Well, everybody may like or not that Italy won the Cup
Fact is that France has lost not because of the expulsion of Zidane, but because they have not been able to score a goal even if they attacked more.
France scored only on penalty that hit the crossbar and bounced inside, Italy scored twice on action (one goal was nullified by an offside of one inch) and hit another crossbar.
In football you have to shoot on goal, if you attack 90 minutes and are not able to score, the best you can achieve is 0-0
At inverted good luck, Zidane's penalty would had bounced outside and Toni's stroke would had bounced inside after hitting the crossbar, and the match would have been over before overtime.
So said:
1 - It was not Zidane's first time : in Champions league he headbutted a Amburg player and got expelled, in 1998 at world Cup he walked on an Algerian player and got expelled. So Zinedine is not a Saint, and cannot be 'excused' for what he did. He can be humanly understood, but to say that he did well is just too much.
If we apply this rule, every forward is authorized to headbutt 'his' defender, because in every match insults always go back and forth.
2 - Zidane should be remembered for the great player that he is, not for the few times he was carried away by his nerves.
3 - The incident was manipulated and politicized by the FIFA, it seems that France needed an excuse for having not won the match.
It is the first case in football history that a verbal provocation is punished like a violent physical reaction.
Good signal, if it means that verbal provocation is now not tolerated as it was until the evening of July 9, 2006.
We will see how FIFA will judge in future the other players that will insult their opponents: I see a lot of work for the lawyers.
4 - I subscribe Adler's point: the cup is over and the Euro 2008 is the next field. And France and Italy are in the same qualification run... will be interesting!
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