Photos 1&2: Reuters

Day 26

VICTORY & EMBARRASSMENT

There will come a time in the future when the World Cup won’t be able to be played. FIFA will eventually throw in the towel because of all the negative things that affect our sport. Zidane certainly contributed his share to the negativity yesterday when he head-butted Italian defender Materazzi in the chest.

Regardless of what Materazzi allegedly said, Zidane should have walked away. WE ALL KNOW THAT. There is no excuse for assaulting a player on the field. What Zidane did was an embarrassment not only to himself and his country…but to the entire game.

If what was said was that terrible, Zidane should have taken it up with Materazzi in the locker rooms after the game, but nothing can excuse what he did in front of a BILLION people. I’m actually surprised the refs saw it…I don’t think they saw it until the replay on the screen in the stadium and that begs another important question…WHAT THE HELL ARE THESE GUYS WATCHING DURING THE GAME?

I’m glad Italy won. They played a quality tournament and proved, once again, that you start from the back and build forward. I picked Italy to get to the Final, but lose to Brazil in the end. So I blew it on one participant and the eventual winner. But I knew that the team that never forgets that you can’t lose if you don’t give up any goals, would be there in the end.

I’m sick of watching games being decided by penalty kicks. Penalty kicks are NOT soccer. I don’t know why FIFA can’t allow an extra sub per overtime and continue playing 15 minute overtimes. There are over a half-dozen players on the bench that never see any action, why not use them if you’re going to suit them up? Don’t tell me that nobody is EVER going to score. Eventually somebody will score. Television can adjust for it…they do for baseball, basketball, hockey and golf…why not the most watched sporting event in the WORLD?.

The penalty awarded to France in the first half was a BAD call. What are defenders supposed to do…hold the forwards up when they get into the box so that they just can’t fall over and earn the spot kick? Forwards are tripping themselves now and earning penalty kicks. Refs need to look closely at it and stop falling for it, because it’s ridiculous.

Italy scored a couple of nice goals and I wish the second one would have been allowed because the player who scored the goal was not offside. The run before him might have been, but that did not affect the play. Can we just get rid of the most misunderstood rule in sports? The refs don’t know how to interpret it, so how the hell is anyone else supposed to know what is or isn’t offside?

Tomorrow: Some final thoughts before I go get a real job.