So Italy wins the World Cup via penalty kicks, 5-3.
As somebody said the other day, it's as if baseball decided the World Series via Home Run Derby if the two teams tied after nine innings of Game Seven.
Far be it from me to tell FIFA how to run its sport, but that's got to be the most unsatisfying way to confer a World Championship I can think of.
Posted by Linkmeister at July 9, 2006 11:50 AM | TrackBackIt is a bit anticlimactic, but the Italian win mitigates (a bit) Zidane's deplorable conduct.
Posted by: shelley at July 9, 2006 12:05 PMThe baseball equivalent here would be something like this: it's game seven of the World Series, 8th inning, tied at 2-2. David Ortiz is in the dugout, scheduled to bat in the next inning. A pitch comes inside to Coco Crisp, but doesn't hit him... and Ortiz comes storming out of the dugout to charge the mound and tackles the pitcher.
Zidane completely erased his own legacy today and made himself the biggest sporting goat of the 21st century to date. That is all the man will be remembered for... and he deserves the ignominy. What a jackass.
Posted by: Curmudgeon at July 9, 2006 12:21 PMI admit I'd never heard of the guy until two days ago, so I'm not conversant with his past performance, but that really did seem like an incredibly stupid thing to do, particularly in a game of that magnitude.
Posted by: Linkmeister at July 9, 2006 12:59 PMWell, see what happens in 4 years...
Posted by: toxiclabrat at July 9, 2006 04:14 PMI found myself, surprisingly, rooting for France to win until the Zindane incident. It was his play in previous games, especially his artful movements with the ball, that singled him out to my eye.
As the overtime wuond down, I was rooting for anyone to score, so as to avoid the PK shootout.
Posted by: pixelshim at July 10, 2006 01:49 AM