Kognitive Jelly

Zidane has finally come out and spilled the beans as to what put him over the edge in Sunday’s match. Apparently, Materazzi made several derogatory comments about Zidane’s mother and sister. The exact comments were not disclosed and there is debate as to the specific content of them. Materazzi admitted to insulting Zidane but denied making comments about Zidane’s mother.

The question remains, does it matter what was said to Zidane? With the exception of satisfying curiosity, it matters not one iota. Zidane had absolutely no excuse for head-butting Materazzi. Soccer is a sport of finesse and grace, where sportsmanship is prized and fair-play is the rule, not the exception. Zidane knew better and should have kept himself under control.

Zidane was rightly ejected from the game and his golden ball award should be stripped. Still, in the midst of all this, Materazzi should be punished appropriately for his remarks as well. His insults, while all too common in sports, were unsportsmanlike and have no place on the field.

The game started out pretty exciting. It seemed like two titans were going to come together and play an amazing match. Italy with their energetic and highly skilled team. France with their older and more experienced team. Zidane had played so brilliantly against Brazil, he seemed like he was unstoppable.

But after Italy scored the equalizer, the game slowed considerably. Italy has a great defense and their goalie is second to none. Sometimes it seems that the rest of their team decides to take a nap and let the game go on without them. Earlier in the week, it seemed that way against Germany, and it seemed that way in the final. It reminded me a lot of the Italy vs. Brazil World Cup Final in 94, except that Italy lost in that game.

Zidane’s late red card really shocked me. I was really amazed that he would do such a thing in a World Cup Final, especially coming so close to the penalty shootout. Some argue that Zidane’s ejection did not change the outcome of the game. I’m not so sure. While Trezeguet would still have taken a shot on goal during the penalty shootout, Zidane was a very inspirational team member. Many of the other French players looked at him as their hero and as a legend. Zidane’s ejection was a huge psychologial blow to the team, killed France’s chance of having a late overtime goal to win it before penalties. Also, if Zidane hadn’t been ejected and had scored in the penalty shootout, Trezeguet could have been inspired to shoot better, with more control, and France may have taken it to sudden death penalties. Of course, France may still have lost, but the point is that we do not know for sure what impact Zidane’s ejection had on the game.

Zidane will be making a statement later in the week to explain why he head-butted Materazzi. Professional lip readers have already said that Materazzi had insulted Zidane’s sister twice.

2hrs to kick off. Germany vs Italy. Who will take it? Germany has been riding on the momentum of playing at home, but Italy has not let an opposing goal be scored yet (Own Goal vs. USA withstanding). I honestly have no idea who will pull it off, but if I had to choose I think Germany will do it because of the home field advantage. Either way I hope it will turn out to be an exciting game.

Tomorrow is Portugal vs. France. If Portugal plays like they have been, and France plays like they have for the past two games, France will wipe the floor with Portugal. Frances performance against Spain and Brazil has been nothing less than spectacular. Which is surprising since they were horrible in group play and eeked into the Round of 16. Portugal on the other hand had an embarrassment of a game against the Netherlands, and couldn’t score against a hobbled English team playing with 10 men, and only won against England because of the penalty shootout. England going to the penalty shootout without Rooney (red card), Beckham (injured), or Owen (injured) was hopeless and Portugal took the game by default.

As expected Italy trounced Ukraine 3-0. I doubt I’ll bother watching this later. I hate watching unevenly matched games. I feel bad for the team that gets slaughtered and its just not fun to watch. Unlike the US commentators who drool for more goals, I really get excited about low scoring games. The lower the score the better the game (usually). 0-0,1-0, 1-1 scores usually represent well matched games. Scores that get much higher than that mean that someone on the defense wasn’t doing their job. The recent exception to that was Ghana vs. Brazil. The score says Ghana got beat badly, but in reality Ghana played better soccer but were really, really unlucky.

Germany just beat Argentina is Penalty Shootouts.

From the sounds of it, it was a very exciting game. Since Ireland isn’t in the Cup, and the US got booted in group play, I just want to see great soccer. That and somebody other than Brazil in the final. :-P

Like many US soccer fans, since I don’t live in a country where soccer is the most popular sport, I am stuck at work while the World Cup goes on. Thankfully a co-worker brought in her XM Radio for me to borrow so I can listen to the games at my desk. XM Radio is a cool idea. I don’t think I could pay for radio, but it is still a cool idea.

Thank God for Tivo, I’ll be able to watch this game later, hopefully sometime over the weekend.