Disgraced Zidane wins World Cup Golden Ball

Necronomicon

johnos wrote:

Yes. It is zillions of light years away. From the hysteria generated elsewhere and on this board by football's ludicrous moral majority, in the absence of anything otherwise noteworthy from one of the dullest WC winning performances yet seen.
He nutted the mouthy coward - one of a gallery of them in this competition - in the chest, not in the head. It hardly rates as extreme violence. Try some science and get a mate to do it to you: you'll find that the sternum is a sturdy piece of anatomy and doesn't have too many nerve endings,: a blow with a blunt instrument like a footballer's noggin doesn't do enough damage to have you listed as a contender for the Golden Grimace/Wonder Writhe Award. At least not in earth gravity.
You'd think he'd knocked his bloomin' block off.

You can't dress it up to make light of the incident...face, chest, balls, it was still a head-butt, still violent conduct, stone wall red card.

Chucky the tree

johnos wrote:

Yes. It is zillions of light years away. From the hysteria generated elsewhere and on this board by football's ludicrous moral majority, in the absence of anything otherwise noteworthy from one of the dullest WC winning performances yet seen.
He nutted the mouthy coward - one of a gallery of them in this competition - in the chest, not in the head. It hardly rates as extreme violence. Try some science and get a mate to do it to you: you'll find that the sternum is a sturdy piece of anatomy and doesn't have too many nerve endings,: a blow with a blunt instrument like a footballer's noggin doesn't do enough damage to have you listed as a contender for the Golden Grimace/Wonder Writhe Award. At least not in earth gravity.
You'd think he'd knocked his bloomin' block off.

Mouthy coward? How so?

You must be smoking some very strong stuff to think what zidane did deserved a yellow card.

therecklessone

johnos wrote:

He nutted the mouthy coward - one of a gallery of them in this competition - in the chest, not in the head. It hardly rates as extreme violence.

It rates as violent conduct, punishable by a red card. Never mind the science, try the rules of the game for a start...:rolleyes:

godtabh

johnos wrote:

Yes. It is zillions of light years away. From the hysteria generated elsewhere and on this board by football's ludicrous moral majority, in the absence of anything otherwise noteworthy from one of the dullest WC winning performances yet seen.
He nutted the mouthy coward - one of a gallery of them in this competition - in the chest, not in the head. It hardly rates as extreme violence. Try some science and get a mate to do it to you: you'll find that the sternum is a sturdy piece of anatomy and doesn't have too many nerve endings,: a blow with a blunt instrument like a footballer's noggin doesn't do enough damage to have you listed as a contender for the Golden Grimace/Wonder Writhe Award. At least not in earth gravity.
You'd think he'd knocked his bloomin' block off.

It seems all your trying to do is get a reaction from people.

Zidane headbutted a fellow player. It doesnt matter if it was the chest or face he deserved a red card.

patmac

PHB wrote:

Portugal are only hated by the English cause they knocked them out, they did as much diving as Italy, France and any of the other top teams in reality, it's just the BBC have rammed it down your throat.

They were the most attacking team in the world cup, and if they had had a decent striker, there woulda been goals galore.

Rarely watched BBC as couldn't stand Ian Wright and RTE was so much better. I qualified the second statement by saying it was voted by the British media. Personally I don't like Portugal as i think they embody everything that is wrong with the modern game. They dive and time waste when they are winning, it started with Porto against Celtic and carried on through Euro 2004 they did it against the Dutch and the English but what annoyed me even more was the French game when they threw themselves to the ground at every opportunity to wins free kicks, penalties and the funny thing is if they concentrated on football instead of playacting they would have deserved the award for the most attacking team and probably would have won the game.

Duras

I'm to lazy to check if this was posted already. Go for it guys, it's your chance to be Zizou for a few.
http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Sport/2006/07_Luglio/10/pop_zidane.shtml

patmac

Duras wrote:

I'm to lazy to check if this was posted already. Go for it guys, it's your chance to be Zizou for a few.
http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Sport/2006/07_Luglio/10/pop_zidane.shtml

Nice one:D

johnos

kearnsr wrote:

It seems all your trying to do is get a reaction from people.

Zidane headbutted a fellow player. It doesnt matter if it was the chest or face he deserved a red card.

I think the ref was well within his rights to give him a red. But he didn't have to. Zidane's was a serious and deeply stupid offence, but it was not on the level of Rooney's studs-in-the-crotch atrocity, and clearly was a reaction to strong provocation.
The ridiculous hysteria about a bloke banging his head in anger off another bloke's chest, which has been started by pompous football pundits, will soon settle. Then, if the rumours about what he said stick, Marco Materazzi could well emerge as the one in more enduring disgrace.

therecklessone

johnos wrote:

I think the ref was well within his rights to give him a red. But he didn't have to. Zidane's was a serious and deeply stupid offence, but it was not on the level of Rooney's studs-in-the-crotch atrocity, and clearly was a reaction to strong provocation.

Was Zidane's headbutt violent conduct or not?

godtabh

Duras wrote:

I'm to lazy to check if this was posted already. Go for it guys, it's your chance to be Zizou for a few.
http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Sport/2006/07_Luglio/10/pop_zidane.shtml

This is gona be one of the must have games for christmas!

johnos

therecklessone wrote:

Was Zidane's headbutt violent conduct or not?

A bit.

godtabh

johnos wrote:

A bit.

A bit! You cant be serious. There was enough force to knock Materazzi down. I dont think he was expecting it so it wasnt a dive.

therecklessone

johnos wrote:

A bit.

Grand so, confirmed you're taking the piss. Case closed.

Dont be at yourself

There was enough force to knock Materazzi down.

Come on now, it doesnt take much to knock down those italians!

johnos

kearnsr wrote:

A bit! You cant be serious. There was enough force to knock Materazzi down. I dont think he was expecting it so it wasnt a dive.

Materazzi went down like he'd been shot with an elephant gun.
Story of this WC, if you ask me. Zidane can be accused of gross stupidity and inability to control himself. But he wasn't cheating, which is more than can be said for so many of the players who graced this tournament.

godtabh

NekkidBibleMan wrote:

Come on now, it doesnt take much to knock down those italians!

To be fiar I dont theink he had a chance to dive. Zidane came at him and I dont think any one expected what happened

redspider

A couple of things have to be said about the Golden Ball award. For one, its voted for by media people invited by FIFA. Its not a given that media people are the best judge of football, just look at media hype for a start.

The 2nd thing is that the vote was made *BEFORE* the world cup final. Taking that game into account, it is likely that the media would have voted less for Zidane because of his red and more for Cannavaro, because of his excellent defensive display in the final.

But giving players awards in a team game like this is distracting and of no real value.

kearnsr wrote:

I think they are giving it to him so that he can have a decent end

Not so, see above. It was voted on before the final. The process itself is flawed.

I'd much rather see a Players type of award, where players vote for the best player of the tournament.

redspider

godtabh

redspider wrote:

A couple of things have to be said about the Golden Ball award. For one, its voted for by media people invited by FIFA. Its not a given that media people are the best judge of football, just look at media hype for a start.

The 2nd thing is that the vote was made *BEFORE* the world cup final. Taking that game into account, it is likely that the media would have voted less for Zidane because of his red and more for Cannavaro, because of his excellent defensive display in the final.

But giving players awards in a team game like this is distracting and of no real value.



Not so, see above. It was voted on before the final. The process itself is flawed.

I'd much rather see a Players type of award, where players vote for the best player of the tournament.

redspider

The point I was making was that people probably voted for him to give him a good farewell but over all there was more disserving people

unkel

Duras wrote:

I'm to lazy to check if this was posted already. Go for it guys, it's your chance to be Zizou for a few.
http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Sport/2006/07_Luglio/10/pop_zidane.shtml

Kewl game

Ruu_Old

Zidane is meant to be on telly to speak about the whol incident for anyone who might have French telly station Canal Plus, at around 7pm this evening, so says rte.ie.

redspider

kearnsr wrote:

The point I was making was that people probably voted for him to give him a good farewell but over all there was more disserving people

Yeah, I think you're right about that. As he had played well it would have been a fitting send off for him.


By the way, a point/rumour or whatever you want to call it has been mentioned by a couple of media sources.

Zidane's performance in the World Cup in many of the games was excellent. Not only his skill level, but also his fitness level, and this in comparison to what he has been doing at club level in the last season, the latter pales in comparison.

I dont have any sources, although perhaps Paddy Agnew did hint at it on The Hub, but there is a suspiscion that his fitness was 'enhanced'. Whether by drugs or legal drugs, such as caffeine, or new performance enhancers, looking at the amount of km's he ran in each match and his average speeds, etc, there are indications that his performance increased by a step change. Does anyone have any statistics on his personal performance and comparisons to big Real Madrid matches?

No, I dont have sources. The only 'evidence' I have is on the pitch with what I've seen. Only so much could be explained by effort, adrenalin, the occasion, etc. I'm not saying anything illegal was carried out, but for an unwashed onlooker from a distance, it looks like smoke.

Legal stimulants may have been used .... or not, but one thing is clear, Zidane's performance was a step change better than it had been of late, and a certain Michelle Smith comes to mind ....

I have no idea how much drug testing FIFA carried out in this world cup, but in general, football does not carry out as much drug testing as many other sports.

opinions, thoughts welcome ....

redspider

garred

A drugs scandal

patmac

redspider wrote:

By the way, a point/rumour or whatever you want to call it has been mentioned by a couple of media sources.

Zidane's performance in the World Cup in many of the games was excellent. Not only his skill level, but also his fitness level, and this in comparison to what he has been doing at club level in the last season, the latter pales in comparison.

I dont have any sources, although perhaps Paddy Agnew did hint at it on The Hub, but there is a suspiscion that his fitness was 'enhanced'. Whether by drugs or legal drugs, such as caffeine, or new performance enhancers, looking at the amount of km's he ran in each match and his average speeds, etc, there are indications that his performance increased by a step change. Does anyone have any statistics on his personal performance and comparisons to big Real Madrid matches?

No, I dont have sources. The only 'evidence' I have is on the pitch with what I've seen. Only so much could be explained by effort, adrenalin, the occasion, etc. I'm not saying anything illegal was carried out, but for an unwashed onlooker from a distance, it looks like smoke.

Legal stimulants may have been used .... or not, but one thing is clear, Zidane's performance was a step change better than it had been of late, and a certain Michelle Smith comes to mind ....

I have no idea how much drug testing FIFA carried out in this world cup, but in general, football does not carry out as much drug testing as many other sports.

opinions, thoughts welcome ....

redspider

Of course probably complete conjecture as is the psychological effects of drug taking which could lead to irrational violent conduct like headbutting someone for little apparent reason, no definetly never happened. On a completely different matter was Zidane playing for Juve when that drug taking scandal/coverup that never was broke out a couple of years ago?