What did you think of the World Cup? Everybody gets to play psychoanalyst now and say, 'I know what Zidane was thinking. It was ...' He didn't want to follow ABC's marketing strategy.

theres a New Zealander reader here you forgotten to mention ;)

unexpected aye? :P

I was joking sorry lol

Hi Michael,

I think you probably were directing that to me, not Judith.

I think Materazzi totally deserved that headbutt. What a baby. First he's "defending" against France by locking Zidane's arms behind him so Zidane is physically unable to move after the ball, and Zidane can't pull out of it, because of his shoulder injury. Then Materazzi obviously verbally provokes Zidane. Then when Materazzi gets what he deserves, he rolls around on the ground until the ref gives Zidane a red card. Then he gets up and plays, and he is fine.

Well, it did "the job" of nullifying Zidane's performance perfectly - so it was a "successful" tactic. But I prefer to see soccer played, not cheap tricks. And as far as I know, egregiously using force to restrain another player on the field is still illegal under FIFA rules.

At least Zidane had the balls to return the "personal foul" openly. Sure, it was a stupid move on Zidane's part, and it may have cost the competition. But they both deserved to be kicked out, not just one of them.

Even when the French were a man down, and that man their captain, the Italians were completely unable to control the field. Okay, the Italians won. But not because they outplayed the other team.

Unlike, for example, the Germans, who completely outplayed Portugal to place third. That did not happen with the Italians.

I'm glad Zidane got the player of the world cup competition.

Ben, I salute my New Zealand readers! All six of you! (It's a joke!)

But I am just curious why this blog is interesting to so many people in Korea. But you're all welcome!