....I think I will join in. Italy beat France on penalty kicks or some such nonsense as that to win the World Cup which is not actually a cup but a golden ball on top of some golden stand. I mean the Stanley Cup is an actual cup but now we find out the World Cup is not an actual cup but a trophy with a ball on top. Why not call it the World Ball or the World Trophy. World Cup? A tad misleading methinks.
But I digress....
The real story of the other than the fact they once again kicked the ball around for 120 minutes only managed to score one goal each is the actions of the French captain Zinedine Zidane who was red carded and therefore ejected for headbutting an Italian player for reasons unknown to those watching the game(which did not include me, I was busy cleaning up after having a flooring crew in my house for three days.)
The most shocking aspect of the headbutt was that I completely unaware that the French were capable of such unprovoked and egregious violence. Where was this spunk in 1939? The second most shocking aspect is the fervent protest Zidane gave to the referee for getting the red card as though he did nothing wrong. Though it should be noted that he is a French soccer player so protesting and whining about something he clearly did wrong is not a surprising as one might think.
The best line concerning the final yesterday came from the Ace of Spades blog who said of the French:
In fairness, they lasted longer against the Italian soccer team than they did against Hitler.
Anyway, I am glad that is over.