Zidane Right or Wrong ?

2 am, early morning on the 10th July 2006.  Its the long awaited World Cup Finals.  France vs Italy.  Everybody thought it was a match worth watching.  Zidane, after all the negative comments on him and his team,  beat all other teams to go into the finals.  Zidane, after all the negative comments on him, had an outstanding performance, with precise passing that helped France go into the World Cup Finals.  Zidane, always so cool headed and composed, lost his temper on this very morning.  He head butted the Italian player whom he shouldn’t have and was sent off during the extra time.  Is he provoked ?  Is he just so disappointed with his performance ?  Or is he disappointed with his team mates performance ?  No doubt, it was his last international appearance.  No doubt, he sees his team not able to score like what they used to do.  Should he had even head butted anybody in the first place ?  These are the questions the public will post and these are the questions that the French will ponder.

Personally, I had watched the match.  France is a team more deserving to kiss the golden trophy.  France is a team more deserving to hold the trophy up high.  They did all the passing, they tried their best to penetrate through Italy’s defence.  They might had won the world cup if Zidane had not been sent off.  The impact of their respectable captain being off the pitch is beyond imagination.  The impact of their cool headed captain head butting the Italian brought their confidence to all time low.  If Zidane had not been sent off, with the confidence the French had, with the skills the French had, all might not had been lost.  My view on this world cup is Zidane made a very bad mistake.  Not only did he not leave international soccer with his head high up and remembered as a soccer legend, people will always remembered him as the person who lost his cool during his last world cup.  Nevertheless, the French did a great job and made the World Cup Finals more interesting, unlike the Italians.  Good job France.  May you guys win the next World Cup.