Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Zidane Zidane everywhere!

Random conversations overheard the day after the Football World Cup:

Couple of 2-year olds at a playhouse: Give me my pencil back, or else I'll headbutt you!
One motorist to another at a traffic intersection: Get out of my way. You want me to headbutt my car into yours?
Girlfriend to Boyfriend: Don't bother staying over. You're going to get neither 'head' nor 'butt' today!

Okay, maybe not all this is first-hand information. But come one, Zidane's now infamous headbutt is all anyone can talk about after the finals. Agreed, Italy did not deserve to win the finals after the way they played, just relying on their solid defence, and hardly having possession of the ball throughout. But that still does not take away from the fact that they out-slugged France fo the title. But does anybody want to talk about them? No. All we hear is how Zidane went out in disgrace and why would such a great player stoop so low and what a shame this is. And all the while, we're all smacking our lips in glee because it gives us a chance to trash a modern day great.

But think about this. What would we commoners do if we get into a fight or want to hurt someone? Use our hands, nails, legs, teeth... But what does Zidane do? He goes and headbutts the person. Well, I saw the incident. And man, what a headbutt it was! Perfectly timed and placed. Poor Materazzi did not have a chance. Why can't people just stop to admire a perfectly well-executed move instead of defiling him for it.

The other source of complaint is that Zidane wasted an opportunity to go out in a blaze of glory. I don't think so. 20 years from now, no one's even going to remember who won this World Cup. But I'm sure everyone will remember the headbutt and the man behind it. Zidane's legacy will live on as the owner of a strong head and an unsound temperament. This was the perfect way to end his career - a good conversation (some say argument!), a solid well-executed headbutt when officials are not looking, a good amount of confusion, a well-deserved redcard and then you walk out to the sound of boos and trumpets. Can retirement get better than this?

Now speculation is rife about what could Materazzi have said to provoke Zidane to go to such extreme? Did he call him a monkey? A racist? A terrorist? Lean in and let me tell you a secret "IT DOES NOT MATTER?". Whatever Materazzi could have said could not be any worse than the abuse that is routinely shelled out in European leagues. And it does not matter once bit, and does not excuse Zidane for such foul behavior.

So let's just accept this for what it is - an unsporting behavior that got the red card it deserved. And let's talk about Italy and how their fairy tale win regalvanized a nation after the corruption scandal had pervaded everything back home and noone gave them a chance.

1 Comments:

Blogger funkaboy said...

Medium-sized blog entry before 2pm
based on some vetti conversation
during lunch. Amazing speed dude.

7/11/06, 2:16 PM  

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