The headscratcher of the entire tournament is what caused the French captain, Zidane, to literally lose his head and headbutt an Italian player in the second overtime. After the referees discussed the matter, Zidane was issued a red card.
Not only did the French go a man down in the second overtime, but Zidane was unavailable for the penalty kicks. He's apparently one of the best players of our generation and he scored France's only goal of the game on a penalty kick in regulation time.
Great job there. What the heck were you thinking? That you could get away with such awful play when you thought no one was looking?
Now, there's some question over whether the refs actually saw this play themselves or looked up at the jumbotrons and saw replays of Zidane's headbutt and ruled accordingly (a major no-no).
This tournament has seen awful calls, bad dives, and now what will go down in history as one of the worst displays of sportsmanship in the history of the competition.
Oh, and the French are rioting. They're calling this 'saluting the French team.'
There was scattered violence in Paris after France's penalty-kicks loss to Italy in the World Cup final at Berlin on Sunday night, About 100,000 people converged on the Champs-Elysees after France the match, according to police. After midnight, the crowd started dispersing, and a few groups of youths tossed bottles at riot police.Another take on the violence can be found at Rantburg.
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