<p>sad end to a great career…with 10 mins to go in your last ever game which happens to be the world cup final, and when you are one of the world’s greatest penalty takers and penalties are looming…you decide to headbutt someone. complete madness. it’ll be one of those world cup moments remembered forever.</p>
<p>i live in an area where there are a lot of italians. they’re all out in the streets cheering and beeping their horns. i think they deserved it.</p>
<p>Zidane has, I believe, three young sons. What a sad legacy to leave to his children.</p>
<p>well I admit I was rooting for Italy, even though the Italian bistro where my daughter and I watched the German/Italy game was full and we had to walk back home even though we were there over an hour before the game.
I hate shoot outs though
nailbiting</p>
<p>Man, it’s so quiet here. A couple of cars drove by honking I think, but that’s it. What an ugly end to an otherwise exciting game.</p>
<p>[The</a> whole Materazzi-Zidane incident, with French commentary.](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1i_l0OeeMc]The”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1i_l0OeeMc) Mais pourquoi??</p>
<p>We watched from home, but from the ABC coverage, it looks like most of Boston was on City Hall Plaza.
It’s obvious that Zidane got upset at being hooked by Materazzi, but he’s normally so cool. I still don’t undestand it. Mais pourquoi, indeed.</p>
<p>No excuse for that behavior… I agree, Italy deserved it.</p>
<p>uh…kitty? The play on wanker was the joke…oh well.</p>
<p>S2 insisted we wake at 6 am to see the match and then promptly fell asleep. I couldn’t believe that head butt. The hook wasn’t anything out of ordinary. Hard to believe that the old man could be insulted by some trash talk…but apparently…</p>
<p>France would have had it if not for the giant Italian keeper Buffon. He was amazing. </p>
<p>I’ll bet the streets of New York were filled with Italians waving Italian flags.</p>
<p>I think France was playing better until Zidane got himself ejected. I can’t bear to think about it. Boston’s mayor is Italian American and he’d already planned a giant party before the game.</p>
<p>Furthermore 3 stars were absent for the penalty kicks. What a mess!!</p>
<p>What a joke. This is EXACTLY why Americans don’t buy into soccer. Utterly stupid, stupid way to decide a World Championship with penalty kicks… Suck it up and keep playing another overtime like they do in hockey!!! Extra Innnings like Major League Baseball. Overtime like the NBA. Sudden death like the NFL!!! Soccer is a great game for the atheletically marginilized kids who are happy to run around in circles and think they are playing a sport, at least they feel involved even if they have zero talent. Soccer is a much less brutal version of Little League, where kids learn clearly whether they’ve either got it or they don’t!</p>
<p>Not to mention that most kids who play soccer in the US are the kids who aren’t tough enough/good enough to play real FOOTBALL, Basketball, or Baseball. PSHAW! If the US had its best athletes playing a pansy game like soccer, we’d rule without a doubt. Wouldn’t even be close, you soccer (excuse me, football, heh) pansies. Fortunately, most people can differentiate between the two.</p>
<p>This Zidane joker (how lame can you get with that move??) made a complete mockery out of himself and if he were a US athlete, people would be trashing him for the next several weeks. Doubt anyone in the US really, really cares though…</p>
<p>except for the US soccer is futbol
I like Soccer- hate shootouts but that is because so much pressure
but they already had extratime- time to get it overwith
I disagree with soccer being a “wussy” game
I like being able to see the players with out all the padding, and helmets- and never ending time outs and bad calls
I don’t watch football at all, not even when Seattle was in the superbowl ( just as well- since I don’t like bad plays or bad calls)
I think the refs for the last few games at the World cup did an exemplary job & did you see how much they were sweating?
THey were running back and forth as much as the players, make me reconsider getting trained as a ref</p>
<p>After 90 minutes of running and 30 of extra time, most of the players’ legs are barely capable of supporting them. You hear constant references to their fatigue by the announcers. The need for shootouts grows out of this practical reality.</p>
<p>columbia, you are absolutely right. I’d love to see professional football, baseball, and basketball players run like that for 90 minutes. ;)</p>
<p>Futbol, eh? Heh. Bet you call Italy “Italia” and France “Frahnce” too. LOL LOL LOL. Gimme a break!</p>
<p>And you bring up bad calls in other sports? There were a TON of just horrible calls in this World Cup, many of which cost the other teams their futures in the tournament. The French team got an absolute gift today when its player took an obvious dive in the first ten minutes of the game today! Dude wasn’t even touched… Soccer needs to reevaluate how it handles it’s biggest tournament. And after watching many World Cup games, I find it laughable how these guys go down like they’ve been shot when a minor foul occurs. And even funnier how when they get fouled “in the box”, they hop right up like nothing happened cuz they know a penalty kick is forthcoming. This “sport” is highly questionable.</p>
<p>one of the local candidates for the BaseballHall of fame and a great player who recently retired after being the only DH to have ever won a batting title, could barely run around the bases- let alone run straight out for almost 2 hours.
Soccer isn’t going away get used to it</p>
<p>In my state, high school championship games that are tied after overtime remain tied.</p>
<p>There are no penalty kicks.</p>
<p>The teams are declared co-champions.</p>
<p>Ooooh. These soccer players can run around for 90+ minutes! What talent! So can the dorks in HS who run for the Cross Country team under the guise of it being referred to as a sport…</p>
<p>Pain can make you lose your temper.</p>
<p>If a team of world cup soccer players met a team of american football players in a bar and each called the others a bunch of wankers, a fight would break out (after the soccer players told the Americans what the term means). The American players would beat the daylights out of the soccer players (with the exception of the American players who use their feet – namely punters and place kickers, who would be crying like girls). This is why American football is better than soccer.</p>
<p>There are no breaks for commercials or plays or new at-bats. There are no times-out. This is not paced running like cross country; these guys are always sprinting, in addition to twisting their legs in various creative ways.</p>