Anticlimax at the World Cup
In case you haven't heard, Italy has beaten France 5-3 on penalty kicks to win the World Cup, after playing to a 1-1 tie. Both goals were scored in the first twenty minutes, and the last hundred were riddled with sloppy play.
It's one thing to make your way through the tournament on shootout penalty kicks, though neither of these teams had to. But can we all agree that this is just not the right way to decide the final?
Zinedine Zidane stole the show with his overtime head butt square in the chest of Marco Materazzi, sending him to the turf on his rear. The French captain was subsequently awarded with a red card.
I can't even begin to explain this event. I suspect it is the result of much that we will never know, and so I find the many immediate reactions wanting in depth. It may have been a "vicious" play, but why a head to the chest? I await even an inkling of explanation.
Other World Cup posts:
posted by Roy @ 4:22 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
A head to the chest is not vicious. A head to the face, or an elbow to the face, or a kick to the groin, those are vicious plays. Sure, Zidane probably shouldn't have done that. Unsportsmanlike ... yes. Vicious ... no. Have you ever seen anyone head someone in the chest in a fight? If the Italian player wasn't so adept at acting, he wouldn't have even been phased by it. The thing I noticed about the announcers was that the players have them fooled ... the announcers actually think the players are injured when they are rolling around on the ground and they think they are valiant when they get up and start playing again. Crazy.
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