Italy or France

[insane_alien]

looks like it was italy VIVA ITALIA

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Closed the poll, because you shouldn't vote if it's already over

[5614]

Yep TimbaLanD. I wanna know what was said to Zidane that made him do that.

 

Congrats to:

Italy and:

5614, blike, Cloud, Dak, ecoli, Forensicmad, herpguy, insane_alien, Pangloss, pHoToN_gUrL, Schrodngr's_cat, scicop, Severian, The Thing, The_simpsons, YT2095

 

Unlucky:

France and:

Aardvark, Atheist, Djuan, GutZ, olifhar, ONH, reor, srh, swansont, TimbaLanD, why?

[Forensicmad]

Woohoo! Go pizzaland! I knew i could count on you.

Well played all

[5614]

Pastaland!

[Forensicmad]

Fine, they're both great! Go pizza/pasta land! Woooo

[swansont]

PLUS, why take Henry out?????

 

He was all done in. I think he was cramping up after the first overtime.

[olifhar]

I'm happy that Italy won, they really worked hard. Good game good football/soccer. Well except for a certain...

 

 

Yeah, way to go into the retirement, trying to show the world that France is gangsta. Or something. I guess he's retiring from having sponsors too.

[why?]

That was bull. I mean france should have won. Plus they deserved that penalty kick. The second one.

[olifhar]

That was bull. I mean france should have won. Plus they deserved that penalty kick. The second one.

 

I liked France too. But please tell me why they deserved a penalty kick that didn't go over the line.

[Pangloss]

What the heck was Zidane thinking? Wow. I don't care what the other guy said or didn't say, that was just a loser thing to do.

 

Did anyone catch the U2 "One" video montage after the game? Way cool.

[TimbaLanD]

I'm happy that Italy won' date=' they really worked hard. Good game good football/soccer. Well except for a certain...

 

 

Yeah, way to go into the retirement, trying to show the world that France is gangsta. Or something. I guess he's retiring from having sponsors too.

 

Ouch!!

[timo]

What the heck was Zidane thinking? Wow. I don't care what the other guy said or didn't say, that was just a loser thing to do.

Actually, I wondered about the agressive behavior of many of the players in the tournament. There were a lot of occasions were some rumble broke out (notably the games Portugal<->Holland and Germany<->Argentinia) which made me wonder a bit. Those guys are professionals, some of them earning millions a year (ok, perhaps not the ones involved - but they still are professionals making a good living from their job). I really wonder how those people can act so unprofessional starting fights - they harm their whole team by getting a red/yellow card.

[Severian]

I think Italy deserved to win. Everyone keeps saying how France was better on the night, but I disagree. They are only saying that because they were being more attacking, but there is more to football than just attacking.

 

The Italians had an awesome defense - they only let in two goals in the entire tournament, and both were dodgy (one last night's penalty). France may have looked good, but they couldn't finish anything.

[aj47]

I thought it was funny how Zidane actually argued with the referee after giving him a red card. I mean how the hell can you not think you deserve a red card after that.

[budullewraagh]

It was indeed a bad way for Zidane to go out especially after that perfect header that nearly won his team the cup.

 

On the other hand, good for him, not taking anything from the Materazzi. France wasn't losing, so he obviously wasn't just being a bad sport. It was a bit of an extreme reaction, no doubt, but not necessarily red-cardable considering how Mataerazzi was practically molesting him before. And who knows what was being said? Zidane also waited until the ref wasn't watching, so he technically shouldn't have gotten the card, though FIFA disagrees.

 

My initial reaction was one of shock and awe: shock that he actually headbutted the guy and awe that he was able to totally level the guy with a headbutt square in the sternum. Mighty strong neck muscles required to do that.

[aj47]

The fact that he was provoked makes no difference, under any circumstance he should of got a red card and it would have been ridiculous if he hadn't. But saying that I guess he does deserve some respect for making the match that little bit more entertaining.

[olifhar]

I think Italy deserved to win. Everyone keeps saying how France was better on the night' date=' but I disagree. They are only saying that because they were being more attacking, but there is more to football than just attacking.

 

The Italians had an awesome defense - they only let in two goals in the entire tournament, and both were dodgy (one last night's penalty). France may have looked good, but they couldn't finish anything.[/quote']

 

Yes, the Italians played very good defense, though I didn't appreciate at first. This is in spite of the fact that I played D back when I was in high school (it was only rec/intermurals, but I can still appreciate the role of defenders more than a lot of people).

 

The French offensive play was astounding; there were so many times where if the defense had not been so thick, they really would have broken through. (Perhaps we would have been able to see more amazing saves from Buffon?? Wouldn't have minded that, but...) I think the French had a distinct possibility of scoring if Zidane or Henry had stayed on the field without incident, and without getting tired. But people getting tired is just a fact of the game, and Zidane, even if it turns out he was provoked, was not 'shafted' or anything like that-- if he hadn't wanted to leave like that, he shouldn't have headbutted the guy: hope it was worth it for him personally. Heavier defense turned out to be a very effective strategy, probably organized around or more even likely by Buffon himself.

 

Whatever, I enjoyed the game, I'm interested in seeing what was up with the headbutt, and I'm looking forward to the next one in four years. Hopefully they'll have uniformly better refereeing (talking 'bout the earlier group games) and Ghana will be able to actually make shots as good as they play and command the field otherwise.

 

Congratulations to Italy, and good luck to Zidane, who is apparently leaving football to pursue a career in full-contact fighting.

[GutZ]

The fact that he was provoked makes no difference, under any circumstance he should of got a red card and it would have been ridiculous if he hadn't. But saying that I guess he does deserve some respect for making the match that little bit more entertaining.

 

True, but where was the red card for the headbutt in the Portugal vs Netherlands game, it only got a yellow card, nevermind the flying front kick to the chest.

 

/mumbles vanity

 

He connected with him pretty good though lol. Maybe he was going down to tie his shoe, while running at the same time, but missed stepped forward, and "accidentially" hit him. Could of happened

 

Personally I think France controlled that game. It's unfortunate that they missed that one penalty kick but it was clearly not in, very close though. I hate penalty kicks though, I'd rather see it played till someone scored, but penalty kicks are quite exciting and quick. You only hate it if "your" team loses.

 

Now I have to wait another 4 years in hope that the Netherlands might win it. IT COULD HAPPEN!

[why?]

I liked France too. But please tell me why they deserved a penalty kick that didn't go over the line.

 

I was talking about the foul in the box during the game. Not the PK's

Oh and the refs probably saw it on the big cams in the stadium but they are supposed to see it in play.. so they had no place to give him a card if they didnt see it in action.

[TimbaLanD]

Italy may have won but France lost in STYLE!! That’s how I see it. I had total respect for Italy at the beginning of the world cup but it soon faded. However high it fly’s, a robin can never be a hawk! Nuf Sed! )

[aj47]

True' date=' but where was the red card for the headbutt in the Portugal vs Netherlands game, it only got a yellow card, nevermind the flying front kick to the chest.

![/quote']

 

Wasn't that the match with something like four red cards and fourteen yellows. Anyway I can't really comment as I didn't see that game but if they were both clearly on purpose then it's the referees fault and they should have been sent off. Either that or the referee just ran out of cards.

 

Anyway I was just watching the news and apparantly the reason Zidane flipped like that was amoung other comments, Matterazzi made fun of mother and muslim background by calling him 'the son of a terrorist whore' which I guess makes the headbutt justifiable. Then again i don't think it changes the fact that he should have been sent off.

[The Thing]

That hasn't been confirmed yet.

 

People have been making up all sorts of things that Materazzi "said". So many different things that there is no way that Materazzi could have said them all in that short period of time.

 

First, some people claimed that Materazzi called Zidane a "dirty terrorist". Materazzi has openly denied that.

 

Then there, of course, is the "son of terrorist" version which is derived from someone reading Materazzi's lips.

 

But the same reading of lips also produced another version: that Materazzi called Zidane's sister a prostitute twice.

 

None of these have been confirmed. And frankly, it really doesn't matter what Materazzi said. Remember Euro 2004, when Franscesco Totti spat at Christian Poulsen because he was provoked? The reaction after that was mostly anger against Totti and everybody blamed him for the incident, and he was banned for 3 matches afterwards. Now let's drag Totti and Poulsen out of the scenario, and put Zidane and Materazzi in. It's the exact same scenario, but now, for some reason, people are saying how Materazzi's a dirty player and Zidane's not too guilty. Is it just because he's "Zizou"?

[TimbaLanD]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2006/5168126.stm

 

Got a feeling there is more to come.... SHAME really....

[why?]

Yes France did lose in style. I mean Italy won the world Cup but who reached the headlines. The FRENCH captain. And god that was a strong headbutt or the other guy was really weak.