Archives for July 2006

Two Sports Illustrated articles surfaced today worth mentioning.

First of all, Italian defenseman Marco Materazzi admitted insulting French star Zinedine Zidane in the World Cup final. This comes as no surprise, because I don’t think anyone truly thought Zidane knocked Materazzi flat on his ass unprovoked. It still doesn’t excuse it but my previous post should be taken seriously because of the second article I’m about to mention.

The top ten most memorable sports meltdowns has been posted as a photo gallery on SI.com.

#1: Zinedine Zidane, World Cup Final, 2006

The French legend and Marco Materazzi exchanged words throughout the match, but then Zidane casually jogged in front of the Italian defender and unleashed the Headbutt Heard ‘Round the World. After launching his skull into Materazzi’s chest, knocking the Italian to the ground, Zidane — who was also playing in his final game — received a red card in the waning minutes of the second overtime. The Azzurri went on to win 5-3 on penalty kicks.

Time to start talking, mon ami.

I’ve been thinking about what I wanted to say about Zinédine Zidane and his 111th minute red card in the World Cup Final against Italy.

Zidane is one of the best soccer players in the world-indeed one of the greatest soccer players ever. Zidane won the World Cup Golden Ball this year as the most outstanding player in the tournament, but those votes were cast before the 111th minute of the final.

Late into overtime, Zidane, the French Captain, head butted Italian defender Marco Materazzi. Materazzi denied today that he made a racial slur after speculation arose that the Italian called Zidane a “dirty terrorist.” Materazzi pled ignorance

“I don’t even know what the word means,” Materazzi told Ansa, an Italian news source.

There is going to be speculation for a long time about what was or wasn’t said, but I think there is a very interesting public relations/crisis management opportunity here for Zidane. He has already announced his retirement, but the last thing he should do right now is fade into the shadows without a word to his faithful fans, countrymen and indeed the world as over a billion people watched the penalty head butt live.

There are dozens of videos of the foul floating all over the Internet, with full sports anchor commentary in every language. The reaction is all the same, no matter what language you speak. The media flames shock and anger like kindling. On the topic of video, despite the fact that the foul was replayed over and over again at the stadium, FIFA officials claimed that video played no role in the red card.

Materazzi clearly did, or more likely said, something seriously off cuff to evoke this sort of reaction out of Zidane in the World Cup Final, whether Materazzi’s father wants to admit it or not. Zidane has lost his top before, however. He was red carded in 1998 for stomping on a Saudi Arabian player.

In a bit of irony that rivals Benedict Arnold being shot in the leg at the battle of Saratoga and wishing he had been shot in the heart (which means he never would have betrayed the American side and would have fallen on the battlefield as an American hero), Zidane was seriously injured in the final game Sunday and signaled for a substitution. When he stayed in the game, even the commentators were calling for heroics, which we would certainly have seen in the shootout. But France was forced to shoot without perhaps their two best players, Henry, who came out with cramps, and Zidane. Italy won the shootout and thus the game.

Crisis.

Management: Zidane needs to get and stay in the light. He needs to speak out, not to accuse the Italian player (or not just to accuse him) of verbally provoking Zidane, because even verbal provocation doesn’t excuse that kind of response, no matter what country you come from. Zidane should first apologize for his inappropriate response and then to answer the questions the media will throw at him. And there will be several.

Hey, you won the Golden Ball. You were the best player in the world championship. Now be a champion and bite the bullet before the court of public opinion under the grave of obscurity that surrounds so many extremely talented athletes who lost control for a brief moment.

The crowds booed for 15 minutes after Zidane got the red card. Obviously it was a mixture of the angered French crowd who lost their captain and the angered Italian fans who sided with Materazzi.

I come from Italian descent, and even I didn’t want to see the game end the way it did, but Zinédine Zidane has a chance to pull himself out of this one. Let’s see what happens.

Zinedine Zidane’s 111th minute head butt on an Italian defender cast a shadow on his career, but the sun can still rise at the dusk of his career.