Butted out

The curtain came down yesterday on one of the biggest and keenly followed sporting spectacles in the world, the Football World Cup 2006. Even though the best team might not have won, for that matter they didn't even finish up as runners up and even though the best player of the cup didn't even get his Golden ball award (not publically anyways) I must say that it was worth and hype and lived up to its star billing. It was a cup that marked a general shift in the style of play with the focus shifting and substance ruling over style. May be that is one of the reasons why there aren't too many spectacular goals that spring to mind save Maxi Rodriguez's wonder strike when recalling the play from the last one month and also the reason why the best 2 TEAMS and not the 2 teams with the best players fought it out in the final. The cup made news in the first half only due to some atrocious officiating often pitifully being the cause of the final results while on the other hand a lot of big names failed to live up to their star billing including Ronaldinho, Rooney, Messi, Owen and Ballack. A lot on insta villains were created like Christiano Ronaldo, Rooney and but of course he biggest name of them all Zizou. What Materazzi said to Zidane will go down as one the hotly debated media questions in the days to come till one of the involved parties breaks their silence on the matter but possible contenders for answers might be a certain bald spot and a certain Veronique :). Whatever might be the answer it has taken some sheen off Italy's win as Ronaldo's mystery stroke did after the 1998 final. Also nothing quite justifies ZIdane's actions on the field because that kind of chatter has always been part of soccer tradition and reacting in the fashion that he did doesn't befit one of the legends of the game especially considering what was at stake for his team. I have a weird feeling the much televised 'French Butt' will go on to become on the favored weapons of choice in bar brawls for years to come :).