Monty Python insults, and Camoranesi's haircut!

[curiouswombat]

Well 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

Comments

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

The BBC said that he has not said anything publically about what Materazzi is meant to have said, but his agent said 'It was a serious thing.'

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!

[gamiila.livejournal.com]

You know, I don't think we'll ever really know what happened, only that Zizou lost his cool in the final 10 minutes of his career -- such a shame.

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.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't neccesarily have made him my man of the tournament, but it would have been a reasonable choice - until that point. It must be embarrassing for FIFA with all the emphasis on fair play, to have the award for top player co-inciding with what should be the recipient of the longest ban of the tournament.

Only of course banning him will be an empty gesture!

What an end to the tournament.

[evilawyer.livejournal.com]

Algerian terrorist. Whore sister. You know, none of that should matter. This wasn't some 20 year-old child basketball star who hasn't gotten over his "mean-streets" upbringing. This was a 34-year-old veteran who has, no doubt, heard it all. Including slurs about being Algerian (so you add terrorist, and that makes unprofessionalism justified) and all kinds of things about his mother and sisters. Sadly, that's how the games are played. He's played the game long enough to know that and to know how to deal with it. I agree with you...I'm no soccer groupie, but I knew he was a major player and now I'll always think of him as an overgrown child with no anger impulse control. Poor France. They could have been the champions.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I'll always think of him as an overgrown child with no anger impulse control.

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.