Wednesday, July 12, 2006

No Shame

All class:
Marco Materazzi's agent believes a reunion between the Italy defender and Zinedine Zidane would make a 'nice moment'. . . Claudio Vigorelli, Materazzi's agent, told BBC Radio Five Live: 'At the end of the day it is a thing between Zidane and Materazzi. My personal wish would be that one day they could meet again and maybe make a nice moment.'
Interesting to see what happens if Inter Milan plays a French team in the Champions League this season...

Actual, if belated, class looks something like this, however:
'I reacted badly and I would like to apologise for it,' Zidane told Canal Plus. 'I would like to apologise because a lot of children were watching the match. I do apologise but I don't regret my behaviour because regretting it would mean he was right to say what he said. . .'

'Then he said very harsh words to me and repeated them several times. I left but then I went back towards him and things went very fast. The words he said concerned my mother and sister.

'I heard them once, then twice, and the third time I couldn't control myself. I am a man and some words are harder to hear than actions. I would have rather been knocked down than hear that.'

'Afterwards I explained to the referee that I had been provoked, but my behaviour is not forgivable,' Zidane said.
I wasn't quite right when I said I couldn't think of anything similar - the obvious Eric Cantona kung fu incident is remarkably similar in terms of sheer WTF?-ness, though I think there is tiny difference in degree between a league game at Crytsal Palace and the World Cup Final. But that's just me.

In any event, that got me thinking about the certain symmetry involved - Zidane only became the fulcrum of the French national team after Cantona was suspended for 9 months following the above incident. Does the baton now pass to the mercurial Ribery?
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4 comments:

  1. Icepick7/12/2006 12:07 PM

    Your kung-fu kick comment reminded me of something I saw on TV recently, although I believe the incident is not of recent vintage. (WARNING: My recollection of events is probably not precise, but this is what I remember seeing.)

    At a minor league baseball game a pitcher kept throwing inside on a particular batter. Finally, the pitcher brushed the batter back once to often. Without taking his eyes off the pitcher, the batter performed a side-kick to the catcher and only then charged the mound. While clearly out-of-bounds behavior, I liked the fact that the batter protected his backside first.

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  2. Pooh7/12/2006 2:05 PM

    Izzy Alcantrara, quite possibly the worst Red Sock I have ever seen play in person (he could actually hit the ball a bit but terrible defensively whose hustle was even worse. And given this incident, there may have been attitudindal issues as well...)

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  3. Icepick7/12/2006 6:10 PM

    Wow, so you knew about this.

    I saw it in a collection of baseball low-lights when that minor leaguer got suspended for 50 games earlier this year for trowing a bat at the ump.

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  4. Al7/13/2006 12:46 PM

    Interesting to see what happens if Inter Milan plays a French team in the Champions League this season...


    We don't have to wait for that to find an interesting match.

    Euro '08 qualifying - guess who's in the same group: France and Italy! They play on September 6 in the Stade de France. Will Materazzi even show up? (Even if so, he may not play, since Nesta will likely be back.)

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