Monday, July 10, 2006

France-Italy


Note to our readers: If you're not into incoherent ranting about soccer, you might want to skip to the next item.

Bastardes!

That didn’t really end very well now, did it? Very disappointing.

The prima donnas in the New York Times and the Guardian, amongst other places, are very disappointed in Zidane, and I suppose they are right to be. He screwed up. He lost his composure. That’s all very clear. I somehow doubt, however, that this will be all that he is remembered for. (For some classic Zidane magic, check out this very cool video on You-tube.) And perhaps it’s only me, but it would be nice to know what Materazzi actually said to him. Materazzi’s a famously scummy player. (Click here for some of his greatest hits, so to speak. Warning: there’s some NSFW rap music in the background.) Zidane’s parents are Algerian and he grew up in a housing project on the outskirts of Marseille, and, despite his success and fame, I gather that he is more than a little sensitive about it. It would not be surprising if the Italians thought it was good tactics to needle him for the entire game, hoping he would snap. This would fit with the Machiavellian fashion in which the Italians approach the game, in which it doesn’t really matter how you got there so long as the result is in your favor. Amongst other things, this helps explain the Italian penchant for Oscar caliber acting—simulation, as Fifa calls it, or cheating, as I—and Franz Beckenbauer—would prefer to call it. (Click here for the famous “Italian Training Video”—it’s fake, of course, but it’s funny because it expresses something that everyone knows is essentially true.) Speaking of which, was it just me, or did Materazzi look like he’s been shot with a high-powered rifle? More acting?

At the end of the day, what is most disappointing for me is that Italy seems to have won one more game that they did not deserve to win—in which they were outplayed and basically got lucky. (See Italy v. Australia and Italy v. U.S. if you’re not sure what I am talking about.) If Italy was the better team last night, perhaps this would be easier to accept. But France dominated, particularly in the second half, and Italy, unable to generate any offense, seemed to be running out the clock, playing for penalty kicks, which, Lippi acknowledged, are like buying a lottery ticket. This was a deeply unsatisfying way to end what had been, in most respects, a very exciting tournament.

Speaking of PKs, in today’s Times, George Vecsey lectures people who don’t like PKs to get over themselves: “There was no way anything epic was going to happen at this late hour, which is why soccer has this artificial and imperfect but necessary way to end matches when a winner must be produced. You cannot make championship athletes run around a field all night…. Shootouts are a part of the game; deal with it.” It’s hard for me to think of something polite to say about that, though one wonders what he’d have to say about the epic Sox v. Sox game from Sunday night that went over six hours/19 innings. How about a home run derby after 12 innings? Wouldn’t want them to get tired or anything. Idiot!

End of rant. I just needed to get that out of my system.

Congratulations to Carson and Susan for giving good interview on CBS 4. We watched the game at Brasserie Joe in Boston with a lot of disappointed Frenchies. One of the local news stations dropped by and interviewed some of us. When the report ran, the Italian fans going nuts in the North End naturally got most of the attention, but there was a nice little piece about those of us rooting for France. You could see my red shirt in the background of a couple of shots.

No more soccer blogging for a while. I promise.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

UPDATE: The soccer gods are very cruel. Zidane wins the Golden Ball as best player of the tournament. Apparently, the voting was done at half-time, before the head-butt heard 'round the world.

ANOTHER UPDATE: David Hirshey discusses all of this with considerable more humor than I have been able to conjure up over at Deadpsin.

It apears that Materazzi said something extraordinarily impolite about Zidane's father. Here's Richard Brown on Goal Post: "Rumor has it that Materazzi called Zidane's father a 'harki' - the Arabic term for Algerians who fought for France against Algeria during the occupation. It's beyond all insults, the ultimate traitor. If this is true it means that they did their research - Le Pen suggested the same thing 9 years ago and in the next game Zidane stomped on a Saudi player who repeated it."

Also, more thuggish behavior from Materazzi here.

ANOTHER STUPID UPDATE: Zidane seems to have been in a good mood at a meeting this morning with Chirac, who spoke to him: "Dear Zinedine, in such a hard and intense moment for you, I would like to express the whole nation's affection and admiration for you. You are a virtuoso, a genius of football and an exceptional human being. That is why France admires you." Nicely done Jacques. Good BBC story here, with a nice pic of Chirac and Zidane smiling.

Posted by jwb at 8:01 AM   

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said:

JB -

Good post on the game. Personally, I was at the Sox/Sox epic (the ChiSox refused to be swept going into the all-star break) and believe that there is another solution to PK's. Finally, although trash talking has its limits, it's also part of all sports: and deep down we all enjoy it (or have participated in it). Look forward to seeing you and Jenn next week.

Nick
at 6:54 PM     

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