fatvegan

What a sad final it was. France played so good. And poor old Zidane. I'm not sure why I have so much more sympathy for Zidane than I do for the Italian that got headbutted. It was a pretty good headbutt. And he was such a nice player. When his shoulder was dislocated by one of the Italians he just sat on the field and waited for someone to come and pop it back in for him. Most players would have been rolling around crying. Or perhaps they all save the crying for the times when it doesn't hurt much at all. Zidane was a really cool guy though. He was friendly to everyone that I saw, and they were mostly friendly back. Despite my sadness at Italy winning, and Italy winning the way they did, I thought most of the Italians were really lovely and friendly. Buffon and Gaston especially. When Zidane headbutted Materazi, Buffon yelled for him to be sent off, and then gave him a hug.

Despite their friendliness, the Italians didn't play like they were in a World Cup at all. The French did nothing for the first half, and the Italians only did marginally more. But then the French got heaps better, and the Italians, if anything, got worse. The Italians never seemed to have the ball for the last 75 minutes, and the French were belting it all over. But, as usual, being the vastly superior team for two thirds of a soccer match isn't necessarily enough.

In the end it came down to the goalies. Buffon saved the important header, and Bartez didn't save the important header. There's consolation in the fact that the first French penalty was pretty doubtful, and Toni's offside header probably wasn't offside. The score could have been quite different. Which at least would have stopped it from ending with penalties, but wouldn't have made the outcome more reflective of the game or more satisfying.