Viva Zidane!

I love the World Cup. Granted, I'm not a fanatic, as I am a casual soccer fan at best, but the World Cup is something different entirely. It's a time when a country's best players, who often play on different teams and therefore against each other, band together to represent their respective homelands. It's a time when entire countries essentially shut down while their team is playing so they can cheer them on. This is not an exaggeration either, I've seen it first hand. During the 2002 Cup, Megan and I were in Italy and Rome was like a ghost town when the Italians were on the pitch. Walking down the street, we saw shopkeepers and workers rush into the street when Italy scored and heard fireworks echoing throughout the streets. Every television screen anywhere was tuned to Cup matches. Heck, they even had big screen TV's set up at the train station, which attracted huge crowds even when Italy wasn't playing! There is simply nothing to compare it to back in the States, even for us Husker football fans, who might recall hundreds of Omahans converging on 72nd & Dodge in a spontaneous celebration when Nebraska won the National Title in '95. Granted, that's pretty cool, but to come close you'd have to imagine the whole country as being Husker fans to get a more accurate picture.

This Cup, I was again, of course, rooting for the US. Thankfully, I missed their first game, but was able to catch the other two matches against Italy and the Czech Republic. The Italy game was great, as I watched it a sports bar with a fairly sizable crowd of both US and Italy supporters. It's the closest I've come to having a true version of the atmosphere that surrounds the Cup everywhere else in the world here at home. Sadly, the US didn't make it out of the first round, so I have to admit my interest started to flag. I watched the occasional match, and caught bits and pieces here and there (our TiVo doesn't work with our new cable phone lines), but once England lost, I was without anyone to really root for. Honestly, I wanted to cheer on Italy, since I was there for the Cup in '02, but I just couldn't get behind them, as they seemed to flop every time a player from the opposing team looked at them wrong (which was nothing compared to Portugal's constant flopping).

Enter Zinedine Zidane. For those that don't know, Zidane is a worldwide soccer superstar who played on the French national team. I caught bits and pieces of almost all of France's games and he astounded even a novice soccer fan like myself with his ball-handling skills. Seriously, the guy is amazing. During this year's Cup, he had an assist and scored a goal against Spain, had an assist against Brazil (and was named Man of the Match), he scored the only goal had by either side in the game against Portugal, and in the World Cup final he scored a goal against Italy. That goal against Italy, by the way, put Zidane in a rather elite club, as he became one of only 4 players to score in two separate World Cup Finals. What made this all the more amazing is the fact that Zidane is 34 years old (ancient by soccer standards) and came out of retirement to play in the Cup. At this point, the stage was set for Zidane to walk off the pitch and, win or lose, have a Hollywood ending to his brilliant career.

Then the unthinkable happened, in the second overtime Zidane completely lost it and headbutted Italy defender Marco Materazzi in the chest. Zidane got a red card and France subsequently lost in penalty kicks to Italy. It was crazy. First of all, who headbutts someone in the chest? I mean, it was just weird. Second, Zidane had to know that the match was heading for penalty kicks. France obviously needed him on the pitch to help out, but that apparently slipped his mind in his moment of fury. And finally, what kind of way is that to end your career? I mean, Zidane is never going to play another match. He has had one of the most amazing careers in soccer where he has won countless accolades including FIFA World Player of The Year (3 times: 1998, 2000, and 2003), a World Cup title in 98, and the Euro 2000 title, and the last thing he does as a professional is headbutt some guy? There's a small part of me that thinks, well, if you're going to get a red card and get sent off, I guess that's the way to do it, but the sensible side of me realizes that has to be one of the worst ways to end your career in history.

Since getting sent off for the headbutt, a lot has been made of what Materazzi said to set Zidane off. Granted Materazzi probably deserved what he got, hell, he probably deserved worse. But the fact remains, this was the World Cup and not only that, it was Zidane's last match ever. I know that I have never been, nor will I likely ever be, in a position with that much pressure surrounding me, but you just can't lose it like Zidane did. Zidane not only let himself and his team down, but he let down millions, if not billions, of people down watching the match. It was truly a tragic event.

It was not however "unforgivable," nor was it a "disgrace," as some commentators have presumed to call it. When I think of disgrace in terms of sports, I think of guys like Pete Rose and Barry Bonds. These are two legendary sports figures who willfully and methodically broke the rules repeatedly. Pete Rose didn't just spontaneously, in the heat of the moment bet on baseball. Barry Bonds didn't lose his cool and in a split-second use performance enhancing drugs. These guys new what they were doing ahead of time, new it was wrong, and made conscious decisions to not only break the rules, but to keep breaking them. What these two guys did is a disgrace, what Zidane did is called a foul.

People foul in sporting events all the time and that's why they have yellow and red cards in soccer. Again, what Zidane did was a foul. He lost his head in a moment of anger, headbutted a guy, and got a red card. And just as with any other red card with any other player, he was punished appropriately, sent off the pitch, and that should have been the end of it. And that would have been the end of it, at least it would have if it wasn't Zidane, or if it wasn't the last game of his career. Unfortunately, because of those two factors, people can not let it go. They seem to keep wanting to punish Zidane for being, well, human.

The most unfortunate consequence of the whole ordeal is due to a strange twist of fate that occurred after the final whistle blew in that fateful last game of the World Cup. Zidane was awarded the Golden Ball, the award that goes to the best player in the World Cup. It was an award that Zidane clearly deserved due to his stellar performance throughout the Cup. Now that FIFA has initiated an investigation into the headbutting incident, there are indications that Zidane might be stripped of his award. This would be a travesty. Doing so would seem like an attempt to erase every great play that Zidane made throughout the entire Cup because he fouled out of the final game. It's not like we're talking about premeditated game fixing, or performance enhancing drugs; we're talking a garden variety foul. Okay, maybe not garden variety, but it wasn't a cheap shot, he didn't hit an opponent from behind, kick him when he was down, hit him in the face, or for that matter, say, bite his ear off.

Even Materazzi has stated the Zidane deserved the Golden Ball. "He won it for what he did on the pitch," Materazzi told the Gazzetta dello Sport. "He was the best." Materazzi even went so far as to call Zidane his hero. Coming from the guy who was on the receiving end of a headbutt, this is pretty high praise indeed.

Stripping Zidane of the Golden Ball would make an unfortunate end to a storied career even more unfortunate. Letting him keep it would at least allow Zidane some modicum of redemption, as he will never be able to attempt that for himself again on the pitch. People will rightly not soon forget Zidane's headbutt, but they shouldn't be made to forget his tremendous play in the World Cup either. The two should be allowed to co-exist, just as things that they we are ashamed of and things we are proud of co-exist in each and every one of us. It's what makes us human. And that's what makes Zidane one of us.