In the words of Conan O'Brien "cool down my babies."
So what if Materazzi steals a line from a movie made by the creators of South Park and says "terrorize this you terrorist!"
If you are Zidane you are the best player in the world. The captain of a national team in the final minutes of the championship game, in overtime, in the greatest tournament in the entire planet.
Are you kidding me?
You are going to lose it now? I have played plenty of sports and have heard loads and loads of trash talk. Sure some things get under your skin more than others, but I usually keep my cool and rely on what I was taught at a young age that the best payback was to beat them on the field.
Now I can only imagine the immense difference in emotions and pressure that one faces playing at the highest level and hearing trash talk compared to the levels I have played at. But htat is why you are the captain. The leader. The three time World player of the year and two-time Golden ball winner. Because you know how to respond by beating them on the field not with a Street Fighter 2 Turbo Edition head butt.
I am still in shock from this game. Maybe I should not be so surprised. Zidane has head butted before and once a crazy head butt maniac always a crazy head butt maniac. Now he is supposedely retiring from soccer. What is he going to do know? Tour the world promoting peace and good will alongside Mike Tyson?
I can hear it now. You bite the Prime Minister and I will head butt the President. On Three!
Lets get back to Materazzi for a second. This man is no saint either. And apparently not very smart. He is not cultured enough to know what a terrorist is according to ... himself. What? That is not called being cultured or not cultured. That is down right stupid and clueless. You are telling me you are a grown man playing in a World Cup with some of the greatest numbers of security ever to protect you and your teammates from hooligans, riots, and terrorist!!! and you do not know what a terrorist is. Not buying it! Next question please.
In the end the Italians are World Cup champions. Lets face it the best team won. In tournaments like these you have to overcome controversy, be a little lucky, play well and fight for the prize. The Italians did that and even overcame their dreaded penalty kick demons. They overcame the pressure from overwhelming scandals at homeso and are once again World Champions.
And Zidanes legacy? Well I don't know. What do you think?
I love the NBA and the NBA Finals, but I have to admit I am sidetracked tonight. It is halftime and the first half has been great. The old Franklin High School Quaker Jason Terry has been lighting it up and both teams have had decent to big leads only for it to be close at half.
But I hardly care.
Why? Because to me this game 1 of the NBA Finals is miniscule in comparison to what begins tomorrow. Don't get me wrong I love just about every sport and can embrace the competition, storylines, controversy, importance and unimportance of them all. But only one sport can stop the world in its tracks. Only one event can literally put a halt on a violent Civil War (Ivory Coastans lets just all get along for a little while and watch Didier Drogba work his magic). Only one event can cause a government to spend three years in court trying to find out why there team did not bring home the coveted trophy (see Brazil after losing the 98 Final to France). The list could go on and on and on. But I still care enough that I want to watch the fourth quarter of Mavs vs. Heat so we will stop it here.
I am obviously talking about World Cup. Now I know a bulk of Americans could care less but I doubt if they are real sports fans they could watch all of the first games and NOT get sucked in enough to want to watch the rest of the games. Last World Cup (with the help of Senegal and there sacrificing of the jersey) I converted a hard core american football player/fan and passionate soccer hater into a World Cup fanatic in about 10 minutes.
Just qualifying for the World Cup is a phenomenal task and some of the worlds best soccer playing countries do not qualify because of the difficulty. Ghana is in its first World cup despite winning the African Cup a number of times. Reigning European Cup winners Greece did not qualify, and # 4 team in the world Netherlands was not in the last World Cup. And unless you are Brazil, winning the World Cup is a near impossibility.
You think March Madness is mad?
I love March Madness. The upsets, the drama, the passion of the students. Now turn those little colleges and its students into entire countries and make it once every 4 years and you have a glimpse of the magnitude and pressure for a World Cup.
It is this pressure, passion, excitement, unpredictability, and glory that makes the game 1 of the NBA Finals seem borderline uninteresting for a NBA fan.
I can not wait until 9:00 am to watch the opening game of Germany and Costa Rica. And I hope on Monday when our country takes on the daunting Czech Republic in a hostile European crowd that you will tune in, sing your National Anthem, and cheer your team to victory like the rest of the countries will be doing for theres!!! This is the year Americans to hop on the World Cup train!! Because whether you wan't it to or not this is one bandwagon that is never stopping.
