World Cup Nonsense

[Bierzo Baggie]

Hey, I’m going to stick up for the great man. Zidane has always been simmering on the brink of a few serious sessions of rage control therapy somewhere. Occasionally it boils over, as it has done before. However, his head-butt was a symbolic one. A classy one even. Roy Keane would probably have marked the moment with a true Glasgow kiss to Meterazzi’s Roman nose (and then he’d have stood over him shouting obscenities). Rooney would probably have nutted him in the bollocks. Zidane simply channelled his rage into the one place where he wouldn’t actually do any damage. And of course after a bit of theatrical rolling around the floor to mark the true spirit of Germany 2006 Meterazzi got up again, probably when he realized that Zidane was on his way. Inevitable? Yes... it looked bad, but Rossi's elbow against the U S of A was potentially 10 times worse.

Remember Boli’s cowardly head-butt on Stewart Pearce? Or this time around, Figo’s pathetic little prod of a head-butt against Holland (why did he only get yellow?) No, Zidane ended his career by providing us with one of only two memorable moments from a world cup of monumental crapness, his long, sad march past the world cup trophy without so much as a passing glance. Sadly it had to end this way.

The other memorable moment? Enter king of comedy Graham “chuckles” Poll….