Last night stage was set for grand farewell to genius that goes by name of Zinedine Zidane. Malouda earned a penalty in early stages and genius stepped up to take the penalty, sends Buffon scurrying to his left, hits the ball, ball hits the cross bar's inside and comes crashing down and lands just a feet inside the goal line. Commentators went gaga over the genius of Zidane who so coolly slotted near perfect penalty.
But I am sure all French hearts would have come out in their mouth when the ball hit the cross bar.
Even genius would have had fleeting black thoughts, though he never looked in doubt.
Almost all went along as a grand farewell would have been scripted. Zidane came close to scoring with a fierce header which Buffon managed to tip over the goal. Teams were like spent horses by the end of regular time. Then came extra time. French team was doing its best to close the deal before penalty shootouts came. They were almost like the satellite launching rockets which drop the boosters one after the other. Out went Viera who was for me the most committed and inspirational of the French team in this tournament, then went Ribbery who has established himself as the worthy star for future and then went out Henry too.
There was Zidane still toiling it out but,then came 111th minute and the demons fogged the genius's head. In replays one could see Zidane calm as ever jogging away from Materazi and then some words and next thing you see Zidane walking back, equally calmly, and thudding his head into the chest of Materazi !!!
I am still wondering what would have provoked a man of this caliber on one of the biggest nights of his career when hopes of millionswere riding on his every move, to head butt a player in the glare of thousands of cameras. If Maradona came to be known by his infamous of hand of god, I think Zidane would go into history maybe as head of devil.
It was really sad end to the night, what with Trezguet trying to emulate the master and ending up on the wrong side of the line after hitting the ill fated cross bar!!
It was just not to be a musketeers' night!!
Come to think of it Materazi and Zidane were involved in this match at all crucial stages. It was Materazi's tackle that got french penalty , it was Zidane who converted it. Then came the Materazi header to equalize for Azzuri and it was Zidane's header into Materazi chest that sealed french fate.
the sun has this head butt sequence
