World Cup Final
I just finished watching the final game of the 2006 World Cup, and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. None of my feelings are very good.
First of all, the result is disappointing, because while France was never my favorite team, they did knock out Brazil, and were making what was to be a fantastic story, emphasized by the story of their captain, Zinedine Zidane. (For anyone in the dark, Zidane came out of retirement to lead France to victory, stating that he would really be done after the World Cup, meaning that if he keeps his word, the 2006 World Cup Final will be his last international match.)
Moreover, Italy, while always a force in the soccer world, is not a team I can find inspirational. They're known as dirty players, divers, and masters of nasty little jabs behind the ref's back. (The elbow to Brian McKnight's face in the group games is typical of their style of play. [Update: some of Materazzi's other "work"]) Additionally, they knocked out Germany in a heartbreaking game (my desire for Germany to win coming from a mixture of my forgotten but significant German ancestry and the dream that they had a claim to the Cup simply for hosting the tournament) which made the Italians all the more villainous.
For these reasons, I chose to root for France, hoping that Zidane, Henry and Ribery could overcome Italy's historic defense to take home another World Cup. Unfortunately, these hopes were dashed as a French penalty kick sailed into the crossbar, and unlike the gutsy first goal of the match, bounced out.
But more of my unrest with today's final comes, as you may expect, with the surprising head-butt by Zidane late in the second extra period. From the replays, it appears that Zidane and Materazzi were exchanging words, after fighting hard against each other all game, and something Materazzi said (which early indications suggest may have been a racial slur against the Algerian Zidane) set Zidane off. While I can only hope, after becoming very fond of Zidane this World Cup, that Materazzi deserved what he got, I find his action very conflicting. A player of the stature which he seemed to reach during this tournament should know better, if not for doing the right thing then at least for his team and country, and ignored the meaningless verbal abuse from an inferior player. But he didn't, and now I, as I'm sure many fans are, am left with a sour taste in my mouth. I only hope that he will come forward, apologize and explain his actions, so that maybe we can all put this behind us, and focus on his truly amazing career.
