Champions League match between Juventus Turin and Hamburger SV, Zidane headbutted Jochen Kientz savagely and got a red card for it. And don’t forget how he he stamped on Saudi captain Fuad Amin in the first round, which got him a well deserved red card and a two game suspension.

Sorry, champions understand self control. Zidane was a great player, but he was no champion.

well done Italy.

It was a tough game and really exiting. Seeing the whole competition I think Itally as France deserved to get the trophy. About the Zidane’s event?
I know for a long time now that Materazzi is a cunt, actually the only real bastard of the team (even i am french and support the french team at 110%, i really like Gattuso, Pirlo and zambrota). the only things I know is that in 100 years people will remember Zidane as one of the greatest football player ever and “maybe” people will just remember Materazzi as a headbutt target. period

It’s sad to see Zizou get his buttons pushed. And knowing how calm and cool he is. Marco must have crossed the line, so he got what he deserved. Zidane is still the best player the past 20 years and will always be an excellent team leader that stood up for his mates and himself.

You dreamers, We still by Zidane as you standed by italy despite of their national scandal. You have a such shirt memory, the court is still waiting to retrograde your beautifull world champion. Even some italian at the beginning at the world cup said that the italian team was a shame. All with plenty of stories behind. You right dear enjoy you star and stars.Zidane is not a saint, btu certainly the italian players aren t.
I am proud of Zidane and millions of people are. We don t care about angry comments from other nationalities which their country aren t even present at the world cup, lost too fast, or presenting some serious issues within their own national federation.
Ci vediamo in quattro anni per averre la vostro testa. Bye la Juve, Bye all the others italian club , they will fall as sure as the stars are high************************************************************

Massimo, Marco and all the infantile Italy supporters, you are bloody racist morons.

I would also have headbutted the idiot Materazzi like Zinedine did if he had said something as insulting to me as you have said stupid things about Arabs etc.

The outcome of the match was not affected by Zidane’s dismissal. It was a matter of luck at the shoot out, or lack of it. It could have been an Italian penalty miss instead of a French miss.

I, like millions of football lovers, will always remember Zidane as a true football legend, the way I remember Roberto Baggio. And Materazzi as an a***hole.

And no, I am not Arab nor French.

The story is starting to come out.

This article says Zizou’s agent was told of a SERIOUS taunt from Materazzi.

I hope Materazzi didn’t call him an arab terrorist. That would be bad.

Amira thanks for being alive,you are right, see you in 4 years … till than be quiet, graceful and watch us celebrate a joy u will NEVER have, so long and thanks for all the laughs!!!!!!!!
CAMPIONI DEL MONDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

By the way, this video has the best replays of events leading up to the first French penalty, including an angle from behind that I haven’t seen in the last clips.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=a8u5CfM__l8&search=france%20penalty%20italy

Personally. I don’t see any contact there that’s remotely worthy of a direct free kick. Materazzi goes in with his leg, but then draws it back at the last moment so as not to make a foul. There was some contact, but nothing remotely resembling a direct-free-kick foul.

Why football player must allways be an example. If we think about it there are a lot of sport stars who have a hot temper.
Hey Massimo, your team just win the worl cup. You should be happy and you just sound to everybody here very upset, sour and angry like you lost yesterday. come on guy, go party with your fellowship country men instead of spite on zidane, which is you like it or not, is considering around the world as an exeptional football player.
oh by the way, everybody says that Zidane can get mad but always because he has been provocated. Nobody can say he is a vicious and violent guy like mister VAN bommel or your international superstar materazzi. Nobody will remember materazzi as o good football player even in a dacade.

I think everyone should just “cool” it with the racial comments. The world cup is about bringing in all the countries in the world to have peace for a short 30 days. There might be alot of different people’s perspectives in regard’s of Zidanes unecessary actions in the final minutes of the final game of his career. But I think that nobody is really perfect, and you have to admit that he did leave a footprint in football history in a positive way. ***Make Love, Not War***

—> Zidane is a DISGRACE a BIG boo to FIFA for aarding the golden ball to Zidane

*** Zidane is a DISGRACE ***

Zizou is a disgrace to France….what a sad way to end a brilliant career.

But Zidane is not new to these violent outbursts….read your Football history books, guys.

Congratulations to Italy for not losing their head when France was awarded that non-existent penalty, for having the strength to get the equaliser, & to win the World Cup for the fourth time.

Congrats to all the French team except Zizou for the valiant effort.

**** a BIG boo to FIFA for aarding the golden ball to Zidane ****

What a shameful example FIFA have set to the Football world.

You’re violent & vicious on the pitch?
If you’re a great player it’s no problem….!

Unsportsmanlike conduct… hmmm… now who would that apply to? Zizou for reacting to a nasty comment or that italian piece of garbage for having made the comment in the first place? I think he should be stripped of his medal and the FIFA seriously needs to look into this whole fiasco! Handing out a red card when no officials witnessed the incident, based on video replay… what ever happened to the rules??? Didn’t France score against Corea and not get the point because video replay is not allowed? Forgive me if I sit here totally confused… France was by far the better of the 2 teams in that stadium. Zizou knows why he reacted thus. He did it for a reason, knowing full well the whole world would see the act. God bless Zizou, God bless France, a bas les Italiens!

Amira, what a racist stupid pig you are!

Even worse than the eye of a goat IMO….your anti-Italian racist remarks are a disgrace to you & all you represent: the Arab world, Islam, France, etc.

You should apologise for your sorry behaviour…but you don’t have the moral strength to do that. Don’t they teach you manners back home?

Massimo,
you seem to be comfortable behind your computer, Are you a football fan, a french basher or just a stupid racist guy (what is obviously very common in the Calcio and in la Liga).
The problem of internet forums and blogs is that allow a lot of morons who have no life and who are so ashamed to claim what they think front of a real audiance that they feel happy to send stupid posts where nobody know them and see their faces.
Come on Massimo thanks to go party.

For real football fans: Well done Italy you deserved it and see you in 4 years.

Dear Joseph from Malta,
If anyone is racist, it’s the Italians! Not the French, not the Arabs, not the Muslims! Simply you Italians. Can’t even win a game without resorting to all sorts of theatrics, cheating, insults and slurs as well as pinching nipples!!! You are a disgrace and do not deserve to even participate in such a beautiful game! If you Italians can’t stop and realise that what separates European football from american football was supposed to be the love of a beautiful sport, a gentleman’s sport, then you don’t deserve that beautiful trophy! Italians are probably one of the most racist bigots on the face of this earth! And you have showed the world how racist and bigotted you are as a people, as a nation during this tournement, you fascist piece of garbage!

Clement:

You said:

“Nobody can say he is a vicious and violent guy like mister VAN bommel or your international superstar materazzi.”

Remember that this is hardly the first time that Zidane has shown ugly rage in the game.

In the 2000 Champions League match between Juventus Turin and Hamburger SV, Zidane headbutted Jochen Kientz savagely, fracturing his cheekbone, and got a red card and three game suspension for it. And don’t forget how he he stamped on Saudi captain Fuad Amin, which got him a well deserved red card and a two game suspension.

LOOK EVERYBODY, FIFA NEEDS TO SERIOUSLY CLEAN UP THE GAME. YOUNG PLAYERS ARE BEING TAUGHT TO WIN AT ALL COSTS INCLUDING: INSULTING, HEADBUTTING, NIPPLE-HANDLING, DIVING, CAREER ENDING TACKLES, FAKING INJURIES and the list goes on and on.

There is a rumour(i haven’t verified this)that FIFA instructed the referees to protect players like Ronaldinho, Zidane etc… If it is true how fair is that?

In the preliminary rounds one could clearly see from the referees’ actions that lesser known teams were not treated fairly. Some of the refereeing was horrendous (offside goals, etc..). What about the match fixing scandals?

These are some of the issues that should be discussed.

AND FOR THOSE WHO PUT ALL ARABS IN THE SAME BASKET THE LEAST SAID ABOUT THEM THE BETTER.

vIVE LA FRANCE@ hahahaha I love your post!!! They help me understand why I am we are the world champions and you are not!!!!!!
I Campioni siamo NOOOOOOIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!

Vive le France….

YOU’re calling Italians “racists”???!!!!?

Just look at your post….you’re choking in your own venom!

Get over it….Italy are the WORLD CHAMPIONS….not only in sport, but also in sportsmanship.

I cheered when Zidane did that. I hated the Italian team the entire World Cup because they played cheap and made it some other sport than soccer. I’m a soccer player and have played my whole life. I will give up a game to teach some dumbass team a lesson, and Zidane’s headbutt was just a form of communication. Italians, do not support this cheap form of play that Italy has epitomized in the ‘06 World Cup. They are ruining a great sport with their antics and supporting it will just foster more hatred and more headbutts. Keep the headbutts going as long as the Italians choose not to play SOCCER. Soccer is a contact sport and if you can’t handle the headbutt, then play the damn sport and quit diving, acting hurt like *w*ussies, and being vulgar with other players behind the ref’s back. You do that stuff, you deserve some physical repercussion.

Amira..!!!..you give all your people all over the world a bad name….shame on you.!!..may your god strike you down and send you to hell to burn and be buggered for ever more.!!

Josh: have you seen the replays of Malouda falling in the penalty area to give the French their first goal. As a soccer player, tell me honestly whether you see enough contact to make a guy hit the dirst like that.

There was a little contact (it’s a contact sport, after all), but nothing remotely resembling a direct free kick.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=a8u5CfM__l8

(The shot from behind that the opther replays don’t have is the best)

Malta,
If you think Italians are champions in sportsmanship, well, I guess I have nothing left to say except to point out what a sad sad sad day this is for the world of football/soccer! If all you did was celebrate your win, it would be one thing. However, you insist on ramming it down peoples throat, after the debacle one of your players instigated. Shame on you for thinking what counts most is a win, and not the beauty of the game!

Vive le france….since you think that giving a vicious head-butt (as Zizou did) is FAIR play,

I’ve got a little game for you to play:

http://tonaz.altervista.org/zidane.html

(paste into your web browswer & play…click the mouse…see the finale)

Italians arent white ???

I am Italian but must be fair France did play better than Italy and deserve to win, I just found out what was said to Zidane and totaly understand why he reacted that way,according to a Brazilian news flash he sister was called a prostitute twice the head butt was justified I am embarrased my country one by cheating

HONEST ITALIAN

Josh, what a DISGRACE you are to the Football world…

…you’re saying that’s it’s perfectly OK to give a vicious head-butt….

…you must make be a great teacher of fair Play & sportsmanship.

Give all the head you want in your private life, but it’s not OK in sport.

Sure Collen, it’s OK for you to give head….even your butt…in private.

But is not OK to give a head-butt in sport, no matter what gossip you read in Brazilian media (mostly known for giving both “head” as well as “butt”….ask Rocco! )

First of all, ET. I am supporting a little fighting on the pitch when teams are asking for it. Not asking anyone to burn in hell. Get off your zenophobic soapbox and quit labeling an entire nation or even a person for assessing a very isolated situation. And Sam, my beef is that teams like Italy have caused other teams to resort to similar antics just to keep the play competitive. Plus, there was a clip that interrupted the forward movement on the ball, and however questionable it was re-compensated later when the ref didn’t call a clear foul in the box which would have been a second penalty kick. The ref has to mediate a series of calls and Italy plays dirty, so he was sending a clear message to play the ball in the beginning of the game with that PK. The Italy player, if he had not originally intended to go for legs, would not have even come close to clipping, but they constantly try to wrap legs to deter players. Just go for the ball, that’s all I ask.

Colleen, where is this “Brazilian new flash”. Did you get in online, or do you pick up Brazilian radio in the States? And how do they know what was said?

E parla mi un pocco in Italiano, si comme sei cosi Italiana ed imbarazata del’ tuo paeze.

Joseph, you weren’t there. And I’m sure the Italian player is not innocent in this. Zidane did not pull a gun, he pulled a headbutt. I’m not promoting ultimate violence, but I’ve always been taught to regulate bad people. The Italian player was a bad person and he messed with a regulator. That’s all.

Josh: Oh, ok. It’s ok for other countries to cheat, becuase the cheating Italians made them do it.

Also, you belive that incorrect calls by the ref are all right if they are “recompensated” later.

Also… you beliive that headbutting a player out of sight of the ref is ok.

I’m glad you don’t teach football to my kids…

Dear Josh,
You can teach both my sons’ soccer anyday! If there is one thing I do not want them to learn, it’s how to cheat, whine and act their way to a win!

Alfredo, as for you my friend, need I remind you that Canada goes into wars and cleans up the mess Itlians make! Mussolini, fascism, ring a bell? Vive le CANADA! God bless my country!

And as for you Malta, I never said headbutting was something to commend! I said it was sad that a mans’ career had to end in such a way because of one of your fellow Italians ugly comments. It had no place on the field! That is ALL I am going to say!

And Josh, if you think that Zidane was the victem, who was just “regulating bad people,” the remember that this is hardly the first time that Zidane has shown ugly rage in the game.

In the 2000 Champions League match between Juventus Turin and Hamburger SV, Zidane headbutted Jochen Kientz savagely, fracturing his cheekbone, and got a red card and three game suspension for it. And don’t forget how he he stamped on Saudi captain Fuad Amin, which got him a well deserved red card and a two game suspension.

He’d a great player, but he can also be a thug.

I’m proud of the French team ! I love Zidane and the others players ! Thanks for the pleasure they gave us.

Today, the french players are in Paris and many people came to thank them. When Trezeguet came front of the public, he was cheered and.. he started to cry. It cas so moving… Henry joined him and took him in his arms… Beautiful image of their friendship…

J.

Sam, I’m not justifying any country to cheat. I am offering a dialogue for why this is occurring in soccer, and I firmly believe the Italian team and others are starting this. I don’t condone it. The Italians make far worse dives. At least that PK was called on a contact. Also, I don’t think incorrect calls are ok when recompensated, but again, offering dialogue for how the ref might have been thinking in that game and that whether that first PK or the second missed one, France would have fairly gotten one goal. And I would hope that if a player (or anyone in life for that matter) is constantly twisting nipples and saying derogatory things to your son, he will stand up for himself. The bottom line is you didn’t like the headbutt, and I think the Italian player probably had it coming to him.

Frankly Josh, for all this talk of the “bad guy” Materazzi, and all the rumors of what he may or may not have said, have you watched the replays of the event?

The play started with a kick into to box. Materazzi had his left arm around Zidane while watching the play; something all good defenders do to keep track of the marked player without actually looking at them. If you watch the replay, Materazzi’s hand is open throughout the play. It appears that Zidane took exception to the fact that he was being marked in that fashion and he clearly, very angerliy says something to Materazzi who at first appears to be disinterested in what Zidane is saying. But Zidane continues and then Materazzi responds. It could not have been that bad because Materazzi is more interested in watching the play progress that be doesn’t even notice Zidane turn around and come after him. Materazzi is looking up the field!!!!!

Zidane knows it’s a red card for a headbutt – soft or hard. He has been playing for such a long time, he should know better. In all of his years of playing, you would think that he could take insults. He should of known better. What a disappointing way to end his career.

Quit dissing the Italians. They won, ok? Get over it. Nothing you say will take the Cup away from them.

FORZA ITALIA!

pitty zizzu was only crying because he knew that he has put a dent in his future and disctraced him self

Vive le France:

Good to see you make an effort in disguising your previous malicious words…

Whatever Materazzi said, & it didn’t look like anything remotely aggressive, that VIOLENT behaviour can never ever be condoned. Yes, you DID (& are) justifying it.

That justifiaction, together with FIFA’s disgraceful act, is simply an insult to intelligent people. But what would you know…you’re not one of them

Sam, I didn’t know that Zidane had done those other things and I don’t support someone going around like a thug, but I was very disturbed by Italy’s cheap play.

josh you play soccer… we play football no wonder you have a problem understanding the game…
Vivelafrance…. your childish comment speaks for itself.. and or your IQ, but whatever comment your single neuron comes up with… we are the champions of the world and you will never be.. keep posting I still have a coupple of ours till I go see our team and the WORLD CUP that comes home!!!!!!!!!

Sam, looks like we’re friends now on here. I think, having played, that the headbutt was not rooted in that one replay but from a series of interactions the whole game.

Josh you are a complete moron ok .. how can you say italy was playing cheap let me remind you again .. zidane and henry were both on the ground and combined took up 4 minutes!!!!! 4 MINUTES .. THAST WHAT I CALL playing to waste time and acting liek a girl — SO GET UR EYES TESTED YOU BLIND MORON

And Italy has a great team so I wish they would try to win without the cheap play. They might just pull it off, and then there would be no headbutts! or despise of the Italian team. But then again we wouldn’t have anything to discuss on this blog.

marco, slippery slope argument. don’t isolate two scenarios and misrepresent them to equal a valid conclusion.

Josh: Stop being so sore! Italians did not play cheap, they played hard and they won.

Well, that may be.

My position is: The Italians were certainly no worse than many other countries. They dived, and I wish they wouldn’t. In fact, I wish FIFA would start introducing post-game suspensions ond fines for players caught diving on tape. The French also dived a whole lot, and possibly got two penalties from it (this game and last game). Portuguese and the rest of them don’t even need commenting on.

The headbutt: I don’t care what Zizou was angry about. In fact, I think he was frustrated for having not scored in two perfect chances minutes earlier. Certainly Materazzi couldn’t have said anything so evil. There is absolutely no excusing such a loss of cool and control: if a man can’t contro his rage, he isn’t a man in my book.

only morons and people with low IQs attribute those characteristics to people when trying to make a valid argument. congrats and have a good trip alfredo

THE MORAL BS ON THIS THREAD IS SHAMEFUL. Caroline (your facts are about as useful as Micahel Moore), Vive le France (the French are far,far, FAR from perfect), Massiomo (really), Mike (nonsense). Zidaneisking, the first half Italy controlled after that bogus dive by Malouda (like Henry against Portugal). Technically, Toni’s goal should have stood. The French did press and control the midfield but were hardly menacing. The French have only THEMSELVES to blame. Domenech showed little class in my eyes and he took off Henry which was odd. Zidane acted in a barbaric fashion no matter what was said. Materazzi is best friends with O. Martins by the way – A NIGERIAN. Let’s just say Zidane snapped. In any event, you’re being a tad selective. In 1998, Italy played better thanFrance and lost in penalties. In 2000, Italy outclased France for 85 minutes only to lose playing ‘open’ soccer in the dying moments. So, Italy wins here. Good teams find a way to win my friend just like France has in the past. Overall, Italy played better in this tournament than France – there is no debate about it. In fact, France too made it in dubious fashion. So enough of all this talk. One final thought – Italy has been slowly changing their style but playing 40 years of catenaccio is a hard habit to break. Under Lippi there is no question Italy played more offensively. HMM. France scored 9 goals ‘donc’ 2 on PK and 3 against an average Spanish side. Italy scored 12 on 1 PK and 2 against a tough team in Germany. How was the better and more efficient offense? Last, I feel for Lillian Thuram.

MAN JOSH JUST SHUT UR STUPID MOUTH OK .. YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT FOOTBALL .. THE FRENCH PLAYED CHEAP .. WHAT ABOUT THE DIVE MALUDA DID TO GET THE PENALTY .. WHAT ABOUT HENREY PENALTY AGAINST PORTUGAL THAT WAS ALSO A DIVE .. DID U NOT THINK THAT FRANCE SHOULDNT HAVE EVEN BEEN IN THE FINAL .. SO THERES 2 MORE POINTS JOSH THAT YOU CAN GO AND STICK UP UR FAT AS*

marco: grow up and don’t post in all caps. It’s just childish.

Dear youcef, euh sorry joseph from malta. Than God I didn t meet you in malta all the times I have been there. I don t think you are representative of Maltese people at all.
Well shall we remind you a bitte of history, you might have some arabic blood in your veines you know. Your own langage is a disformed arabic.
Well and italy, thank God, that Italy is not like alfredo want to make us think. Don t even mentionne that you are italian dear. Caro mio sei tanto felicie che sei devenuto stronzo …oh me dispacie…de sei un stronzo.
I still love italy, and I will still support them as i like so many players. I was talking about one player, and some people like you.
Staying calm and gracefull I can do that. but you certainly cannot.But Why so much anger after a victory.Go have a drink, a nice cappuccino celebrate with your friends if you have any.

Well I don t have time to loose towards such ignorant as you.
That s a shame for your country though to show so much untolerance. I dont understand such anger and hate toward a player who score so many time under an italian club.
That s life though, e la vita, ci sono sempre bastardi come te huh.
Dai faciamo la pace. let s make peace I am happy for my italian friends. even for you getting some joy finnaly in your life, apparenlty it doesnt happen often. Are you a bad winner or just a looser you find joy just in football.That s a sadness.
No need to answer , I think most people have seen your degree of pityness.
And youcef, sorry joseph from Malta, your country is halwa.

Salute, cheers, adieu, and beslema

alex .. you are totally correct

By the way, all this is unfortunate as in my eyes both sides deserved to be there. You win some and you lose some. Zidane is only human but he should have known he was dealing with a character like Materazzi. I know the French deserved a better fate (don’t we all?) but as I pointed out – Italy has been left holding the bag for quite sometime too. And no, I am not an Azzurri fan. I happen to love France and Italy. I just think the Northern European image of Italy is exaggerated. Reminds me of when the French used to make fun of Italians during the Renaissance when they were using utensils and table cloths. The French caught up 200 years later after Catherine de Medici taught them how to eat. Laugh at the Italians first, but learn from them in secret. Brazil played Italian style soccer you know.

Josh@ thanks for the names….
fact is that mine is going to be a beautiful night and I am surprised that somebody that says that has played the sport has such a total lack of objectivness, may be you are a sour looser or just envious…

No one really played cheap.(unfortunately) All teams dive, maybe some do more than others

Forza Italia

Again thanx Zinedine for killing France. I’m sure as an Algerian you don’t like France anyways. Good neither do I. we could be brothers if it were not for your religion that makes you want to kill me.

Anyways. Take care all of you. To true french people, seriously do something about your team. You need players that can give everything they have, not one that screws everything up for a nipple twist.

Hahahahahahhahaha

What a Moron that Zidane.

I spit on you.

Its really funny when mafia chats abt terrorists. Mate you italian lot cant pass such comments.

well to be honest Italians showed how dirty they can be to win a cup and frankly thats not the first time. Zidane deserved the golden award and Materazzi I guess deserves a few more headbutts for his stupid remarks.

I spit twice on u italian lot.

Marco, you sound like a hothead. We could go on and on naming incidents from every team. It’s just my opinion that Italy does it quite a bit and uses it strategically, okay? You don’t have to agree. I do see it from other teams so I’m not going to argue with you, I agree. And as for the headbutt, I can’t say I would have lost it like that but it’s just my opinion that it was a result of cheap play and I don’t condemn Zidane for his choice because I believe depending on the circumstances, there MAY be a time and place for that. We’ll let God decide that one.

alfredo, these isolated comments can skew peoples’ perceptions of someone’s full perspective. I am happy for the Italian team. As I said they have a great team and deserved to be there. That is not in question. I am responding to some peoples’ hatred toward Zidane. Now I don’t condone him going around like a thug, but the Italian player should have kept his hands to himself and his mouth shut the whole game. I personally don’t try to piss someone off on the pitch, and he obviously not only did so but succeeded. As for the Italian team’s signature cheap play, that is my opinion. I don’t think we can fairly or accurately run a comparative statistical analysis on this blog so I let’s scratch the hatred and not facilitate attacks on any people. I truly do wish you the best on your trip. And my congratulations on your team’s victory are sincere.

( I know there are earlier video clips of Materazzi twisting Zidanes nipples)

=========

Hey, he was holding him back from running forward, not what you are thinking.. Just that his hand was at that place…

grosse deception pour la coupe..! mais qu elle cout tete de zizou..! ;-p

bravo les vieux..!

Very unlucky to lose, france the thoroughly more attacking team even with 10 men. It was Italy sitting back most the time (they like to call it defending). Congratulations to Italy for winning the world cup, but best team of the world cup? I think not. Lucky to beat australia with a last min penalty and lucky to avoid defeat to the USA side.

I am amazed by how rude and racist the italian posts have been in this blog. Can i expect this treatment when i visit Italy?

Cat: I highly doubt there are REAL clips of that…..

@josh now you sound like my man! just a note.. I am absolutely against juventus, but a few years ago I traveled a few hundred km just to see zizou play, and believe me it was worth every penny, zidane is probably my favourite pplayer after Maradona, but having played at a decent level I know what happens on the field and what zidane did is absolutelly unexcusable under every perspective, and the question pending is still what wouls havw happened if Materazzi had headed Zidane? would we be here discusssing if there could be excuses??

Dear Youcef, euh sorry joseph from Malta, may be you should see again your history . You might have some Arabic blood in your veines.
I love malta, and I feel at home there. As I fell at home in Italy . Thank God you both are not representative of Italian and Maltese people. And even if you will be candidat you won t win
All my Italian friends are enjoying their victory, and we text each other, That s the game. Sometimes we win sometimes we loose. LA roue tourney as we say in French.
I was supporting italy when france was not playing. Because so many French people played there and I love some Italian players. Live totti and del pierro. Maldini who was not there.
I don t understand how a guy like him hate so much a player who played under the Italian colours, and brought so many victories. Don t be too proud of yourself cause you are not representing your country well.
And Youcef, sorry, Joseph from Malta, I will would support Malta too if they were at the world cup.
Be arrogant, be nasty , show your stupidity, but such rascism is a shame. Go man enjoy a cappuccino. Be e good winner. Don’t be a looser, cause you are one despite of the Italian victory.
And Youcef, sorry Joseph, Malta is Halwa.

I love France, I love Zidane, I love my Italian friends and Roma. I love my Maltese friends. I just have pity of two guys like you representing a minority of people giving a bad image of their country.

Alfredo sei stupido, sei stupido, non poi fare niente per ameliorare la tua situazione. Go have a drink with some friends if you have any celebrating your joy that you are obviously not used to have. Be a good winner and not just a Looser.

And my dear Youcef, eu soooory, Joseph from Malta open you tiny mind.

The frogs are cowards on the battle field, but they sucker punch players on the sports field. The next time you French get invaded fight yourselves you cowards…And they wonder why we Americans hae them…

VIVA ITALIA WORLD CHAMPIONS!

alan don’t worry about the “racist” blogs, they are ment to be against those posing to be French. If you are Black it’s cool as long as you love your country, not like Zidane that gave up on it.

get a life.. where the f*** did y’all come up with the racial shi* since there was no release from either side.. or the fact that he actually said soemthing to zidane, at least the italian coach claims he didnt say anything, and zidane’s rep said that zidane was insulted.. there are always 2 sides to a story… if you say italy played by cheating and diving, then u should watch the italy-german game again. as a matter of fact almost all teams played with diving. France derserves respect for making it to the final with the team averaged over 30, and they played well after group stage. congrat italy.

I hope you are man enough to apologise to all the Arabs of this world. I happen to know many Arabs and they are kind, polite and welcoming people like you will never meet anywhere else. They hate confrontation.
=========

Hey jane, was that a joke )

They are the most racist and bigoted people around, and they bomb and kill people for that.

Now, I dont wnat to be racist, but this is a fact. Most arabs look down upon tribals around the world, South-East and South Asians, Indians, East Asians, Africans, etc. But their superiority tactics dont work on the NATO countries(read North America and Europe) , and hence the bad blood.

Amira you seem to love a lot of things.

Make up your mind and admit you are gay, c’mon. Noone here really knows who you are. Oh hold on. You are in the UAE, there they do not tolerate gay people. (I think that’s pretty cool, I think the whole world should have laws against fags) But for the politically correct then your country is a true untollerant peace of crap.

zidane in my eyes is one of the greatest players ever, along side platini, pele and maradona and definetly the best player of the last 20 years, far better than the showboating of ronaldihno and co of brazil, which showed as zizou dominated against the best team in the world, in the quarters singlehandedly.
but the headbutt was very uncontrolled in my eyes and i was as shocked as any that he did it, whatever the comment.
zidanes temper aside, he is one of the great all time players, and for all of you that said hes a joke, your a waste of time, not a true football fan and finally dont have a friggin clue. as for marco m8 his career has outshadowed any italian player bar none and his name will be remembered for years to come, i doubt any italian players from this cup will.

What a final !

The better team lost. Very sad.

=========

If you totally ignore the zidane incident, I must say the better team in fact won. Amazing defense. Cannavaro and Pirlo were the best.

Massimo, go away. You’re not funny, not outrageous, not interesting. Just mud-ordinary, can’t-feed-yourself dumb.

i hope zidane comes round u racists houses and head butts u, cos u deserve it

For those who say Arabs are tolerance nice people, please get your asses off that chair and go live in an Arab country. It will be your heaven.

Hahahahahahahha, seriously anyone that says Arabs are fair people, go to Saudi Arabia. Go see how they slaughter Dogs because the Koran says they are dirty. Go see whether you can find your favourite church to praise your God. Go there. I did and ran away. if you say that Arabs are good people you are an idiot. Tey may fake it, but deep down they only have hatred for me and you. For all those that live in a Western Society. Try disproving this. Is like saying chinese people aren’t pagans.

ZIDANE IS NOTHING BUT A SAND NIGGER. How come the Frogs cant get white Frenchmen to play on their team and have to go out and get players from other countries?

Now Zidane can go join Osama Bin Ladin and blow himself up.

The FROGS SUCK!!!!!

Also, France isnt exactly a joy to watch on the field. They seem to be rough (somewhat like the African teams like Senegal and Cameroon), and have no elegance or creativity on the field. Except Zidane of course. And to some extent, Henry. All the rest are like robots. They will do their limited job, but then they do it so well, that its difficult to defeat them.

Amira: Go take your racist comments elsewhere. You claim to love Italy and France, but we Italians would have nothing to do with a racist like you, and I’m sure the French wouldn’t either.

hey massimo are u a fagget, or just disturbed? Just cos ure one of those typical arrogant italian twats with half a brain and no dick doesnt mean u hav to bag out a great for outbursts which ironically are caused by racism.

Massimo: Quit your racist remarks. We are all alike, we might just do things differently when we come from different places in the world.

Labeling an entire race is what creates terrorism and war. It is up to the good members of any nationality to correct the misbeliefs of their own nationality, because those people like Massimo or the terrorists will certainly not listen to anyone else besides their own blood, and we’re lucky if they even listen to them!

Massimo too. Grow up, and please get your racist self out of Italy before I come home for Christmas.

Idiots like you are what make people on this blog into Italy-bashers.

Phil: What are you talking about?! “typical arrogant Italian”…..how rude…..

I don’t think Killing 2000 innocent people should be tolerated as just doing things differently.

And all that goes for John, too. Ignorant, Hannity-watching scum. If it weren’t for the French, you’d still be speaking English.

What a poor way to finish the World Cup. I’m Italian & French and as much as I hoped Italy would win, this is not how I had hoped it would happen.

It’s a sad day for everyone involved.

In case you haven’t noted I am not Italian. Only when it comes to Football. I live in Italy though, I’ll give you that.

And It’s not racist to call an Arab, an Arab.

It’s just the truth. And the truth hurts sometimes.

Everyone, let’s stop addressing ignorant racial comments. These are probably just provocateurs or kids posting comments for kicks and it’s making good people form opinions of different races.

As long as they realise that Arabs will always be Arabs.

hey everyones talking about materazzi touching zidanes nipples.. yuck..

go to bbc news site and see. Its about a comment and not about what you are thinking. I think materazzi was just holding him and his hand happened to be there.

And to tell you, even if Zidane had stayed, Italy was a much better team.

by the way, zidane isnt even a proper muslim. Algerian muslims abuse him as a “Harki”, and zidane says he does not practice..

leave that guy in peace. I am happy that Italy won (me neither frenchie nor italian) but Zidane was the best player in this world cup. Though France werent able to win their first two games, it was Henry who was failing and not zidane in the midfield.

fifa is a joke. They have this stupid program stop racism but yet they reward a player that showed bad sportsmanship, cost his team the game and violently sucker punched a player that didn’t see It coming. Nice role model for kids FIFA!

The French are losers

By the way, if you realize, its the arabs and berbers who are the most racist people around.. They make all the superiority cmplex comments on every other race on the earth, and when it comes to them, they start bombing and killing. Why do they do this, when they cant take it.

Just go to UAE and see. Supposedly the most tolerant of the arab countries. An uncle of mine quit his job and returned just after a few months there.

Henry on Zizou vs Materazzi
Zizou will always be great!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE30z83dJS0

Henry on Zizou vs Materazzi
Zidane will always be great!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE30z83dJS0

It’s a shame there is no moderation on these blogs ! Most of comments are racist trolls

Italian people are happy because of their victory, it’s normal but some of them have to remind that it’s just a football game and that the didn’t win anything (the players did). They also should know there will be other games they will loose, that the way sports goes…

Concerning racist people, let them die of their own ignorance (and help them if they don’t)

Dear youcef, euh sorry joseph from malta. Than God I didn t meet you in malta all the times I have been there. I don t think you are representative of Maltese people at all.
Well shall we remind you a bitte of history, you might have some arabic blood in your veines you know. Your own langage is a disformed arabic.
============

Another example of arab racism and superiority complex.

Hey, I think it was Pirlo and Canavaro who won it for Italy. They were the real guys running the show. Cannavaro made up for the absence of Nesta too. And Buffon was amazing too. No wonder he is the highest paid goalkeeper in the world (or one of the highest paid). What do you think.

Ignore materazzi and zidane for a while, I am sick of them.

Any more ideas about the game as such. Where did Italy go wrong in the second half. Was it ok to bring on Del piero in place of cameronesi in the second half.

Dear cat: Thank God I did not meet you in Australia when I was there. Isn’t it past your bedtime anyway? How long are 12-year-olds allowed to stay up these days??

Dear cat: Thank God I did not meet you in Australia when I was there.

======

Same here.

Whatever Zidane did, the fact is that he was one of the best players around and he is solely responsible for taking France into the finals. He is a legend. Dont forget Maradona was thrown out for drugs, but still he is regarded as the best player of his times. And still has a huge fan following that considers him a legend.

Yes, both teams were diving throughout the world cup. If anyone thinks france played fair, he is mistaken. of course, they were diving much less, i must add. (am neither french nor italian and so watched all games from a neutral perspective). see henry diving in the portugal match, and also sagnol and malouda dive at the slightest opportunity. There are still some gentlemen in the french team like thuram and makelele.

Italy didn’t shamefully win the game. Don’t just focus on Materazzi(he’s not even the best player in the world), focus on everyone in the team.Italy played as a team, not like France, whose game always evolves around Zidane. In the first few minutes, France started diving also, so they’re not a good team after all,like everyone else. For whatever reason, Zidane has shown no class at all!

It’s so funny
First was Rooney
he plays dirty and it’s Ronaldo fault
Now Zidane, does a childish thing and it’s the italian player’s fault
Now when are ppl going to take ownership of their actions
ZIDANE screwed up but not before he maked a PK that was earned from an excellent dive from the french
Who are the divers??????
2 games 2 nonexistent PKs from 2 great dives
at least God was Italian yesterday.

France definitely, without doubt, outplayed Italy that game. They truly deserved to win. Penalty kicks are not an indicator of who the better team was. France should have been world champions. That said, Italy was the next most deserving team so congratulations to them.

Zidane is my hero and I love him for life. Though his headbutt was disappointing and it could have cost us the game, it was probably well deserved. He was being abused the whole game, he had been fouled six times with no call, and France had been dominating the entire game. Zidane was just fed up, and understandably so. He wanted out and he got out. He showed the world his value, and France still got farther than anyone though so it was a semi-victory for them. Zidane had the greatest exit from sport possible. This game was all about him, very little about Italy’s mediocre play.

VIVE LA FRANCE

Hahahahaha

you are so funny massimo, cat and similar people. Get a life. Learn a bitte about history. Rascism : how do you define it. Telling the thruth ? were is the truth.
ME leaving this blog? But why are you there on the first place.
I am French,I am Arabic, European citizen,living in a foreign country where plently of italians live and with who i spend a lot of time.
I love many things but certainly not you.
you are the ones, Massimo, alfredo, and co, to be lost.
YOu go through rascism and homopohobia. And no I am not gay. But now I know why some italian gay leave their own country .
Well lost enough time writing on this sad matters.
Me rascist ? mais c est la poele qui se fout du chaudron. Can translate that to you.
Go through the italian blog, nationalist extreme. I came to this blog thinking finding french people, or french supporters , didn t think to see all those sad-yes sad-comments.

Don t wanna argue politic and history about you , or worse religion with you. cause obvisously you don t know what you are talking about.
And when I said youcef, it s because it s the arabic equivalent for joseph. What is rascist on that.

i have some other things to do

HAHAHAH, you are so …there is no right world to say it. Just funny. Des clowns .

Some things are more important than winning the World Cup. Like self-respect and dignity.

Now that the Italian players won the cup, they can go back to Italy and be kicked out of Serie A and spend quality time in prison for match fixing.

Eh la c est juste pour le reconfort, un peu de douceur dans ce monde de brut

un petit extrait , c etait dans Libe cet apres-midi (www.liberation.fr)

“«Un autre monde»
Il fait chaud. Les Bleus se font attendre. Ils ne mettent les nerfs de leurs supporteurs, désormais plusieurs milliers en bas du palace, à rude épreuve. Pourtant, ces derniers, de tous âges, chantent, à gorge déployée. «Allez les Bleus !», «Merci les Bleus!», «Qui ne saute pas n’est pas Français !». Le premier couplet de la Marseillaise fait également partie du répertoire, comme toujours. Mais ce qui revient constamment, c’est « Zizou ». Son nom est scandé, sa photo grandeur nature est trimballée dans la foule désormais compacte et a droit à tous les égards. Sofia, la cinquantaine, se jette même dessus pour lui embrasser les pieds. Et en pleure d’émotion. Elle n’a désormais qu’un souhait : que Zizou soit là avec le reste de l’équipe, et qu’il salue la foule. Une vénération à laquelle Jonathan trouve une explication : « Le foot, c’est pas que du sport, c’est un autre monde ».

Il est 16h04. Les Bleus, qui viennent de descendre de leur bus, apparaissent –enfin- au balcon. « C’est Chirac qui les a retenus à l’Elysée», lâche une femme. Tous ensemble puis un a un, les Bleus saluent leur public. Deux heures d’attente, pour une dizaine de minutes de pur bonheur.”

Bottom line is that ITALY PLAYS CRAP FOOTBALL based on a cynical, cowardly attitude.

(1) Picture a world cup where every team took the defensive, pasty, jamtart approach that Italy does. Sure they won but it’s only because many other teams play a great, offensive style and pride themselves on this. It’s easy to do what Italy does, which is to clog up your own half until the other team gets bored. If all teams played like Italy, this whole tournament would be absolute sh*t!

(2) Italy strategically uses cheating tactics to win matches because they can’t do it any other way. The Zenadine headbutt is a perfect example. The headbutt is the unfortunate final result of a targetted strategy by the entire Italian team (orchestrated of course by the coaches) to use unsportsmanlike tactics such as cheap verbal and physical shots over the course of an entire game to get a reaction like this out of Zidane. The Italian organization was of course aware of Zidane’s ethnic / cultural background as well as his personal pride in this regard. Being the two-faced cowards they are they, they strategically focused on this using tactics that are illegal off the pitch (i.e., uttering racial slurs, etc.). Italians are the biggest cheaters on and off the pitch…look at the scandal back home.

This world cup win means nothing…hopefully it will be another 24 years!!!

Greetings from Toronto.

Hey Constructor:

Leave Italia alone!!!

They won the cup fair & square!

Every team talks trash and tries to intimidate it’s opponents. It’s not Italia’s fault that Mssr: Zisou can not control his temper. You’re from Canada. Your hockey players arent’ exactly little choir boys; so why are you upset at Italia??

In fact Zinedine has a history of going off on opponents. He doesn’t seem to be a nice guy. When the hell was the last time you saw him smile?

PARIS, July 10 (Reuters) – France captain Zinedine Zidane was apparently called a “dirty terrorist” by Marco Materazzi before he head-butted the Italy defender in Sunday’s World Cup final, the anti-racism group SOS Racism said on Monday.

a6elz:

You raise a good point my friend. Racisim has no damn place at the Cup.

That still doesn’t make head butting Materazzi in the chest right.

You don’t fight ugly with ugly. You play you’re heart out and you try to score the winning goal.

Had Zizou not done that, he would have been around to take his penalty kick instead of Tretegzu who’s kick bounced off the net’s crossbars. France would have won. Zizou would have then shown the Italians who is king.

Something I care to enlighten.
No italian players are charged with match-fixing. It’s all about some clubs managements.
Second: I don’t know how can you blame Materazzi. Assuming he made some racist comments. Zidane himself said: I can’t repeat what Materazzi told me. It seems like Zizou has nothing to say. Of course he could say Materazzi said this Materazzi said that, the whole world will believe cos he’s an hero while Materazzi is a dirty defender. Let’s wait and see.
To all the french supporters: congrats you played a great game, we were out of gas in the second half and obviously during the extra time. Well you know this was our turn, in 98 and 2000 it was yours. See you in september. It’s a pity this game went a bit rough cos Italy and France showed great respect and sportsmanship in their last matches. Great rivalry, but fair play. Very disappointing Monsieur Zizou.
Regards.

What could be a better thing? The French took their shower regularly? maybe..

Amira: You say

“Me rascist ? mais c est la poele qui se fout du chaudron.”

Well, you were the one that said:

“Dear Youcef, euh sorry joseph from Malta, may be you should see again your history . You might have some Arabic blood in your veines. Thank God you both are not representative of Italian and Maltese people.”

Calling Joseph “Youcef” and insinuating that he has “Arabic blood” in his veins because you don’t like him is indeed racist.

“c est la poele qui se fout du chaudron.”

Have I said anything racist on this blog?

Hey Boyd,

if the only way Italy can win is to cheat using these racially-based ‘trash-talking’ tactics they shouldn’t be in the world cup. There is no room for this anywhere in sports. If teams / players don’t know the common-sense line between competitiveness and common decency, they shouldn’t be there.

Fact is that the World Cup tournament represents much more than the game of football. Millions of kids around the world are influenced by it. If they see that Italy can win by degrading someone’s ethnic character that’s an extremely negative message to be taking away from the whole thing.

Hopefully this aspect of Italian football is exposed and made an example of…just as is being done with the match-fixing scandal…

I would like to also add:

Zisou had two choices to make:

1). Retailiate, sink down to Materrazzi’s thug level and get back at him immediately.

2). Ignore Materrazzi and walk away. Zizou would have used that ugly racist comment as inspiration to play his heart out and maybe score the winning goal. He also would have been around to make his penalty kick and win France the Cup! Zisou would have gotten the last laugh over Materrazi.

I’m no religious man, but maybe, just maybe Jesus had a point when he said to turn the other cheek when insulted.

Constructor: It would be better for the children to see a thug, who already served a five game suspension for headbutting a german player, fracturing his cheakbone, and a three game suspension for brutally trampling on a Saudi Arabian player, carry his team to victory by brutally headbutting an Italian?

What strange, twisted morals people have.

Dear Sam,

Well the truth hurt then. It was to explain, may be not enough clairly that the most of civilations are linked. That there no nee of insulting arabic people on this blog, neither the french or any other nationaly. Who I was pointed is some above named people.
When I said Youcef of joseph is to point the fact taht we all have some backgrounds from other cultures. All Mediterannean area, and all the others. As well as I could have some Roman blood as well , as some Bulgare some Turquish, and spanish arabic. I don t see why people get hurted. MAy be the employment of the name ” blood ” , metaphore to say heritage.
Enjoy your evening Dear

no racism was involved!!

according to a report by brazilian news a group of experts in reading lips have determined that what triggered zizou’s anger was that materazzi insulted zizou’s sister lila twice calling her a “prostitute”. this was just posted on the brazilian news a few minutes ago.

so, no racism was involved and although we can all understand how angered zizou was the point is that he should have keep a level head and ignore materazzi but instead he chose to walk down the path of mediocrity with the italian defender. shame on zizou but also SHAME on materazzi for being so low class.

Hey Sam,

the point is that everyone has there breaking point when it comes to being verbally and physically degraded. In each of those cases it is clear that there was a cheating-based strategy in place to get ZZ to reach that breaking point. So the real problem is that they got what they themselves were aiming for using their own cheating tactics.

The fact is my friends Zinedine Zidane had two choices to make and he took the wrong one.

1. Retaliate against Materrazi immediatly with brute, violent force against him, in other words sink way below Materrazi’s punk level.

2. Ignore Materrazi and use his ugly smear as inspiration to play his heart out and maybe score the winning goal. At least with this option Zisou would have been around to make his penalty kick and win France the Cup. He would have gotten the last laugh on that thug Materrazi.

Constructor: Zizou’s breaking point is apparently very low. He’s had an alarmingly high number of red cards in his career, very often for off-the-ball fouls, like headbutting or punching.

Zizou was at the breaking point because he missed two perfect chances against the Italians. Did you see the howl of rage when Buffon blocked his last shot? Then he got pissed off because Materazzi was keeping his hand on him, in a perfectly standard defensive manner.

Maybe Materazzi said something that tipped him over the edge. You are the only person I’ve heard on this blog, from the French players, or in the news, insinuating that the Italians had some kind of racist, cheating strategy of taunting him, and who believes that a better moral for our children to learn is to retaliate through violence.

Groq up.

Boyd,

I disagree. In the end there was no choice for ZZ, who is a passionate, proud player. In an extremely tense, passionate match such as this, with everything on line, and Italy having been whittling away at ZZ’s nerves in a targetted, strategic way for 110 minutes, in the end there was no choice when that final racial slur was uttered. Italy, of all teams, knows this strategy the best and uses it to their biggest advantage.

Italian always have a way of being King of the Dirty Business. So, this World Cup is no surprise at all. They won it by using their dirty tricks, otherwise, the BILLION folks that watched this game, knew France was the Dominating Team thru out the whole game. That dirty Italian Garbage, scumbag deserved the Headbutt… I just wish it was outside, or in the lockerroom….

Yes , i Saw it too. Materazzi Goal was a clear foul. But the ref did not see it.

Constructor:

” it is clear that there was a cheating-based strategy in place to get ZZ to reach that breaking point.”

“Italy having been whittling away a ZZ’s nerves in a targetted, strategic way for 110 minutes”

Where on earth are you getting this stuff. What’s your source? Are you just making this stuff up?

Boyd, I disagree. In the end ZZ had no choice because he is a proud, passionate player. Of all teams, Italy best knows how to use the cheating-based strategy of getting a player to react in a way that portrays the Italian team as the victim, when in fact it is not.

Italians might have won the Cup. But the world knows that the World Cup 2006 Final winner Italy is not the Best. For all the cheating tactics of the Italians (the sidekicks given to the French so that they fall everytime, the foul-mouthed Materrazi etc) —- Sunday, 9 July, 2006 would go down in history as the Black Day for World Cup Soccer.

The masses talk about the head-butt by Zidane. But has people tried to know what villainy Materrazi resorted to in order to upset the sober Zinedine Zidane ?
Instead of commenting on the ‘head-butt’ of Zidane, FIFA ought to look into the ‘foul-mouth’ of Materrazi.

hmmn, I didn’t realise Zizou’s mum went to hospital that morning, I can’t help thinking that Zizou would have been torn between playing and going to her side, did you notice he barely celebrated the goal he scored (compare with his penalty against portugal), the look on his face then, and how he wanted to come off with a minor injury?. I think the pressure of 60 million french not wanting but needing him to play while his thoughts were elsewhere might have got to him.

He must have considered not playing but perhaps thought back to Ronaldo in 1998 who gifted the french the cup by saying he wouldn’t play the morning of the cup (even though he did in the end it shook the whole team). In this situation, it might not have taken a very severe comment from Matarazzi to push him over the edge. (just a hypothesis)

Constructor: I echo Matt’s comments. You’re just pulling this stuff out of thin air. You’re trying to excuse yet another outburst of violence from (still the greatest player on Earth) Zidane, but it’s not worth it.

Its time FIFA takes stringent action against verbal provocation on field in World Cup Matches. Materazzi ought to be tried for his “foul-mouth”.

I totally agree with you Pallavi, why not look at the source of all this controversy. The FIFA should have strict guidelines enforced for both the Provocateurs as well as the reactionaries.

To prevent these things to ever happen again in the future, FIFA should also PUNISH, the instigators like that Dirty Italian Metarrazi, take away his medal, this should serve as a lesson for the younger generations.

The way Italy Plays, is one of the reasons making the game go down. It’s just one of the most boring team. Dirty play, fixing matches, corruption..

I love France, and rooted for them all the way (though my heart is Polish) but Zidane’s headbutt was simply inexcusable. Any attempts to say that the Italians were purposely trying to make him break are (1) made up, and (b) pointless. Zidane headbutted the Italian player in a disgusingly unsportsman-like way, and it was his own doing. He lost the game for my beloved France.

Pallavi: No one has any idea what Matterazi said. It’s all rumor. In all likelyhood, it was probably not nearly as bad as people have been imagining it.

How do you know there was a “foul mouth”. You don’t.

@Jake:
The [b]CAUSE[/b] behind ZiZou’s reaction is just as important before justpushing down ZiZou blindly. He made Franch team what it is. Without Zinedine, French Team could have reached so far.

I think it’s a lot more unsportsmanlike to consciously try to degrade someone’s character using racial slurs than for the receiver of that slur to finally say enough is enough and defend his honour / pride with a violent act that is not meant to injure.

Sad ending to an illustrious career. Despite all the Italian posters’ reviling of him, this one act of violence will not diminish his record. In the end, he is a brilliant footballer, and was pushed to far. There is no excusing his action, and in my opinion he should be stripped of the Golden Ball. Most of the voting happened before the head-butt.

But the provoker should be punished, too. His feeble excuses and feigning of innocence is just as disgusting as Zidane’s retaliatory act. And chances are, Materazzi will never be known as anything but the guy who pushed Zidane too far.

Zidane’s act is a great disappointment. Materazzi’s disgusts me.

Matt said:

“No one has any idea what Matterazi said. ”

You’re right, and I don’t have to. A person doesn’t react like Zidane did without serious provocation. Neither Zidane, nor Materazzi are innocent. Let’s not pretend it to be any other way.

Unless you are so insulated and practically like a robot with no emotions and reaction, you ARE bound to REACT.

Zinadine was constantly the target of the Italians dirty tricks.

For those who are saying he should have been the better man, he is MAN first, and yes all men have trigger point/fuse.

Why don’t you test yourself in the MALL today, and ask everyone around you to curse you, your nation, your parents, and see how long you can take it. I bet not long, and Zinedine was being psychologically degraded by the Italians, and unlike in a MALL, he was being targeted before BILLION watchful eyes.

Materazzi symbolizes Foul-play, TRICKERY.
Zidane symbolizes Passion, TRUTH.
And, truth knows no diplomacy. Zidane reacted to a team of Cheats from Italy.

Constructor: you’ve been making all your arguments from hear-say, making-things-up, and unfounded stereotypes.

You say the Italian said a racial slur. We have no evidence of this, except for what some of the other French players (unnamed) have suggested, and his PR agent said.

You say the Italians carried out a systematic cheating strategy of taunting, using ethnic, racist slurs, and so on, to wear Zidane down to breaking point. As far as I can tell, you’re just making this up, as no one else (not even here on this blog) has suggested anything like it.

You say that this is a typical way for Italians to play, saying “Italy [...uttered that final racial slur]. Italy, of all teams, knows this strategy the best and uses it to their biggest advantage.” “Italy best knows how to use the cheating-based strategy”

Can you suggest another time when Italy used a “cheating based strategy” of hurling racist insults at someone?

Frankly, you seem to have forgotten how hard Zidane worked to get the French to accept him, and how long the racist comments about his Algerian ancestry persisted in France.

Look, stop making things up. Give us some actual sources or events or don’t bother with this.

And, if you like, go back to teaching your children that it’s best to react violently against someone when the ref is not looking when you are trash-talked by the opposition.

Peter C: You said: “A person doesn’t react like Zidane did without serious provocation.”

Please. Don’t forget how, in the 2000 Champions League match between Juventus Turin and Hamburger SV, Zidane headbutted Jochen Kientz savagely, breaking his cheakbone, and got a red card and five-game suspension for it. And don’t forget how he he visciously stamped on Saudi captain Fuad Amin in the first round in 98, which got him a well deserved red card and a two game suspension. He has one of the highest career red card records on the French team, and many of those are for “off-the-ball” assults, when he was not involved in play.

Not only foul-mouth,the reaction might also have been owing to the constant side-kicking by Materazzi all throughout the game. We might not have heard Materazzi’s words, but we have seen his cheating tactics.

Getting ZZ out of the game this way was an Italian organizational strategy and it worked. Hopefully FIFA clues into this and starts dealing with it.

Maybe all players should start wearing small wireless recording devices and all comments screened and penalized retroactively if necessary.

Maybe then the ‘Azzurri’ will have time to focus on playing some better football instead of yacking about other people’s skin color.

Sure Matt. No doubt Zidane is not a Saint. Neither is Stoichkov, niether is George Best, neither is Maradonna. I don’t expect the people I admire on the football field to be perfect. But I did expect more of Zidane. That’s why what he did makes me extremely sad.

But you cannot overlook Materazzi. We don’t know what he said, or did, but it is irrefutable that he said or did something. We may never know, but in my mind, I still condemn him as instigating this action.

They should BOTH be condemned for foul play. BOTH. Not one, not the other BOTH!

Constructor: “Getting ZZ out of the game this way was an Italian organizational strategy and it worked.”

Again?? As Sam said, get some sources, or even some minor, hear-say evidence, and stop blatently making things up. It’s embarrassing.

Peter: Materazzi may have said something, but it needn’t be nearly as bad as poeple are suggesting. ZZ was worn out and upset at having missed two great chances (did you see his scream earlier?), and was getting frustrated by Materazzi keeping his hand on him while he was marking him (not a nice thing to do, but perfectly legal). Players say nasty things to each other on the pitch all the time. It needn’t be racist.

And I do wish those who solely accuse the Italians of foul play would shut it. There are players on EVERY team of EVERY country who indulge in this. To my mind, it is neither the French or the Italians who get the foul play award, it is the Portuguese. Of the games I saw, theirs seemed to be the most rife with dives, whinging, and cry-baby tactics. C. Ronaldo alone could give master classes in these tactics.

Given the fluid nature of football, it is exteremely difficult to control. I hope FIFA can find someway to improve this. I think they are improving. What I’ve read says that it was the fourth official who witnessed the head-butt and communicated it immediately to the Referee. This whole thing would have been 10 times worse if Zidane had gone unpunished during the game.

I still hope they are able to punish Materazzi, too.

test

reports are saying that materazzi called him a “dirty terrorist”

Yes, and he’s denied it and ZZ still hasn’t said anything.

It’s all rumors, and, even when ZZ does finally speak (he’s been treasuring this guessing game, as more and more people come to his side against Materazzi), he has every reason to make Materazzi’s insult as horrible as possible, to excuse his inexcusable behaviour.

Muslim youth rampaged through the streets of paris looking for trouble while waving algerian and turkish flags after france’s loss. France is so finished, I hope the rest of europe learns from their mistakes.

zidane whyyyyyyyyyy?
he must make excuses in front of the world

the penalty was very generous

I’m happy for the italians finally they’ve won

sad for us we’ll have to wait about 20 years to come back there

malouda the worst french player

why didn’t domenech put dhorasso against viera abd trezeguet against tired henry?

I read an Henry quote that said “you can take the man out of the bad neighborhood, but you can’t take the bad neighborhood out of the man.” I think that sums up Zidanes reaction pretty well, and I have to think that Materazzi said something pretty bad for Zidane to do that.

After seeing Materazzi play for a long time I know that he is a very dirty player and I don’t respect him at all, he just tries to get in the head of his opponents by talking trash and groping them. I see no honor in this and it pisses me off. Like Domenech said he shouldnt have head butted him but he understands why he did, so do I.

I’m so glad the stinkin’ Frenchies lost the match! I’m also happy that that looser got kicked out of the match. He’s the typical French cry baby. Once again, the world has seen that the French are no better than anyone else. Unfortunatley, the French think they are but the world knows better and we are all laughing at them. Idiots!

Bill, go back to your baseball blog, you obviously know nothing about soccer.

ignorance is bliss

Eric, I know that you know nothing about sports! Go back to playing video games. USA has the best athletes in the world! I may not know anything about Soccer, but I do know the French are cowards and will never get respect from the USA!

Constructor:

While I respect your opinion, Zidane knows better than to sink down to Matarrzi’s level.

Besides, I agree with Sam that Zizou’s breaking point is very low and he has had a large number of red cards, stopped on a Saudi Arabian player and nearly breaking the cheekbone of a German player in another viscious head-butt.

Granted, Matarrazzi’s no little angel either.

In the end I agree with Pallavi Barua and Jason who call for FIFA to condem the provacatuers as well as the reactionaries. It think FIFA should suspend and fine Matarrazzi from international play.

With that said, enough already of the people calling Italia’s victory tainted by Matarrazzi. You’re not going to penalize the rest of the Azzuri for the actions of one jerk. The rest of the Azzuri played a fine defensive game.

it’s sad for zizou
but thuram maybe played is last game yesterday night
he’s been a great player too

what happen to barthez? I didn’t came with the rest of the team today in Paris, I think the media killed 3 years ago in Manchester, too much pressure as well as zidane
3 billion spectators? one final to go and his last game, after 20 years of high football level

too much for one man, and mostly for a mediterean man, hot blood we say!!!!

Eric,

why don’t you cork your skanky cakehole you pasty jamtart.

Everyone knows that the US only plays its own games (e.g., baseball, American football) because they can’t compete on an international stage in ‘real’ sports. They win their own baseball title and declare themselves ‘World Champions’. How sad and worthy of global pitty.

Zidane is Ze DONE. What a shame he couldnt keep it together. Its a shame really. He lost it for his team. With him they had a chance but he showed his true colors didnt he. Repeat offense wasnt it? he’s famous for his red cards in intenational play and also his head buts.

The french are sore loosers and Im sure they will come up with some wild story on what happened to save Ze DONE’s reputation.

To late in my books he’s a big suck loser.

I wonder how many millions of endorsement money Ze Done will lose now because of his actions.

I love how all these American/Canadians making fun of Zidane and the French can’t spell loser correctly, I think it tells us who the true looosers are.

If he couldn’t play football
zizou would probably be
strapping on a bomb belt.

To: ‘I Like Massimmo’

Don’t categorise all Muslims as bloodthirsty, avengeful bastards by the evil acts of a few. That way, then ppl of every every religon are bloodthirsty, avengeful bastards. So would you be one if your mother and sister were raped and before your eyes. (Being an Italian – it may be possible that you are doing that yourself to them).

I’ve got plenty of Muslim firends who are genuine hardworking god-fearing people.

If you continue posts like that, – Your days are numbered.

lock and load buddy thats all you guys down there are good for.

perhaps you shouldnt get involved in other countries affairs. Get of the blog you yanks only know about your own sports like base ball been berry good to me fat non athletic ass wipes.

Bomb belt, thats the best laugh Ive had all day.

Mr. Screw the Frogs:

Dude, this is a futbol (aka soccer) blog.

Please take your racist trash remarks to some redneck/hick KKK or Aryan Nations blog where they belong.

It’s fu***ng redneck asshole Americans like you that give the rest of us Americans black eye in the eyes of the world.

I can only speak for me, but I’ve had it with your racist, tiny-minded redneck-asswipe comments.

Instead of talking about the game, that’s all you’ve done throught out the whole blog.

To the Rest of the World: This redneck/asswipe goober certainly does not speak for me nor hopefully the rest of us Americans posting here.

No god, no angel, but, ultimately, a hero…

Don’t look further for an eplanation of Zidane’s exit last night.

Because every hero has his weakness, and ZZ got his.
He is known to loose his temper when he believes that he has had enough . That doesn’t make him, as some appear to claim, a violent or dishonest player. Every single one of his bookings was received because he retaliated at some point against his opponent (which is not an excuse, but an explanation…); There is absolutely no instance of ZZ initating an agression against an opponent.

There is absolutely no instance of ZZ ever “playing the referee” or faking.

I find personally sad that partisanship, or in some case what appears to be pure hatred should cloud the judgement of people who profess their attachment to the beautiful game of soccer.

I believe that those who truly appreciate this sport are able to go beyond their personal preferences and give respect where it is due. ZZ is there with the very, very best of them, and maybe leading the gang.

The way I approach this sport, I like to think that true brazilian footabll fans are able to recognize the genius of Maradona, and their argentinian counterparts hails the great Pelé.

ZZ said he was quitting because “it was not as much fun as before”; I don’ t know what was said to him (and whatever it was that doesn’t not excuse what he did, technically)but maybe, finally, he decided it was not worth it.

So thanks for everything: as we say here “Salut l’artiste”

We’ll be waiting probably for quite some time before seeing such an amazing talent, and such a great guy. A guy you never saw in St Tropez, at Cannes or anywhere that the happy few flock together.

A guy you never saw in the people magazines.

A guy who scored a “panenka” (a first ever) in a World Cup final. talk about class…

Hey France as bad as Zidane antics were it did not come close to the shame that the Portuguese brought to this WC.

Portugal sucks.

So one idiot begets another?

I feel sorry for France having to loose in PK’s, it is truly not the way to end such a high level match.

But we Italian fans know a thing or two about loosing on PK’s and those memories linger and hurt just as much as the day they occured.

I understand where people on blogs tend to go wild and hurl mud at each other, all the while there are mostly positive reports from Fans that were live on Site in Germany.

So I assume it would be somewhat safe to say that Virtual Reality is more aggressive than Physical Reality. I really believe it would be much more intimidating to run into a crowded room and make some of the ridiculous statements and comments that have been posted in these blogs.

Vive La France, Viva L’Italia

But of course I am Italian and well I suppose I would get upset too but hopefully would know to keep my cool and not jump to catastrophic escalation.

Okay before i make x number of points I want to clarify some stuff up. I live in Canada but take my Italian roots very seriously so dont say i dont know what I am talking about. Now on to my points:

1) I am sorry for all of you offended by racial comments stated by jackasses like Massimo etc. They are not true italians and do not judge our culture just because of one tainted apple in the entire bunch

2) Also- everyone else stop using racial slurs on us. Calling ujs divers cheats etc only lowers your respect from others.

Onto the Game Itself

1) People are wondering why france took of ribery and henry. SImple answer is they are tired. They normally dont play such a long physical game in their club nations as well as their games are not as physically demanding as in Italian football- You may argue but it is true

2) At Italy being defensive the second half. Defence wins championships. Greece showed it in Portugal 2 years ago and now italy is doing the same. If you can stop your opponent from scoring- then they cant win. Italy wears down other teams by having them attack until they are so tired that italy can come up with a break. That being said Italy can also play attacking as demonstrated in first half of final

3) PK for France was a foul even if embellished a lot. Referees cant see everything so they have to do what they think is right

4) PKs a lottery?- I dont think so. To score a PK especially in finals- requires alot of mental focus and confidence and not as much physical skill. The team that wins PK shows that they are more focussed and have their goal set on the prize and no lower

Zidane Incident

1) Zidane was tired, he was also furious and angry after all of Frances goals. When Materazzi put an arm on him ( not illegal as he wasnt pulling him back) I think Zidane just lost mental focus for a moment. He began to stay things to MAterazzi who replied and Zidane snapped.

2) I do not think Materazzi said anything offensive. He is 34 years old, has loads of experinced, plays with ppl of different nations and has probably so much experience that he knows not to say such derogatory things. If it was someone who was starting like a 21 year old- I could maybe see where you are coming from. The truth is though that Italy is not the racist nation ppl think it is and saying so is racist itself.

3) This Brazillian report. I doubt it is true. I could barely see Materazzis mouth moving. I think by the time he could say “Tua Sorella. . .” his mouth was shut again. Sorry but lip reading can only go so far and in the split second MAterazzi responded, I doubt anyone had enough visibility of his mouth to see what he said

Overall a great game and it was a thriller. Italy won and I am happy but France gave up a good fight.

P.S Please respond to this I like having debates with people

AMIRA:

what a piece of pig-headed cheap person you are!

First you insult me in broken italian, offending not only me but Italians i general.

THEN you have the cheek to ask for “peace”….you truly are a typical middle eastern back-stabber…remember the group “black september”?

(Oh, just for the record: Maltese is definitely NOT a disformed Arabic. It has semitic roots & words, but that is the ONLY piece of semitic that we have in our language. 60% of the vocabulary today is Italian, a good 20% english, & just 20% semitic.)

Oh, someone mentioned the 6 fouls/tackles Zizou got during the game….what to say about Luca Toni?!!

the difference: Toni is a sportsman & a gentleman, Zidane is a piece of low-life infested with an inferiority complex so big that the Olympiastadion was to small for it.

Amira, you must be a really vile person if you condone Zizou’s head-butt.

Forza Azzuri,

You made some good points there;

The beautifull game does not have to be played according to one single doctrine. A wide open soccer match cannot sustain itself and I find that it has potential to be just as boring as a tightly defended match with few true attacking opportunities.

Point #2 — Materrazi has alot of baggage and lord only knows what exactly was exchanged verbally between those two. Nonetheless if one of my players has been headbutted in the chest, I would probably earn myself a red card as well and smack the living daylights out of the opposing player.

Now that being said I am not on the field and I must admire the self control exhibited by the rest of the Italian squad in not overreacting and letting the ref do his thing.

As for Italy’s defensive style I can live with them playing it as long as it wins trophies, in the end a Beautifull wide open game does not win trophies.

Hey Forza,

If you are so serious, then go back to Italy. NO one wants to hear your views blah blah. fool.

Just another one of those over climatic Italians living in Canada.
We won – yesterdays news
Get a job – todays news

Most of these Canadian folks posting here are of Italian origin. So naturally, they are bashing Zidane.

Believe you me, it was a sad day seeing the 150,000 Italians waving flags here in Toronto for a team that is god damn dirty.

I wonder if these Italian fans know they have the dirtiest and one of the most hated teams in the world?

Cannovaro… define an over climatic Italian living in Canada aye?

Forza azzuri
“Italy is not the racist nation ppl think it is and saying so is racist itself.”
It sounds like a little child argument isn’t it?? Can you talk us about Lazio?

Interesting debate on the whole Italian/French penalty situation:

http://www.cliphunter.com

EVERYBODY READ THE FOLLOWING QUOTES, STOP INSULTING YOURSELVES AND LOOK AT THE BIG PICTURE.

At the heart of racism is the religious assertion that God made a creative mistake when He brought some people into being

Friedrich Otto Hertz

I look forward confidently to the day when all who work for a living will be one with no thought to their separateness as Negroes, Jews, Italians or any other distinctions. This will be the day when we bring into full realization the American dream — a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property widely distributed; a dream of a land where men will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few; a dream of a land where men will not argue that the color of a man’s skin determines the content of his character; a dream of a nation where all our gifts and resources are held not for ourselves alone, but as instruments of service for the rest of humanity; the dream of a country where every man will respect the dignity and worth of the human personality.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

But suppose God is black? What if we go to Heaven and we, all our lives, have treated the Negro as an inferior, and God is there, and we look up and He is not white? What then is our response?

Robert F. Kennedy

In world history, those who have helped to build the same culture are not necessarily of one race, and those of the same race have not all participated in one culture.

Ruth Fulton Benedict

If a white man falls off a chair drunk, it’s just a drunk. If a Negro does, it’s the whole damn Negro race.

Bill Cosby

I got nothing against no Viet Cong. No Vietnamese ever called me a nigger.

Muhammad Ali, 1967, refusing to fight in Vietnam

The Olympic Spirit is neither the property of one race nor of one age.

Pierre de Coubertin quotes

angelo;

it would be a typical Italian.

aye!!!!

Thierry, Lazio ISN’T Italy…

forza , you dont know what you are talking about.

Cannovaro, what is a typical Italian. To be quite honest I don’t think I have every met a typical Italian.

A ugly human being.

Two Italian girls walk into a bar and the bartender says,
“Wow, you both have nice mustaches”.

Boyd, you are such an annoying,
humorless, self righteous
douchebag. If you don’t approve of what I have to say, ignore it. Stop taking yourself or any
of this so seriously. You think That I’m an asshole, I feel the sme way about you. I don’t speak for all americans, neither do you, so get off your high horse. asshole.

Forza Lazio.
Roma Merde.

AMIRA:

what a piece of pig-headed cheap person you are!
- What an argument dear

First you insult me in broken italian, offending not only me but Italians i general.
-I was definilty pointing my remarks toward you and alfredo and massimo ONLY. I like Italy and Malta I repeat, and their people except those who have a lack of brain… like you / broken italian, that s only my fith language, so I do apologise to make some mistakes.(By te way you should learn some more english words, kind advice)

THEN you have the cheek to ask for “peace”….you truly are a typical middle eastern back-stabber…remember the group “black september”?
-I am not or middle east for your information.it s called globalization, free circulation and people.By the way i come from a country fighting terrorism. And I am against extremist of all kinds…like you

(Oh, just for the record: Maltese is definitely NOT a disformed Arabic. It has semitic roots & words, but that is the ONLY piece of semitic that we have in our language. 60% of the vocabulary today is Italian, a good 20% english, & just 20% semitic.)
- good to see that you have finally done some research about your culture- and for the records, arabic are semit

Oh, someone mentioned the 6 fouls/tackles Zizou got during the game….what to say about Luca Toni?!!

the difference: Toni is a sportsman & a gentleman, Zidane is a piece of low-life infested with an inferiority complex so big that the Olympiastadion was to small for it.

-Why so much anger, did you achieve something in your life, dont be upset! ZiZou is the BEST, he did a mistake and that s all. Dont you ever do mistakes…but your own talking is a mistake, you shouldn t even talk..but i accept, this is the so called democraty. we have to accept people like you .And my right is to say what i think about persons like you.

Amira, you must be a really vile person if you condone Zizou’s head-butt.
-I never said he was right doing what he has done, I said it has been provoked. and depending on what M said may be it would be justified. I SAID WE CAN UNDERSTAND , not that it was right. You can understand all people have their limits.

Yours are definitly at the lowest standard. Bonsoir

Im so sorry for the final. The beginning went well but what happened between Materazzi and Zidane was so sad. However, whatever happened Zidane was also clearly guilty of charge.

All this well promoted stuff about ending racism in football where nations can compete in good spirits and fair play seems to be null and void. I completely understand that some players “role” in the team can be to irritate some “star”-player. Thats much more common in icehockey in which my country is much better than in football. Still there are some things should not be said.

I also want the publishers of this blog to take concern about the racism which is very openly spoken out here. Especially I have to say that team Italy fans have now been very racist here (not all ofcourse). I just hope that you understand that your language will take the best away from your glory that you have now. Why dont be fair winners and demand that if your player is guilty of those insults then he is not a hero. Team Italy however is!

Materazzi publicly denies that he hasnt said anything racial stuff but we havent heard the another side of the story. We need a full investigation about his actions too. Team Italy on the other hand should not be penalised, only the individual.

I just must ask: How on earth can the worlds most “anti-racism” sporting event end with a racist insult? Why, Why….

Bill and screw the frog aka Fat Burgers

You guys are pathetic fox news brainwashed ignorants. Italia and France are two great football nations, like it or not. Football WC is the greatest sporting event on earth followed by every nations with utmost passion and drama so I can understand that you feel frustrated that your national team really suck at it. But please spare us some blog space, we don t need your obnoxious non-sense pathetic comments. French and Italians don t give a damn about what scumbags like you think, actualy Europe and the whole world don t give a sh**. We are aware that America has great people as well but too many of your kind contribute in nurturing the bad image that your country is suffering from. So give us a break that will be good for us and for the States.

ps: when u r done watching baseball, there is a nascar race on chanel 5… LOL… Rednecks

This forum is a joke.
I mean, aren’t we supposed to talk about soccer, team strategy, technical skills, building some nice actions …?

Almost everybody here talks about race or racism, Zidane being either a God or an asshole ….

This is so ridiculous.

I think it was an interesting game until the extra time started and it was clear that both teams were exhausted and the game was losing a bit of its interest.

But other than that, the first 90 minutes were excellent. And we all know the kind of pressure they players are under, so overall it was a good game.

Please stop saying that one team was great and the other was terrible.

If it ended 1-1, it’s exactly because both teams were about the same.

I do think the French were a little more offensive in the second half, they could have scored a couple of times.

Italy has a good defense and their goaley is pretty good.

As for Zidane, he will remain a great player. I don’t really know what tool we use to decide whether or not he is the best player of all time but he surely is amazing and the end of his career was tragic.

I am sure that we will find out what happened on the field this day, between him and Materazzi.

I think that, even though his act will never look good, people will understand why he did.

Soccer and sports in general should be about bringing people together. It’s just a sport so let’s not take it too seriously.

I am worried about some people getting too affected by an event happening only once every 4 years. There are other things way more important in life.

That being said, thanks to Italy and France and the other 30 teams for the great visual experience you offered.
And of course, thanks to Germany for hosting such a prestigious event.

God Bless You All !

Alessandro,

Take a chill pill and keep it cool.

Yes I agree that Screw the Frogs made some pretty bad comments here but really, why do you care so much?
He is obviously not interested into soccer and he is just wasting his time.

I don’t think it’s fair to say that the American soccer team sucks. They did a pretty good game against Italy. They should be proud that they scored 1-1 against the winner.

I do believe that the US will get better and better. Living in the US (I am European), I have noticed that many people had some interest in this world cup. Also, I see more and more people playing soccer as a hobby and televions are finally getting into it.

Who knows, maybe one day we will see a finale US-Brazil ….

Johnny well said and God Bless you and your country.

There is an increasing popularity for “soccer” in North America. Hopefully Canadian and American teams will get better, but I’m not expecting anything soon.

I am very disgusted and annoyed 2 see so much hatred and racism among the football fafns. The main aim of FIFA WORLD CUP 2006 was 2 make friends not enemies and totally remove racism from the beautiful game called socer.

However what zidane did cannot be justified by any means but still he remains 1 of the best players the world has ever seen!!!!!!!!

It is a fact that several of the Italian players are linked with racist fascist groups (Buffon publicly admires Mussolini, he’s worn pro-Mussolini t-shirts in public more than once). It is a fact that Materazzi has had a checkered career, being carded and kicked off the pitch several times. It would not surprise me at all if Materazzi used the race card for a provocation and Zidane fell for it.

Robyn yes it would be great to see America and Canada come into soccer in a big way. However I believe until you can get a lot more TV coverage it won’t happen. It wouldn’t pay the TV companies to show the matches and I know In America the commercials come very regularly during programs, thats how the money is earned,so really you would lose the thread of the match if there were constant interruptions. Just my opinion but hopefully because Team USA did so well this will help promote the game a lot more.

To Jane: I agree with the TV coverage thing. I live in Canada (but I’m Italian) and it’s pretty rare to catch regular games on TV. It’s disappointing.

here’s a cool video of Zidane in the good old days : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b7Yk7tpY64

Can someone enlighten me as to why France can dominate Italy without Vieira, Henry, Zidane on the field?

What nonames in the midfield and defensive backline are responsible for this?

Intriguing minds want to know!

Larry good point and the 10 left still held the defence tight against Italy. Thought Ribery played a fantastic game.

Zidane should have went far post and headed it down in that situation. Near post was too risky.

In America, we call this armchair quarterback which I love doing

“ps: when u r done watching baseball, there is a nascar race on chanel 5… LOL… Rednecks”

Alessandro – Latin cousins, you sound like the racists you are critizing. What a shame. To assume all A,ericans like baseball and NASCAR is typical stereotyping and the sign of a small brained, intolerant bigot.

Any way, my chanel 5 is broken.

Joke of the year:

TwO Italian woman walk into a restaurant looking to eat some NOODLES.

The waiter says ” Would you men like to sit at the bar”

Three questions I would really not like to find out?

1) WHy do Italian men smell really nasty? NO just some but all of them.
2) WHy do italian woman have mustaches?
3) What is with their long greasy hair? Even the italian woman with mustaches do not like it.

Hi Jane,

I agree that Ribery was fantastic.

Did I foget to mention that France played well without Ribery, Vieira, Henry, Zidane on the field.

Still, I hope Ribery can improve inside the 18 yard box.
I would be nice to see Henry and Ribery improve their hook-ups in the future.

Why are people still standing up and making excuses for Zidane? It doesnt matter what Mazzerati said…. Last time I checked words were not weapons…

If an Italian had done that people would have lost their minds!!!! I have been saying it since jump. Teams didnt play as hard as they should against France in the knock off rounds….. the moment that they faced a team not willing to give up they showed their true colors.

The excuses have to stop. France was a weak team coming into this WC and they showed it in the final. Italy played with pure heart…. its all they really had…. they said it themselves. France played their weak and pathetic game. Fainting and rolling on the floor at any little contact. Just look at Henry….. either he is the weakest human being in the world or he was trying to get the Italian captain sent off at the start of the game… either way its sad that a bunch of cry baby wimps made it to the final…. Italy deserved to be there just on pure heart. France should have been at home eating frog legs………

Ribery is fun to watch.

Italy? This team looked weak and pathetic at times wouldn’t you say?
The USA WNT outplayed Italy with one man down for …

One thing that is amazing of Italy is that this team knows how to strike when an infrequent chance comes along. Witness how Italy came back to tie the score at 1-1 within 12 minutes. Once the tie was even, Italy changed to their usual weak and pathetic play.

An observation.

France plays the best 4-5-1 of anyone.

Yes I am Italian. FInally I admitted it. I am one ugly Italian. I look like all the other Italians. Our woman need to shave their faces and we suck cock for cheeseburgers.

massimo: You are sick. Really sick. I’m no arab or christian, but your way of thinking sucks. there’s no need to implicate the matter to arab or anything. terrorists or not, it is your kind of thinking and never give chance to others that cause so much unrest with terror threats in the world right now. you are no better than terrorist who bomb others. there’s always two ways to view an issue, but your brain is so small that anything, you will reach the conclusion that it is arab vs christian, i really pity you.

I have just watched the welcome back for the French Team, it was overwhelming, the support for Zidane was outstanding. Even the Predient congratulated him. The French fans are amazing, they obviously love their team and are so proud of all of them. Well done French Fans you have a great team.

I should have been man of the match. Oh wait I play defence and there is nothing exciting about that.

To the degenerate Canadian who made the comment about Portugal sucking. No.. you suck. Really you do. Portugal was no worse than any other team as far as diving or any other tactic goes. But you wouldn’t know this because your a stupid idiot. In the Holland/Portugal game, for instance, the Portuguese were physically attacked right from the beginning of the game and spent the rest of the game simply defending themselves. C. Ronaldo who the English press have decided to villify to the point of having fans vandalize his home was sent off 7 minutes into the game with a gash to his thigh by the psychopath Dutch player. So there Canuck, go back to wishing you were American and leave Portugal alone.

Mazzi,”Lazio ISN’T Italy ”
Fortunately.
JUVE? ROMA? INTER? BERLUSCONIERI? PARMA? What is the team of your heart?

HAHAHA

Portugal disgraced FIFA, the nation of Portugal and the future of the game.

I wont get into it too much because its not worth my time to talk about the pork. First their tactics were the worst by far. THey have given other second rate countries like temselves bad ideads. NOw you will see teams of their skill level like Estonia, ANdorra and Luzembourg attempting their same tactics. It will hurt the sport. ANy team in this wold cup could have made it to the semis with those circus acts the portuguese pulled. Disgace, no honour and disgusting. Even England or the USA. They disgust me and the fact that you cant admit it is hilarious. You keep telling yourself that it was everyone else who was dirty. Yeah right. HOlland for one is known for their purity and clean play. England well thats a little different. As for your US comment I am actually American you fool so before you insult someone get it straight. St.Paul Minnesota

Lol Massimo, you need to STFU or ill rip another asshole for ya

I just want to say that we are not all like that f**g massimo syupid racist. Regrding Zidane he is a great player but at the same time one on the weakest if you talk about selfcontrol. This is not the first time he does that and also when they won it in France he was sent off to step on a player. Regarding the football the team that conceded less goal won it that’s football as well what’s the point of doing 3 goal and get 4 you lose anyway. So Italy were the best on that and France may played a good final and against brasil but they were very boring in the others matches. So guys cheer up and FORZA ITALIA

I was cheering for Italy in this match. I love Italy, its culuture, its people, and its language. My cousin is Italian, and my sister and whole family were in Torino to see this match.

BUT, I have to say that there will be a stain on this world cup victory until Mazerrati comes clean about what was said. To date, even he won’t admit what he said, indicating that he knows he did something for which history will judge him wrong. I do not judge Italians by who they are but what they do, and it is a strong statement on Italy that the social pressure for Mazerrati to come clean has not been stronger.

The red card was fair, and no one could blame it for the outcome of the game. But Italy has no honor when they tolerate a racist in their midst.

I think we, the fans, and Zidane’s french compatriots should be coming out stronger in his support. At the end of the day, there are things more important than a world cup victory: respect and honor the knowledge that we live in countries that do not tolerate racism.

First of all thank you Abruzze for the support. Secondly Cannovaro- you are the most retarded person in the world. Obviously i am not going back to italy. matybe later but not at age of 15. For now ill stick going ther for a few weeks in the summer. I also like how you- as well as many other ppl- make accusations and statements with no evidence or argument to back it up

You said

“Just another one of those over climatic Italians living in Canada.
We won – yesterdays news
Get a job – todays news”

Italians will celebrate for a long time buddy and i hate how you percieve us as unqualified ppl.

You claim i dont know what i am talking about so unless you are going to enlighten me ( something i think is to hard with some of your mental capacity) then shut your pie hole and go f**k yourself (cuz I’m sure no one else would like to)

It was an okay game. Shouldn’t have went into extra time though. Results still ended up being the same. Forza Italia!

shame on you italy… Shame on you! Even when France was down to ten, you couldn’t score a goal! Plus, it’s commonly accepted that PKs are pure luck.

I think you should all read this article ….. http://worldcup.goal.com/en/articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=91061 …

Zidane Isnt the champion they display him as …

Tsk tsk: France was down a man for only twenty minutes, after everyone had already played 100 minutes and was completely exhausted. Italy had also just recently played to 120 minutes with Germany a few days before.

It’s not like the Australia game, where Italy was down to 10 men for the entire second half, yet still shut the aussies out of any goals.

Tsk tsk France, even the fabulous Zizou couldn’t beat the defence and the keeper.

We all know that the British press has been wrong in the past, however if what they are printing in todays news paper is correct then Materazzi should hand back his medal. Especially as Zidanes mother is ill it is quite sick.

”
ZINEDINE Zidane headbutted an Italian in the World Cup Final over a vile slur on his ill mother Malika, it was claimed last night.

A lip-reader told The Sun that Marco Materazzi called Zidane a “son of a terrorist whore” before the French Algerian was sent off in Sunday’s explosive match.”

ohhhhhhhhhhh wooooooooooooowwwwwwwww….. it doesnt matter what Materazzi said… beat his ass after the match….. Zidane is a pro that gets paid millions to do a job… his job is to play soccer not to head butt people because they talk about his mom……. Zidane was mad…. he just put up a perfect header that Buffon stopped… he played hard all game and had nothing to show for it so he lost it…..

A shameless act by a has been…..

Raul

GOOD LUCK ZIDANE!

Even if Zidane had beaten Brazil twice, in 98 and in 06, I must confess I love his elegant style, and his introspective personality. He was the only great player (”craque” as we call here in Brasil), that made an indivudal performance significant enough to change completely a games result. He was the best player of the final match, was brilliant in the game verus Brasil, was really good in the game versus Spain.

I wanted Italy to win the finals, because I didnt want to see Henry and Domenech lift the Cup. One hour after Italy win, I knew I was wishing wrong all along. Italy is a team full of players with deeply questionable character, Buffon was betting in games he already knew what the score would be, Lippi was also involved in the Italian federation scandal, De Rossi is an animal that savagely attacked an american in the Italy X USA match, and Materazzi…. Its by far the world´s most violent player. Just do a quick search in youtube.com and you´ll be shocked. And those were the guys that lift the great cup.

Zidane was the character of the championship, the best player by far, and the player most deeply involved and commited this World Cup. The headbut revealed the human on the hero Zidane, his weakness was to let his emotions overcome him with immediate, surprising, decisive, objetive, precise action. Thats how he played. And now we are celebrating thieves, cheaters and brutal smartasses, that cleverly managed to take out of the way the only man that had the “beautiful game” with him in this competition.

Raul, I don’t agree with you, Wars start with words, and this kind of insult is especially insulting if you are muslim, you love somebody and you have feelings. I am not saying that Zidanes attack was correct, what I am saying though is Materazzi is an animal who obviously doesn’t think him and the Italian team could win without inciting Zidane to a pitch were he would retaliate. Pity Materazzi wasn’t born dumb or had actually gone to school. I quote Materazzies reply,

Materazzi yesterday denied calling Zidane a terrorist. He said: “It is absolutely not true. I’m ignorant. I don’t know what the word means.”

I suppose that is quite believable as it came from Materazzi lol
The guy knew exactly what he was doing. If what has been printed is true and FIFA do nothing to Materazzi over this incident thehn I think a few people will be very very angry.

Personally I hope they strip him of his medal.

Marco, fine Zinedine has a history of being redcarded.

But the best players are the one who get all the attention in terms of abuse!

In Zinedine’s case it has probably been racist comments!

And it is easy for us to say that the events were not provoked because you don’t get to hear what is being said on the field – all you see is the resulting action (headbutt or whatever).

Can you blame Zinedine for doing what he does if he is continously pestered with slurs??

As for what materazzi said, if it is true as per what the Sun published that that is a disgrace and he should be punished! Especially if Zinedine’s mother is sick.

But especially since FIFA is trying to end racism in their sport yet allows for such comments during a game!

I am an Italian fan and am proud that Italy won because as a team they were the best of the tournament. People who are judging the whole team based on what Materazzi may have done are WRONG. Only Materazzi is responsible!

this is hilarious!

I agree with you Johnny, people need to stop spitting out racial, cultural, prejudiced comments.
I loved Zidane, yes, since he is truly a good player, but his action shook me up a bit.
Materazzi may have said something nasty, but if it was racial, why didn’t Zidane go to the ref about it, since it is according to FIFA rules that racial slurs are unacceptable? There were other ways to deal with the situation. Zidane has a mouth doesn’t he? Instead of butting a man in the chest as an animal, he could have said something back or gone to the referee about it.
Putting all that behind….
Italy won despite all their scandal troubles due to their heart, like many people have said on this blog. The goals scored by the Italians have been much more superb compared to those scored by France (or should I say Zidane) throughout the WC. Oh and who cares about the incident between Zidane and Materazzi? France had a chance to score a goal before that as did Italy. The French should not blame Materazzi or Italy for that matter for their inability to score while Zidan was still in the game, he had plenty of chances. For all those who think that Italy should give the trophy back, lets not forget that the penalty kicks were the only way to determine the winner of the match, and it is the only fair way, since everyone gets a shot at the goal, but it depends on the skill of the player shooting and of course the goalie.
Having said all that, let’s just knock off all the negativity on this blog with the racial comments and people who say this and that about Italians. As for the person from Canada, calling himself Cannovaro, there are no words to desribe your imbecile behavior. If you wanted attention you certainly succeeded in getting it. You may pat yourself on the back buddy.
Italy as a nation and a country is full of culture and life, not to mention the friendliness of the Italian people. I am not Italian, but come from Bosnia. I still cheered for Italy even when almost my whole family cheered for France at the final match because of their love for Zidane. I still respect Zidane, but I respect Italy’s victory just as much if not more, it was well deserved!!!!!

To all you Zidane haters and bashers one thing is for sure, come 50 years from now and Zidane will still be recognized by people outside of France as one of the greatest.

As for members of the 2006 Italian National team, I doubt that by next year anyone outside of Italy will be able to name one of their players.

World Deserves Zidane’s Headbutt

Classic Zidane. Albeit he’s calm and shy persona lie a true warrior who descended from Algeria ruled by France for 132 years, born in French soil and grew in a tough environment outside Marseilles. Because of Zidane, Algeria learned to blind …

Zidane is a great player, and what happend will never erase his glory.
and for the wining team: they were not suppose to be at the final, they are really provokers, and they played every dirty game to be there, after all they won but without any honor.

You’ve got to love this forum.

Idiots here try to take the moral high ground and insist that it’s ok to react violently against someone who insulted your sister during a football game…

Idiots who take pleasure at an Italian man dying…

What a joke.

Hannah, Yes it is Materazzi who is responsible, he was also responsible for the elbow in the face incident as well. It is just a pity that he calls himself a player of the National Team of Italy because he tars everyone else in the Team with the same brush as him.
Ricard was I thought the most outstanding goalie I have seen for a long time, but we can’t talk about that or Italys win because of the incident caused by Materazzi. I think he has stolen the glory away from the rest of the team such a pity.

(1) Picture a world cup where everyone plays the way Italy does…100% ties and shootouts…thanks but no thanks…Italian football bites!

(2) Italy are the most prevalent cheaters and have gotten it down to a fine art over the years. If as a people Italians are going to identify with the WC victory, they should also identify with the teams cheating ways. Can’t have one but not the other.

(3) If Materazzi did actually make a racist slur about ZZ’s sick mother then ZZ reacting the way he did in no way detracts from ZZ as a person. I think it takes courage to stand up for your family’s pride in this way. Materazzi is a coward and so are people who identify with this kind of play. Where’s the common decency?!!

HELLO PPL!! WELL I MUSS SAY IT WAZ THE BEST MATCH EVER PLAYED BY ZIDANE!! BRAVO ON 2 U HERO!!I JUSS WISH ZIDANE ALL THE STRENGTH 2 FACE SUCH AN EMOTIONAL SITUATION..BUT V KNOW HE WILL YET AGAIN EMERGE OUT AS A TRUE HERO!! N FOR ALL U PPL OUT THERE STOP LOOKING UP2 ZIDANE AS GOD…HE TOO IS A HUMAN BEING WID LOADS OF EMOTIONS…EMOTIOANL OUTBURSTS DO TAKE PLACE…HE IS NO ROBOT!!IT HAPPENS..ITS LIFE..SO PPL CHILL!BUT I WONDER Y ZIDANE EVEN WANTS 2 GIVE A CLARIFICATION..I MEAN HIS TRUE WELL WISHERS WONT DEMAND ONE N HIS ENEMIES WONT BELIEVE IN ONE! BUT ON A MORE LIGHTER NOTE I MUSS SAY….ZIZOU TAT WAZ THE BEST EVER HEAD OF UR CAREER!! 3 CHEERS 2 U!!N V ALL WILL ALWAYZ RESPECT U …NO MATTER WUT!!

Zippie,

I don’t care what anybody say about Zidane. His Mother was rushed into hospital Sunday morning very ill, just before the WC final, I think my son, who is also loving and caring would have done exactly the same thing (if he was old enough) as Zidane. If Materazzi did actually say those very offensive words to Zidane then he needs his tongue cutting out. He has shamed his glorious team, his nation and his fans.
I do not approve of Zidanes actiona but I completely understand why it happened.

All those who are saying (especially Amira) that it was OK for ZZ to retaliate the way he did because of some sort of slur made against him (ie, being called a terrorist, an Arab, something about his sister, etc), you obviously have NOT played competitive sports. Anyone who has will tell you that being called names, being taunted, making fun of fcuking you sister/mother/etc, is actually a NORMAL thing in sports. It happens SOOOO SOOOO often that it does not bother any NORMAL athelete anymore.

How ironic it would be to have a racist lifting world cup, in the “say no to racism” world cup.

IF it was a racist comment, of course…

Angry Fan, do you realise what rubbish you are writing. It may happen in Italian, Portugese, sports but hold your horse a bit matey I can assure it doesn’t happen in countries that respect sports, their nation and their family. Don’t know where you are getting your facts from but I would go check them.

Massimo, Josef from Malta, and Cat:
I was actually writing something for the three of you to explain the above mentioned matter, than I said to my self (no matter what I write, you will still be racists) I’m sorry to say it you may be hurt or have whatever incident with Arab individuals or you listen a lot to CNN, but truly and friendly I’m telling you this: educate yourselves about Arabs, they are like all other people they have the great persons and of course they have the bad ones too, just like any other nation.
Amira: you started good but they lowered you to the level of racism too.
To all: read more, not only your books, but others too.

@ Massimo,@ Josef from Malta, and @Cat:
I was actually writing something for the three of you to explain the above mentioned matter, than I said to my self (no matter what I write, you will still be racists) I’m sorry to say it you may be hurt or have whatever incident with Arab individuals or you listen a lot to CNN, but truly and friendly I’m telling you this: educate yourselves about Arabs, they are like all other people they have the great persons and of course they have the bad ones too, just like any other nation.
@ Amira: you started good but they lowered you to the level of racism too.
To all: read more, not only your books, but others too.

Angry Fan:

I agree that trash talking is common but at which point do we draw the line between what should be allowed and what not? Or should it be that literally anything goes?…that players should be able to say absolutely anything that they want to one another? Also, if it is decided where the line should be drawn, HOW should the line be drawn / enforced? These important questions that FIFA will have to address soon or both players and fans are going to start getting disillusioned.

Jane:

I’ve played competitive sports in canada and the US and can tell you that it DOES HAPPEN all the TIME. Maybe in your nice and polite Japan it dosen’t happen but I’m willing to guarantee you that people from Canada/USA/Euorope will tell you that it happens with an amazing frequency.

Zippie: I agree! deciding where to draw the line is a difficult issue and probably impossible to solve since you would need ot have microphones on all players in order to know what each has really said. But, considering how frequent trash talking happens in sports, Zidane should have really been used to it by now.

Can people who know about sports please explain to Jane how often trash talkin occurs in sports?

She seems to have this naive impresion about sports and that it only happens in “in countries that respect sports, their nation and their family.” Can other people please help bring some light to her. I’m afraid she has a very naive view of things.

Hey Massimo is right.

Arabs have been turned into bloodthirsty, avengeful bastards by the Koran. I’ll prove it to you. I’ll piss off every Arab with a few words.

Allahhhhhh Wachbar Allahhhh… Mohammad.

Here you go

I was gonna add a few more words, but I don’t want a Fatwa on my head.

Zidane you are a Pig eating muslim son of (probably) a whore.

To: ‘I Like Massimmo’

what could you possibly be trying to achieve with this post?

Do you even have two brain cells to rub together?

I know lots of great Muslims. In fact, many Persian women have nice, firm tities.

I even know a couple of mildly decent Italians, although they tend to be dumb, smelly, overweight and somewhat unsightly.

Anyway, it’s getting late, I’m going to hit the fart sack.

It is really amazing the excuses that France fans are putting on the desk to justify what Zizou did. No excuse pls, nothing can justify the act of Zinedine especially because of ZZ story and looking to what is still representing for the soccer. Why when Totti spit to Polsten during the last Euro championship no one spent a single word to defend him despite the danish players was literally massacrying him? and what about De Rossi getting 4 games out (match against US) for something signifcantly different to what ZZ did?. Frankly speaking, it also amazing the fact the FIFA recognized Zizou as the best player of World Cup it looks like that such organization has a very personal opinion of what fair play means. Very good example for our kids!!! But at the end of the day it is just a soccer game so Forza Italia!!! and Vive la France!!!!!

Angry Fan, Perhaps I am being naive but I always thought sport was played with skills and sportsmanship and the players had ability to take them through a game. I didn’t realise that they had to result to gutter snipe comments to rile other players in order to win. Do they write that in the rules or is it just one of the unwritten rule of Italy that has spread like the venom on this blog.

I Like Massimo

There is a van outside waiting to take you away hopefully, cause boy oh boy are you sick in the head.

People who hide behind names on this blog and make such disgusting racist remarks should be very careful. Did you not know that being a racist is a crime and I just hope ‘big brother’ is watcching this blog. You can be traced.

To all who have contributed,
Yes we are all not happy with the Zidane incident. Lets stop this hate spreading. The truth will come out anyway. Want to contribute on Italy’s 1st goal. Yes the defender was held down and perhaps he could rise higher but hey thats football. Can Materrazi own up and tell what he said maybe he can then enjoy this win honorably.

Once again, stop this hate thus far.

Jane:

Sports should be played the way you describe it but unfortunately in the majority of places where so much money is involved in sports and where so much is always on the line, you see the kind of behavior that I mentioned. Like I said, in North America/Europe, it is quit normal to be told during a match that your mother/sister/aunt/cousin/even your grandmother is a whore and the opponent has fcuked her. This is normal by sports standards.

regarding the arab racist comment, I have also during sports had my race and ethnicity mocked and insulted, and I’ve heard it done to many others (some, for example, being called the N word), and never did anyone respond the way ZZ did. ZZ has temper issues and always has. Regardless of what was said, he should not have done that (and this is coming from someone who HATES Materrazi – if your an Inter fan you know how much Materrazi messes up).

Well it comes to an end…

What can I say it’s been absolutely fantastic!!

Congrats to Germany for all the hard work they put into the Tournament which turned out to be great!

It’s definitely a World Cup to remember…

For more soccer news or just a good read check out my blog at :http://the-soccer-locker.blogspot.com

ALot of work went into it, you wont be dissapointed

To All,
As Italian I want to apologize for all the very bad words and racism that someone (indeed very stupid) is showing up on this blog. As we said in Italy “the mother of donkey is always pregnant”. Once more is a soccer game do not transform it in a war. Lets talk about the game, tactic, goals.

Don’t categorise all Muslims as bloodthirsty, avengeful bastards by the evil acts of a few. That way, then ppl of every every religon are bloodthirsty, avengeful bastards. So would you be one if your mother and sister were raped and before your eyes. (Being an Italian – it may be possible that you are fcuking them yourself).

I’ve got plenty of Muslim firends who are genuine hardworking god-fearing people.

If you continue posts like that, – Your days are numbered.

just in from sports.fr:

Marco Materazzi, le défenseur italien qui a provoqué l’expulsion de Zinedine Zidane, est sorti de son mutisme concernant cet incident de jeu. Alors que les journalistes du monde entier se demandaient ce qu’il avait bien pu dire pour provoquer cette réaction du Français, le joueur de l’Inter s’est confié à La Gazzetta dello Sport. “J’ai tenu son maillot pendant quelques secondes seulement, il s’est tourné vers moi, il m’a parlé en raillant, il m’a regardé avec arrogance, de haut en bas: «si vraiment tu veux mon maillot, je te le donnerai après». Je lui ai répondu avec une insulte, c’est vrai”. Le champion du monde italien a nié avoir traité Zidane de terroriste comme le révélait The Guardian lundi. “Je n’ai certainement pas mis en cause non plus la maman de Zidane, pour moi, la maman est sacrée”, a ajouté le Transalpin qui a perdu sa mère à l’âge de 14 ans.

basically Matarazzi says he grabbed Z’s shirt and that Zidane looked him up and down ‘arrogantly’ and said ‘if you want my jersey you can have it later’ so he M insulted Z (though it doesn’t say what he said – other than it wasn’t about Z’s mother because M lost his at the age of 14 so for him ‘mothers are sacred’.

My above post was addressed to that turd ‘I Like Massimo’

oh and he says it wasn’t terrorism either

To all France fans, the results has been clear Italy won the Cup all the rest is bla…bla…bla. Yes we have the best defensers (Cannavaro, Zambrotta, Grosso) and most likely the best goalkeeper of all time (Buffon) should we feel guilty for that? The so famous offensive line of France needed a penalty to score a goal. This is our strength and we exploit it successfully, What has been the result of the wonder brazilian team? Final has been a good match, well played from both teams. In 1998 shot-out was in favour of France now Italy Story for sure will continue as Italy, France, Brazil, England, Argentina, Germany, Spain are the story and giants of soccer.

Angry Fan thank you for your blog and explanation. However there are millions of fans around the world, me included, that agree that Zidane should not of headbutted Materazzi and should most certainly have had the red card. What most of us are trying to find out and say is that if racist remarks were made then Materazzi should also be held accountable. In the press he has already admitted to being ignorant and stating he doesn’t know what a terrorist is!! has he been living in a sewer? the whole world heard about 9/11. He is playing us all for fools and I for one think he should be stripped of his medal if he made racist remaks.

Grosso, I hate you for diving against Australia. Matterazi, I hate you for insulting Zidane. Which make me hate your whole team coz of you two. No fair play in Italian side. All they can do is diving, cheating, provoking, and insulting.

Zidane is the best player forever. He plays well and beautifully. He wouldn’t have butted stupid Matterazi if he didn’t start. Zidane I believe he knew the consequence.

Italy, winning the game after you insulted your opponent. Huhaahha. Great, you guys… Keep up the good tricks. Damn it!

Zidane is the first to pay for his behaviour. He doesn’t seem proud of what he did and i have no problem to explain to a child that he is just a man and as a human being (and not a god) he can also become crazy and make big mistakes.
I have much more problems to explain racism of masses (notably from football fans in some stadiums) than to explain that Zidane is just a man.

Zidane, why didn’t you punch Matterazi also? He really deserved it. If he insulted your sister or your family, or your race, just give him your best punch…. Italia is NO good. ITaly, fairplay please. Just think of what you will say to your judge about the setting of scoring in your league. God, what Lippi coached you guys? The way to dive, to provoke, to cheat, and to insult? Cuz I didn’t see any beautiful soccer playing on the field. And Matterazi’s first goal against France was coz he layed to France’s player when he jumped. Uhh, that must make him easy to make goal…. Right, Matterazi? You sly and wicked!!!!

And Grosso??? I give up…

Zidane’s legacy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b7Yk7tpY64

ps: the music really sucks…pity…

this is what iv just read:

“Materazzi’s agent has defended his client and insisted Zizou reacted to a jibe about the possibility of swapping shirts at the end of the game. “I’d rather take the shirt off your wife,” it’s claimed he stated.”

Now if that is what was said, then Zidane is a total moron .. i mean its more funny than anything else .. no wonder Zizou has said nothing to the press, he realises now that he just made a total fool out of him self and discraced him self for ever!!!!!

Marco. Zidane deserved the red card. However like you a lot of people want to know why he did it.
Apparently according to the press (I have only read the British newspapers and not always correct) they state that Materazzi told Zidane (quote) that he was the son of a terrorist whore (unquote) Zidanes mother had been rushed in to hospital on Sunday mornig very ill just before the worldcupfinal.

Marco cont/…

I also feel that if there were racist remarks then Materazzi should be stripped of his medal.

Materazzi has denied this quote and stated
” I am ignorant I don’t know what a terrorist is”

Is he a fool everybody heard about 9/11 or is he just playing us for fools.

Massimo, Marco and all the other racists:
You make me feel ashamed to be an Italian,
i was here in Beirut Lebanon when we won the cup you should see how people are welcoming and how much they love Italy, Lebanese Moslems and Christians are the same and they are all Arabs. You guys should really be ashamed for saying those stupid things.
i hope you are not Italians

Zidane is a great player, but the Italians made him almost disappear yesterday so give them their due credit. Maybe that’s what frustrated Zidane a tiny bit.
However, Zidane probably didn’t deserve the golden ball because he did get a couple of yellow cards besides the red card and he has had a history of violence. No matter how skillful he is, he lacked the professional mannerisms which would have made him great.

He will be remembered as:
http://widelec.org/zidane.html

Jane: I agree that materrazi should also be punished but FIFA has been unwilling to seriously tackle issues of racism (note how many FANS make racist gestures and sounds against players in the stadiums throughout Europe) and yet FIFA does very little. I don’t think they will be able to punish Materrazi since, if he dosen’t own up to it himself, they will most likely never know whether he did make racist statemetns or not. Also, so many people have already assumed that there was somehow racist statements made which bothers me because it seems without even hearing the story.

I’ve also read somewhere that it had something to do with ZZ shirt and his wife/sister, etc…I really hope that this is NOT the case as it would make ZZ look like a high school kid who picks a fight with someone because he said something about his girlfriernd (I did that when I was in high school and now realise how stupid I was).

Roberto, take heart I think they must just be pretend or wanna be Italians. True Italians would certainly not digrace and dishonour their nation and their people. I think the rest of the people on the blog know this. These small minded people just want to fight and cause trouble. Most Italians are good heartwarming lovable people.

Give these little punks as good or better that they give and they go crawling under some stone.

Thanks Jane, you’re lovely

Angry Fan, I hope so too but I am sure ZZ will wait for the FIFA investigation before he speaks. Other players apparently heard what was said so lets wait and see. I have to believe that IF it was racist then FIFA must deal with it or lose face altogether considering the theme of the WC has been based on No Racism.

Sorry for my Angry posts.

It’s just that I am insulted that Zidane, won the goalden Award. It’s a desgrace to soccer.

What do kids look up to. They see someone headbutting a player and getting rewarded straight afterwards, with one of the highest awards ever.

Seriouisly Blatter is trying to cover up someting here. Zidane should be exposed and have his career ruined because of what he did, to set an example for everyone else that thinks that wrestling is allowed in soccer.

As for materazzi, he should sue that Zidane. He will probably win.

and for the various racist posts i’ve read from you, you’re a desgrace to human being…

A poem for disgraced Zizou, & all those anti-Italian racists who condone his shameful behaviour:

“ZIZOU: from hero to ZERO”

Zizou lost his head
ended up with a red….

…faced ending
after his 14th off-sending

How unstable is that guy!
now he can only cry

The Italians ran rings around him
that why he lost his whim

no “ifs” or “buts”…No excuse
for such violence we’ve no use

Walk home in shame, Zidane
No, don’t walk….run

FIFA was also so disgusting
for rewarding his head-thrusting

His home country equally to blame
for welcoming home his shame.

The head-butt is there for all to see
it was vicious, that’s doubt-free.

This guy surely wasn’t a role-model to imitate
his vicious character so filled with hate.

a bad example throughout his remarkable career
his talent won’t save him from the jeer.

After this incident his fans can only shut up.
he didn’t deserve the World Cup.

his team would’ve lost anyway
Italy had the very best play.

Congrats to Lippi & his Italian players
for winning deservedly despite the naysayers!

Jane…your argument is lame..

first you insult & make racist remarks about Italians, & then you say “oh, most of them are nice people”…which is it?

You must be a 12 year old thumping at a keyboard.

Here’s a little video game for you:
http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/6342/zidane29b8gb.gif

Massimo if you are truly sorry for your somewhat abusive posts then I for one accept your apology.

However please get your facts right it is not FIFA who selected Zidane for the award. It is an award that supporters can vote on, FIFA just present it. Go check out the FIFA website it will give you all the information you need.

I also think the only person covering up something is Materazzi if he can go on national press and state he is ignorant and does not know what a terrorist is then he is trying to play us all for fools everybody knew about 9/11 was he in outerspace or under a rock?
Racist and abusive behaviour is something that anybodies children in this world can live without.

Joseph from Malta.

I have never ONCE made any Racist remarks please get your fact correct or can’t you read!

J from Malta,

Please please get your facts straight I have NEVER made any racist comments. You can read can’t you?

Joseph from Malta (beautiful place by the way)

Pls get your fact right, read all previous blogs, I* have NEVER made any racist comments, so pls be careful of what you accuse me of.

Everyone wants to point at the headbutt because it is what everyone can see. Rewind to the tactics the Italian team employed to take it to that point. We have two different schools of thought. Teach someone a lesson, or don’t teach them a lesson. I’m not talking about terrorist acts, or weaponry, but when someone is being inhumane, using your fist or your forehead to some is noble, and to others no violence is ever justified. The Italian team was being inhumane by choosing to say certain things, whatever they may be. Just like in the schoolyard, I will teach my children to stick up for themselves so that the bully will learn not to continue his antics. You say it’s a disgrace to soccer what Zidane did, but what’s bigger than soccer is life, and Italy’s comments had no place on the soccer field. THEY took it beyond the game of soccer. You say that’s competitive sports, but people in competitive sports do not learn little details about the other team and use those against them. What’s a disgrace is the tactics Italy chose to bring on the field. What’s honorable is a soccer player standing up against the bully. Please don’t give me past examples of Zidane being a bully because this is an incident that started and ended in one game; the headbutt came after a full game of remarks, so even exactly what was said should not be extrapolated as reason for Zidane displaying unsportsmanlike conduct. There was a full two hours prior. I will teach my kids to stand up against people doing bully things, and if you don’t agree with it, you’re probably just a tree hugger. That’s fine. I trust you will teach your children never to say certain things to people and act like a bully, and therefore you nor your children will ever be in the position of being taught a lesson. However if you think it’s okay to say certain things, and you say them to Zidane or myself, get ready to be taught not to do it again.

Massimo sei Italiano??? I doubt but if so YOU are a disgrace and a shame for all of us posting your backward comments, don t spoil the party asshole and grow up

To the greasy “American” who posts under the Canadian flag. To be honest with you I can’t take what you say seriously because you’re obviously a mentally challenged person but try to use the noggin just for a minute, for one thing if anyone disgraced the FIFA and the game it would have to be the Italian player who used racist remarks to cause Zidani to blow (Zidanii shouldn’t have but he did). Before Zid blew up with the headbutt the Italian player was holding his arms back and whispering what we now have heard were racist anti-muslim insults to him. Funny since Zidani looks whiter than the italian player.The Italians while playing the cup were beset with charges of soccer fraud back in their country. I don’t think a few dives and wink by the awesome Portuguese players compares to that. Having said that contratulations to the rest of the Italians who are celebrating their 4th cup.

zidane ain’t a good player anymore he’s old and he’s gone mad doolally. Put him in a home and maybe he might learn his lesson.

FORZA ITALIA!!!!! WE WON!!! REVENGE IS SWEET AND WE WILL BEAT YOU HARD IN THE QUALIFIERS TOO!!! FRANCE ARE TOO OLD AND TOO TIRED.

what I don´t understand about Zidane: Why did he take his head? Why didn´t he take his fist and smashed it right into Materazzi´s arrogant face? This way he would have had to leave the pitch too.

Claude, the forehead is extremely strong, plus Zidane’s right hand was taped up. And, Materazzi is very tall so the sternum was a good choice.

Josh, your explanation sounds reasonable.
He could have kicked him when he was on the ground, but maybe he did´t want to exaggerate.

Azorean Hawk: you said

“Before Zid blew up with the headbutt the Italian player was holding his arms back and whispering what we now HAVE HEARD were racist anti-muslim insults to him.”

Funny I don’t remember hearing him say that. All these claims have come from the media and I for one wont believe them for now because they dont all focus on one thing. Some say it was the shirt, others his family, still others it was a reference to terrorism. The fact that no one is sure makes these claims inconclusive.

Also, even though Materazzi may have said something tghe fact remains ZIDANE SAID SH*T TOO. Zidane probably insulted Materazzi and he had the nerve not to head butt Zidane.

Finally- I again apologize for the fagg*t so called Italians who have introduced racist remarks into this forum. Believe me, I have been to Italy (always go to Sicily) many times and the people there are friendly. They are not racists as many ppl think

Materrazzi claims he did not say anything to Zidane when the italians lifted the trophy on monday as to the reporters. Today he said he did insult Zidane but did not called him a “terrorist”. What a dishonest player, please explain that.

Petite France, adieu

If it is true that Zidane also insulted Materazzi over the exchanging of the shirts (something about Materazzi’s girlfriend taking hers off), then what does that say about Zidane? Plus, he has still not come forward with what exactly Materazzi said to him. From the way I saw it both men were exchanging profanities of some sort before Zidane turned around to headbutt Materazzi. Despite their outbursts, the Italian team as a whole should not be blamed for what happened, nor should the Italian people be referred to in derogatory terms…the same goes for those who refer to Zidane in derogatory terms. Let’s not judge a whole nation (whether it is Italian or French, or even religiously of a Muslim background, like Zidane)on the actions of two men.
It’s a shame that all this negativity has to be surrounding Italy’s victory…THEY WON LET THEM ENJOY IT, and LET ZIDANE ENJOY HIS GOLDEN BALL AWARD, he is still a commendable player and the Italians are still the champions.

To Admitit:

I think that reporters sometimes speak (or invent) too much!

This is my opinion!

….

Sure, Materazzi said something to Zidane, all we have seen it, but who can said that Zidane provoked Materazzi before.

This is what the italian reporters have said…

Another time i think reporters invent too much!

So

It is undortunate to see how people react in this forum.
But at the same time, it shows the real nature of human beings and make us understand why Word Cup’s last incident happened.

Zidane is supposed to give a press conference tomorrow or Thursday. I hope we all finally hear the truth about what happened last Sunday.

We shouldn’t talk about race or religion here.
We are all equal and there are bad men everywhere.

It is the responsability of the FIFA to determine if Zidane’s act was justified or not.
It is was, then Materazzi needs to give up his medal.
But the Italy team can keep their cup if the feel like to.

YEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH !!!

At least, one family in Italy will never again celebrate the day Italy stole the cup from France !!! Hip hip hip ! Hourra for this stupid (and dead) italian fan !

ROME (Reuters) – A 77-year-old Italian man fell off a ladder and died as he tried to attach Italy’s flag to a pole ahead of Sunday’s World Cup final against France.

The man, Rodolfo Profili, was raising the flag on a patch of land he owned near the central Italian city of Viterbo when he apparently lost his balance and fell eight metres into a precipice, Italian news agency ANSA reported.

ANSA quoted local police as saying the man died instantly, still clutching the tricolore.

I dont think italy deserve to win cuz there a bunch of faggits and fakes most of their fouls… matterazi got wat he deserves

Great post Bachibouzouk !!

Now I understand why this thread’s called “So Close” !;-)

The dumb old man is showing the way for the rest of his coorupted country.

!!!Excellent !!!

Once again ppl attack Italians and Materazzi. Guys- FRANCE DIVED AS MUCH AS ITALY maybe more. MAterazzi and Zidane were both trash talking but MAterazzi had enough control to not react to Zidane physically. ALso- France did play a better second half but they didnt really trouble buffon

You’ve got to love this forum.

Idiots here try to take the moral high ground and insist that it’s ok to react violently against someone who insulted your sister during a football game…

Idiots who take pleasure at an Italian man dying…

What a joke.

James, let me ask you a question.

Read the following scenario:

Let’s say that your mother, that love very much, is in a last stage of cancer.

At work, you are under a lot of pressure, you have more and more tasks on your plate. But overall, yo do a pretty good job, you do the best you can to make your co-workers and your family proud of you.

Then, some dumb collegue shows up and insult you and your mother. He says something like “Hey James, you’re such a dick-head. I really hope your Mom, who’s a whore, dies and goes to hell”.

So here is my question:

What do you do?

1) You hit the guy in the face
2) You make a similar comment about his Mom
3) You ignore him and walk away

Just because you have no principle and no moral doesn’t make it OK for you to say that we are all idiots.
Maybe this forum is a joke but so are you.

Matterazzi deserve that head-butt!
still, Zizou ruleZ!

Sonia:

People heckle each other all the time in sports. Would you teach your child that the correct thing to do is to react violently? If players headbutted each other every time someone said something about their sister, there would be no football, just a street brawl.

Do you really think that the correct moral for children to learn is that you should respond to an insult with violence?

Rayond:

The only people I called idiots were the ones who were suggesting that Zidane did the correct thing by violently headbutting Materazzi when the ref wasn’t looking, possibly losing the game for France, and those who were laughing because an Italian man died. Did you support those posts above mine?

As if head-butting is the only wrong thing children would learn. Today children are exposed to online pornography, drugs, paedophilic maniacs etc. And, the world talks about teaching morality to children.

James,

I don’t think the act of Zidane is justified but I do understand it.
I am human and if someone was talking really dirty about people I love, my first instinct would be to beat the guy.

In a situation like this one, there was not correct thing to do. Bad cause only lead to bad consequences.

Sports is a copy of what happens in our world at a smaller scale.

What do you tell your children about what is happening in Irak? Thousands of kids and babies left alone after their parents got killed in bombing.

What do you tell your kids about the 2 billions human being living in poverty and being hangrey every single day of their life?

I am curious, what do you tell them? And more important: what do you really do, because, if there is nothing you can change betweem Zidane and Materazzi, there are plenty of things you can do in this world so that your kids will grow in a better world.

Raymond:

What can one tell them, except to love and respect your fellow man as much as possible?

But I don’t think depicting this as a microcosmic symbol of the macrocosm supports any justification of Zizou. If Materazzi is the epitomy of the person who insults his fellow man (which he isn’t, neither because he is any worse than many other players, not because on the field, an insult is purely made with the intent of getting inside the other’s head and clouding his judgement, not out of hatered), the Zidane is the epitomy of striking first and asking questions later.

Perhaps we have a chicken and egg situation, but personally I belive I know which side of the coin is most to blame for the thousands of orphans in Iraq.

Hey leave Materazzi alone, the only guy we know for sure did something wrong and behaved like a dog is Zidane. Materazzi we cannot be certain. And physical abuse is way worse than verbal. Especially in a match where your physical state is the most important.

Zinedine did not deserve that reward. Fifa can blame it on the journalists, they can even say that they all voted before the end of the game. Seriously if you want to reward a player shouldn’t you give a chance to everyone until the last minute. What kind of reward is this.

They probably did not want to give that reward to an Italian for the third time.

Better show all the other nations they have somewhat of a chance against Italy.

Keep dreaming boys. Italy is the best. Always will be.

Masssimo, be objective.
Zidane is no worse that Materazzi. Do a search on “Materazzi” on google video, you ‘ll see what comes in…

He has been called the “most violent player” of all time.
Himself said in an interview that his kids are told in school that their dad is a monster and he lives in Italy.

And no, physical abuse is not more wrong than verbal abuse. Insults can be as damaging.

Yeah right Massimo.

The Italy soccer business is all corrupted, look at what’s going on in your country right now.
Look at your old government, Berlusconi and all the corruption.

After all, it’s not a coincidence that the mafia is italian.

Italy is a country of fascist.
Things haven’t changed since WWII. At least, Germany was cleaned after the war but Italian fascists remained in place.

Italy did not beat France. Final score is 1-1.

Most Italians agree that their team doesn’t play the best soccer.

Shame on you and your retard country, fascist pig.

Some poeple think it’s not ok for anyone to be called a “terorist”, but it’s perfectly fine to call Italians “fascist pigs” and members of mafia.

“Yeah right”, you racist pig, I’m sorry I come from the same country as you.

hey hold the phone here guys.
no need to lose control here.

i’m american and i was delighted to watch my first world cup on tv
- just got a big 42 inch plasma by the way

amyway, my two daughters watched the finale with me.
they are both in irvine soccer teams.
we all agree that france played better, they were truly more offensive.

but in a game like this one, there was a big part of luck.
i mean, let’s be honest, whether we re italian, french or whatever: the penalties at the end are just like playing the head or tails game.

regarding zidane, well that’s unfortunate. i had never heard about zidane before but i had noticed that he was one of the most talentuous player.
let’s not make any quick judgement, this is to the fifa guys to decide.

frankly, i supported argentina. i thought it was a good team and i know that in argentina , most people are poor and soccer is all they have so that was more important for them to win this world cup.
france and italy are rich countries (pretty sure about france, not sure about the state of the economy in italy though) but i don’ think a victory for either side would really change something in terms of economy and growth.

Actually, I come from a retarded country and all Americans are racist pigs.

And I can change my name whenever I like to make it look like people like me!

Yeah Right: you make me laugh!
Everything you say is nonsense but at leaast, you have a good sense of humor.

James: you make me sad. Why do you have to take everything so seriously?

Um, that’s real cute Yeah Right/Kick Me.

Grow up and let the rest of us keep discussing football.

Shut up. Stop taking my name/. Ur all f*ckers. I hate you all.

Italians are suxors. Ha ha!

Um. Can you stop filling up this blog with your pointless posts? We were discussing football.

well everybody has been talking about the world cup but did you see that Moresmo,a french tennis player, has won Winbledon (woman)?

that was quite a amazing match too.

f*ck, I hate you, greasy italians!

Yeah Right, ur a funny guy! lololol

and don’t say I’m 12 like they did in the other forum. I’m 15. so there, suxors.

Eat my cock
Eat my cock
Eat my big and nast cock!

Bottom line is that ITALY PLAYS CRAP FOOTBALL based on a cynical, cowardly attitude.

(1) Picture a world cup where every team took the defensive, pasty, jamtart approach that Italy does. Sure they won but it’s only because many other teams play a great, offense-oriented style and pride themselves on this. It’s easy to do what Italy does, which is to clog up your own half until the other team gets bored. If all teams played like Italy, this whole tournament would be absolute sh*t!

(2) Italy strategically uses cheating tactics to win matches because they can’t any other way. The Zenadine headbutt is a perfect example. The headbutt is the unfortunate final result of a targetted strategy by the entire Italian team (orchestrated of course by the coaches) to use unsportsmanlike tactics such as cheap verbal and physical shots over the course of an entire game to get a reaction like this out of Zidane. The Italian organization was of course aware of Zidane’s ethnic / cultural background as well as his personal pride in this regard. Being the two-faced cowards they are, the Italian team strategically focused on this using tactics that are illegal off the pitch (i.e., uttering racial slurs, etc.). Italians are the biggest cheaters on and off the pitch…look at the scandal back home.

This world cup result means nothing…hopefully it will be another 24 years!!! The fact Italians are whining despite their supposed ‘win’ means that they know they didn’t deserve to lift the trophy…cowards and whiners to the bitter end.

OMG- PEnalites are not heads or tails- they are about mental focus and confidence. The team that wins shows they were more confident they could score a pk and I feel the team that plays mopre confidently wins the game.

Also stop assuming what MAterazzi said until we know for sure. PLz it is getting stupid hereing you guys with all these claims of what Materazzi said and yet no one is certain cuz all stories differ

Yeah Forza Azzuri:

but what about Italy’s crappy football style?!!! Anybody could play this way if they wanted!

Constructor: You’re just cut-and-pasting your earlier comments.

“Italy strategically uses cheating tactics … a targetted strategy by the entire Italian team (orchestrated of course by the coaches)”

Like people said before, don’t pull conspiracy theories out of your as$. You’ve mentioned this so many times, and you’ve never even tried to support it with anything at all.

Get over these childish excuses for Zidane snapping.

Now James, that’ not very nice,

Cut and pasting accusations…that’s the lowest of the low. On the off-chance there was some cutting and pasting you know there would have been very good justification.

So if you had to identify ‘the most cheating team, which would it be then?’ Italy has a well-deserved reputation for being the most underhanded in this regard…or are you refuting this universal truth?

Constructor:

You said: “Cut and pasting accusations…that’s the lowest of the low.”

I absolutely agree. How is this for cutting and pasting accusations:

Constructor | July 10th, 2006 at 7:14 pm

Bottom line is that ITALY PLAYS CRAP FOOTBALL based on a cynical, cowardly attitude.

(1) Picture a world cup where every team took the defensive, pasty, jamtart approach that Italy does. Sure they won but it’s only because many other teams play a great, offensive style and pride themselves on this. It’s easy to do what Italy does, which is to clog up your own half until the other team gets bored. If all teams played like Italy, this whole tournament would be absolute sh*t!

(2) Italy strategically uses cheating tactics to win matches because they can’t do it any other way. The Zenadine headbutt is a perfect example. The headbutt is the unfortunate final result of a targetted strategy by the entire Italian team (orchestrated of course by the coaches) to use unsportsmanlike tactics such as cheap verbal and physical shots over the course of an entire game to get a reaction like this out of Zidane. The Italian organization was of course aware of Zidane’s ethnic / cultural background as well as his personal pride in this regard. Being the two-faced cowards they are they, they strategically focused on this using tactics that are illegal off the pitch (i.e., uttering racial slurs, etc.). Italians are the biggest cheaters on and off the pitch…look at the scandal back home.

Constructor | July 11th, 2006 at 10:15 pm

Bottom line is that ITALY PLAYS CRAP FOOTBALL based on a cynical, cowardly attitude.

(1) Picture a world cup where every team took the defensive, pasty, jamtart approach that Italy does. Sure they won but it’s only because many other teams play a great, offense-oriented style and pride themselves on this. It’s easy to do what Italy does, which is to clog up your own half until the other team gets bored. If all teams played like Italy, this whole tournament would be absolute sh*t!

(2) Italy strategically uses cheating tactics to win matches because they can’t any other way. The Zenadine headbutt is a perfect example. The headbutt is the unfortunate final result of a targetted strategy by the entire Italian team (orchestrated of course by the coaches) to use unsportsmanlike tactics such as cheap verbal and physical shots over the course of an entire game to get a reaction like this out of Zidane. The Italian organization was of course aware of Zidane’s ethnic / cultural background as well as his personal pride in this regard. Being the two-faced cowards they are, the Italian team strategically focused on this using tactics that are illegal off the pitch (i.e., uttering racial slurs, etc.). Italians are the biggest cheaters on and off the pitch…look at the scandal back home.

=================

Do you not have anything original to say? You’ve even admitted that your basing this entirely on an Italian stereotype! And you offer ME the burden of proof of countering your made-up claims!

And, for the record, the “defensive, pasty, jamtart approach that Italy” took gave them one of the highest scoring percentages in the tournament.

And the Italy-Germany game has been widely voted as the best game of the tournament.

I’m glad you think that “the whole tournament would be absolute sh*t” if everyone played like that.

Yes I agree that penalties is a great way to decide a game.
What FIFA should do is to change some rules like chronometers, would stop faking of injuries, and the public would get what they paid for soccer, not bad acting.
Also review, after the games, the plays with questionable actions, and punish players with monetary fines and suspensions, punish coaches and clubs with monetary fines.
I am sure that whithin few months soccer would become a truly enjoyable sport.
Not this boring, full of wrong calls event. Also, the game needs 3 referees and 4 linesmen.
More than half of the calls are wrong, some deciding games, it is so unfair, The stupid FIFA orthodox call that PART OF THE GAME. How silly and irritating to hear such a stupid statement. What other sport gives the loser the trophy?
Like Argentina winning a game with the hand of a major psycho. MARADONA. But I know that these changes would never take place. It just a dream. The sugestions are too rational for the rest of humanity.

James, James, stay on target and answer my question…or do you not want to answer because you know the Italian team is a bunch of cheaters?

Constructor I agree with you 100%.

Italians themselves agree that they don’t play a good soccer. So there is nothing else to say.

People like James keep on blaming Zidane for his act. So let me ask you this: why in the hell did he do that he was nt provoked at the first place?

The guy is a soccer legend not only in France but in the whole world. He got the biggest soccer contract of all time ($65 million from Real Madrid).
He has been representing France, Algeria, Turino’s Juventus and Real Madrid.

He is a skilled player who demonstrated a unique vertue with the ball.

This game was his last game ever. Do you really think he just lost his mind 10 minutes before the end and jsut decided to kick someone’ ass.
Do you really believe he ruined his image forever just because he lost control??
That doesn’t make any sense to me. Not when a legend is completing his career in beauty like he was supposed to.

We all know that something serious has happened with the other Italian player.

Zidane himself is the first victim of his action.
But he was hurt and this Italian pushed him to lose control. That makes a big difference.

As far as penalties are concerned, yes Forza this is a head and tail game. It all depends if the goaley jumps towards the right or the left and he decided before they guy even touches the ball.

Don’t tell me that all technical and mental skills of 11 players can just be summarized to what happen at the penalties session.

Then, what would be the purpose of having a 120-minute game just before. We might as well make it shorter and start directly with the penalties then.

marcos, i really don’t agree.
penalties are the ugly way to end the game and i’m sure the public opinion thinks so too.

i have been playing soccer since the age of 7 and i can tell you that i have no problem to score when i’m that close to the goal.

that might have something to see with the mental but not with any of the physical skills that soccer requires.

yes italy was more confident at the penalties. why? because that was obvisouly their objective. they couldn’t win in a different way.

the french players were less confident because they missed at least 3 great opportunities to score in the second half and that was bad for their mental.
also, the whole episod with zidane made them more fragile.

any good team should fear the penalties because really, anything can happened.

SUMMARY:
Italy is Evil.

Italy knows that Zidane is a great value for France team, and they attacked Zidane. They thought France would be nothing without Zidane. All people know that stupid Matterazi called Zidane a terrorist. Don’t you dare defend Matterazi for this serious case. They won. Zidane was redcarded.

I’m wondering how Matterazi sleeps now after he called Zidane a terrorist. I’m sure he’s thanking God cuz Zidane didn’t kill him on the field.

Forza Italia.

I for one thought the final was a good one and both teams could have won. Good game Franec and leave it at that.

Portugal is a disgrace to soccer. WE should all be pissing on them.

Piss on Portugal’s soccer team.

There is no place for racism. It is impossible to love this sport, to play it, or to support a team and be racist or xenophobic at the same time. The values conveyed by football are the exact opposite of racism. Because racism promotes exclusion and hate. Football, in contrast, brings people together to share a common pleasure. Every four years we experience a unique time in which people congregate together, take part together and celebrate together. Racists are not invited.”

-Zinedine Zidane

Just look at this and have the gut to say that Materazzi is good soccer player.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Gyu8W1g2co

JR- a goalie can jump the right way but if the player is confident enough, he will put the ball past the goalie either by putting to high of his reach or into the very corner. The goalie can do his best but if the shot is pinpoint he can do absolutely nothing. FOr example- look at Barthez vs MAterazzi- dove the right way but Materazzi took a perfect shot

Extra-time is there to give the players a chance to play full field soccer and get a chance for playing. PKs are there so that the game can end or else everyone would be so tired to score.

While I dont 100 percent like PKs- they are still a fair way to break a tie. I feel this because the players know what awaits after 120 minutes so if they dont want PKs they have to score (this is what OT allows). HOwever should the PKs come into effect- then you must prepare for it

Personally I found it cool that 2 defencemen beat Barthez with world class shots.

Now to constructor- Italy’s style of play is more physical. You need a tight-knit and fit defence and an equally fit offence to play the game. I think personally that Henry and Ribery came off because they were exausted. They have not played as a physically demanding game experienced in Italy (Zidane has ). This is why Italy’s defence is so good. They have the energy to maintain form and tire their less endurant opponents and when that happens. They hit them with offence of their own.

However, that being said I liked how Italia incorparated more attack this WC especially on the counter-attack and set pieces

JR:

Great video link. That is just brutal! The fact that ZZ only headbutted Materazzi in the chest shows that ZZ did not really mean to injure, just to say ‘enough is enough.’ That in itself shows that he did still retained his class.

Guys PKs are fair because the players are aware of it ahead of time and know that it will come after 120 minutes. That gives them 2 hours to get a winning score so if they cant do that then let penalties decide it.

Also if a goalie dives right way= not always a save. A pinpoint shot will always beat goalie as demonstrated by Materazzi

Italys style involves having a very physically endurant team that can tire opposition and then come back with their own pace and energy

P.S Quickly typed sry but previous post failed and didnt feel like writing a ten minute post again

Woops nvm it actually was there didnt see it

Let’s get objective and look at the performance of each team in this World Cup.

I wastched all the games.
Let’s evalute each team with a system of point: +1 if the team clearly dominated, 0 if both teams performed the same, -1 if the team was dominated.

FRANCE:
——

Phase 1:
- vs Switzerland: boring game (I give 0 point for France)
- vs Korea: interesting game. Some good action. France clearly deserved to win (+1)
- vs Togo: that was an easy game for France (+1)

Phase 2:
- vs Spain: beautiful game but France played very well, both in attack and defense (+1)
- vs Brazil: here again, that was a good game and France did a great job (+1)
- vs Portugal: France scored at the beggining and then played in defense the rest of the game. Portugal was far more dangerous. (-1)

So total for France is: 3 points

ITALY:
——

Phase 1:

- vs Ghanna: good game. Italy was offensive (+1)
- vs USA: USA played well and did a good job at defending themselves. Italy was disapointing (0 pt)
- vs Tcheque Rep: Italy clearly playing better (+1)

Phase 2:

- vs Ukraine: Italy did a great game (+1)
- vs Germany: even though the match was hard for Italy, they were clearly dominating (+1)

So, we have 4 points for Italy.

——————————–

Now we need to look at the very last game: FRANCE – ITALY

France played better. They had a bad start but after about 30 minutes, they attacked more often and were definely ruling the game.

So FRANCE: 1 point
ITALY: -1 point

Conclusion:

FRANCE has a total of 4 points
ITALY has a total of 3 points

FRANCE SHOULD HAVE WON !!

I disagree with you Forza.

Penalties are pure lotery.
How doo you explain that Trezeguet missed? The guy is an excellent player.

In history, people like Ronaldo, Maradonna, Platini, Cantonna and even Pele have missed penalties.
Even though they all are soccer legends.

The outcome of the game should be based on number of straight shots, corner kicke and stuff like that.

Penalties are lottery????
No…Bingo is lottery.
So…penalty shootouts could be replaced with the players each geting a Bingo card and first to get a line wins the world cup. On your thinking this would be the same thing?

Materaazi is RACISTS!!!

Some of the stuff I have been reading over the past hour is unbelievable! Some of you Italians out there have really big mouths and very small brains! SOME being the key word here! All Arabs are NOT terrorists! (and I would like to point out that I am neithrt Arab nor Muslim)! To be quite honest, I am quite fed up of all of these racist comments! If you guys want to talk football, go right ahead, you are at the right place. You want to debate the whole Zizou story, again, right place. But this man’s nationality, religion, descendance have no place in this blog! And FYI, he is not Arabic, he is Berber!!! A big difference for all of you ignorant narrow minded people out there! And he WAS BORN IN MARSEILLE, FRANCE, which is why he plays for the French team!!! Were he Algerian, he would play for the Algerian team!!! Some moron pointed out that the French team is composed mostly of Black people! To my knowledge, the colour of one’s skin has NOTHING to do with one’s nationality! You can be yellow, red, black or white and still be French or English or American or Italian! Unless you have to prove that your ancestors 1000 year ago were born in Italy to be considered Italian, in France to be considered French, etc. Moi, j’en ai ras le bol de vos commentaires ignorants!!! Basta! Talk football or get lost!

We ARE talking football…specifically the ZZ headbutting incident, which at the time stands as potentially the most crappy incident in the history of the tournament.

The reason everyone’s talking about race is that there is a very good chance that ZZ responded in this harsh way due to a super lame and out of place racial slur.

Two key questions that emerge are:
(1) Should racial trash talking by players be at all tolerated?
and
(2) If not, how is FIFA going to deal with it?

“The outcome of the game should be based on number of straight shots, corner kicks and stuff like that.”

I agree that penalties is pure lottery, but you shouldn’t base the victory on such metrics either, else a team that knows they have more “points” than the other could just wait until the end for their victory, or they will just shoot from far to try or try to get corner kicks and shots that award them points. Ball possession doesn’t work either since any team can keep the ball as long as they want if they just pass it around forever.
The only good thing about penalties is that (usually) both teams hate it so they will try to fight until the end. However, it’s not always the case as was proved by Italy…

all the sledging on this blog would tower over whatever the exchange was between materazzi + zidane !!!

Materazzi won but lost.
Zidane lost but wins the symapthies of millions who saw the shameful nipple-pinching and sledging by Materazzi.

World Cup of 2006 will be known as the World Cup of Zidane.

Great, zidane will be forever known as the Human Goat!!!
Maradona: ‘Hand of god’
Zidane: ‘human goat’

Constructor,Just read a report on Sports.com the following is an extract, lets see if FIFA deal with it. Zidane should have been sent off but racial slurs need to be dealt with to.

There is no precedent for FIFA acting in such a retrospective manner to punish a player for an on-field remark but English referees’ chief Keith Hackett sees no reason why such a principle cannot be established. Yesterday FIFA did announce that it will open a disciplinary investigation into Zidane’s conduct, although this would be essentially pointless given the player’s retirement. Inter Milan’s Materazzi is, however, still active, and faces calls for his behaviour to be punished.

“They [FIFA] are reluctant to take action after the game but here is a situation where, if there is proof, for the good of the game, action should be taken,” said Hackett yesterday. “I am pleased the Football Association, in May, wrote a circular to all clubs, through the PFA and LMA, reminding everyone that racist remarks constitute a sending-off offence.”

The media has missed the point here. The issue is not the head-but. It is the egregiousness of the provocation.

Materazzi starts with a nipple-pinch, utters obscenities and gets a head-but. Does it sound like a random act or a premeditated ploy to steal the world cup?

What kind of players should we look forward to seeing from Italy after Materazzi the nipple pincher? Football will suffer gravely if the provocation goes unpunished.

Fifa needs to launch a thorough investigation to detemine if the Italian team and staff were involved in a premeditated set-up. If found guilty they should be stripped of the title.

wooaahh great work inspector Jane, your enlighting this blog with your intelligience…now you can look up in your search for the definition of the word ’speculation’!!! no racial remark hasn’t even been verified yet as even so called lip professional lip readers have come up with wildly different remarks on what was said!!!!!!

I agree with the tag of Zidane the human goat!! i’ll spread that one around!!!

just in, zizou will explain himself on french tele tonight at 8pm …
( http://www.lexpress.fr/info/quotidien/actu.asp?id=4698 )

all your speeches are absurd….!!
you are trying to defend zidane in any way but he is not defendible!!! materzzi did nothing that you can’t see in any football stadium… if you want to justify the headbutt by the nipple pinch i think you all are crazy…
in euro 2004 totti spited on denmark’s Poulsen and he got 4 game disqualification but none wanted to know what poulsen said to Totti… so what had to do the portugues player that had a kick to his ball by rooney??? had he to kill rooney?? an noone can say materazzi said racist words because you can’t prove it!
materazzi swear he said nothing racist…

Zidane, the Human Goat???

How about Mater-Nazzi?

Mater-nazzi V. The Human Goat … we’re approaching world series wrestling here …

ha ha ha

everyone on this blog has truly lost the plot!!! these comments are bordering on insane..Imagine bundling all of you in a room..no one would come out alive!!!

Pete, we’ll at least have you to bring us back to “sanity”.

hmmn, if we were wearing straight jackets we could all attack each other like many Zizous, now that would be fun XD

What is “crap” football? – it’s a subjective matter. The end goal is to win and Italy did that. Italy blended great defence with a pretty good offensive thrust resulting in 12 goals for and 2 against. In football, 12 goals in 7 games at this level is pretty good. In fact, Italy was the only team to score in every game. This whole talk about the “crappiness” of Italian football is based on nothing more than bias, hatred, and jealousy.
Zidane-Materazzi? -So much speculation, and rumor going around and people are picking sides based on nothing but personal bias. What is clear is that Zidane does have a tendency to be violent on the field and has headbutted, stomped on, and overall attempted to injure opponents before. Simply because Zidane is supposedly 1 of the best players of his era doesn’t mean he’s not a dirty player. While people may say Zidane was “provoked” by what Materazzi said. Materazzi himself may have been provoked by something Zidane said or did. At this point only the participants know for sure what was said and done.

Forza Azzuri,

Were we watching the same game? Does it really matter what the actual words were that were used to get Zedane to blow? I’m not excusing the headbutt, he’s responsible for reacting, but we all saw the holding with the arms and the pinching the nipples thing. That was a deliberate dirty trick to get Zidani to lose composure and get him thrown out of the game. Zidane was an idiot for reacting but it doesn’t excuse the Italian player for playing dirty.

So Mlee, you seem to know Zidane very well, personnaly I mean.
So, what is the true color of Zidane?
Just ask to the italian, spanish footballers (coachs and media as well) he used to play with and you will may be know more about his “true color”. hihihi.
and of course the Zidane’s headbutt could have done big dammages on materofnazi. he could have gone through the materazzi’s body with his head lol. do you really think he would has hited his chest if the purpose was to injure him?

Observer,

even the Italians themselves admit they play too defensive a style.

So now honestly answer this…what would this world cup have looked like if everyone chose to play this Italian style (a style that, contrary to what Italians will tell you, is not that difficult to play).

We all know it would have been a bore / snore fest with much less scoring. Fortunately there are some other teams that refuse to play this cowardly soccer style.

The Italian team is so afraid to lose that ironically they sometimes bore other teams out of a victory, which is exactly how they got through this world cup.

MLee, you’re another idiot, probably a fourth generation American/Itale. The Italians are reputable racists here and there, it’s just unfortunate Matarazzi didn’t get carried out on a stretcher. Anyone watching the game knows France dominated, the Italians cup is tarred, and will become worse when the truth comes out. Vive La France sal Conard!!!!

Jane, your ignorance and self righteous stupidity overwhelm me.
Where do I start? You post from Japan, the single most racist country on the face of the earth.
Let me know if a black or a moslem
or a white man would ever be able to obtain citizenship there, let alone play for the national team.
I sincerely hope that Italy, in the future remains nationally and yes RACIALLY An Italian team.
Being the son of proud Italian immigrants, I would find it impossible to have the same feelings for the Italian team if it were to become predominantly
African in origin. If this makes me a racist in your or anyone else’s warped leftist view of the world, I couldn’t care less. I’m sure fans from Ghana wouldn’t be enthusiastic if you transferred 15 Germans to Ghana and still called it Ghana.
I know in my heart that I’m not a racist, if Italy doesn’t win the next world cup(virtually impossible to win 2 in a row)I’d really like to see an afican team win the world cup. God knows the continent could use the moral boost that such a victory would bring. France of course has a very strong team, but for a european country to field a squad with 9 players of african origin, it’s a joke. Sorry this one man’s opinion.

So close but a madman called Zidane caused France to lose. That is what he deserves. He does not deserve any award-Cannavaro does.Zidane is a disgrace to the GAME,his nation,team,sons,children,and fans. He needs professional help. What an idiot.

jjd1331, what game did you see?
Italy dominated the first half, france the second half. The penalty kick that Zidane made WAS ABSOLUTELY NOT a penalty. There was penalty that Italy commited in the second half that the ref did not call, so it’s a wash. In the replay it was clearly evident that the goal that Italy scored in the second half which was declared offsides, WAS NOT OFFSIDES.
In my view Italy should have won the game outright 2-1. No question at all Italy deserves the world cup. By the way Cannavaro was clearly the best player this world cup Not Zidane.

JJd1331 most likely your TV was not working properly you have to buy a new one )
However, lets try to judge the match based on facts not on Facts:
1.Historically France does not come anywhere close to the glorious Azzurri achievements. Italy won 4 WC vs 1
2. In this tournament
a. Italy scored more goals than France.
b. Italy conceded fewer goals
than France.
c. France won the semi final with a penalty and scored the final with a penalty.
d. it said that Italy plays catenaccio fact is that Italy had by far more of its players score (a defenders team?)
e. Italy played with 4 attackers during the extratime vs Germany (a defenders team?)
f. There is no question
about Italy’s goal and they
put 5 penalty kicks in the
net.
g. Toni Luca when scored the 2nd goal was not off-side or at least the off-side was questionable. And not forget that Tony hits the crossbar immediately after the 1-1
h. What Materazzi said is irrelevant.Thrashing is not uncommon in Sports.
i. What Zidane did is ugly
and detrimental to himself and the Sport. Be a good loser maybe in the future you will be a good winner as well.

Let’s stop arguiing for a littlw while.
Zidane is going to speak in about half an hour on Canal+.

Zidane is known to be honest and sincere so I don’t think he’s gonna lie about what reallt happened.

After all, he was honest enough to admit after the game that he did not deserver the award for best player in the World Cup.

So let’s wait and see.
I understand French so I will keep you updated.

i was just reading some of the posts in this forum and man, what people write here is way more uglier that zidane’s head-butt or materazi’s possible behavior.

just because there was a very short fight between two men at the world cup and nothing else, people call each other racists, nazid, fascists, make racial comments about zidane’orgin, the french, the italians, the japanese.

whaoo you are insane. i mean, it feels good to know that none of you play a role in a governement because you won’t have any problem to hit the “nuclear war” button for such a stupid reason.

but now, let’s get back to soccer.
it is truly unfair to judge all of zidane’s career based on what he did at his last minute.

the whole point is that he had a reason to do it. im not saying it’s a good reason or a bad reason, but materazzi probably triggered something in zidane that made his pretty mad.

his act did not belong in soccer, specially on the field of a world cup tournament.

but well he did what he did and that s unfortunate. however, zidane remains a great and talented player, probably the best player over the last decade.

what happened last sunday is not for us to judge. who are we to judge?
humans are extremely complex creatures. one comment can hurt somone and the same comment can make someone else laughs.

let’s stop trying to prove who is right or who is wrong.

Here we go:

Alors que la polémique va grandissant depuis la fin du Mondial, il a accepté de s’expliquer. Pourquoi avoir donné un coup de tête en pleine poitrine de l’Italien Materrazzi, en pleine finale de la Coupe du Monde ? Que lui a dit le joueur italien ? “C’est plus que des paroles. Quelquefois, il y a des paroles qui sont plus dures que certains gestes. J’aurais préféré me prendre un coup de poing qu’entendre ça”, a expliqué Zinédine Zidane mercredi soir sur TF1.

“Donc forcément, ma réaction… Je ne suis pas là pour vous dire que c’est une réaction digne, je ne peux pas dire que c’est quelque chose de bien… Mais pour avoir une réaction, il faut une provocation. Je veux simplement dire que quand on attaque votre mère, votre soeur… Quand on vous le dit plusieurs fois, que vous vous détournez pour ne pas l’entendre… Deux fois, trois fois… Au bout de la troisième fois…”

Sur les propos du joueur italien, Zinédine Zidane a refusé d’en dire plus. Il a surtout tenu, mercredi soir, à expliquer son geste, sans chercher à l’excuser. “Surtout, ce geste a été vu par beaucoup de monde”, a-t-il poursuivi, en faisant amende honorable : “Je m’excuse au niveau de tous les enfants. Il y a des millions d’enfants qui ont regardé cela. C’est un geste à ne pas faire. J’ai des enfants aussi. Je m’excuse aussi auprès des éducateurs qui sont là pour éduquer ces enfants et leur montrer les choses à faire et à ne pas faire. Je ne suis pas fier de ce geste, mais en même temps, je ne le regrette pas. Car si je regrettais mon geste, cela signifierait que je donne raison à ce qui a été dit.”

Zidane speaks on French TV: his mother and sister were insulted.

Now please, some player bash Materazzi’s head when he plays next.

Yes Header, but hopefully he will never play again.
Shame on Materazzi and shame on this trophy full of hate.

Materazzi is not only a cheater, he is a liar!

He should be shot and pissed on!…

OK, maybe not shot, but certainly pissed on! Nothing like a good dose of Urea to get him to play some good football!

CNN excerpt:

In an interview with French television channel Canal Plus Zidane apologized to children and fans but said he did not regret the head-butt that led to his sending off.

“He (Materazzi) pronounced very tough words about my mother and my sister. I tried not to listen to him but he kept repeating them,” Zidane said in a live interview.

The French captain reacted to the insults by head-butting Materazzi’s chest in the second period of extra time of the match.

Playing the last game of his career, Zinedine was shown a red card, leaving his team-mates to finish the match without him. France lost on penalties.

“This was not something to do. I want to make it clear because it was watched by two billion people and by millions of kids,” Zidane said.

“I want to apologise to them but I can’t regret what I did because it would mean that he (Materazzi) was right to say what he said.”

Now I hope a French player bashes Materazzi’s head in when he plays France next.

WOW- How did I know this would happen. I am not saying it is possible but because Zidane has established himself as a highly known player- people are going to believe him. PPl wonder why Materazzi wont reveal what he said despite claiming it was just a typical insult heard almost everytime- Its because he knows most of the world wont believe him. Guys everyone claims Zidane was provoked- it could have easily been Zidane but because Zidane is more of a world known figure- he knows moree ppl are gonna believe what he says even if it is wrong.

Observer and Azzurro you guys are perfectly right and i support your opinions.

Constructor- too have a defence like Italy you have to be a very physically endurant team with a lot of stamina- a requirement needed in ITalian soccer and this is where they gain that physical stamina. Italian players have more energy then the other teams which is why Italy could go through extra-time with germany and france and still come out on top. Germany on the other hand- had played a pk with Argentina and could not keep up with the Italian pace in semi-final which is why they lost

Italy more energy?? You must be kidding. They always score by surprise.
Look at the game against France. Even after Thierry Henry was gone, Ribery gone and Zidane kicked out, Italy could not do anything against only 10 players.

Teams that have a lot of energy score, or at least attack, they don’t wait nervously until the penalties.

Be honest with yourself.

forza azzuri:

Hey smart guy…damn straight people will believe Zidane because he an honest person, and Materazzi is the scum that he is.

How hard is that to understand?

ITs not hard to understand it is just the fact that Zidane might not be saying the truth and materazzi might be. As a result ppl are gonna assume Materazzi should be punished when he might not deserve anything

forza azzuri:

Ever heard of credibility? Like how banks give you credit based on your past financial transactions?

Same idea. Materazzi is scum from his past and will always be looked down upon. He ruined his credibility for life for his previous dirty plays. No one should ever believe him.

header hannah and constructer, 3
imbeciles. Z was being
an arrogant pr**k( not surprising since he represents france)
Trash talking is part of every
sport. It is irrelevent who
provoked who, Z lost his cool
and will forever be remembered for this low class act.As for Z
being one of the all time greatest he’s not even in the top 10.

j. caesar:

Let me guess, you’re Italian? Too bad your views are opposite to the rest of the world.

By the way, how anyone who knows
anything at all about football
can say Cannavaro was not the best player in this tournament
is beyond me. Let me also comment on Ribery. I must give credit where credit is due. He is one hell of a player. See, there is one real actual frenchman who can play football.

J Casear: so your hero is a dictator who asked Ponce Pilate’s head on a golden plate.

The only arrogant person in this forum is you.

What do you have against French people? You are uncool my friend.

Header you said: forza azzuri:

Ever heard of credibility? Like how banks give you credit based on your past financial transactions?

Same idea. Materazzi is scum from his past and will always be looked down upon. He ruined his credibility for life for his previous dirty plays. No one should ever believe him.

Well Zidane is no saint either- he has gotten quite a few red cards in the past including two in consecutive champions league games and stamping on a Saudi Arabian player in 98. PPl however dont look at the badside of Zidane and feel tthat this is the first time he has reacted. You gonna tell me Zidane was insulted all those other times too- dont think so

Zidane screwed up. It was his own fault. Materazzi held his shirt and Zidane saud uf u want it i will give it to you after. In doing so- he was just asking MAterazzi to insult him back. He knew it was gonna happen because he instigated it.

Zidane says he headed MAterazzi for what he said. Well Materazzi only said it because ZIdane started the trash talkin

I believe you are refering to Pompey. He didn’t request it.
The Egyptians mistakenly felt that this would be pleasing to him. It wasn’t.

Italy again best team in the world.

That’s the fourth time, only Brazil has done better.

Racist insults were pure speculation. Lots of apologies need to made towards Italians and Materazzi.

****

CAMPIONI DEL MONDO

Rightly said Ta mere est tellement grosse…

Well Italy and France deserved to be in the final and it was a great match. Italy has a better first half, but were clearly dominated and rattled in the second half. So a draw was pretty much fair. Italy took better penalties and won the world cup and because of that deserved the win. Well done.

Materazzi deserved his head butt, and there is not one player in the Italian team that is as good as Zidane. But both teams were excellent. Well done Italy from a Frenchman.

“Materazzi deserved his head butt, and there is not one player in the Italian team that is as good as Zidane.”

Umm we talking position wise (midfielder) or as an asset to a team. Honestly i Think Cannavaro and Buffon provided more to Italy in this WC then ZIdane did to France. Position wise- well Pirlo is very close and lets not forget Zidane has more experience then the Italian midfield – in a few years players like Pirlo and Camoranesi could very well be as good as Zidane

Fair play 2 the italians they held it out even tho they were under cosh 4 most of the game ! dunno wat happened 2 my mighty english owen gone den rooney we had no chance !! especially wen it went down 2 penos we had lost it before the 1st kick !! roll on another 4 years !! well be back and betta come on u english !!!! inabit !!

Mick Jagger, fervent supporter de la Squadra Azzurra, a accueilli deux des champions du monde, Alessandro Del Piero et Marco Materazzi sur scène, lors du concert des Rolling Stones à Milan mardi soir.

Exceptionnel,
http://tf1.lci.fr/infos/divertissement/0,,3316147,00.html

“in a few years players like Pirlo and Camoranesi could very well be as good as Zidane”

Well true, but only time will tell.

I had Italy on top of the pile since I saw them play Australia, where they had materazzi on a red card even so it wasn’t a red. Italy’s goals against Germany were awesome.

I think both teams played to their strength, and in the end, we had luck on our side in the European cup in 2000, and Italy won the day in the WC in 2006. To be fair, I don’t really care because I don’t think that the French team could have done any better. Italy won, fantastic panalties, and that’s bad news for the rest of us if Italy start to be good at penalties.

Well at least there’s some hope for the English, it is possible to get better at penalties!

To people responding to Massimo and his likes: don’t generalize on Italians because of one scum bag -who’s not even Italian- is writing racist crap from Italy.
in 1982 the President of the Italian Football Association dedicated the World Cup (won by Italy then) to the Palestinian people in solidarity with thier suffering due the Sabra and Shatila Massacre committed during the Israeli invasion of lebanon.
I love Italy, a guy like Materazzi , or Massimo won’t change my mind. And a guy like Bin Laden shouldn’t make you judge an entire nation either. Zidane is a gfood player, and I understand his reaction, but he should’ve controlled himself. No problem, Forza Azzuri, I still love you Zidane.

Well Italy won, so France is the second best team in world! So unless you are Italian you have no leg to stand on.

Massimo: So all the American would be 4th generation Italians, just dream on. The only way America is ever going to win the world cup, is by using b52 bombers. And given their accuracy, they probably would miss the pitch. So if you had to play in a team, according to your rule, you wouldn’t be really Italian, nor really American. That makes you a sad loser mate. I more readily trust an Arab than the American not so intelligent services. And Arabs have brought to the world more that America ever will. The best thing about America is the statue of Liberty and the French gave it to you … pathetic.

Another thing. This was the worst English squad I have ever seen playing in the world cup. I was looking forward to an English-France semi final but have been left waiting forever. Instead we had to battle it out with the Portuguese. Italy played great football, but England, well, let’s hope they play their game next time. Amongst the top team, they were clearly the most dispappointing team. No plan, no midfield, no attack, no legs, no flair, well done Sven.

Said, yeah I used to be sympathetic to the palestinian
cause back then too. That was until I saw all those videos
Of palestinians dancing in the streets after 3000 of my fellow citizens were slaughtered by 19
moslems. Now all that I wish for palestinians is that Israelis drop lots of bombs on them.

NO MORE RACIST COMMENTS PLZ

Italy won= Best TEAM of Tournament

Face it- the team that wins the championship is the best team of the tournament despite a few incidents which may say otherwise

About Zidane’s head butt:

From what I heard, Materazzi threatened Zidane’s mother and sister.

That seems to be enough for Zidane’s reaction.

J. Caesar, do you mean bombs on Palestinian kids and civilians as well? You cannot be talking seriously… Is this the same your President thinks about prisoners in Guantanamo? 11S Terrorist must be very happy because you and other think like that, it’s exactly what they wanted…

Phil,

You are an idiot. America has bought more to this world than you’ll ever realize….So when you sit where ever you are and think about how much aid, medicine, freedom, culture, and food you have consumed in your lifetime that came from the American taxpayer…get down on your knees and say “I am not worthy America…and I’m sorry to have bitten the hand that has brought me toilet paper to keep me from wiping my ass with rocks…”

And oh by the way the internet for which you have such an affinity for and the freedom to use it came from America…..Enjoy it.

Juan, this is a football blog
but I couldn’t let said slip that B.S. comment in without responding. I don’t ever like to see innocent children hurt.
Juan,(I suspect your name is probably ali baba or some such name). You don’t hesitate to critcize my statement, but you wouldn’t think of criticizing terrorists who slaughter innocents every day would you?
As far as guantanamo, Most of the ones left deseve to be there.

BOBO- Internet was actually created at CERN in Switzerland- a team better in soccer then the Americans as well

J. Caesar, for your information I have to tell you that I am Spanish and I have also seen fellow Spanish citizens killed by terrorist on March 11 2004. Somebody who thought like you took Spain into Irak war. Can you remember the Azores photo: Bush, Blair & Aznar?

Juan, March 11, 2004 a very good reason to emulate your GREAT Spanish
ancestors and once again expell the mohammedan invaders.

You guys have gone insane bringing religion, Spain , and Moors into this discsuusion.

This just illustrates how bad behaviour can have ripple effect, especially when it is at a world stage like the world cup final.

Both Materazzi and Zidane should have been punished. Materazzi for the provocation and his loose morals which were bared before the whole world, and Zidane for lacking self-restraint.

Zidane has at least been punished. And he shown character by apologizing and explaining why he acted the way he did. For some poeple honor is more imprtant than glitter. He made his choice and has accepted the consequences.

J. Caesar, you have a very stange point of view about history, according to it everybody has invaded somebody in the past… We do not need to expell anybody from our country… Every year about 60 million people visit Spain: tourists and workers as well. Keep your advice for yourself.

BOBO- Internet was actually created at CERN in Switzerland- a team better in soccer then the Americans as well

Enjoy the internet mate.

- Freedom : Guantanamo bay, rendition techniques, 100000 iraqi civiians dead, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and 1 billion liters of Napalm unto Vietnam, 1 million dead, Support for pinochet, support for saddam hussein and maps so that he can drop he chemical weapons onto the kurds, support for the guy in tadjikistan who boils his opponents alive, financing of the mudjahideen and osam bin laden, blablablablabla. Please can we have more freedom, thank you.

Food: lots of crap full of salt and fat, that makes the whole nation look like Michelin men.

Culture: Huh? What’s that? The Da Vinci Code? Call that culture? Ok Spiderman I confess is great. And some Californiam wines. Clint Eastwood.

Well and for the toilet paper, I use the documents produced by your world reknown intelligent (huh?) services or your president’s speeches.

A yes, Tom cruise won the battle of Britain all by himself. Thanks for that.

just a point of order (although it has nothing to do with football):

the internet started in the US as a military project, the world wide web started in CERN as a handy tool for multinational research:

http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2002/Web_vs_Internet.asp

Actually,

it’s not ‘Moors’ it ‘Moops’

SHAME
WE WON THE WORLD CUP
WE LOVE ZIDANE
WE HATE RACISM

MASSIMO
TALKING BAD ABOUT ARABS
I’M A LADY AND I LOVE ARAB D*CK
OH MY GOD IT’S SO BIG
I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU SAID MASSIMO ABOUT ARABS
I WILL DO ANYTHING FOR AN ARAB DI*K
ITALIA

ITALIA,
tu sei malata fatti curare!!!! You are sick go to the hospital!!! and quickly

LOL @ Seinfeld. Leave it to a Canadian to be this funny. Thats genius.

As someone who has played competitive sports before, I will telll you this: Mother jokes and insults are about as clean as they come. Believe me!

ANGRY FAN
I SUCK YOUR ARAB D*CK
PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

ITALIA #1

THANKS TO AUSTRALIA
WE WERE VERY LUCKY
THANK GOD WE DID NOT PLAY WHITH BRAZIL
THANKS TO YOU ZIDANE GREAT PLAYER FOR EVER

First: we are champions of the world.

Second: Zidane is a wonderful player with a poor self control

Third: France played better but lost at penalties. This happened to us in 1990 (with Argentina) and 1998 (with France). Not a tragedy.

Finally, I personally hate Arabs not for their race, but as I think that the large part of them is not compatible with our democracy. The ones that are accepting our rules are more than welcome. The others should be wiped out very fast with an appropriate use of atomic energy, as I hope will do in these days the state of Israel.

ILCOCIATO
WOW YOU MUST BE HITLER’S GRANDSON SON
WOW THANK GOD
SO WHAT DO YOU THINK?
ARAB FIRST
JEWS SECOND

ILCCIATO
I’M SORRY
I LOVE ARABS BECAUSE OF THE SIZE OF THEIR D*CK
I LOVE JEWS BECAUSE THEY ARE RICH AND SMART
I LOVE ITALIANS BUT THEY HAVE A VERY SMALL D*CK
WHY GOD
JESUS I PRAY DAY AND NIGHT
I WISH ITALIANS’ DI*K GROW BIGGER

NO RACISMO

ITALIA RITA, important are not the dimension but how the job is done and normally

ITALIANS DO IT BETTER!!!:-))

ROCCO
OH MY GOD I HAD 50 ITALIAN LOVER
AND YOU KNOW WHAT AFTER (2) MINUTES THE D*CK FALL A SLEEP
WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS?
IT’S A SHAME
ONE TIME I DID IT WITH AHMED AND GUESS WHAT THE GUY DOES NOT STOP
I HOPE ALL THE ITALIAN WOMEN DO THE SAME THING
GO TO AHMED HE CAN F**K NO STOP

LET’S GO BACK TO SOCCER

it always a question of balls!!! and Amhed is not so good with balls as we are

And I repeat once more love is not question of quantity (centimeters)is mainly quality but it looks like you are not used….

You don’t deserve to post..think about your hamburgher, your bombs and your soccer

Yo BOBO !

Hey you are the one who should beg on your knees, the whole f. american budget deficit is greatly subsidized by foreigners pouring money in your economy by buying your government bonds and treasury notes it’s been like that since Ronald Reagan (ask the chinese and the japs) though the trend is changing with the Euro issuance (that’s mainly why u r in Irak, to make sure petro$ don t switch to petroEuros).

Freedom?? like the one in Irak or the one in Afghanistan? oh yea, both are civil wars…

Internet, as previously posted by other mates, is not a sheer american invention. And let me add up that some other countries expanded some kind of Internet networks before the 90’s tech boom. E.G. Minitel in France during the 80’s.

Culture?? Do u think that we all watch holywood or Monica Lewinsky affair and go to MCDonald 7/24 ?? Maybe you should come visit Europe.

As for the US taxpayers, what u mainly pay for is the defense budget and the wars waged by ur country, check numbers mate.

ps: I love Taco Bell though, but that’s kind of Mexican-like isn’t it?

Forza Azzuri!

I like Arab food though, “hummus, falafel and pita”… great!

A me me piace er cappuccino cor cornetto ,l’espresso, le fettuccine con la pajata, pasta e facioli, l’abbacchio al forno con le patate, il tramisu’ e il lemoncello.

Now if you wish to understand what I like to eat take a dictionary and translate

WELL this just in- supposedly Materazzi has partially admitted to insulting Zidanes sister- not his mom like Zizou said- but his sister

Hey Rocco Sifredi,

I need you to play in one of my movies, r u available?

Ridiculous.
The Internet was created but the Federal Governement in the US.
Why do you think it’s called Internet?
For Christ sake, it s not called “Reseau Intern” !

Switzerland is only good at making chocolates and nice watches.

Even boys playing in the lanes of Brazil won’t utter abuses on field as did by Materazzi in the World Cup Final Match 2006.
Marco Materazzi — you have disgraced Soccer and an International Event like World Cup.

How do u do John?

I bet u r fat and ugly, and that ur butt sweat hard burger grease, am I close?

Marc petit con.
Enleve tous ces cliches dans ta cervelle de moineau.
Je suis francais et ca fait 5 ans que je me suis casse de la France, j’en pouvais plus de bosser avec des connards comme toi qui foutent rien et se plaignent tout le temps.

Ouais les US c est pas un pays parfait mais au moins y a du boulot pour tout le monde, ca paie bien et quand on a bon diplome, on vit comme un roi.

Il y a un tas de mouvements cultures et intellectues aux US que tu ne peux pas connaitre et dont tu n’as jamais entendu parle avant d’avoir veci ici pour de vrai.

Un tas d’artistes, de musiciens, de gens qui s’interessent a la litterature, la philisophie, la politique etc…

Arretez avec ces cliches ridicules. Bush est le president le plus impopulaire de l’histoire des Etats-Unis. Meme pas 20% de la population supporte cette guerre a la con en Irak.

Tu as le droit d’aimer la France et d’etre fier d’etre francais. Moi je le suis. Mais c’est pas une raison pour reduire les US a neant.

C’est un pays qui a 10 ou 20 d’avance sur le reste du monde, il faut bien le reconnaitre.

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

MLee | July 10th, 2006 at 10:07 am

Zidane showed his true colors today. I’m glad he ended his career on a sour note. No matter what Materazzi said, it did not deserve a head butt to the chest. That could’ve broken his ribs, pierced his heart, and killed him right then and there. The French are sore losers and Zidane is the epitamy of losers. The game should’ve been 2-0 Italy. Zidane was given that goal. Whatever, we still one. FORZA ITALIA!!!
————-
I don’t think you have to be so harsh , however I agree! That pk at the start of the game was an extremly bad call by the ref. however I accept it afterall Italy scored just moments afterwards which prove’s that they are truly a great team .
FORZA ITALIA!

Jane | July 10th, 2006 at 10:13 am

Chriso, pls pls don’t bame Zidane, he is a brilliant player and loves France. I am sure his fellow team mates do not blame him. Lets just wait and see what comes out regarding the situation before we condemn him. This was supposed to be his high, his last match, his glory for France. Zidane is no fool he doesn’t have melt down but something was done to trigger off this headbutt. Zidane did it for the world to see but what we can’t see is what Materazzi said ( I know there are earlier video clips of Materazzi twisting Zidanes nipples) so it had been going on for a while before it fired up. It will all come out and I for one (personal opinion) think if there is any truth in the fact that Materazzi has been at all racist to Zidane his world cup medal should be taken away from him.
———
I agree that there are two sides of this situation so no one should put all the blame on zidane , but regardless , was it really necissary for him to headbutt matteratzzi ? I think zidane took it a little bit to far. And I think your a little to harsh to say that mattaratzzi should get his medal taken away , afterall your not even 100% sure what he had said.

marco | July 10th, 2006 at 10:40 am

Zizzu is a complete moron .. he will no longer be remembered as zizzu the greate but zizzu the discrace … he would have been better off not taking part in this WC .. and like its been said beforem no matter what matterazzi said to him, he should have thought twice about doing what he did … o well all i have to say is ITALY ARE CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
———–
Your absolutley right. Italy deserved that cup , so congraulations , and move on. People just keep hauling in excuses because they can’t accept the fact that Italy are the true winners

Pallavi Barua | July 13th, 2006 at 9:19 pm

Even boys playing in the lanes of Brazil won’t utter abuses on field as did by Materazzi in the World Cup Final Match 2006.
Marco Materazzi — you have disgraced Soccer and an International Event like World Cup.

Posted from India
———-
Wow , you are not even sure what he really said , it’s a disgrace to read people write comments like these on a blog. Regardless of what matteratzzi said , it doesn’t give zidane the right to headbutt him which could have easily injured matterratzzi’s ribs .

HAND BACK HIS MEDAL?? You should hear yourself , that is so selfish considering you don’t even know for sure what matteratzzi said.

FORZA AZZURI | July 12th, 2006 at 11:15 pm

NO MORE RACIST COMMENTS PLZ

Italy won= Best TEAM of Tournament

Face it- the team that wins the championship is the best team of the tournament despite a few incidents which may say otherwise
—————
the highlight of the turnament. very well said!

Since someone mentioned Monica Lewinsky before, here is the ultimate Monica Lewinsky Joke:

Q. “What did Monica Lewinsky find in here dress?”

A. “A wad of bills”

LOL.

HA HA HA

I LOVE CANADA
INVADING CANADA WILL BE A GOOD IDEA

John faut pas te facher mon bichon c’est juste que l’humour stereotype et primitif me fait parfois bien rigoler, c’est mon peche mignon tard la nuit apres une dure journee de labeur…

Je suis au courant des USA, j y suis alle pas mal de fois, je suis bilingue depuis tout jeune et je connais bien leurs “reels” qualites et les reels raisons de les mepriser, je n adhere a aucun mouvement anti americain primaire que l on peut trouver en France ou en Europe, tout comme les Americains bien eduques et intellectuels n adherent pas au fox news media french bashing campaign aux USA.

Maintenant pour ce qui est de faire du fric, je suis d accord que les USA c est l eldorado a cote de la France… Moi meme je suis parti du pays, mais a l inverse j ai choisi la Chine. Esperons que Sarkozy change la donne, il veut refaire venir les expats

Pace!

Italia Rita, what’s your real name? Ahmed, Abdul or mohammed?
The only thing ragheads are good at doing for women is subjugating them
abusing them and murdering them,
for even daring to look at a man.
They should do the rest of the world a favor and go back to the desert sh*tholes that they crawled out of.

enough already… Zidane is a great man and a great football player. Italy won by luck, not because they are strong team. bi deal they won with Ukraine… so what. France is such a strong team and I believe Zidane deserves the award for the best player!!!
I read some racist comments above and that is sad. in 21st century there are still some narrow minded people…
I hope FIFA will not punish Zidane farther… not wining the World cup is already enough punishment.
Zidane and France team Rocks!!!

Kathy, Italy
beat Ghana, far more decisivly than brazil did. They beat the czech republic, austrailia, and host nation germany 2-0. Zidane’s goal was B.S.in addition that was no penalty and the goal that Italy scored in the second half was surely a goal
Italy won that game 2-1, that’s because I’ll conceed there was a penalty that Italy commited in the second half that the ref missed. Learn something about football before you comment. As far as my feelings about moslems in the 21st century, they have given me thousands of reasons to dislike them.

Zidane is a very good player
but most definitely NOT one of the all time greats.

who are the all time greats then?

I pick Zidane, Maradona and Pele…

UHH DI Stefano Beckanbauer Muller
Pele Maradona Eusebio shall i go on

J. Caesar,
why are you so aggressive? just take it easy…

UHH DI Stefano Beckanbauer Muller
Pele Maradona Eusebio shall i go on

AND ZIDANEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

hello, je me apelle isabelle,mais je vive au portugal jusqu a 7 ans , je voudrais dire que j adore zulu et lui c est le meuilleur, un gross bijoux pour lui et il a agit correctament avec ce mac italian

Les gars, pas de panique, la releve est la:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXywsQQOxtY&mode=related&search=ribery

Zidane en herbe!

chouette ca!

zizou est mort, mais Ribery est arrive!

who are the all time greats then?

1) Zidane
2) Pele
3) Maradona
4) Zico
5) Platini

Zidane, got what he deserved just like Bruce Arena. You don’t piss on a career as great and decorated as Zidane’s was ecspecially in the final of the world cup!!! 10 minutes left and you can’t be a bigger man than the smartass Italian who played him and he took the bait. Stay retired Zidane besides all the awards you are one of the most red carded players ever!

I agree with you Nicko. Ribery is an exciting talent of the future and I’m looking forward to seeing where he goes.

That’s true, Nicko. Ribery is an exciting talent of the future and I’m looking forward to seeing where he goes.

Ribbery was the most impressive young player for me in the WC.

He goes on all out attacks with his blazing run. In time he’ll learn to orchestrate offensive attacks.

Doe anyone knows where Ribery will be playing next? Heard Arsenal or Lyon…

Jon,

U r right, but Zidane is ZIdane with his weaknesses (hot temper, erratic)and strength like all of us… We can t wipe out what he did throughout his career, probably the most talented European player ever, he won everything, played in the greatest clubs and made loads of people dream, brought a lot to the sport itself… So I agree he did mess up the final exit and got what he deserved but that can t cast a cloud big enough to overshadow the greatness of his game…

Drama is part of football and that makes it even more appealing.

Now it’s history.

Ribery’s coming up!

Materazzi Asks Zidane’s Sister:
“How do you like your eggs in the morning?”

Zidane’s Sister Responds: “Unfertilized”

I know it sounds far-fetched but this is actually a true story.

A great quote from the Toronto Star:

“We can’t all bend it like Beckham but every one of us can lose it like Zidane.”
–Toronto Star

If it wasn’t Zidane would everyone still be discussing this issue? What he did was wrong ….period. If you are going to justify that type of behaviour because he was provoked fine. I would then expect you to ask Fifa to investigate what caused Totti to snap and spit on Poulsen in the Euro Championships. Zidane acted like a fool and his apology only made it worst by saying he would do it again.

LOL LOL LOL

quote from “l’equipe”

“L’équipe de Youri Djorkaeff , les Redbulls de New York, veulent faire venir Zinedine Zidane dans le Championnat américain. Le quotidien New York Times indique que les dirigeants du club et des officiels de la MLS vont essayer de faire revenir Zidane sur sa décision d’arrêter le football.”

C’est pas un truc de ouf ça??????

Zidane in NYC? OMG, if this is true, I don’t care if it’s 3000 miles away, I am SO getting season tickets!!!!!!

Marc, when did you read this?

that was released on the 14th of july…

It’s not a wonder, Youri and Zidane were good friends, both played euro 2000 and WC 1998…

Nothing sure yet, wait and see…

Zidane à NewYork… J’y crois pas, ca me donne une bonne raison pour partir aux Etats Unis…

I dunno, Marc. On the one hand, Zidane. But on the other…George Bush.

oh les gars, regardez ça!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErZNPgcNO_A&mode=related&search=France%2Bworld%20cup

Thanks for the video link. If only I could watch the whole Brazil game again. It was such a nail-biter I wasn’t able to enjoy it the first time.

I was surprised to find the following comment by an American.
****************
I also think most non-Europeans fail to understand that Italians are on the receiving end of a lot of intra-European racism: not considered “white,” looked down on, etc.
****************
If this person is a non-caucasian who has ever travelled or lived in Italy, her word would be taken seriously.
An Italian senator was reported to have made an interesting comment about the World Cup. ‘Italian national team made from only Italians beat French team made from negros and muslims.’

Can someone in France tell me how Trezeguet is handling the game aftermath and the “Coup de Boule” song? The song is hysterically funny, but I feel awful for the poor guy. Every player misses the occasional PK. He just happened to be the only one in this shoot-out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOAUX0hP6Ck&mode=related&search=coup%20de%20boule%20

What a freakin idiot.

Italy was clearly off side on that goal that was taken away.

Yes the France PK was on a phantom call, however in the second half a legit foul in the Penalty Area was not called.

Not to mention the foul that was not called on Metazzeri on the first goal for climbing up the France Defender’s back as leverage.

So technically France should have won 1-0!!!

This World Cup was a wonderful event until the final match. The Italians won and that is great for them…however the circumstances around how they played and how they cheated and thus provoked the legend Zidane, has cast a dark shadow over all of Soccer.

It’s not up to FIFA to clean it up, it’s up the players, coaches and organizations to police themselves. Players such as Matezzari should be removed from the game completely, there is no place for these types of players!!!
zidane is the best..and always has been ..however we still have henry and vierra to beat the s*h*i*t outta italy in 2010

hi people…i am from india and i wouldl ike to ask a question…why hasnt india played or even tried out for the worldcup when they have quite a big population…ranging from highmillions to billions…WHY?WHY COULDNT THEY FIND PLAYERS OUT OF THIS BIGASS POPUATION…WHYYYYYY

hi people…i am from india and i wouldl ike to ask a question…why hasnt india played or even tried out for the worldcup when they have quite a big population…ranging from highmillions to billions…WHY?WHY COULDNT THEY FIND PLAYERS OUT OF THIS BIGASS POPULATION…WHYYYYYY

Well said Catrina!

There is nothing left for me to add.

The legend Zidane…..provoked. Even if we accept the fact that a racial comment was said to Zidane (which I do not believe) does that give him the right to do what he did? If so then get set for headbutts around the world. In what civilized society do we want someone who is called a name to attack someone.

ZZ the great was red carded previously against Saudi Arabia…was there a racial slur there you think? Please stop trying to justify his actions because they cannot be. Great footballer abviously flawed human, as we all are.

Congrats to Italy.

Catrina

Just wanted to educate a little on soccer rules regarding offside.

Luca Toni the goal (the guy who buried the goal of the tournament) was onside without question. The other Italian striker to his left was in an offside position but had no effect on the play. That is what we call in the soccer community (not to mention Fifa rulebook) a Goal.

Catrina and Kruman

Just wanted to educate a little on soccer rules regarding offside.

Luca Toni the guy who buried the goal of the tournament, was onside without question. The other Italian striker to his left was in an offside position but had no effect on the play. That is what we call in the soccer community (not to mention Fifa rulebook) a Goal.

Catrina you are delusional, what replay did you see? At the very instant the ball was struck no one was offsides. Have you ever played football? Materazzi”s goal was beautiful when a group of players are going for a cross the player who scores or clears the ball
is almost always on top of another. Why don’t you learn something about football before you make stupid comments. Italy won that game fair and square.
They are 4 time world champs.
Oh by the way for the record,
The french team that won in 98 could not score a goal on Italy after a 90 minute game plus 2 15
minute overtimes.

OKAY I have already siad much of this b4:

1) Luca Toni’s goal was not offside- it was like TIerry Henry’s goal against Brazil- however, the ref has only one chance to make the call

2) Materazzis goal was legit- watch the replay he barely touched Viera and certainly did not keep him down what so ever. It was a typical header where you hold onto a guys shoulder but you dont stop them from jumping

3) Zidane has admitted MAterazzi has not said anything racist and MAterazzi claimed he didnt say anything about his mom. This only leaves his sister and believe me, it is hard to really anger a person by insulting his sister or even mother without saying anything racist- to say your sister is a whore should not be enough to make a guy so angry to attack another player. Zidanes headbutt was partially stemmed from fatigue and frustration

“Zidane has admitted MAterazzi has not said anything racist”

Where did he say this? Can you please refernce a credible new report.

Zidane said that Materazzi used “very harsh word” against his mom and sis. How can you infer no reacial slurs were used?

Please stop propaganda.

Thanks,

Kruman, who cares? Zidane is an
overrated footballer with zero class.

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 minute. 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 without even casting a glance on the World Cup
trophy. He set an example for mankind: honor and family
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 chose a lions life of valour. Materazzi chose a jackals life of shame.

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

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

Zidanes earns repect and honor worldwide. Materazzi earns disgarce. Him and the vile conspirators won nothing but the world cup of shame and disgrace.

After Jesus, Zidane is the greatest Arab ever born on earth.

Both are men of Desert origin. First Cousins.

Kruman, BOTTOM LINE
ITALY WON AND DESERVED TO WIN
france lost and deserved to lose.
I could argue quite legitimately
that Italy should have beat france in 98(where france didn’t come close to scoring on Italy) Even more so in the 2000 european cup.Face it Italy’s authentic national team is just superior to france’s african colonial team

Ron, zidane is the second greatest arab after Jesus??????
He’s a football player!!!!!!
talented yes,I’ll give him that much, but just a damn
football player and not a particularly classy one at that.
What an inane statement.

GUYS Zidane is not the greatest player of all time- not even 2nd third fourth fifth heck not even in top ten- he is one of the greatest modern players of all time??

From the int’l press:
http://sport.scotsman.com/football.cfm?id=1034022006

“Italy’s authentic national team is just superior to france’s african colonial team”

Spoken like a true Materrazzi lover.

Possible things that Materazzi is probably thinking about Zidane’s sister:

(1) “Wonder if she’ll show me her raisin?”

(2) “Sooner or later gonna get me a sniff of that!”

(3) “Nice eskimo hair pie I bet.”

(4) “Nice whisker biscuit I bet.”

SOCCER IS JUST A GAME AND NOTHING PERSONAL……..

IT WAS NOT PROFESSIONAL FOR MATERAZZI TO CROSS THE BOUNDARY INTO PERSONAL MATTERS….

WHAT IF U WERE ZIDANI WOULD BE UR REACTION…???

J. Caesar:
“Italy’s authentic national team is just superior to france’s african colonial team” —you know that this a lie you racist dunce.
And Zidane has more class than all of the palyers your team has ever produced in history

J. Caesar:
“Italy’s authentic national team is just superior to france’s african colonial team” —What a racist dunce!!
And Zidane has more class than all of the palyers your team has ever produced in history

Saying the absolute TRUTH qualifies me as a racist? Nawaf, maybe some day the Kuwaitis will need the good ol USA, with the participation
Of Italy of course to save your
asses from another agressive
invader. In the mean time, why don’t you kiss my ItalianAmerican
ASS.

Just like the good ol USA saved the ungrateful french from the nazis.

SOCCER IS NOT PERSONAL- What a laugh- Guys insults happen in every sport no matter what the level of competition from house league to representational to club and international levels- ppl insult other people all the time

Just like the good ol USA saved the ungrateful french from the nazis.

Posted from United States

hmmmmmmmmmm Soviet Union was playing major part saving the French and the rest of the european countries from nazis including the jews.

Good al U.S.A. came all the way at the end my friend

J. Caesar | July 17th, 2006 at 5:16 pm

Just like the good ol USA saved the ungrateful french from the nazis.

Posted from United States

Just like the good ol USA saved the ungrateful french from the nazis.

Posted from United States

hmmmmmmmmmm Soviet Union was playing major part saving the French and the rest of the european countries from nazis including the jews.

Good al U.S.A. came all the way at the end my friend

Posted from United States

If italy can win euro 08 then and only then can they be compared to France 98 backed up by Euro 00…Most of the Italian supporter on this blog can never understand French family values.
ZIDANE THE BEST FOOTBALL PLAYER OF HIS GENERATION!!!!
After 110 min of getting step on …nipple pinched….banged up shoulder…and continuous insult ABOUT his mother…he did what needed to be done….I do not agree…. for selfish reason..[i wanted an other cup ] but ZIDANE A MAN WHO HAS IT ALL WON ALL THERE IS TO BE WON chose to get respect for his family…….
he values family above all …race nation and team….I say in the future Italian player will think twice before insulting one’s family…i don’t think they can understand it ….for they kill members of their families a la mafia style…
SEPT 6 2006
IN PARIS…..ALLEZ LE BLEUS
CASSER LES RITALS DE MES FESSES

BTW ANY OF YOU RITALS EVER HEARD OF JUSTE FONTAINE????

Zidane is the best.
Zidane is #1.
Zidane is a true champ.
Materazzi and the conspirators are loosers.

That’s the final verdict outside Italy.

Hey Ceasar

Give us a break buddy, your historical bias is bigger than ur fat butt…

Caesar

Italian/American ass… huh…

Why don t u kiss my Italian/French ass…? Probably sweeter because of the diet… hahah…

Va fanculo

Italy were the best side at this world cup. No wonder they won the world cup.

Most of them in this blog seem to be against Italy for no one here seems to be a good loser.Italy won the world cup and thats final. Italy had great matches against the Czech, Ukraine , Ghana and the Germans. Also Fabio Cannavaro deserved the golden ball not zidane..how can you give such an award to a person who got two yellow cards,was sent off for a match and then did the stupidest thing one could ever remember happening in a world cup final.Italy deserves the title.

ITALIA RULZA

Hey people,

Watch this video… Aaamazing !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hoNcOa3HkA&mode=related&search=Ribery

You are wise Tim. good post.

Marc Dorcel/Mario Salieri production loooooool I love you

Zidane but you are the best

gogo Zidane…do u guys know that there is a website called mercizidane. You can post messaages that will reach him. Zidane is best. also this people Italy soccer page topic “Veni Vidi Vici” are dissin Zidane. I am defending Zidane but one person against a lot of people? i am no match. come help me

Rawky,
It is not worth it man.

Zidane is Zidane, a great soccer player. No amount of bashing will change that.

Let them waste their time and energy.

Peace,
Kruman

I’m sorry, but what Matterazzi did was LOW. I agree, Zidane shouldn’t have reacted by head-butting him, but don’t tell me that you expect to walk away, unharmed, after provoking someone in such a personal way, especially when they have about 10 minutes to prove themselves before they exit the stage FOREVER and are really stressed. In Zidane shoes, I would’ve done the same, and I’m sure you would too.

Adalia
I’m sorry, but what Matterazzi did was LOW

So what Zidane did was HIGH or what???? Zidane should have kept his cool.

ZZ great soccer player

poor role model….shame zz shame

apologise
1. To Materazzi
2. To Me
3. To Italy
4. To the Pope
5. Return the golden ball and admit cannavaro deserves it more.

Save some dignity and and do all the above…dont go down in history being remembered as a punk biatch.

kasets you must be out of your mind, Zidane deserves the golden ball so don’t even.

Materazzi is an ugly beast, we italians know him well (and call him “macellazzi”, that is, “ugly butcher’s messes”). But Zidane… Zidane is an arab, and making an arab go angry is so, so very easy, they go mad for provokations so naïve that any italian kid would resist them easily. The trick of the nipples! So old, but he fell into it. Scratch the french surface, you’ll find the muslim homophobic core. Bad that the french resort to people like that to keep their name high. Garçons de France, your “integration” policies are a sad joke. The Cup is in Rome, now, and held by honourful players who can keep their nerves restrained. Viva gli Azzurri.

Maurizio…Well, France’s integration policy is nowhere near perfect, for sure, but believe me it’s making progress. Any worthy objective isn’t met without suffering.

Mmmmh it’s funny how I recall many people, actualy most of the people of Europe calling Italians the Arabs of Europe…
“France keeps its name high” …Yes, indeed Italy doesn t have to bear such burden since its name remains desperately low thanks to people like you who post ignorant garbage comments like the one above…

Countries like Great Britain and France are way ahead of your country as regard to immigration policies and assimilation… Along with immigration pops up difficult social challenges, in ten or twenty years Italy will go through the very same kind of social unrest (probably worse)because of its lack of integration policy and the shortage of proper institutions to deal with such issue. As for the fascist legacy we know that your country is carrying on the tradition.
Ask the Albanese or the Eastern Europeans or even the Egyptians from Napoli…

Just one example among thousands of them, look at your stadiums filled up with hooligans and neo fascists, say Lazio Roma: During Milosevic era Serbians militia used to come straight to the supporters club to get some fresh blood already perfectly formated for embracing nationalism and hatred …

If France integration policy is a sad joke (one silly general conclusion that you drew by witnessing Zidane headbutt) then what is the Italian one? A shame??

So next time make an introspection and think twice before spitting venom…

http://www.westendchronicle.com/article-26068-Zidane-is-an-embarrassment-to-sports.html

Just an update to all…to date ZZ has failed to

apologise
1. To Materazzi
2. To Me
3. To Italy
4. To the Pope
5. Return the golden ball and admit cannavaro deserves it more.

To much time has now passed so I must conclude that history will have no choice but to remember him as a punk biatch.

You had your chance ZZ if you looking to place blame look in the mirror.

The Materazzi “I don’t even know what a Muslim terrorist is” lowlife moron thug is far far worse than Zidane ever was. He’s a deliberate serial brutalizer provocateur who bloodied Craig Bellamy deliberately in one match and in another match left one player bloodied on the ground, turned around and deliberately kicked another player in the groin (leaving that player screaming on the ground) while happily running away, laughing.

The only mistake Zidane made was to assault Maggot Materazzi on the pitch during the match. He should’ve waited until after the game to beat the crap out of him.

Thank god Zidane’s apology was to the kids of the world, his teammates (privately) and not to Imbecile maggot Materazzi. He owes no one else an apology.

zidaneisking,

See what you did, by yourthoughtless words in your post you must now

apologise
1. To Materazzi
2. To Me
3. To Italy
4. To the Pope

Be honourable not like ZZ.

kasets,
I’ll apologize as soon as italy apologizes for Materazzi. And Zizou has more honor in his pinky than the whole of the italian football federation has or ever will have in its entire filthy system.

zidaneisking

I guess I shouldn’t have expected you to apologise with the name you have chosen to blog with.

I tried to help you rehabilitate your reputation for those absurd posts you made.
Unfortunately you show the same class as your idol ZZ.

Therefore just as ZZ you have shown yourself to be a classless punk biatch.

Have a good day.

kasets, you’re nothing more than hypocrite. All you cheap moralizers and holier-than-thou scolds are nothing more than hypocrites. Take it to the church pulpit. Who the hell died and made you God? I see that you take enormous pleasure in demonizing Zizou on a France blog — spewing your hatred and moral bankruptcy is a favorite pasttime of yours. I guess you have no other life. Instead of spending time with your buddies over on the italy blog (which I don’t go to), you come here. What the hell does that say about you and your character? You’re the one with no honor or character whatsoever. You’re filth.

kasets and his lowlife ilk all seem to just LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE what Zizou did in the final. kasets and his trashheap crowd are actually VERY VERY grateful to Zizou for his act, they support him entirely. Otherwise they would have no reason to come over on the France blog and indulge in their pastime of spewing hatred of a great player. That’s their new hobby, since they have nothing else to do with their pathetic squalid little lives.

And you want to know what my lasting image has always been and always will be of Zizou, kasets and your dittoheaders? The image of Zizou holding an AIDS-ridden baby in a Brazilian slum (my father’s originally from Brazil, I visit the place often) and seeing the clinic he and his friend Ronaldo set up there (one of hundreds). What the hell have Materazzi Maggot and his buddies ever done for anyone except line their filthy pockets? What good in this world have YOU kasets ever done other than sit behind the safety of your computer screen with your armchair lectures and sermons and insults and smears and your dime-a-dozen pedantic hypocritical judgments based on stupidity, hate and ignorance? Your and your kind are the dregs of the earth. What the hell have you ever risked? Lowlife ignorant scumbag hypocrite. Not even the italy blog deserves your kind.

zidaneisking ….so much hatred in your heart…..thats a terrrible way to go through life.

Redemption is still there for you …you know what you have to do….i cant except your apology anymore but I know Materazzi and the Poe will.

“I know Materazzi and the Poe will. ”

That’s “Pope.”

I call him Poe…we are tight.

kasets,

You are right and though I love ZZ as a player,I am ashamed of his actions.

A quick a simple apology would have diffused the whole situation…….but I will remember all the good ZZ has done in his brilliant career.

You should do the same.

john paul…you seem very reasonable….but the first thing that pops into my mind at the mention of ZZ is that bald head assaulting Materazzi.

peace

yea Kasets maybe you ve got some kind of a trauma and now you are amnesic, but most people will remember the good side which is overwhelming…!

Zidane fan,

Hey I took an informal poll of 10 friends and asked them what you will remember about ZZ. Just wanted to see if you were right about most people remebering the good side of ZZ ….and the results are in

7 said “that bald head assaulting Materazzi”

2 said “Pathetic interview he gave on French TV”

1 said “Who?”

Peace

I took a poll of 10 friends and asked them what they’ll remember about the italy team.

4 said “you mean the team that made the American player’s face all bloody?”

3 said “you mean the team that insults other players to get them kicked out of the game?”

2 said “you mean the team that cheated to win against Australia?”

The last person said “what italy team?”

Haaa… Guys did u study statistics? Or you went straight from Junior school to the army?

The sample population is very important… Obviously both of you got some flawed results because

1/ u just lie and u don t have any friend
2/ ur sample was lame

sigh…

zidaneisking

Seems like your friends aren’t to sharp.

Tell them to go to the FIGC site were they can learn about some of the greatest players and see the four golden stars.

You should probably find a better class of friends to.

Take Care

I took an informal poll about Pao (me) among a group of 10 girls.
7 said: Pao is fuc.king hot
3 said: his bald look is better than zizou’s
1 said: leave me alone you idiot

indeed they were 11 not 10

Zidane fan

My study group could have been a bit biased. Come to think of it they were all wearing Italian Jersey’s.

I’ll get better a stat taking though.

Pao….I am going to try taking a poll as you did….but using kasets

Zidane fan

Ok I did another poll again with 10 people …unbiased… and here are the new results

Question…How will you remember Zidane?

4 said “that bald head assaulting Materazzi”

2 said “his walk of shame off the field”

2 said “Pathetic interview he gave on French TV”

1 said “Who?”

1 said “kasets your cute” – thankfully that comment came from a woman

All that these blogs prove is that anti-italian propaganda is on the rise because italy won the world cup. If you make a statement that only italy played dirty that tells me you are only watching when the italian players do something wrong. It’s like racial profiling in a sence. I saw many teams in this tournament use dirty tactics but it seems that nobody notices until italy does it. It is unfair to use italy as the scapegoat when any clear-thinking and rational individual can see the plain truth. You are all brainwashed by the media. Italy was not always looked at this way at one point Argentina was considered a dirty team. Would Matarazzi have received a ban if he was Brazilian or German, most certainly not. FIFA is NOT impartial. There are certain teams that they do not like and there are teams and players they glorify. In the end it was determined that Matarazzi did not say anything racist in nature but that doesn’t matter now, the damage is done. I would urge the anti-italians to put aside your biases and watch some of the Italian games again. This time pay no attention to Italy but count how many times the opposition dives or embelishes a fall and look closely as if you were watching Italy. I bet you will have a hard time doing this because your predisposition has blinded you. Seek the TRUTH not a fabrication of the truth.

LOL Pao…!

“All that these blogs prove is that anti-italian propaganda is on the rise because italy won the world cup.”

zidane, you make a fair point, but there’s a lot of double standards going around. Zizou gets singled out for an act of violence, the world goes into a hissy fit, screeches moral outrage, when this is an incredibly common feature of the game. Not that you should shrug your shoulders at it but why single him out as particularly evil, violent, etc. – esp. when you look at the record of the guy he attacked.

Zidane you are the better player of the worldcup !CONGRATULATIONS!
and i want to say that fench team was more better than the Italian one you can remember ITALY-AUSTARALIA and in the second half in the final FRANCE was superior so they merit this cup
Materazzi is a good football player in th calcio he commit only fautes tu win so
MATERAZZI = THIF

ZIDANE is the best
Matrazzi you are a provocator.
and your gam is the falses

“and i want to say that fench team was more better than the Italian one you can remember ITALY-AUSTARALIA and in the second half in the final FRANCE was superior so they merit this cup”

WHAT ABOUT THE MATCH OF ITALY AGAINST GHANA? AGAINST CZECH REP? AGAINST UKRAINE? AGAINST GERMANY?
WHAT ABOUT THE 1ST HALF OF FINAL…ITALY WAS SUPERIOR TO FRANCE ISN’T? SO WHY FRANCE MERIT TO WIN?? IS THE 2ND HALF MORE IMPORTANT??

“Zidane you are the better player of the worldcup !CONGRATULATIONS!”

ZIDANE IS THE BEST PLAYER OF WC!!!??? JUST BECAUSE PLAYED WELL A COUPLE OF MATCHES (BRASIL AND SPAIN??) AND WHAT ABOUT KLOSE, CANNAVARO JUST TO NAME SOME PLaying always well during the whole WC?

azzurro….you are right.

ZZ was awarded the golden ball as a farewell gift to end his career, that in itself is pathetic and an insult to previous winners. To top it all off he didn’t deserve it…not even in the top five.

I would have been Ok with Cannavaro, Klose Buffon all three gentleman who played excellent EVERYGAME.

Shame on ZZ for not giving back the ball after his disgraceful actions and shame shame on the French fans so blinded by loyalty that they cannot see the truth.

The truth shall set you free. By the way aren’t apologies in order to Materazzi. So many people were so sure he made a racist comment….again those who fail to apolgise …SHAME SHAME and one more SHAME.

henri,
just because you have a different name doesn’t mean we don’t recognize your repetitive posts.

“WHAT ABOUT THE MATCH OF ITALY AGAINST GHANA? AGAINST CZECH REP? AGAINST UKRAINE? ”

Sorry, but the only memorable match Italy had in the entire tournament was against Germany. Ghana? Czech Republic? What, are you kidding? Who in the world (except diehard Italy fans) found any of those matches something to write home about? NONE of Italy’s matches before the Germany semi-final got any attention at all. Oh I forgot, the match against the US did indeed get lots of attention for being one of the ugliest matches ever played, and for Italy’s inability to score against a 9-man low-level US team in the 2nd half.

Even Germany’s match got exciting only in overtime when Lippi put on some extra strikers on the pitch. Before then the 90 minute match was mostly cagey and dull.

The entire hype about the Italy team has been incredibly exaggerated to fit the tournament’s outcome. Before the match with Germany, the Italy team didn’t impress very much at all. Like France, Italy struggled in the opening rounds and no one was paying any attention to them (again, except Italians). I neither heard nor read any pundits, commentators or fans getting terribly excited by Italy – until the last few minutes of the game with Germany.

By contrast, when France turned its fortunes around in its match against Spain, all of a sudden pundits and fans started taking notice because it was such an amazing turnaround. And then of course its match with Brazil got lots of well deserved attention. Absolutely NONE of Italy’s matches generated the commentary about the “beautiful game” that the France team got after its match with Brazil. Pundit after pundit after pundit were in raptures how FINALLY the beautiful game had come alive in the tournament.

Unfortunately, this tournament was not a triumph for the beautiful game. No one ever accused Italy of playing beautifully or artfully.

To Disgrace (zidaneisking) …disgarce is more appropriate don’t you think?

I have and use only one name. My real name unlike…i guess you.

I have read some of your past posts and the only question I have for you is….what colour is the sky in your world?…..seek help before it’s to late.

Disgrace…..lets start the healing process….after all “French are Italians in a bad mood”

So here’s a video tribute, kick back and enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw3j08aEPSs

Enough already… leave Zidane alone…..lets talk soccer and keep it civil.

Good video post Henri even though its not my favourite team.

TO: zidaneisking

Ooooooh what a wonderful match France vs Switzerland!!!!!!!???? and what a wonderful match France vs Korea!!!!!!??? ooohhhh what a wonderful match France vs Togo!!!!???? Ooooooohhhh what a wonderful match France vs Portugal!!!!???. BORING,BORING and BORING.
Brasil vs France got attention just because of glory/history of both teams and overall attention of media presenting the match as a revenge of WC ‘98. That’s all my friends and nothing else. Net France played very well just the game against Spain but just because the stupid approach of Spain (and Brazil as well) that continue to believe that they play the only way to play soccer. Good for us (Italy). We used to say if all the birds would know how good the corn is no bread (baguette in your case) anymore.

azzuro, I never ever said anything good about France’s early matches, so your reply to me is idiotic and entirely irrelevant to my post. You’re being ridiculous. I said, like France, Italy struggled in the early mathes.

“Brasil vs France got attention just because of glory/history of both teams and overall attention of media presenting the match as a revenge of WC ‘98. That’s all my friends and nothing else. ”

You’ve just lost all credibility. You obviously were not paying attention to the objective reaction to that match. All you’re talking about is the PRE-match hype, not the RESULTING reaction *after* that game. Do try to be objective and honest, or are you italian fans totally incapable of that?

The principal reason that match got so much excited praise AFTERWARD was precisely because of Zidane’s brilliant performance, precisely because France had turned around its game and played positive, open, excellent football. Pundit after pundit after pundit used the term “the beautiful game” after that match, saying France had brought it back to the tournament. The principle hype for that match came AFTER it ended, not before.

Go back and read all the punditry, listen to all the commentators talking about France’s performance in that match. It’s not for nothing that the most common remark made about that game was that “Zidane played more like Brazil than Brazil did.” You’ve completely exposed your ignorance and total lack of objectivity by ignoring the reaction to that match and to Zidane’s performance. People started begging him not to retire after he showed some of his old skills in that match.

It does no good to come up with convenient rationalizations and excuses, facts are facts: Spain and Brazil are not the US, the Ukraine, Japan, Ghana. They’re world class teams with world class players playing in the world’s top clubs, players that Europe’s top clubs eagerly bid millions of dollars for to get them on their team. The fact is that France beat 3 world class teams: Portugal, Spain and Brazil, and had Italy running ragged and desperate in the 2nd half of the final. France played very well against Brazil, Spain and in half of the final.

France, after performing very poorly in its first few matches, turned its game around, put aside the egos and cohered into a unit, playing the beautiful game. The Brazil-France match was an even match between major talents and several older veterans. The difference was that France worked harder at uniting together a team of strong individuals into a team. The reason France’s early games were so poor was precisely because they kept fighting amongst each other, and with their coach.

Brazil failed at this important task. If they had succeeded into cohereing into a unit, then Brazil might well have gone on further.

There’s no question that Italy improved their game as the tournament progressed, and that they had exceptional players. Who can argue with Buffon, Cannavaro, Pirlo (the guy I prefer out of all of the Italian players) and Zambrotta? And they too got their act together and didn’t let the scandal back home get them down. My point here is to challenge the notion — put forth by so many italian fans totally incapable of looking at the reality of the tournament — that somehow Italy’s performance throughout the tournament was one uninterrupted line of pure perfect brilliance utterly superior to everyone else, that its defeat of France was just one super slam dunk against a pathetically lousy French team yadayadayada.

If France were so piss-poor, then Italy’s victory is completely worthless. A victory against a worthless inferior team doesn’t mean much does it? And let’s not forget that the Italy-France final was also a revenge final on Italy’s part. After all, it was this same supposedly “lousy” worthless French team that beat the crap out of a tough Italian team in their last three encounters – and in one of those encounters France won the Euro Cup.

Oh, and by the way – we keep hearing about the age of the French team. Well the average age of the Italian team is not that much different from the French team, so a lot of those players won’t be playing much longer either.

Anyway, my point also is to challenge the notion that Italy’s performance can’t be criticized just because they won. Brazil won in 2002 and yet plenty of credible football analysts say they were never really tested in that World Cup. Others say otherwise and praise them for deserving their win. Whatever, the point is that winners are not automatically immune to objective criticism.

I appreciate the fact that, compared to past performances, Italy played a more attacking game. That’s why its game against Germany (also a classic defensive team that started to play an attacking game in this tournament) was so noteworthy and impressive.

But for my personal preferences, Italy’s improvement in this area didn’t go far enuf for to find its game especially interesting for me to watch. I have never liked Italian football (nor German football for that matter). Over the years I’ve liked certain individual Italian players and certainly I’ve enjoyed some of Zizou’s games with Juventus. But overall I don’t find Italian football enjoyable or inspiring or positive. Quite often there’s some controversey. And, more than any other team (except maybe Portugal), there’s some negative or bitter feeling left after the game is finished. (This is the case even within the Italian league, whenever I’ve watched matches between, say, Juve and Milan).

Atacking football is like a religion to me. I only started to root for France in the 90s, I never did before. I’ve only ever supported talented attacking teams — and this tournament was a triumph for boring defensive football, which is why Italy won and why Argentina, for example (the best attacking team of the tournament) was eliminated. Even with Italy’s improved performance in this tournament, you still can’t use words like “sublime” or “beautiful” or “artful” to describe them. Some try to do this but I can only laugh at the attempt.

Great Video post Henri. Keep them coming.

Allez les Blows

“I never ever said anything good about France’s early matches, so your reply to me is idiotic and entirely irrelevant to my post. You’re being ridiculous”

I do not want to start to offense you with bad words as you did this is your culture not mine.
About ignorance just in the sense that “you do not know” what you have written is really proving that you do not know ot ignore some FACTS:
1. Spain is a world class team. For what?? do you remember Spain results in the last 10 editions of WC or Euro championship? Should I list you the negative results of Spain?
2. Average age of italian players is not much different of French team.
No comment here since it is pretty evident that French team rather than Italy is having problems with many players close to leave the blue jersey.
3.Attacking football is like a religion to me.
It is your opinion I can disagree but I have to accept it. But pls remember that when an attacking team is facing a good defensing team is in the majority of case loosing. History teaches on this. As matter of fact the new coach of Brazil (Dunga) said “If I have to choice I would prefere to have one more defenser in the field” it looks like that even Brasil is changing the midset.
Another example, at the end of the game France-Spain the spanish speaker commented ” most likley when we were 1-0 for Spain by approaching the rest of the game in a more defensive way as Italy does now we would be commenting a victory for Spain”.
4. you never liked italian soccer. it is your opinion (as above). But explain me, why the most representative french players of last 20 years (Platini, Zidane, Deschamps, Thuram, Trezeguet) have became really worldwide recognized great players only after having played in Serie A?
Why French Clubs are not having good performance in the Euro cups as italian clud did and are doing?
5. you are judging Germany as well a defensive team. Agree with you but also in this case the overall results teach, Germany is just after Italy and Brazil for number of Stars and Germany get out your favourite offensive team (Argentina). So once more a defensive team won against an offensive team.
Net you said by yourself “….for boring defensive football, which is why Italy won and why Argentina, for example (the best attacking team of the tournament) was eliminated” maybe attacking is not paying out (isn’t?) and you should re-consider you point of view about defensive footbal that is a way to play but you have to be able to do it. Italy does…. others I do not know. And stop saying Italy defensive way to play, Italy scored more than so called offensive teams with 10 different players…is this a defensive way to play? The reality is that other teams would like to copy the Italian way to play but they do not have the skills. Why Real Madrid has got Cannavaro? What RM won in the last 5 years with the so called offensive soccer with the huge investments in getting only offensive players?

I like the way Italy play because:
-it is important to score just 1 goal more and for Italy 1 goal can be more than enough to win the match

-Important is to win not to praticipate

Bye Bye…… and think a little bit broader and open about soccer tactis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EpA5qy0X6M&mode=related&search=

azzurro,

good post and great video. Don’t bother discussing football with a loser that posts with a name like zidaneisking ….is this a 10 year old girl?

zidaneisking if you want to apolgise for all your pathetic posts and slandering Materazzi I will accept it now.

PS I never met anyone who posts such long entries of nothingness and nonsense.

zidaneisking,

almost forgot to give you the link to sign the petition in support of Materazzi asking Fifa to repeal the suspension…..and also the forcefull removal of the Golden Ball from ZZ

http://www.difendiamomaterazzi.it/index.php

thanks for your support.

Sorry.

ZidaneiskinG,

Wow….I didn’t expect you to apolgise, but I’m glad you did…very big of you.

Did you have a chance to sign the petition?

Just finished signing the petition. I read Lippi’s comments about Zidane and how he thought he shouldn’t have been awarded the Golden Ball, something some of you had been saying all along. How can you argue with Marcello, ansewer you cant.

So now I am on board with the rest of the world. Again sorry about some of my hatefull previous posts.

forza azzurri

great video capturing the best of the world cup….good soundtrack to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw3j08aEPSs

Beautiful video claude. I challange anyone to watch it and not shed a tear.

Thanks

kasets, you’re a little obsessed with me aren’t you?

Thanks leonardo, it was one of the better ones I found.

Massimo u r jus plain RACIST!!!

would u headbutt sum1 if he cussed ur country, called u an illegal immigrant (ALGERIAN), ur dad a harki,sed rude words about ur family especially your mum, (who is really ill)and kept repeating them the whole time throughout the match??????!!!!! WOULDNT U GET PISSED OFF AND VEXED?

I would have done more than that. i would have ripped him to peices but then again he waz watched by milliions of people which include children watching thier fav players playing for their country.

p.s. Not all italians are racist and stupid in the head
just SUM! *cough *cough (MASSIMO)

FAIR PLAY IS A ABOUT PLAYING THE BEAUTIFUL GAME.
NOT RACISM

Massimo u r jus plain RACIST!!!

IM FRENCH WITH THE SAME BACKGROUND AS ZINEDINE YAZID ZIDANE. I AM ALGERIAN AND IM RELATED 2 HIM.I AM ALSO PROUD 2 BE ONE.AND PROUD 2 BE ARAB!

IF I WERE U, U SHOULD HANG UR HEAD IN SHAME. I WOULDNT BE PROUD OF A COUNTRY WHICH WAS CORRUPT,RACIST AND FACIST.

MATARAZZI GOT WHAT HE DESERVED(HE SHOULD OF GOT MORE THEN THAT…)

THE WORLD CUP IS ABOUT FAIR PLAY AND BRINGING FOOTBALL PLAYERS REPERSENTING THEIR TEAMS COLOURS TOGETHER.
NOT CUSSING MOTHERS,BEING RACIST AND SAYING RUDE WORDS ABOUT ZIZOUS FAMILY…

SO IF I WERE U MASSIMO, KEEP UR TRAP SHUT!

BY THE WAY, NOT ALL ITALIANS ARE RACIST AND DUMBHEADED JUST SUM!!!

VIVE LA FRANCE…VIVE LE ARAB…

zidaneisking
My fault …didn’t notice the different flags….didn’t sound like something you would post, but I just gave you the benefit of the doubt.

Shame ….but you show the same class as your hero….when you make false statements and hateful statements you really should say sorry….but it’s your name and rep.

Now Serena….dont let the facts get in the way of your posts. Go to the Fifa site both Materazzi and Zidane said no racists comments were made. Also no comments about mamma made. Just note that Mat gave this info immediatelt while the great ZZ let people believe that Mat said such ugly things for about three weeks.

Stop the Violence ….Return the Golden Ball.

leonardo, i accepted your challenge and watched the video posted by claude.

i cried like a baby after watching it. post more claude

Beautiful tribute video claude. Allez Allez Allez Allez

zidane is the best zidane is the best FRANCE FRANCE
we thought france was going to win the worldcup but they didn’t
my brother likes zidane we all like zidane
zidane please don’t retire
posted from Canada

when the announcer said and there zidane walks right by the worldcup i had a tear run my eye.
TO THE FRANCE PLAYERS I LOVE GUYS AND YOU WILL ALWAYS BE MY HEROS
CANADA

Why wasn’t Zidane arrested when he walked off the pitch for assault?

I am studying law enforcement and will be a police officer shortly. If this took place in Canada and I witnessed it or saw the video replay, I would have busted ZZ ass right away. It would be my duty as an officer.

Does anyone know if charges were laid against Zidane?

isabel, charges could have been filed by German police against ZZ after the incident. Everyone was just probably to shocked by what happened.

Wouldn’t that have been a crazy ending to his career….shames himself in front of billions of people and then gets arrested. Then gets bailed out by Materazzi. What a story!

Does anyone have information about Zidane entering a psychiatric hospital recently? Apparently he is having a nervous breakdown due to the events that happened and the uproar over him receiving the Golden Ball.

thanks

claude, the hospital that ZZ entered is called Sainte-Anne Hospital in Paris.

I haven’t read much else it is being kept pretty quite. Admiting he has a problem is the first step though.

You would be a little nuts to if people wwere going to remember for a headbutt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iND2A9tUZbo

Thanks leonardo for that video post, great angle of the incident.

Poor ZZ….first the hair loss then his reputation. Hope he gets better.

BY THE WAY, NOT ALL ITALIANS ARE RACIST AND DUMBHEADED JUST SUM!!!

Unfortunately the same cannot be said of the french or french football supporters.

popeye, that was a pretty hurtful thing to say about french and french supporters.

However, that being said it is time to bring these ugly things out into the light and discuss why they are like that. Being politically correct about the issue does a diservice to society.

Racism and France
This week the French president warned his country against the dangers of racism and anti-Semitism, hatreds which have a long, disturbing but still fascinating history in France.

Zidane is partially to blame for his continued culture of racism in france.

On behalf of the French and French football fans I would like to congratulate Italy on a well deserved 4th Championship.

I would also like to say sorry for ignorant posts by people like…..well you know who they are.

again congrats

@france rules
Thats very big of you to say but it’s not enough. Admit Italy’s soccer and cultural superiority as well.

Allez

[isabel | August 20th, 2006 at 4:07 pm

Why wasn’t Zidane arrested when he walked off the pitch for assault?

I am studying law enforcement and will be a police officer shortly. If this took place in Canada and I witnessed it or saw the video replay, I would have busted ZZ ass right away. It would be my duty as an officer.

Does anyone know if charges were laid against Zidane?]

Good to see that police all over the world are keen to waste taxpayers money! It was only a headbutt which was the most exciting part of the final. For me Italy v. Germany was the better game.

Just a headbutt? Try assualt.

Best part of the game was Grosso pumping the final PK.

Second best part was Zidanes walk of shame off the field (where I would have been waiting to cuff him and bust his ass if I was there.)

awesome video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw3j08aEPSs

Whats with all the anti France and Zidane posts? I’m surprised to see it on a French blog.

I agree with most of the comments, just surprised thats all.

Return the GB Zizou, you are embarassing us.

Would the real world champions please stand up.

3-1 France in a game where Italy looked as much a world champion outfit as San Marino do a football team.

Wow.

Both teams played awesome September 6, but let’s face it: the better team finally won.

Bravo les Bleus.

hi
i cannot belive zidane retired
they need you we need you

Array

what?

I am extremely proud of the French team and their accomplishments this past World Cup.

I am equally ashamed of how Zizou lost his cool during the final possibly costing France the WC. I am also embarassed by the so called France fans who offer endless excuses for ZZ actions.

Allez the true France Fans.

Zidane is world class player and everyone knows. That is why he got the golden ball. Despite the actions he was THE PLAYER of WC. He has done alot for soccer and France and that why he got off and will be
remembered as one of the best.
We will miss zidane! And will not forget!
http://www.respectzidane.com

I applaud the true French fans not the fair-weathered ones.

Zidane is a great player he is a leyend in france and in Mexico
an in all the world he had a great career and he won the world cup whith his team in 1998
with two goals in the final against Brazil one goal he did it with his head and with the same head that he made his team won the world cup of 1998 he end with his career with the dream of win the world cup by second time only becouse MATERAZZI told him that his sister was a bitch i know that that was a great insult but what those are only words for only that he end his career he had no control of his anger so finally he gave MATERAZZI a really strong punch with his head to MTERAZZI and thats how he end his great career full of success everyone thought it would end with the cup in his hands.

Zidane is a great player he is a leyend in france and in Mexico
an in all the world he had a great career and he won the world cup whith his team in 1998
with two goals in the final against Brazil one goal he did it with his head and with the same head that he made his team won the world cup of 1998 he end with his career with the dream of win the world cup by second time only becouse MATERAZZI told him that his sister was a bitch i know that that was a great insult but what those are only words for only that he end his career he had no control of his anger so finally he gave MATERAZZI a really strong punch with his head to MTERAZZI and thats how he end his great career full of success everyone thought it would end with the cup in his hands. I AM FROM¡MEXICO!

zizou Italy cats the world cup but not with good football france is best from italy zidane the best

ZZ nominated for player of the year? Is this a sick joke? Im not laughing!!!

HAH HAH!!! Deal with it, biatch, deal with it!!!

you shouldn’t speak that way to the ladies lazaro, be a gentlemen.

You are a class act aren’t you Loser-O.

fuck italy..fuck ltalians

fuck malaysia……fuck malaysians……hahaha