footballspectator

Zinedine Zidane finally gave his version of the events which lead to his sending off. Speaking to Canal Plus earlier this evening, ZZ apologised especially to the children and viewing public for his behaviour but said that he did not regret what he had done. Zizou said that Materazzi had used “some very strong words” and that the insults were directed at his mother and his sister. However, he did not reveal what everyone was waiting to hear - the exact words Materazzi used. This looks now looks like becoming one of those football mysteries that will never be resolved, such as why Ronaldo suffered convulsions before the final at France 1998.

Speaking to Gazzetta Dello Sport, World Cup hero (and villain) Marco Materazzi admitted that he insulted ZZ, prior to being headbutted in the chest. However, he denied calling him a “dirty terrorist” or bringing ZZ’s mother into it because as he put it “for me a mother is sacred“. Materazzi lost his own mother when he was 14.

According to “the Matrix” as Inter fans call him, he held Zidane’s shirt for a few seconds  which irritated Zidane who turned around and looked him up and down before saying arrogantly, “if you really want my shirt, I’ll give it to you after the match“. Materazzi responded to this with an insult. When specifically asked whether he targeted ZZ’s sister, he described the insult as “one of those insults which one often says and which sometimes comes out during a match“….No denial then - sounds like the theory of the “sister” jibe (which we reported yesterday) wins it then!

Love Zidane? Hate Materazzi? Want to emulate your hero? Now all you need is an internet connection and you can headbutt away to your heart’s content with “Zidane - The Video Game“!

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There is a consensus that Zinedine Zidane, normally a quiet man, must have been provoked into headbutting Marco Materazzi. Speculation is now growing as to what Materazzi said or did. Two versions are gathering pace. The first, according to L’Equipe is that Materazzi called Zizou a “dirty terrorist” because of his Algerian roots. The second, according to Brazilian TV channel Globo is that Materazzi insulted Zizou’s sister, Lila, and called her a “prostitute” twice. The channel had lip-reading experts examine the video evidence and this is the conclusion they reached.

France’s Florent Malouda said later that Zizou told the French players in the dressing room what Materazzi had said but did not divulge any details. Zizou’s agent Alain Migliaccio, told BBC Radio Five Live that his client’s reaction was provoked by some “very serious comments“. The rumours are likely to continue over the coming days and unless Zizou himself makes a statement we are never likely to know the truth.

When Zinedine Zidane stepped up and nonchalantly chipped his penalty over Gianluigi Buffon, he seemed destined to write the perfect ending to his glorious career. The World Cup final is the most high-pressured match in sport, played in front of a global audience of 2.5 billion. Yet here was the greatest player since Diego Maradona shrugging off the pressure, showing supreme confidence in his own ability and delivering. The message was clear, “I am at the top of my game“. Gennaro Gattuso, who when asked before the game how he was going to prepare to mark Zidane, responded, “Pray“, must have been worried. The doors to footballing immortality beckoned. Zidane was on the path to usurping the great Johan Cruyff and becoming the third member of the Holy Trinity of football - Maradona, Pele and now Zizou.

Fast forward 102 minutes. The score was 1-1 but France were in control. Zidane was the conductor of France’s orchestra. Italy were hanging on. They had dominated the first half and deservedly equalised through Materazzi. They should have been ahead but Toni’s header hit the bar. Gattuso had kept ZZ subdued, but the difficulty of marking him had taken its toll. He had broken free from Gattuso’s shackles in the second half and his influence had grown.

Then, in a moment of madness everything changed. There was a verbal exchange with Materazzi, a smile, and suddenly Zizou turned and headbutted Materazzi in the chest. The inevitable red card followed. This is was not the first time Zidane had lost his temper and succumbed to an an act of violence. At France 1998, he was sent off for a stamp on Saudi Arabia’s Fuad Amin and missed the next 2 matches. In 2000, while playing for Juventus against Hamburg, he was sent off for headbutting Jochen Kientz. The difference was that on both those occasions he had time to redeem himself and remind us of his wonderful quality as a player. He isnpired France to victory in the final of 1998 with two goals. In the Champions League, the abiding memory is of his athletic volley against Leverkusen in 2002 which gave Real Madrid the title. This time there would be no time for redemption - Zidane walked off the pitch and out of football. The glorious ending became a tragic one.

Without their leader, confidence drained from the French side. They seemed as shocked as football fans around the globe were. Defeat was inevitable. Fabio Grosso stepped up to complete his fine tournament and hammered the ball past the hapless Barthez in the penalty shootout. Italy were champions for the fourth time. They had not reached the heights of their semi-final performance and looked drained, but they did enough and deserved their victory for the manner in which they had won over football fans by moving away from catenaccio playing the attacking football that their talented forward line craved.

This morning Zidane was controversially given the Golden Ball, awarded to the torunament’s MVP. Fabio Cannavaro was probably a more deserving winner. He lead his team all the way, whereas Zidane let his down at the crucial moment.

In time, as the furore over his dismissal subsides, the most vivid memories of ZZ will be of his silky touch, his unrivalled skill and his ability to control a game. It has happened before: Maradona, despite his “hand of God” is remembered as a footballing genius. For what he has achieved through his career Zidane deserves his place in the pantheon of football greats as the defining player of his generation. I for one would elevate him above Cruyff as the third best player the world has seen. But today, my memory of Zidane the player is tinged. Why is genius always flawed?

If anyone ever asks you why you love football, hand them a DVD of last night’s World Cup semi-final between Italy and Germany. To those that say “a goal-less match is dull” say “watch the first 90 minutes of this game” and then ask them if their opinion has changed. This match defined why football is called the beautiful game. It’s beautiful because it’s cruel, because a match can be decided in an instant, because a team can dominate and still be in danger of losing.

With one minute left to play, Italy fans were fearing that this would happen. Their team had dominated from the start displaying an attacking gusto not traditionally associated with Italian teams. They had created numerous chances but not converted them having been denied either by Lehmann or the frame of the goal.

To make things worse, Germany had played the role of villain, (usually played by the Italians) perfectly. There were decisions that went in their favour - notably a non-existent free kick on the edge of the box with minutes of normal time left. They did not return the ball when   Italy kicked the ball out of play for an injured player to receive treatment. Ballack dived constantly but was never booked. They also had chances in the dying minutes - Podolski’s free header which he put wide, his shot which was saved by Buffon. To score now though would reduce the torture. It was all set up for that classic sting in the tail. Penalties were looming and as every fan knows a penalty shoot-out against Germany equates to a defeat. The editors of La Gazzetta and Tuttosport were putting their finishing touches to their morning headlines: “Heroic Italy fall in penalty shoot-out“, “The curse of the penalties strikes again”.

Then in an instant, everything changed. Andrea Pirlo’s clever reverse pass found Fabio Grosso, whose curling shot beat Jens Lehmann to put the Azzurri ahead - euphoria. “But wait! this is Germany, they might still pull it back!“, cried the fans. The doubt began to set in.

Every great drama needs a hero and one minute later, Gilardino found Del Piero the man who is still blamed for Italy’s defeat to France in Euro 2000. The Juve man took the ball in his stride and shot the ball past Lehmann to become that hero and finally give Italy the victory that their performance deserved. If France win tomorrow, he will have a chance to take his revenge and complete his rennaissance in the biggest final of them all.

The Italians have had an easy draw with the Czech Republic being the only big name they have faced so far. The Ukraine proved no match as Italy breezed through 3-0, hardly having to break sweat. They now have a semi-final clash with hosts Germany on Tuesday to look forward to.

Italy opened the scoring early with the excellent Gianluca Zambrotta smashing a shot through the legs of a Ukrainian defender which Shovkovskiy should have saved. He only got a hand to it however and Italy were ahead. From the neutral’s point of view this was the worst thing that could ave happened as Italy sat back for the rest of the first half. The Ukraine were totally devoid of ideas and with little quality in their team never looked like getting an equaliser. Their one moment in the spotlight came early in the seocnd half when they created 3 chances in about a minute. First, Buffon made as superb save from Gusev’s header, smashing his own head against the post in the process, he then saved Gusev’s drive and Zambrotta cleared Kalinichenko’s effort on the rebound off the line.

Annoyed by the efforts of the Ukrainian upstarts, the Italians decided to put them back in their place. Serie A’s top scorer Luca Toni scored his first goal of the tournament, heading in Totti’s cross. His second followed a little later as he tapped in Zambrotta’s cross. Game over. As they celebrated, Cannavaro held up a flag in support of Gianluca Pessotto, ex-player and now Sporting Director at Juve who is in a serious condition in hospital following a suicide attempt earlier this week. Playing for Pessotto may just give Italy the motivation to go all the way.

Italy deserved to beat Australia - they had more chances despite playing the majority of the game with ten-men. However, the goal that secured their victory owed much to a skill that Italians have perfected over the years - diving. As Fabio Grosso cut in from the left, Lucas Neill slid in to block his path, a good two metres from Grosso. Grosso simply advanced towards him and fell over Neill’s prostrate body. Luis Medina Cantalejo pointed to the spot and Totti scored to give Italy victory in the last minute - a cruel blow.

In truth the Australians never really looked like scoring despite their numerical advantage. In contrast, Italy even seemed to benefit from Materazzi’s sending off. It allowed them to revert to the catenaccio that they know and love and move away from the more expansive game they showed during most of the first half. Italy now face the Ukraine and must be strong favourites for a semi-final place.

Here’s the dive, in all it’s glory….

Were they too arrogant or dismissive? Probably. Italy should have beaten the USA last night in Kaiserslautern. Instead their numerical advantage made them complacent. They assumed they would win as a goal was just a matter of time. Then time ran out and oops, they only had a draw.
Gilardino’s early header gave the Azzurri the lead which they hardly deserved as the USA had made the better start and looked a different proposition to the team that had been demolished by the Czechs. They got the equalizer their play deserved through an unexpected gift from Cristiano Zaccardo who sliced his attempted clearance badly and saw it end up in his own net. Then came the sendings off which changed the game. De Rossi stupidly elbowed McBride and then almost out of instinct displayed the classic Italian hand signal - palms together waving backwards and forwards as if to say, “Who? me? You’ve got it all wrong“. The numerical advantage was short-lived as Mastroeni was sent off for a bad foul on Pirlo. Eddy Pope was the next to go for a second yellow card.

That almost seemed to be Italy’s undoing. Yes Kasey Keller made a couple of great saves but ultimately Italy seemed content to pass the ball in front of the American area without taking a shot. Indeed the Italians were lucky that DaMarcus Beasley’s shot  was contentiously ruled off side - Brian McBride was in an offside position but arguably not interfering with play.
The long suffering Italian fans had been full of hope coming to Germany. This team was meant to be different to the previous teams - more attacking. The first match gave them hope. But in this match they reverted to type. Come 9th July, Italy will still be 3 times champions.

Here are the goals with a Brazilian touch of commentary class. We have never heard so much jubilation over an own goal.

Marcelo Lippi’s players managed to put the recent Italian scandal out of their minds to beat a competitive Ghana 2-0 in Hannover in tonight’s match. Ghana started strongly but the Italians quickly got into the game and seemed to cause havoc everytime they crossed with Ghana goalie Kingson looking decidedly shaky. Having said that Kingson saved well from Gilardino and cannot be faulted for Italy’s opener. Pirlo was given enough time to have a cappuccino and read a copy of La Gazzetta before deciding where to direct his shot which took a slight deflection as it came through a mass of bodies to nestle in the bottom right hand corner of Ghana’s net.
Italy’s refreshingly attacking approach in the first half gave way to the more traditional style of sitting back in the second (especially following the withdrawal of Totti as a precaution), but Ghana struggled to break the Italians down. Their forward line was static in the extreme. The Black Stars lacked width and seemed to rely almost exclusively on their star midfield duo of Essien and Appiah to do all the shooting.

Meanwhile Kingson quickly turned from villain to hero, saving well from Gilardino and Perrotta and even catching a couple of crosses. Italy eventually made it 2-0 when a terrible back-pass from Roma’s Samuel Kuffour was gleefully latched onto by Iaquinta who made no mistake and celebrated with a tears of joy normally reserved for the victory in the final rather the opening group game.

The Italians are many people’s dark horses and if they play as they did in the first half they have a good chance. However, it will be interesting to see how they will fare against a team which actually has a forward line. The Czechs will not be so generous.

Ending months of speculation over his future, Andriy Shevchenko today signed a 4-year deal with Chelsea. According to the Ukrainian Football Federation, Sheva cost the blues 50 million Euro and will receive a total of 36 million Euro over the four years.

Ruud van Nistelrooy will leave Man U after falling out with Alex Ferguson, but it’s still unclear where he will be earning his money next season.

Over the past days the Dutch striker has been linked to Chelsea (in a deal that would see Gudjohnsen move to the Reds), but according to more recent rumours he may be closer to moving to Inter Milan. The striker is valued at £12m and the Italian club would be offering Argentinean midfielder Cambiasso plus money.

Inter, who are also interested in Luca Toni and David Trezeguet, will buy at least one world-class striker for next season. With Adriano and the new signing(s), be it Toni, Van Nistelrooy or Trezeguet, they will have an enviable attack that will place them in a position better than ever to finally put an end to their 17-year scudetto drought.