ciroccoj | Italy v. France

Italy won.

The boys were ecstatic, not because they have any special fondness for Italy but because Justin had decided he was going to cheer for "the Blueberries" (i.e., the team in blue shirts, Italy). Kid loves blueberries.

I'm slighly disappointed, not because I have any special fondness for France but because I'd seen a couple of their earlier games, liked them, Zidane was a great player, and they were a bit of a surprise this year because they were apparently an older team. A team that had so many "veteran" players that many people expected them to be eliminated early on. Show me an underdog, and I will cheer for them.

But the way they lost was... bizarre. It's the last game of Zidane's career, and he'd gone down with a shoulder injury near the end of regular time but stayed on, obviously not wanting to miss any of his last game ever. But then, in the middle of extra time, he was talking with an Italian player, it looked amiable, he started to walk off - and then suddenly turned around and head-butted the Italian, hard, in the middle of the chest.

WTF?!

Got a red card and kicked out of the game. The game went into penalty kicks, and Zidane wasn't there, and the French lost by one kick.

Um... the hell?

Here's a link to an article on France's team, and Zidane. It's... ouch. Considering what just happened, really, ouch.

If the French ever needed more motivation for a World Cup Final than this then they will have it in the shape of talismanic midfielder Zinedine Zidane.

***
There are so many reasons I love Chris. Here are two:

Commentator: ::blither blither::
Chris: Oh my god, did you hear what he just said?!
Me: What?
Chris: "He went straight into the backside of Thierry and decided to have another go!"
Me: ::pillow hit::

::two Italian players are watching a team-mate who's about to take a penalty kick, one player standing behind the other, both arms around him and resting his chin on the other guy's shoulder, the other guy leaning back against him::
Chris: Aw, look at them, watching their team-mate and dreaming of when they will make sweet, sweet love after the game...
Me: ::pillow hit::