France Perdu

If you havn't heard yet France lost to Italy in the World Cup final match on Sunday. It was a great futball match from about 20 minutes in until about 5 minutes to go. France scored first just 5-10 minutes into the game on a penalty kick that they got for a phantom foul (which is also know as a dive). They couldn't handle the pressure of having the lead so early though and Italy looked very dominant finally scoring on a header from a corner kick. Then the game settled down a bit.

From my point of view, not at all biased by my current living arrangements (France), I think France outplayed Italy from the end of the first half all the way through to the end of overtime. I will give Italy credit for it's defense, but they did very little in most of the rest of the pitch outside of just a few dangerous posessions (from Frances point of view). France on the other hand seemed to settle in quite well and control the match, stealing the ball from the Italians and forcing the pressure on their defense. They just couldn't get the ball into the back of the net. In the second half of overtime Zinadine Zidane (Zizo) had a golden opportunity off a corner kick cross that was blocked by the Italian keeper, who by the way was one of if not the best keeper in the entire tournament. It was just after this that Zizo snapped.

The most shocking moment of the game came when Zidane headbutted an approaching Italian defender just after the aforementioned shot on goal. No one knows for sure what was said before this, but all agree (event the French), that it was extremely unsportsmanlike and a blatently stupid thing to do. It was and allways be a horrible scar on the reputation of arguably the best French player, and one of the best in the world, over the past 20 years. This game will most likely be his last.

The mood was very somber as I headed home after the game and the crowds of people ready to party were heading home with limping flags in hand and oddly quite. A few stray cheers for France, but mostly just people heading home faced with the reality that tomorrow would be just another day. I think in this case it would have been better to be Germany, who won their 3rd place match on Saturday and at least got to finish the tournament on a positive note.