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curiouswombatWell that was a very good game - which finals sometimes aren't. What on Earth was Zidane doing? Surely with all his experience he should have kept his cool no matter what - and Materazzi didn't appear facially to have been that vicious in his comment - Daughter-dear reckoned the worse possible insult must have been 'Your mother is a hamster, and your father smells of elderflowers, you cheese-eating surrender monkey.' And even that Python/Bush insult should not have been enough for a reaction like that.
(For USA friends; Zidane is the French captain, playing his last international game, and he inexplicably turned on an Italian player and head-butted him in the middle of his chest. He was sent off.)
But did anyone apart from D-d and I notice what happened to Camoranesi's hair? The commentators were too busy talking about what had happened in the match to see what was happening on camera as the celebrations started. The Italians took a chair out into the middle of the pitch within a minute of the final whistle, sat Camoranesi on it, took a pair of scissors, and cut off his top-knot, with much laughter and cheering. He was carrying the hair around with him, and eventually seemed to have put it into one of the goal-keeper's gloves. When they were all gathered around the trophy he took his cut-off hair and put it on the trophy like a little wig for a minute, before putting it back into the glove again!
We thought it was really great - he must have vowed to have it cut off if they won - and we were fascinated by where Camoranesi's hair was all through the celebrations!
(If you don't know what Camoranesi usually looks like, and you are interested - there is a picture here
(For USA friends; Zidane is the French captain, playing his last international game, and he inexplicably turned on an Italian player and head-butted him in the middle of his chest. He was sent off.)
But did anyone apart from D-d and I notice what happened to Camoranesi's hair? The commentators were too busy talking about what had happened in the match to see what was happening on camera as the celebrations started. The Italians took a chair out into the middle of the pitch within a minute of the final whistle, sat Camoranesi on it, took a pair of scissors, and cut off his top-knot, with much laughter and cheering. He was carrying the hair around with him, and eventually seemed to have put it into one of the goal-keeper's gloves. When they were all gathered around the trophy he took his cut-off hair and put it on the trophy like a little wig for a minute, before putting it back into the glove again!
We thought it was really great - he must have vowed to have it cut off if they won - and we were fascinated by where Camoranesi's hair was all through the celebrations!
(If you don't know what Camoranesi usually looks like, and you are interested - there is a picture here
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Date: 09/07/2006 11:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 10/07/2006 07:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 09/07/2006 11:59 pm (UTC)It wasn't the first time Zidane totally lost his cool, but with ten minutes playing time left of his entire career you'd think--- SIGH.
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Date: 10/07/2006 07:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 10/07/2006 01:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 10/07/2006 05:11 pm (UTC)But on occasions where players have lost their tempers because of what has been said to them on other occasions, the replay doesn't usually show them smiling at each other about 5 seconds before - and usually shows the taunter really looking as if they are snarling out an insult not just saying something in a normal tone of voice - which is why it was so weird.
It was as if he thought 'What the hell, might as well leave now as wait for another ten minutes.' Rather than 'No matter what he says to me, there is only ten minutes to go, and then I will never have to listen to any insults again.'
And of course we only have his word for it that Materazzi said something vile - and we don't know what sort of things he may have said to Materazzi all through the match.
The whole thing was just so sad - I will now remember him as 'the most vicious player I ever saw in a World Cup Final' - whereas previously I thought of him as 'the big balding French guy' - and I bet I'm not the only one.
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Date: 10/07/2006 07:04 am (UTC)I looked at the picture of Camoranesi; if he had a bet on the game it looks like it's a good thing Italy won! Seriously goofy hair. I 've known navajo guys who wear it that way, but I wouldn't expect to find them on an italian sports team!
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Date: 10/07/2006 07:57 am (UTC)I wonder what his family background is?
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Date: 10/07/2006 12:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 10/07/2006 05:14 pm (UTC)Cannavaro was excellent - and I'm not always a big fan of the azzuri - but they had some really good players in that squad.
I'm surprised the Bostonians weren't waving Italian tricolours!
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Date: 10/07/2006 03:44 pm (UTC)According to several French papers today, Materazzi had been taunting Zidane for some time during the match, finally calling him an Algerian terrorist and his sister a whore. That's when he lost it, apparently.
Such a sad end to his international career.
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Date: 10/07/2006 05:48 pm (UTC)But usually if someone is being particularly nasty they look as if they are, and Materazzi just didn't - Zidane had been smiling at him only 5 seconds before.
When it happened my daughter said 'Oh well, he can't say it was racist,' as it hadn't occured to her that he wasn't totally European, the same as Materazzi. When I pointed out that his parents were Algerian she said 'In that case he'll say it was racist, and expect that everyone willl feel sorry for him.'
If Materazzi did say that then I am surprised that Zidane reacted at all - it must be the totally stock insult other players use to him all the time - you would have expected an unimaginative remark like that to be like water off a duck's back.
And for a moment of madness he will be remembered (at least by me!)as 'that vicious French guy, rather than 'that ugly bald French guy' which was how I thought of him before!!
Although I suppose that it will now go down in history as the ZZ final - so maybe that was his attention!
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Date: 10/07/2006 06:11 pm (UTC)And I suppose FIFA had already made up their minds and printed up the banner to proclaim him Player of the Tournament, because I can't see that he deserves the title after that little shenanigan.
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Date: 10/07/2006 08:08 pm (UTC)Only of course banning him will be an empty gesture!
What an end to the tournament.
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Date: 11/07/2006 05:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 11/07/2006 07:43 am (UTC)Perfectly put.
Actually, the BBC, God bless them, brought in a multi-lingual lip-reader to try and work out what had gone on!
He couldn't tell what Zidane said, as his head was turned away from camera - but he said that the conversation went something like this -
Zidane xxx
Materazzi 'No!'
Zidane xxx
Materazzi 'You liar!'
Zidane xxx
Materazzi 'May your family die a horrible death.'
Zidane xxx
Materazzi 'Well F... You!'
Zidane BANG
I gather it was a fairly standard Italian insult - although you PM would be able to confirm this!
Ther doesn't seem to have been anything about terorism and whores at all.
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Date: 10/07/2006 11:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 11/07/2006 07:55 am (UTC)Materazzi said that of course he had insulted Zidane - he had put up with Zidane's arrogant remarks throughout the whole match. Which sounds pretty much as you would expect.