I would like to publicly apologize for belittling the Germany team 3 weeks ago in my last post on this blog. Since then they have proven me quite wrong. Not only did the team play entertaining soccer, as I first gave them credit for, they established themselves as legitimate contenders, which I did not at first believe possible.
Furthermore, after watching several games in which the German team was not involved (several games involving Portugal and Italy), I will give that team further credit for not "flopping" around on the field whenever they wanted to slow down the action. This habit seems to have gotten around like a bad virus and many teams, including the now-world-champion Italian squad, seem to be employing it as legitimate strategy. It was also refreshing to watch the German team play well and not complain to the ref at every call that went against them (well, they did maybe complain a little, like all teams will, but not overly so). Good job to Juergen Klinsmann, their new coach and to the players.
As to today's final match, I watched it at the French Consulate in San Francisco. This is a building right downtown in the Financial Distric (Bush Street, next to the Goethe Institute). I was invited to go along by a friend who may eventually read this blog so I will refrain from too much honesty (because I might want to go again next time there is a soccer game being shown there!) It was quite a patriotic celebration, with seemingly all the French expatriates in the Bay Area turning up (there were about 200 people there - and I'm sure there are many more expatriates, too, I just don't see them). People were whistling and yelling like they were at the real game. I could not however bring myself to join in the chant "Allez les Blues". I object to all patriotic chants and anthems, including our own. And the host consulate, once it finally opened its doors to the impatient crowd on the street, even gave us complimentary snacks and beverages, which I appreciate.
To get to the action on the screen, that is, on the field: the game started out really sloppy, with the French star Henry having to recuperate with smelling salts from a mild collision on the field in the 2nd minute. The Italians were trying to be too much gentlemen, or whatever, I thought, and dilly-dallied in this situation. Then soon after, the French regathered and in one of the first attacks their striker basically flopped down in the box. The ref awarded a penalty kick, which Zidane (the big star, more on that later) converted. I was at first mad that the ref made such a bad call, even though the hosts at the French consulate were ectastic. However, I was glad soon after, when the Italians finally started to play serious soccer to catch up to the French lead. They scored eventually, in about the 20th minute, to make it 1:1, and I thought this would be a good match all the way through. However by about the 30th minute, I was disappointed, with both sides, especially the Italians, simply kicking the ball back and forth with no real threat on goal. The game went into overtime after 90 minutes still tied 1:1. Then in overtime, the French kept trying to press, and the Italians got tired and simply stood around playing defense, which they did very well.
Eventually then, the confrontation happened which I'm sure everyone who gives one iota of a hoot about soccer has read about. Materazzi, the Italian man of the match, started to trash talk to Zidane while patting him on the belly. I believe those soccer players have gotten quite slick at trash talking nice and quiet, like talking to their girlfriends. In any case, Zidane eventually lost his cool and head-butted Materazzi, which though we may never know for sure, I believe he fully deserved. On the udder hand, though, Zidane did himself and his country a diservice by taking his revenge right there on the field. It was like inviting bad karma, I thought, to do that, and the French eventually lost in the dreaded penalty kick.
This made me think of Charles Barkley, the basketball player we Milwaukee fans used to love to hate turned fun-guy basketball TV commentator. I believe it was "Sir Charles" who in a famous quote once said, "I am not a role model". I wonder if Zidane will say anything like this. What a way to go out.
I have this daydream now, which involves Zidane helping coach some school kids, or something nice in a little French town, and then one of the smart-ass kids does an imitation of the Zidane head-butt. I don't think he'll ever live it down.
Overall it was a pretty ugly match, which I did not particularly enjoy watching. However, the operatic drama of it all certainly did entertain me. I'm interested to hear what my 2 readers think!
