[Archive July 9,2006]
It looks like Europe is not quite dead yet: Portugal, Germany, Italy and France were the final four FIFA World Cup™ clubs. The Western Roman Empire may have indeed collapsed and transformed into the Middle Ages long ago. However, it seemed to re-emerge once again during the last month or so. Today in Berlin, Italy prevailaed over France 5-3 in penality kicks (after a 1-1 draw after regular time and two overtimes). I'm sure you already know this since like 1 billion people watched the match and I hope that at least some of these 1 billion would have an interest in an "edifying blog" to repeat these events.
I had been pulling for France going into the match. I have no ties to either country. New England has many of both French heritage and Italian heritage. More French in the north; Italian in the south is a good general estimate. My allegiance shifted to Italy after Zinedine Zidane, 34, the French captain, was red-carded and ejected in the first overtime for a vicious and classless head butt to the chest of an Italian player, Marco Materazzi. His ejection left the French squad down a man at a critical time. Zidane is also a good penality shooter but his services were not allowed after the ejection.
I always like to see good sportsmanship and this was an example of poor sportsmanship. It was especially shocking since it came from a veteran, popular, and well-regarded player like Zidane. (Zidane's poor sportsmanship certainly will overshadow the poor sportsmanship of Boston Red Sox's Manny Ramierz who is refusing to attend the annual All-Star Game in Pittsburgh this coming Tuesday although he was the top vote-getter by the fans.)
Congratulation to Italy! I'm sure that Boston's North End and elsewhere will be celebrating well into the night tonight and perhaps for the coming weeks.
Photo: Ben Radford/Getty Images
Tags: World Cup, FIFA, Italy, France, Soccer
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