Monday, July 10, 2006

Au Revoir Zi Zou...

What a sad way to end one's glorious career!!! Head-butt someone and pick up a card and in the process walk away from glory, a certain glory which he could have easily acheived like he acheived so many championships with great ease. He lifted the spirits of the whole team and the nation and made them beleive in their team and their abilities only to throw it all away in a moment of madness. Why did he do it?? Why .. why.. why??? Couldnt he have just shut his ears off to that Frikkin Italian guy's chattering..?? I take back my comparison of Zidane to God, which I had mentioned in my previous post, as he proved that he is nothing but a mortal...
I feel so sad for him and yet can't accept that he actually head butted someone in the finals of the world cup. His Momentary madness cost him and his team so badly. I am sure the Italian guy provoked him to such an extent that he just lost his cool. The ref. wasnt any better in the game. So many times he turned a blind eye to what was happening on the pitch, when all of the italian defense was all over zidane and roughing him up. But Italians did what they always do the best. Just sit back and defend and wait for the other team to make a mistake and make the best of the situation. They did win it fair and square alright. Congrats to them and for many of their players, this is their trump card for their Pardon for all the cheating and match-fixing they did in their league.
Materazzi will always be remembred as the bad guy who effectively sent off Zidane from the game.. and Zidane will always be remembered for the great player he is, yet walking away from the glory and away from the World cup as one of the TV replay showed him walking with his head down and looking away from the trophy and disappearing into the tunnel. That was a poignant and symbolic moment of this worldcup which will haunt him to his death. What a player and what an end!.. Certainly, not the end he wished for and neither did his fans.. Just one of the bad incidents on the field.. Mr. Cool losing his cool in the Most important game of his career.. Shit Happens...
I was watching in a pub which was packed with both side fans who were waving their flags proudly and singing their Anthems. French fans were going crazy until this incident happened and then there was just absolute silence. Nobody knew how to react and what to do. Sorry guys.. You were robbed off your victory by the indecent action of a certain Italian guy and Most stupid reaction from your captain.
I still can't digest what happened and maybe tommorrow, I will wake up and move on.. But what will I do tommorrow? Everyday, for the last one month, I always had a game to look forward to and now it seems like I have fallen into an Hopeless Abyss.. Both teams I supported so vociferously just lost out. One team didnt play to their potential and lost and other one surprised everyone by reaching the finals and lost out because of a single moment of madness from their Captain, Marshall and Leader. I will just have to forget about this and wait for 2010.

P.S1: I took this pic from this website.. To read their full-story on this please click here

P.S2: If you are still speculating why zidane may have done what he did.. read this..More speculations..
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,28783-2263995,00.html

6 comments:

v_madhu said...

What do you mean "Materazzi will always be remembred as the bad guy"? He was if any, the victim of a vicious attack by Zidane!

Sriram said...

@Madhu: Maybe you didnt watch the whole replay. Materazzi provoked Zidane and must have said something real bad, which we may not know at all. Considering that Zidane has an algerian descent and not a Caucasian like materazzi, it wouldnt be hard to guess what could have happened out there. It takes a lot to get a guy like Zidane to act like that. I am not saying what Zidane did was right. Its the most stupid thing one can do, that too on finals.. But Materazzi is no Sweet italian boy either.. He is just a streetsmart footballer, who knows how to win. either by scoring or by taunting and getting the opponent to do something stupid like that. You may have a diff opinion. In my eyes, Materazzi started the ugly incident and then fell down as if the whole world had collapsed on him until red card was issued and then got up as if nothing happened and jogged onto the field. But blaming him doesnt justify the head-butting act.

Sriram said...

I agree that I am being very prejudiced against Materazzi and for Zidane.. Read this article. By far the funniest article I ve read about Zidane's act of stupidity..

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,202863,00.html

Agreed that it was indeed a stupid act and agreed that the authors got a point, but do we need "experts" like these to point it out to the football fans??.. I wish Jon Stewart visits his show on Foxnews for his unpardonable act to write only bad things about Zidane and unleash Hell and remind him of what happened to CNN Crossfire. But on a serious note, this author should read this..
"Whereof One cannot understand football (or soccer for this stereotyped american writer), thereof one must not speak and whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent" - Slisha extended Wittgenstein's Whereof statement.

v_madhu said...

I agree that Materazzi is not a polite dude, but ultimately, he was not the one who resorted to physical violence, it was Zidane. Also, Zidane apparently does have a history of violent outbursts... So, I disagree that he is a calm guy who takes a lot to be provoked the way he was.

Anonymous said...

Trash talking is part of every sport. I don't care how extreme what Matrazzi said was. As a national icon, who people pay tons of money to watch and as a player, who gets paid shit load of money to perform out there, it was totally uncalled for by Zidane. If every trash talk resulted in head-butting then there would be no sports! That being said, this does not take anything away from Zidane. I am sure the true soccer fan will appreciate him for what he did all these years as opposed to this one incident.

Kabs-Good to hear you had tons of fun watching the WC in Europe!

Sriram said...

Well.. I agree with you guys.. All said and done, Zidane did do a stupid thing which cost them the World Cup and ended up as a big black mark and unforgettable incident in his otherwise wonderful career. He does have a history of being sent off on a couple of occasions. So probably that could have been the motivation for Materazzi to upset him and just waiting for Zidane to loose his cool. Lots of trash talking occurs in several sports and in some like Basketball or American Football, the ref(s) usually are closer to where the action occurs and they can pick it up and punish both parties. Unfortunately Football is way too much against change and even use of Technology. Something has to be done to improve that and punish all the guilty parties and not just one. But Materazzi's response has been rather quite comic. He claims he doesnt know the meaning of the word terrorist and he claims Zidane is his idol and highly respected. So is this the way to respect him by repeatedly making personal insults? But one thing is sure, Zidane's legacy will still continue and he will still be remembered as one of the greatest players in Football.