World Cup 2006

[ice grillin you]

regis just held this up...good ish

[phattymatty]

you love regis.


and i'm glad the world cup is over too.  i was into it while the US had a chance but it became painfully boring after that.  that match yesterday was one of the hardest things i've ever sat through.  and i only watched the whole thing because i was at a soccer "party".

[phattymatty]

[ice grillin you]

look at doods feet just fly off the groud like a scud missle just hit his chest...hes the guy that shoulda been kicked out

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Ha. They lost to the Czech Republic, not the Ukraine.

What's the difference?

[phattymatty]

the ukraine is weak.

[ice grillin you]

[rjs246]

Interesting theories from the NY Times:

"Why did Zinedine Zidane blow up the way he did before a television audience of hundreds of millions, with the world championship on the line? Nearly a day after Zidane's battering-ram head butt to the sternum of Marco Materazzi, we still don't know why. Speculation is flying, but it's all purely speculation. The French newspaper Nouvel Observateur does a nice roundup of theories, all unproven, including "whispers" that Materazzi said something to Zidane about the steroid scandal that surfaced at Juventus in the days when Zidane was playing there (The Independent), that there are "suggestions" floating around that Materazzi called Zidane a "terrorist" (The Guardian), that whatever Materazzi said to Zidane must have been "something grave, surely about his mother" (Bernard Tapie on TF1), that "one imagines that there was some provocation" and that Zidane "was in a state of nerves" (Minster of Sports Jean-Fancois Lamour on LCI).



All of those are just guesses. But the Brazilian TV network Globo — which earlier in the tournament had a team of lip-readers figure out what Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari was saying on the sidelines and then offered a superbly dubbed video of Scolari (unfortunately now blocked to everyone looking in on the Globo Web site from outside Brazil) — has put its lip-readers to work on what Materazzi was saying to Zidane. The lip-readers' conclusion, according to Nouvel Observateur: Materazzi called Zidane's sister a "prostitute," twice, just before Zidane turned around and rammed his head into him. On the Sunday-night Globo show "Fantastico," the lip-readers said that Materazzi uttered those words just after he and Zidane were tied up together, with Materazzi's arm wrapped around Zidane from behind and perhaps giving what looked like a quick pinch to Zidane's nipple. In addition to twice calling Zidane's sister a prostitute, Materazzi, according to the lip-readers, also called Zidane an unspecified coarse word."

Have I mentioned how much I love headbutting?

[QB Eagles]

A guy playing professional sports for that long isn't used to opposing players calling his sister a prostitute? Must be some truth to the allegation if he got so angry about it he had to headbutt a guy.

[QB Eagles]

The Times (UK) has a pretty good article on the possible motivations for Zidane's attack. Looks like the insult was probably either racist, sexual, about Zidane's family, or all of the above. Whatever it was, I can't imagine how it would be any worse than the barbs yelled out at opposing players on a routine basis in stadiums around the world. Zidane needs thicker skin.

[rjs246]

The Italians had also been harrassing him for the entire game. They were tackling him and he wasn't getting calls. They were tugging/pulling on him whenever he made a run. The goalie denied him of a fairly amazing header just before he got booted. And on top of that it sounds like they were verbally harrassing him. It sounds like the combination of everything made him snap. We've seen fights in every major sport here due to frayed nerves and frustration. Same thing in my mind. Only it included an awesome headbutt.

[Geowhizzer]

You don't normally see blow ups in World Series/Super Bowl/ Finals, though.  Except maybe the crotch chop in basketball  .

[ice grillin you]

It sounds like the combination of everything made him snap

he didnt snap or lose it...he was conversing with dook for about 20 seconds beore hand...wasnt heated or anything...then he even walked away....and when he came back he wasnt running or anything...he was walking composed calm even orderly towards the guy...calculating exactly what he was going to do then he did it...

that said i still think the other guy should have gotten the red card for flopping like a little bitch

[phattymatty]

Dr. Z on soccer

pretty good actually

[Geowhizzer]

Apparently this World Cup thing went so well a coordinator tried to kill himself.