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Post by DBBN on Jul 9, 2006 21:21:45 GMT -5
Zidane girdled by Materazzi left its hinges by giving a blow of head in the chest of the defender InterOh, Babelfish, what would I do without you
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Post by DBBN on Jul 9, 2006 21:22:33 GMT -5
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Post by janie on Jul 10, 2006 6:18:48 GMT -5
France united in sorrow 10/07/2006 10:21 - (SA) Paris - France united in sorrow and wounded pride on Sunday after its team lost the World Cup final to Italy, with fans thronging Paris' Champs-Elysees and spilling into streets nationwide in a collective post-match consolation party.
Dismay at losing out on soccer's greatest honour in a spectacular, tightly fought match was palpable - but so was satisfaction at having made it to the final at all. France struggled to qualify for the Cup and then barely squeezed past the first round.
"Of course we're disappointed," said Thibaud Miannay, a 24-year-old student in Paris straining to watch the match outside a restaurant. "We didn't deserve to finish on penalties," he said, of the penalty shoot-out that ended the match 5-3 in Italy's favour.
The loss was made more poignant since it was the parting match for national hero Zinedine Zidane, the midfielder and team captain who bid adieu to his stellar career after Sunday's final in Berlin.
Earlier in the day, fans chanted the refrain of a pop jingle in outdoor markets, on subway trains and just about anywhere: "Zidane il va marquer!" - "Zidane, he'll score a goal!"
He did, converting a penalty in the seventh minute. But then he exited unceremoniously after being red-carded for savagely head-butting Marco Materazzi in the 110th minute.
Police staked out positions in Paris and other cities, bracing for unrest after the evening match. Some clashes were reported at a stadium in southern Paris, Stade Charlety, that broadcast the match on a huge screen.
Fear of violence was fed by lingering tensions following riots that shook the nation last fall in impoverished, immigrant neighbourhoods like those where Zidane and several of the players grew up.
Faces striped with the French tricolour had filled streets as the nation geared up for the match. Cars draped with French flags honked incessantly throughout the afternoon, but they and the rest of Paris fell silent during the tense match.
After France snared its first and only World Cup title in 1998 - on its home soil - the country staged its biggest celebrations since World War II. A portrait of Zidane was projected 16 stories high on the side of the Arc de Triomphe.
Posters of Zidane playing for various teams line the walls of a bar nicknamed Cafe Zizou near the farming hamlet of Aguemoune in the mountains of eastern Algeria, where his father grew up and where Zidane still has family.
France's lacklustre early performance in the Cup prompted widespread scorn, with critics calling the players dysfunctional and has-beens.
The team returns to France on Monday and heads straight for a lunch at the presidential Elysee palace with President Jacques Chirac, who was in Berlin for the final. Then the team will parade along the Champs-Elysees and circle the Arc de Triomphe, despite the loss.
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Post by Brinyi on Jul 10, 2006 6:24:33 GMT -5
"Posts on internet forums have suggested there was a racist comment made referring to Zidane's Algerian background, with some suggesting a nipple tweak may have infuriated Zidane."
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Post by janie on Jul 10, 2006 6:56:50 GMT -5
"Posts on internet forums" -- what, places like wtaworld? though it may be true, we'll probably never know
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Post by molala on Jul 10, 2006 14:35:33 GMT -5
zidane! what a sad ending to the world cup. but i did think of laurence tieleman and federico luzzi celebrating and that cheered me up a little. couldn't those parisians just have the parade for amélie instead?
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Post by janie on Jul 10, 2006 14:57:35 GMT -5
Quelle bonne idée! Amélie definitely deserves a Parisian parade.
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Post by Brinyi on Jul 10, 2006 19:53:12 GMT -5
Laurence Tieleman! Woohoo! What was our nickname for him? If in fact we had one!
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Post by Brinyi on Jul 10, 2006 19:55:02 GMT -5
Zidane's agent says footballer will explain headbutting Lara Marlowe in Paris 11/07/2006
What did the Italian central defender Marco Materazzi say to the French captain Zinédine Zidane which so enraged him that he headbutted the Italian and was expelled from the World Cup final, probably causing France's defeat?
At least three versions of Materazzi's assumed insult circulated yesterday. Zidane's agent Alain Migliaccio maintained he was "provoked", but said Zidane "will not reveal what Materazzi said to him". Migliaccio nonetheless promised that Zidane "will in one or two days' time explain why he had such a reaction" in Sunday's final.
The anti-racism group SOS-Racisme said that "according to several very well-informed sources from the world of football" Materazzi called Zidane a "dirty terrorist" - something Materazzi was reported last night to have denied. Zidane's parents are Algerian immigrants and he campaigns against racism.
The Brazilian newspaper Globo showed the video to three deaf and mute teenagers who are skilled at lip-reading. They believe Materazzi said, "Tua sorella è una puttana" (your sister is a prostitute), followed by an obscene gesture. The French website Sport.fr said the latter version was confirmed by a source close to Zidane.
Last night, BBC Newsnight reported that Materazzi wished death on Zidane's family (the French player's mother was hospitalised on the day of the final) and dismissed him with a profanity. Another report was that Materazzi said: "I slept with your mother last night."
French commentators were divided between those who saw the headbutt as a sign of Zidane's humanity and still considered him a hero, and those who found his loss of self-control inexcusable.
President Jacques Chirac was among the former. He and his wife Bernadette invited the French team and their wives to the Élysée Palace for lunch yesterday. "Dear Zinédine Zidane," Mr Chirac said. "In the most intense - perhaps difficult - moment of your career, I want to tell you of the affection and admiration of the entire nation. You are a virtuoso, a genius of world football. You are also a man with a heart, a man of commitment and conviction. That is why France admires and loves you."
© The Irish Times /me saw the tape and thinks he said, "My hovercraft is full of eels"
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Post by janie on Jul 10, 2006 20:28:18 GMT -5
I saw Chirac tell him that on tv! It was cool. But he actually said it in French. ;D
It's strange, though. Those sister & mom insults are ordinary conversation in a lot of US neighborhoods. Isn't trash-talking part of soccer, then, like it's part of hoops? But the family death & terrorist & eels ones, those mean war anywhere!
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Post by Brinyi on Jul 10, 2006 20:37:49 GMT -5
I would assume much trash is talked in soccer. Not to excuse it, but in a world cup final you just have to ignore it.
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Post by molala on Jul 11, 2006 6:23:49 GMT -5
Laurence Tieleman! Woohoo! What was our nickname for him? If in fact we had one! Banana Man! Do you remember why?
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Post by Brinyi on Jul 11, 2006 6:37:51 GMT -5
Laurence Tieleman! Woohoo! What was our nickname for him? If in fact we had one! Banana Man! Do you remember why? Jah! His name fit well into the boat song.
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Post by shenaynay on Jul 11, 2006 12:17:46 GMT -5
I would assume much trash is talked in soccer. Not to excuse it, but in a world cup final you just have to ignore it. So, the players get just as bored as us who watch it. Also, the World Cup final got like huge ratings in the US. Which sucks. We don't need another lame attempt to trying to build soccer here. It won't work.
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Post by Brinyi on Jul 12, 2006 13:26:36 GMT -5
Zidane says Materazzi insulted mother and sister Wed Jul 12, 2006 7:15 PM BST
PARIS, July 12 (Reuters) - Zinedine Zidane said on Wednesday that Italian defender Marco Materazzi insulted his mother and his sister during the World Cup final against Italy.
In an interview with French television channel Canal Plus Zidane also said he apologised to children and fans but did not regret the head-butt that led to his sending off.
The French captain reacted to the insult by head-butting Materazzi's chest in the second period of extra time of the match.
"He (Materazzi) pronounced very tough words about my mother and my sister. I tried not to listen to him but he kept repeating them," Zidane said in a live interview.
Playing the last game of his career, Zinedine was shown a red card, leaving his team mates finish the match without him. France lost on penalties.
Zidane denied Materazzi called him an Islamic "terrorist", as was reported by a Paris-based anti-racism group.
Zidane is of Algerian origin, his parents being born in the village of Aguemone in the Kabylie region.
FIFA decided on Tuesday to open a disciplinary investigation to clarify the circumstances surrounding the incident and Sepp Blatter, the chairman of the soccer's ruling body, hinted that Zidane could be stripped of the tournament's best player award.
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Post by janie on Jul 12, 2006 17:40:05 GMT -5
If Zidane weren't so very, very, very, very, very good-looking :lust: , people would be a lot more critical!
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Post by molala on Jul 12, 2006 17:40:17 GMT -5
i can't help but think "that's it???" but i hope zizou doesn't get stripped of his award.
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Post by Brinyi on Jul 14, 2006 7:48:56 GMT -5
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Post by molala on Jul 14, 2006 12:50:17 GMT -5
haha! that's really cute. i love the french perspective and the journalists'.
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Post by Brinyi on Jul 14, 2006 22:17:05 GMT -5
I agree, especially the French one is priceless!
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Post by DBBN on Jul 14, 2006 23:38:37 GMT -5
If Zidane weren't so very, very, very, very, very good-looking , people would be a lot more critical! Yeah, he's quite handsome. However: ;D
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Post by Brinyi on Sept 5, 2006 21:39:07 GMT -5
Revealed: What caused that butt September 06, 2006 12:00am
ITALY defender Marco Materazzi has finally revealed what he said that caused the infamous headbutt by French star Zinedine Zidane in the World Cup final.
Materazzi was sent crashing to the turf by a Zidane headbutt near the end of extra-time of the July 9 final in Berlin following a verbal altercation.
Mystery has surrounded the exact nature of the abuse directed at Zidane by Materazzi ever since the incident, which subsequently earned the Inter Milan centre-half a two-match ban from world governing body FIFA.
But in an interview in today's Gazzetta dello Sport, Materazzi revealed it was a remark he made about Zidane's sister that provoked the French captain's moment of madness.
Materazzi said when Zidane offered to give him his France jersey after the final whistle in response to persistent shirt-tugging by the Italian, he had replied: "I would prefer your sister.''
But Materazzi, who is suspended for Italy's Euro 2008 qualifying rematch with France in Paris tonight, insisted he should not be blamed for sparking the incident.
"I did not cause it,'' he told Gazzetta. "I answered verbally with a provocation to defend myself.
"Yes, I was tugging his shirt, but when he said to me scornfully 'If you want my shirt so much I'll give it to you afterwards,' is that not a provocation? I answered that I'd prefer his sister, it's true.
"It's not a particularly nice thing to say, I recognise that.
"But loads of players say worse things ... I didn't even know he had a sister before all this happened.''
Zidane has never specified what Materazzi said to him and has pointedly refused to apologise to his opponent.
Asked on July 12 what exactly Materazzi had said, Zidane would only offer that it was "very personal and concerned his mother and his sister.''
"You hear those things once and you try to walk away,'' he said.
"That's what I wanted to do because I am retiring. You hear it a second time and then a third time ...''
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