Congrats to Zidane!

Yes, indeed.

Zidane is one of my all time favourite players, and I will miss to see his incredibly unique, and beautiful touch with the ball.

Class act all the way, and if you ask me, even his Sunday-punch was stylish (in a way).

I think Materazzi is an idiot bastardo, and I was more than happy to hear that Zidane got the Golden Ball.

Zidane deserved that red card of course, and he should have kept his head, but after all...Rathen than "what was Zidane thinking", I would like to ask this: "Why do we have idiots on earth like Materazzi - why couldn`t the man give a little respect for the great player like Zidane, and, for this unique event?"

Today I saw Italian coach Lippi on TV, praising his team and players by saying that "this team had a great charachters with great morality".
I didn`t know should I laugh or cry.

Materazzi is a totally d*ck and a totally disgrace to football. It’s the guy’s final match, let him play in peace.

As for Zidane, Congrats….When I’m old, nearing death and looking back, World Cup 2006 will be the year that Zidane came back and amazed us all. Oh.....and I’ll try to remember Italy won that year.

I think that's the part I would try to forget.

But hats off to Zizou, who's probably second only to Maradonna in skill. Ironically, some have said that Zidane's headbutt is more controversial than the "Hand of God."

This will be looked back at as the day that Zidane ruined what should have been an unbelievable end and a crowning moment of his career with a thuggish and selfish play which cost his team a chance at 2 cups in 3 tries. This is an asterisk to his career. Everytime his name is brought up, this play will be mentioned. When people remember the World Cup 2006, it will be a great player costing his team a chance at victory by his own stupidity and then Italy taking advantage. I will remember this as the time of seeing one of the most boneheaded plays in the history of sport. What's even more stunning is the fact that he's using the excuse "BUT, BUT, BUT HE CALLED ME NAMES!!!!!" While I undererstand the allegations of what was said was terrible and completely out of line, I also understand that if you're playing someone who is known to be a total ass@#$, then you need to let it go. I played against guys in college in (American) football who would call people in our hometowns and find out people's family names to yell out in the middle of games to get to you. Yelling the vulgar equivalent of "I slept with your mother" is nothing compared to the vulgar and "when you get home tell sally i'm sorry what i did to her last night, but she wasn't listening again". Going in, we knew that and consequently, we knew that we had to tune him out. That's what those people do, they do anything they can to get under your skin and get you off your game. And this time with huge success. I think what shocks me the most is that most people I talk to seem to be indifferent and not think that Zidane's action was a big deal. Had I been a France fan I would be outraged at this. Too bad. I thought he was better than that......

you really think so? In contemporary sports parlance, that's putting him on par with Barry Bonds. Does Clemens get an asterisk for the 1990 ALCS episode?

Asterisk is too strong a word, you're right. That being said though,it's exponentially worse than Clemens, because of several things:

1) That wasn't the final memory of his career
2) While stupid, Rocket getting tossed for arguing with umps wasn't nearly as important as losing your best player several minutes before pks. The Sawx could find someone to get people out. Take out Boggs, Buckner and Lee Smith and maybe Billy Joe Robedeaux (sorry just wanted to say the name....haven't said that one in years) with him and it's comparable
3) Clemens' action wasn't violent.

Zidane has the hard task to make peace with how he ended his career. Nobody can do that for him. If he is the person I admire, he will never be unburdened of it - even if we all forget. He failed in a very human and not dishonorable way.

Materazzi, I am afraid, may have violated the decency rules. I wouldn't want to be burdened with whatever he may have done, even if 'nerves' were responsibly partly. I guess it is not the kind of thing people could forgive easily. He has marred the team he belongs to.

Ok guys, here I am...
Zizou didn't really need this title to be remembered as a great player! Don't forget he spent much of his career playing in Italy, so we know well his value! However it's fully agreed he totally deserved this title. This doesn't change, however that in order to win a championship, you need a team, not only a man, and Italian team won it, no doubt! (and we will remember it for many many years!!!)
The same is for the morality of the italian team: one man don't constitute a team! If Materazzi offended Zizou, you cannot extend it to the whole team! We have for sure men of proven morality like Cannavaro or Pirlo which joked and sportively played with french men till the end of the match!
Actually he acted badly (he insulted Zizou's sister actually from what we know and didn't say the terrorist stuff...), but also Zizou didn't react well. And however in the end, let's give to Ceasar what belongs to Caesar: to Zizou his great career, and to the Italian Team the Victory and its morality!

I agree here. I wasn't trying to set up a primadonna pitcher temper tantrum as being equivalent to an act of violence during your last appearance as a professional athelete, I was just (as you also pointed out) considering the use of the image of the "asterisked" career. Bonds* has systematically cheated his way past the limits of his talent and cheapened an entire sport by cooking the history books; Clemens and Zidane just let their emotions overrule their discipline and made excessively poor judgement calls in key moments. "Asterisk" just doesnt really fit. Funny how ESPN and sportswriters have managed to give that little figure a whole new meaning.

I think an asterisk would impy that that his great career was enhanced in some cheap or illegal way, i.e. steroids in baseball. But honestly, he doesn't need an asterisk to always be remembered for this. Every time people recall Zidane's greatness, his stupidity in that one key moment will ALWAYS come up. It's funny though because a few minutes earlier he had just done a really nasty header that almost went in that showed the force he could get behind a header, or a head-butt for that matter. I feel like if he hit someone in the right (or wrong rather) place with one of those head-butts he could kill someone.

This was to me the biggest disgrace in sports since the Pacers/Pistons incident. They were both hilarious because of their ridiculous when they happened, but they both really messed things up also. One weird thing though- I heard the announcers mention that there was a chance Zidane would play for the MLS team Chicago Fire?? That would be really weird, but yet something I would love to see.

Also, did Henry and Ribery come out because of cramps or for some other reason? Because if they came out for any reason other than that they had to that that is completely idiotic. That being said, it might not have changed the game (assuming it still went to pk's) because I think Trezzy would've shot anyways and he's the one who missed. Anyone who's played soccer that long should know not to aim high like that in pk's, it's just too risky.