Zidane - WTF?!?!?! [Archive]

Hildegard

07-09-2006, 06:35 PM

My guess is, Zidane was hurt, in pain, unable to play up to speed, pissed off about the two sure plays they missed, when that smart ass pimp Materazzi goaded him and provoked the instantaneous head butt. It was probably more along the lines of, "Sucks to be old, huh? Can't take your hits like you used to?"

I dunno. I was pulling for France, but Italy won it fair.

It might have made a difference if he'd stayed cool, since Zidane's the penalty kick master, they could have used him in the shootout, and then it might have been a tie with sudden death that could have turned the game around to France, giving them their most shining victory ever and one of the great all time moments in WC history. We'll never know.

# 9

07-09-2006, 06:42 PM

Cheapest. Shot. Ever. What a dick.

Quince

07-09-2006, 06:43 PM

gypsy

07-09-2006, 06:48 PM

that's all true. but dag, he couldn't keep it in for another 10 minutes? after the game was over he could've kicked the dude's ass all he wanted.

Quince

07-09-2006, 06:55 PM

that's all true. but dag, he couldn't keep it in for another 10 minutes? after the game was over he could've kicked the dude's ass all he wanted.

This is not a case of his having merely lost his shit again. I believe he heard the cacophony of voices, and responded with conduct becoming a tragic hero.

Et encore plus, I predict a riot.

dilettantedude

07-09-2006, 07:18 PM

This jerk was captain of his country's WC team in the final match. He represented France. He is (was, anyway, until this) arguably one of the greatest football players of the last couple decades. Finally, this was his last game before he retired. This act by the captain of a major team in a major world sport is almost unprecedented. He embarrassed France and made his team look bad.

I would have thought nothing would have made a sane person commit such an atrocity, I don't care if the Italian player was calling his mother and the baby Jesus names. He's done this kind of thing before, although not as egregious. I think he outed himself as a psychopath who's mostly good at covering it up. The sport is far better off without him. He should have stayed retired.

Smootz

07-09-2006, 07:21 PM

Did you not zee it? Materazzi's teetee tweezter could not go unpunished by Zinedine Zidane.

dilettantedude

07-09-2006, 07:26 PM

Materazzi's teetee tweezter could not go unpunished by Zidane.

So the moron flushed France and all his teammates down the toilet in the championship game of the WC? I'm betting Materazzi knew he was unstable and not too bright, but just didn't figure on such a vicious response.

Smootz

07-09-2006, 07:31 PM

I just found a YouTube that show zee titty twister (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1i_l0OeeMc). Kind of.

Quince

07-09-2006, 07:33 PM

The World Cup is not a level playing field, gang.

Smootz

07-09-2006, 07:36 PM

Mais Pourquoi (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1i_l0OeeMc)?

Hildegard

07-09-2006, 07:40 PM

I think he outed himself as a psychopath who's mostly good at covering it up. The sport is far better off without him. He should have stayed retired.

Oh, hellfire, dude.

mte

07-09-2006, 07:43 PM

Viscious? It was dumb.

Quince

07-09-2006, 07:48 PM

Mais Pourquoi (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1i_l0OeeMc)?

The question on my mind right now is, what will happen if France, the nation, tries to shake herself free of all this.

gypsy

07-09-2006, 08:18 PM

i don't know about france, but if he really comes to new york (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/sports/soccer/09redbulls.html?_r=1&oref=login), i think he'll be ok.

dilettantedude

07-09-2006, 09:21 PM

I just found a YouTube that show zee titty twister (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1i_l0OeeMc). Kind of.

That's bizzare. It looked like they were friendly before the head butt. Like the announcer said...

Hopefully, some more will come out in tomorrow's European papers. Regardless of the reason, dumb it certainly was.

Hildegard

07-09-2006, 11:34 PM

Raymond Domenech, the French coach, remains cool:

Asked whether the French national team would miss the player (Zidane) who led them to a World Cup title on home soil back in 1998, Domenech didn't hesitate.

"Yes," he replied, "but we missed him the last 20 minutes. That weighed heavily in the balance."

Domenech went further than that, suggesting that Materazzi, not Italian playmaker Andrea Pirlo, deserved to be named man of the match.

And yet, the plot thickens. From the latest Wikipedia update:

His team members later reported to French media that Zidane was reacting to a racial slur from Materazzi.

bird jam

07-10-2006, 09:03 AM

Strange that he would... surrender like that?

artemis

07-10-2006, 10:13 AM

latest development:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,28749-2263708,00.html

Mickey

07-10-2006, 10:25 AM

Le Figaro is adamantly denying reports that his eight year old frozen urine samples show signs of human growth hormone.

Ellipsis

07-10-2006, 10:41 AM

But leaving sportsmanship aside, that was an awesome head butt! Knocked the guy flat on his back. My god, they're so used to not using their hands that they don't even throw punches.

artemis

07-10-2006, 10:59 AM

as head butts go, it was quite breathtaking.

Raincrow

07-10-2006, 04:21 PM

It's tragic on the microcosmic and macrocosmic levels that this anomaly (and I am known to enjoy the class soccer hooligan headbutt--in, say, a Guy Ritchie English gangster movie where it belongs) is the salient image of WC '06. Peace upon Z2, and Materazzi, and all of us, in the caesura of the storms. Honi soit qui mal y pense, et tout ca.

jack frost

07-10-2006, 08:12 PM

Is this going to be like that Radiohead video for "Just", where we're never going to find out what the guy says that is so horrible it mandated a headbutt of epic proportions?

Still, awesome headbutt.

Raincrow

07-10-2006, 08:56 PM

If we must debate the niceties of the football hooligan headbutt: it should be as like a short, sharp conversation between two dearest of friends: tete a tete. That is to say, forehead to forehead. Or most catastrophically to the other guy, forehead to tip of nose. Zidou was being merciful when he simply knocked the wind out of his Azzurri tormentor.

gypsy

07-10-2006, 10:29 PM

http://www.outputnet.com.au/~peter/zidane29b.gif

gypsy

07-10-2006, 10:33 PM

a guy on the radio today was saying that headbutts are a more standard piece of the streetfighting repertoire in countries that play a lot of soccer, because people are already accustomed to using their head as an offensive weapon.

(the small number of fights i observed up close in the u.k. would seem to bear this out. the headbutt-to-the-nose seemed like a common opening move -- intended to break the nose and stun the opponent long enough for the headbutter to follow through with his fists.)

bookeddy

07-10-2006, 11:02 PM

http://football.guardian.co.uk/worldcup2006/story/0,,1817551,00.html

Quince

07-10-2006, 11:55 PM

http://football.guardian.co.uk/worldcup2006/story/0,,1817551,00.html

According to the London Times' lip reader, it was "son of a terrorist whore."

gypsy

07-11-2006, 12:09 AM

i still don't see how it matters what he said. of course it was offensive. he was trying to provoke zidane, and he succeeded. all the extenuating circumstances, all the racial and nationalist psychodramas, all the symbolism everybody's loading onto this thing don't change that zidane let the guy get to him. he fucked up. it's not like it's hard to understand. what's remarkable about sports -- especially sports where there's a lot of constant contact, like soccer and basketball and hockey -- is that there aren't more fights than there are. the natural inclination when someone's all over you and constantly talking shit to you is to pop 'em in the jaw. professional athletes get paid for a lot of things, but one thing they get paid for is resisting that urge. failing to resist it is every bit as much of a fuck-up as missing an open kick or a last-minute free throw -- worse, since it universally, no matter what the sport, will get your ass thrown out of the game.

so does it make him a little less of a great player? i'd say yeah. not because it was "thuggish" or "horrifying" or whatever other dumb things people are calling it. just because it was a failure to do what he was there to do. he had a job and didn't get it done as well as he was supposed to. i don't think this is much more complicated than that.

Quince

07-11-2006, 01:14 AM

i don't think this is much more complicated than that.

No, the soccer isn't. Zizou fucked up his job as a player, and--I more than agree--not that astonishingly.

But when that head-butt happened, I just couldn't stand the racket of the World Cup as Epcot anymore.

jack frost

07-11-2006, 01:17 AM

I've always been an advocate of bringing back gladiator fighting. There are people who would willingly do it, and there are people who would watch it, so hell, why not? Let's have some real catharsis going on.

Quince

07-11-2006, 01:34 AM

Let's have some real catharsis going on.

JF, I think some real catharsis *is* being gigged by what's happened in this little show, in some neighborhoods in Lyon, for example, where Jackass doesn't air.

Raincrow

07-11-2006, 01:42 AM

so does it make him a little less of a great player? i'd say yeah. not because it was "thuggish" or "horrifying" or whatever other dumb things people are calling it. just because it was a failure to do what he was there to do. he had a job and didn't get it done as well as he was supposed to. i don't think this is much more complicated than that.

To me, the Cup's worst moment of mindless thuggery was when Wayne Rooney stomped that Portuguese guy in the nuts. While he was down. And Rooney is a player respected for his skill as a forward, not as a goon. But the frustration of being neutralized just got to him and as a little parting gesture after a collision on the field, he decided, 'well, take THAT, you cunt.' Out came the red card and England was left without its best goleador when that game went to PKs.

By the way, for an educated local perspective on Zidane Before-the-Fall, check out Hector Qirko's blogging at Metro Pulse online.

gypsy

07-11-2006, 01:53 AM

But when that head-butt happened, I just couldn't stand the racket of the World Cup as Epcot anymore.

yeah, well, right. the world cup isn't epcot. it's symbolic enactment of world war. if people acknowledged that a little more, we'd be better off. that's why i can't get too worked up about any of the hooliganism or thuggery or anything else. from the europeans especially. if the worst those fuckers are doing to each other is getting in bar fights every 4 years, we have to count that as a serious major evolutionary step.

Quince

07-11-2006, 01:58 AM

from the europeans especially. if the worst those fuckers are doing to each other is getting in bar fights every 4 years, we have to count that as a serious major evolutionary step.

Gypsy, are you baiting? Are you genuinely suggesting any European duke-out is confined to Europe?

<<Gobble.>>

gypsy

07-11-2006, 02:00 AM

nah. just that europe is trafficking in mass slaughter at a significantly reduced rate these days, and that has to count as a good thing.

Quince

07-11-2006, 02:06 AM

nah. just that europe is trafficking in mass slaughter at a significantly reduced rate these days, and that has to count as a good thing.

Parsing fucking "Europe" is the bain of my parenthood.

gypsy

07-11-2006, 03:36 AM

Parsing fucking "Europe" is the bain of my parenthood.

ah oui? how so?

(i have a recipe for parsed europe around here somewhere. more of a winter dish.)

Hi Top

07-11-2006, 07:48 AM

Anybody know what the hell the Italian said to Zidane?

Was it, "Italians are better lovers AND cooks?"
I don't know but I think it was the first time the Frenc did something other than surrender.

metulj

07-11-2006, 07:58 AM

nah. just that europe is trafficking in mass slaughter at a significantly reduced rate these days, and that has to count as a good thing.

My day job is trying to get my mind around the EU. A colleague summed up the EU to me during my last trip to Slovenia (a trip meant to get my mind around the EU): "Basically, it generates white papers and keeps people from killing each other."

When Croatia joins, in the relative near future, the shoe will have dropped. The last bloodletting will be the last. Nationalist ambitions (a thick root of most 20th Century problems) are really dissipated under the EU. Still, it is a basketcase of a bureaucracy dominated by France, Germany, and, to a lesser extent, Britain.

Hildegard

07-11-2006, 04:51 PM

Awright. The second "France surrendering" joke is two over quota for tired old attempts at humor. It's akin to trying to work a Tennessee incest joke into a thread about local bands playing at Bonnaroo, only less witty and less relevant. France and Italy got to the final of one of the most grueling sports competitions on the planet (Uh, USA USA USA did not), in a sport that Raincrow has accurately described as a synthesis of war and poetry. The guy who grew up in the immigrant housing projects of Marseille and became a world class athlete (probably by being not so meek) blew his cool. It may have cost his team the title. We'll never know. He's still one of the greatest soccer players ever, even if he took that punk ass down when he should've stayed cool.

Nuff said already.

jack frost

07-11-2006, 05:41 PM

Amen and cubes, Hilde.

pixeljockey

07-11-2006, 05:42 PM

even if he took that punk ass down when he should've stayed cool.

yes... and said ass says (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/soccer/specials/world_cup/2006/07/11/bc.eu.spt.soc.wcup.materazzi.zidane.ap/index.html?cnn=yes) "I'm not cultured and I don't even know what an Islamic terrorist is."

i'm so sure.

bookeddy

07-11-2006, 11:18 PM

What would be the result of all of this if the spectacle were removed? If these two had been playing in the park? We don't really know what was said, but Meterazzi is now admitting an insult and Zidane headbutted him in the chest which is about 10% of a head butt to the face.... It's overblown, which is of course how papers are sold and hits to web-sites are generated. The French were probably not going to win on pks with or without Zissou. (It's about the keepers or at least the perceived skills of the keepers.) So the code: the corporate position is that Zidane shoudn't have done what he did.... Well, maybe Meterazzi got his bluff called. Is there bad publicity?

Maybe Zidane is having a snicker as the whole thing seems to be overshadowing the fact that Italy won the World Cup!

Also, did anyone see Stephen Colbert last night: BRILLIANT!

Hi Top

07-12-2006, 07:45 AM

Quince

07-12-2006, 08:20 AM

What would be the result of all of this if the spectacle were removed?

Erm...nothing. Since we're *discussing* a spectacle. Yes?

Quince

07-12-2006, 08:29 AM

I just don't get a sport that drips of racism, extreme nationalism, urine bombs, blood bombs, hooligans beating the crap out of each other, fake injuries and no scoring.

You forgot icky French people.

Raincrow

07-12-2006, 09:26 AM

This goes out to all the soccer fans. Both of them. I just don't get a sport that drips of racism, extreme nationalism, urine bombs, blood bombs, hooligans beating the crap out of each other, fake injuries and no scoring. Way to bring the world together soccer. I surrender.

Such keen insight! No racism, nationalism or hooliganism on this side of the pond fer shure!

Yeah, let's support sports that primarily involve watching commercials for badly made trucks and even worse beer and players who spend most of the game standing around scratching their asses. Or is it really the kick-line of fake boobs on the sidelines that sells American sports?

annieO

07-12-2006, 09:48 AM

American sports?

Uhm, kind of a large brush there.

Of course Hi Top's comments were sorta inflammatory too.

I think sports of any sort are good teaching tools and good clean fun. It is only our obsessions with something that should be just a minor diversion that causes problems.

Hi Top

07-12-2006, 10:35 AM

Such keen insight! No racism, nationalism or hooliganism on this side of the pond fer shure!

Yeah, let's support sports that primarily involve watching commercials for badly made trucks and even worse beer and players who spend most of the game standing around scratching their asses. Or is it really the kick-line of fake boobs on the sidelines that sells American sports?
I knew I could get someone to bite on that. I was "somewhat" joking and I certainly wasn't talking about racism on this side of the pond. BTW, I pee during commercials because the crappy cheap beer I drink makes me pee a lot and for the record I hate baseball, which is what I'm assuming the "scratching their asses" blast was about. There's so many better digs you can take at sports though, like football being a bunch of under-educated overpaid criminals who are in between drug busts, manslaughter charges, rape charges, assault charges, DUI's, illigitimate children and mistresses. That being said, I love football.

skirob

07-12-2006, 10:49 AM

That being said, I love football.
American football.

Pre-seasaon in just over 3 weeks

Hi Top

07-12-2006, 10:54 AM

American football.

Pre-seasaon in just over 3 weeks
There is no other. Well Canadian football will do when I'm jonesing as will the Arena League.
Soccer take- If I was good at it, it can't be a real sport. Oh and to end the game, instead of the lame ass penalty kick thing, why don't they just do "rock, paper, scissors" "One potato, two potato" or draw straws?

Ellipsis

07-12-2006, 12:00 PM

Would soccer be a better sport if they got rid of the goalie and let the games end up like 35 - 31?

(I know, I know, heresy!)

Hildegard

07-12-2006, 12:58 PM

Yeah, I don't get the attitude that it's not a real sport if you can't run the score up way high. Look, I'm not an athlete, and I cannot converse fluently about sports with anybody on this board, probably, but I have enough interest to comment on it. The fact that it's tough to score in soccer is what makes it interesting. Not to be crass, but liken it to sex - some guys (and women) think they're studs (or the female equivalent) because they've got high numbers, notwithstanding that most of their marks have been of the easy and/or skank/tool variety (I'm not dissing easy marks, skanks, tools, or their suitors - everybody's got to a right to pursue happiness.) But with others, it's a completely different story involving discretion, maneuvering, magnetism, subtlety, timing, appropriate aggression, and agility, the combination of which yields fewer points (in terms of partners) but packs a more handsome, sophisticated, and winning style. And you feel safe not wearing a helmet.

The scoreless England/Portugal game was nailbiting tension all the way through the decisive shootout. The way these guys fake each other out and communicate on the field is awesome to watch. I'm not even going into the agility. Anyway, I'm glad Americans are starting to appreciate it more and more. The arguments against the game are consistently feeble and really smack of that sort of isolationist suspiciousness of (thankfully) a lessening number of Americans to anything that hasn't caught on in popularity before they reach adulthood.

Smootz

07-12-2006, 01:09 PM

Yeah, I don't get the attitude that it's not a real sport <snip> The fact that it's tough to score in soccer is what makes it interesting. Not to be crass, but liken it to sex <snip> the combination of which yields fewer points (in terms of partners) but packs a more handsome, sophisticated, and winning style.

OUCH, unfair! That was below the belt.

Hi Top

07-12-2006, 01:12 PM

I think the reason that soccer is (maybe) catching on more in America has to do with the newer phenom of soccer moms/children. You didn't see so much of that when I was a kid. (and I did play soccer) Soccer is a fun game to play, but good lord, I just find it extremely boring to watch and believe me, I've tried to get into and have given up. I don't need to have 10-9 games to be interested, but watching for 2+ hours with nothing but passing back and forth up and down the field bores me to tears. I would actually rather watch the elitist game of golf. Yay! A bunch of rich white guys (for the most part) in funny pants hitting a small ball. Shhh! Quiet!. Another reason I think soccer is (maybe) becoming more popular is that parents push their kids into it at a young age because A) it's something to get the kids out of their hair a couple times a week B) it's a cheap sport to play that involves next to no equipment (although the vehicles most soccer moms drive around in would indicate cost of the sport does not matter) C) everybody gets to play and damn near anyone can. My dislike of soccer has nothing to do with me being an isolationist or distrustful of "them damn foreigners" I just find more excitement in watching grass grow or paint dry.

skirob

07-12-2006, 01:29 PM

Another reason I think soccer is (maybe) becoming more popular is that parents push their kids into it at a young age because
I am not pushing soccer but it looks like the first born (now that she is of age) is going to play soccer. Why? Because she said she "wants to wear tall socks". So there you go. It's gotta be the socks!

Hi Top

07-12-2006, 01:32 PM

I am not pushing soccer but it looks like the first born (now that she is of age) is going to play soccer.
My condolences. Let me know if you ever need to be comforted.

skirob

07-12-2006, 01:34 PM

My condolences. Let me know if you ever need to be comforted.
Oh I'm sure I can get you to come check out a game. We're talkign 4 year olds here. It should be one big choatic mess of run kick the ball.

shady lane

07-12-2006, 01:38 PM

what's with you anti-soccer people? haven't you seen what the sport does for legs?! how-lee sheet!

Hi Top

07-12-2006, 01:43 PM

Oh I'm sure I can get you to come check out a game. We're talkign 4 year olds here. It should be one big choatic mess of run kick the ball.
Oh I've seen it. Every player on the field crammed into a 4' area.

Bknox

07-12-2006, 01:49 PM

oops double post

Bknox

07-12-2006, 01:50 PM

Oh I've seen it. Every player on the field crammed into a 4' area.

I call that age "herd ball."

Raincrow

07-12-2006, 04:09 PM

what's with you anti-soccer people? haven't you seen what the sport does for legs?! how-lee sheet!

Hey, you've never even seen me in shorts. But I appreciate the anticipation.

jack frost

07-12-2006, 04:28 PM

I like soccer. Like Hilde said, it's so much more about true skill than almost any other popular sport.

That said, I also like rugby, which is probably the least skill-based sport (unless "beating the shit out of people" is considered a skill).

WhitesCreek

07-12-2006, 06:26 PM

I may be a soccer junkie. Blame my wife. I think it took me several years before I started seeing the game in some pattern other than a bunch of kids running around kicking a ball. As the boys got older, and the skills got better, the game got more interesting.

Now, as the father of two stud midfielders, I love watching good teams play. Bad teams, not so much.

It's like any other geometrically attacking sport. Takes a little knowlege to appreciate, so I understand some of the attitudes here. But if you guys had been with me last month, at the USA friendly in the middle of several hundred Morocans, you would have to think American's a boring lot.

We're getting there though. At the first Beardon- Farragut highschool soccer game, the Beardon pep squad threw some of those small soccer balls into the crowd after a goal. Some Farragut folks then put up a sign saying, "Beardon has little Balls". it was promptly ripped down with great fanfare.

I'm in withdrawal, with the World Cup over, and I can't seem to get into the Tour de France this year.

bookeddy

07-12-2006, 08:23 PM

Erm...nothing. Since we're *discussing* a spectacle. Yes?
That was the point I was trying to make. That, if they were playing in the park(and not the world cup) and there was an insult worthy of retaliation, then retaliation may have been the appropriate behavior. This is an age old chivalry/testosterone/honor algorithm that boys(men) have to deal with often....

before you jump my shit, of course I'm guilty of testosterone poisoned man-child behavior from time to time. I am after all a testosterone poisoned man-child....