Neowin's Official World Cup 2006 Thread

[mail]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/w...nce/5164094.stm

"It is absolutely not true, I did not call him a terrorist. I'm ignorant. I don't even know what the word means,"

He must be one stupid b**** if he doesn't know what terrorist means.

Offering his support, Chirac said: "Dear Zinedine, in such a hard and intense moment for you, I would like to express the whole nation's affection and admiration for you.

"You are a virtuoso, a genius of football and an exceptional human being. That is why France admires you."

Well said

[L3thal Veteran]

You know, I am not surprised if Materazzi called him a dirty terrorist because of Zidane's Algerian background. Materazzi is a total scum bag and that is proven with his ridiculous "I don't know what terrorism is, I am ignorant" comment. What, has he been living secluded from the rest of the world?

Not only is he a scum bag, but he is one dirty player on the field as the video posted earlier of him shows.

I'm glad Zidane head butted him. I am pretty sure he had the nerve to call him a terrorist and now he makes these nonsensical remarks about not knowing what a terrorist is.

[richardsim7]

It was an impressive headbutt I must admit, imagine if he'd have hit him in the face :laugh:

-Rich-

[Orange]

This is why there is always an evil side to Football. These players have to ruin it for the rest of us even if we are just watching it on tv still ruins it for us :(

[ekerazha]

I'm glad Zidane head butted him. I am pretty sure he had the nerve to call him a terrorist and now he makes these nonsensical remarks about not knowing what a terrorist is.

First of all you can't know what Materazzi said. Only Materazzi and Zidane know that.

Second... yeah, Materazzi is a pretty dirty player (however... not in this world cup tournament), but Zidane doesn't joke too and this is not the first time Zidane headbutts someone (I remember a match when Zidane played for Juventus).

Edited July 10, 2006 by ekerazha

[S.MULLA]

Zidane blames Materazzi insults

The moment Zidane headbutted Materazzi to the ground

Zinedine Zidane's agent says the France captain headbutted Marco Materazzi in Sunday's World Cup final because the Italian made a "very serious" comment.

He told me Materazzi said something very serious to him but he wouldn't tell me what," agent Alain Migliaccio told BBC Five Live Sport.

Sources in France say it is believed Materazzi insulted Zidane's family.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/w...nce/5164094.stm

[syphern]

Zidanes mother is quite ill in hospital and she got worse the morning of the match. This may well have added to his rage and if Materrazi said something about his mother or family, then well he deserved that headbutt in my opinion. He should have added a right hook to it while he was going down. The several videos on google and youtube of what kind of a player Matarrazi is just goes to show one day he would get smacked like that by someone who wont take his crap, world cup final or not final Zidane did not care.

[Toology]

whatever materazzi said still doesnt justify his actions. his such an experienced player and he should really have know better then to headbutt him. you can't let insults get to you in a game like this.

whatever happen to "stick and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me".

Do you honestly believe words can't hurt? Are you serious? :blink:

Zizou did right by me. When you act like a b*tch you get taken down like one.

[ekerazha]

Sources in France say it is believed Materazzi insulted Zidane's family.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/w...nce/5164094.stm

Yeah... believed and believed :rolleyes:

So... did he said Zidane is a "terrorist" or did he insult his family? Make a choice... uh, maybe both :rolleyes:

[zedaxax]

[FlibbyFlobby]

Its quite sad people are defending Zidanes actions and condeming Matterazzi based on speculation. It doesn't matter what Matterazzi said, in sport people will always wind the opposition up and be disrespectful to get the reaction they want. It takes the bigger man to walk away and continue the game; Zidane clearly isn't the bigger man on this occasion.

The media need to leave Materazzi alone until Zidane decides to tell us whatever was supposedly said. The media are already sharpening their knives without any evidence, and its pretty sad in my opinion. Innocent until proven guilty, and at this point no one but Zidane and Materazzi know what happened.

[Michael_C]

http://tonaz.altervista.org/zidane.html

[D!rtySh@dy]

France was the best team, I'm sure.

After Half Time Italy don't play, It's difficult to lose with penalties........

It could be better if a jury vote for the best team of the match.......

It's very difficult for Malouda, because Canavarro & Materazzi are too close. and there was penalty I'm sure, Materazzi touched Malouda, I'm sure.

there was no penalty on Australia vs Italy............... :whistle:

Too problems with Italy........

- Juventus doping

- Cheating

- Racism

- Injury Simulation

etc.......

Italy, is always a Mafia.

It's the dustbin of football....

Edited July 11, 2006 by D!rtySh@dy

[tylerm]

France was the best team, I'm sure.

It could be better if a jury vote for the best team of the match.......

what???

That makes no sense. Are you implying that the World Cup should be comprised of a voting system based on how well a team plays, not whether or not they win the match. I could care less if how they play, as long as they win.

Ask yourself this:

If France played so well....how come they weren't able to win? how come they couldn't find the goal again after they scored in the 7th minute?(a goal that was scored on a penalty no less. they didn't find the goal all night except for PK goals) How come they couldn't stop Italy's equaliser? And how come they couldn't beat Italy in the PK shootout?

[emel]

I am no italy supporter but I dont buy that france played as a better team argument. Fact is France only made goal in two straight game only by penalty, if france was such a better team they would also had "normal" goal. The whole thing sound like my friend, when I play fifa 2006 with him, he always gets many chance to goal but he never goals and I get only one or two change in whole game and I score and he accuse me that he is the best player and I won by luck ( not seriously though lol)..

[I am Reid]

France was the best team, I'm sure.

No they were not the best team, they lost.

[acedriver]

Cannavaro was the most deserving player in the tournament. :|

Cannavaro certainly is the best in the tournament. 6 perfect matches and a good final match.

Cannavaro is the living example of the legendary Italian defenders! Should have gotten the GOLDEN Ball clearly!

Forza Canna!

[AlexMagik]

france team played overall better than italian, from the second half italy was not organized that well, seems they played without any schema... but the italian defence was able to defeat all the french attacks.

and whatever was told to Zidane, he shouldn't act like that, he can simply reply back in the same way, not act like that. doing this he lost a huge part of his "legend", peoples will remind him not anymore as the best player, but also for this action..

[bigbluepride35]

France was the best team, I'm sure.

After Half Time Italy don't play, It's difficult to lose with penalties........

It could be better if a jury vote for the best team of the match.......

It's very difficult for Malouda, because Canavarro & Materazzi are too close. and there was penalty I'm sure, Materazzi touched Malouda, I'm sure.

there was no penalty on Australia vs Italy............... :whistle:

Too problems with Italy........

- Juventus doping

- Cheating

- Racism

- Injury Simulation

etc.......

Italy, is always a Mafia.

It's the dustbin of football....

Wow that's some lovely ignorant generalizing there at the end of that post buddy. Real classy. I love how people are attacking an entire ethnicity because of a soccer amtch. And to my fellow Italians here, stop the bragging and being petty. Don't even justify the ignorant comments with responses. You should have enough pride to ignore such worthless belittling comments. By stooping to that level you do yourself and the rest of us an injustice.

O and to everyone who say Italy was lucky to win this. . . A team that gives up two goals all tournament (one as an OG and one penalty) is not lucky. That's pure toughness and skill. Cry about it all you want.

To the people defending Zidane, are you friggin kidding me???? I have not seen Materazzi play dirty in this tourney. You want to go on a player's past reputation? Fine let's also look at Zidane. We could point to his headbutt in a Champion's League game with Juve. Or perhaps his despicable actions in WC '98 stepping on the Saudi Arabian player. Zidane is a great skilled player no doubt. But to react like that to some verbal insult is absolutely despicable and classless. I lost all my respect for him with that action. He acted like an ASS with no cntrol over himself. Please, based on the "well it was such a terrible thing that Materazzi said" argument then players all over the world have the right to charge into the stands and beat the living hell out of fans in almost every sport imaginable because some chants I've personally heard at sporting events here in the States and the stories about harsh fans internationally would justify that. You don't like Materazzi? Fine but don't try to justify the cheap shot and Zidane's acting like a ****ing bitch. I'm sure Zidane was capable of dishing out some verbal abuse of his own instead of stooping to that depsicable level. And everyone who voted for him to win the Golden Ball after the match (according to a news report on ESPN News the difference in votes were cast after the game) should have their voting rights revoked for future WCs. Rewarding THAT was absurd.

OK I just had to say my piece and I'm done with this thread. The amount of flaming and baiting is just ridiculous. Grow up everyone.

Edited July 11, 2006 by bigbluepride35

[L3thal Veteran]

OK I just had to say my piece and I'm done with this thread. The amount of flaming and baiting is just ridiculous. Grow up everyone.

Can people hold opinions these days? :huh:

[bigbluepride35]

Can people hold opinions these days? :huh:

Theres a difference betwen somehwat educated opinion and pure flaming like "Italy are mafia." My statement was more directed to those types of "opinions." Though I misspoke. I shouldn't have said everyone. I meant just the people making those types of comments. And not just with regards to the comments on Italy either. I just took the opportunity when my own ethnicity was insulted to speak but the amount of ethnic bashing or personal attacks that has been prevelant throughout this thread has been pretty depressing. Which is why I stayed pretty quiet in this thread throughout the whole Cup. I wanted to comment on games many times but was just disgusted by that type of commentary and didn't want to be drawn in.

Edited July 11, 2006 by bigbluepride35

[L3thal Veteran]

Regarding the "Italy are Mafia" comment, take a look at the guy's post again. You can clearly tell that English is not his first language and therefore what he said wasn't really what he meant. I am not Italian by any means, but from what I can infer, he was just trying to say that when it comes to football or soccer, whatever you call it, Italians are cheaters due to the scandals occurring in Italy for the past few months and therefore some representatives of Italian teams are "Mafiosos" for doing what they did.

[bigbluepride35]

"Italy is always Mafia" and "the dustbin of football" suggest more than referring to the one scandal in my opinion. But whatever, like I said that comment provoked me but there's been crap throughout this thread and other insults launched at Italians (and other ethnicities). I picked that because it was the most recent one I had read when I was making my post.

[L3thal Veteran]

Actually, not to stir up anything here pride, but Italian soccer right now is considered the "dustbin of football" by many people around the world. The scandals involving Italian Champions League teams and the most renown Italian teams in the world like Juventus is beyond scandalous and embarrassing.

[bigbluepride35]

Actually, not to stir up anything here pride, but Italian soccer right now is considered the "dustbin of football" by many people around the world. The scandals involving Italian Champions League teams and the most renown Italian teams in the world like Juventus is beyond scandalous and embarrassing.

Touche lol. Yeah well I'm still in a state of euphoria so I'll find some way to cope with the serie A season and Champions League depression when the time comes. The "Italy is always mafia" still bothers me. Trust me, I'm extremely upset about the embarrassment and disgusted with the officials involved in the match fixing. It especially bothers me that it turns out to be some of the top teams that shouldn't have NEEDED to cheat to win. And if it cleans up the game then good riddance (even if my team gets sent down to serie B for a season). But none of the players themselves have been implicated in the scandal. Unfortunately it's the bosses of the clubs. Using that scandal to belittle the World Cup championship is what irked me about that comment I guess. Again I didn't mean to bite the one dude's head off, and I don't think I really did, but my "grow up everyone" comment was targeted toward the ignorant ethnic insults and generalizations I've seen made not him specifically.

And now I've made a hypocrite of myself and my "I'm done with this thread" statement but I felt the need to explain myself lol.