Rocking in the Free World

The Italian victory has been overshadowed by Zidane’s red card. Enough has been said about it and then some, and there has been a lot of speculation on how the whole thing came to pass.

In a fit of extreme cheapness, I have also decided to cash in on this issue and write about it. You don’t wanna read it? Fuck off, I don’t care.

Guess that didn’t really work. Whatever, nevermind. You’re kind and patient and all that jazz and blah blah.

In the 110th minute, during extra-time, Materazzi pinched Zidane’s nipple, as was evidently seen on the camera, and also said some nasty stuff about Zidane’s mother and sister, as Zidane claimed in a press conference later on. A sudden rush of blood to his head literally tilted it forward and made him involuntarily bump that Italian buffon on his chest.

Anyone making a unilateral attack of sorts on someone dear to you should deserve that and more.

What happened next will go down in the annals of footballing history and will be remembered by everyone in our generation for quite some time. The refree saw red, showed Zidane the red, and Zizou walked off the football pitch, never to come on it to represent les bleus again.

The most poignant vision is that of him walking down the players tunnel with the World Cup trophy standing there, in all its resplendent glory, and nobody deserved to get it more than him.

Things unfortunately never turn out the way you want them to. Some eternal optimists say that this is the beauty of life. The eternally optimistic people who still haven’t jumped onto the cynic bandwagon have a separate place in hell reserved for them, for being so naievely stupid.

For all its worth it, Zidane is great. Ask his national team. Ask the Juventus fans, ask the people at Madrid who commemorated his exit in his last game by having all the players wear a special jersey that said ‘Zidane 2001-06′ close to their club logo on their chest.

He does not need another World Cup victory to prove to anyone that he is among the world’s best. It was his final game, and he will be remembered much more now than he would have, had he not reacted to it.

Going out in a blaze of glory on your own terms is much better any day than to succumb to niceties and turning the other cheek.

Marco Materazzi, rot in hell.

To hell with appeasement or being a pacifist.