Italy Beats France the Cup (with Related Thoughts)

Italy has defeated France for its 4th World Cup title.

It was, on the whole, an excellent game of soccer that was marred by what I saw as very poor officiating and an inexcuseable foul by retiring French legend Zidane that may well have cost France the Cup.

The referee, Horacio Elizondo, had very little control of the game, which featured some of the most physical play outside of a game involving Portugal. It seems to me that the officiating overall was very poor in this tournament, with officials vacillating between allowing lots of contact and calling niggling fouls, often in the same game.

Perhaps the prime example of this kind of inconsistency happened early in the first half of today’s game when Elizondo called for a penalty kick that Zidane easily netted to put France ahead 1-0. That foul was no more violent than any of the other crushing tackles that has already happened to that point, yet he saw fit to call the foul in that critical place early in the game. I’m not sure whether he was trying to assert his authority or not, but it was a poor call and it could well have cost Italy the match.

Nevertheless, Italy played a masterful game, doing its best to slow the blazing speed and clog the passing lanes to prevent Zidane, Henry, and Ribery from getting open looks at goal. Still, Zidane nearly won the match in the overtime period when he, left completely unmarked, flicked a header goalward, only to be denied by a dazzing leap from the Azzuri keeper Gianluigi Buffon. It was an exciting moment in what I saw as a very exciting game.

But let’s get back to Zidane. I realize that he is one of the game’s royalty, but his ejection late in he second overtime period due to a blatant headbutt to the chest of Italian defender Marco Materazzi was simply inexcuseable. Zidane knew very well that the game would likely go to penalty kicks (besides putting his team a man down for the duration of the period) and he is probably the best at PKs on his team. he let his squad down, plain and simple, for no better reason than he could not control himself with the Cup on the line. Zidane will retire with much-deserved accolades but I believe that the soccer fans of his country ought to remember that his lack of discipline hurt the French badly.

So now the nations of the world prepare for South Africa in 2010. It’s worth noting that even though tensions are high in many places around the world, this Cup was, on the whole, quiet. The fans comported themselves well and the German hosts did an excellent job of making sure the players and fans were not only secure but free to enjoy the Beautiful Game at the greatest sports tournament on Earth.

UPDATE: Okay, I was really trying not to bag on the French for losing today. I mean, it was too easy. But Ace…man he just did it with style

In fairness, they lasted longer against the Italian soccer team than they did against Hitler.

The Wehrmacht didn’t need a shoot-out, for example. And there are, as of yet, no reports of Frenchmen delivering Jews to the Italian soccer team for “evacuation” to the east.

So: progress.

Beautiful. Simply beautiful.

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Category: Stuff I Like