What a weird match.

1: Generally, this is a good ref who called a really good game. Except for three little things:

• The PK shouldn’t have been – Malouda dived.
• However, the later takedown in the box on Malouda was a legit foul and should have been a PK. So we’re even at this point.
• Toni’s header should have been allowed, I think. From the way it looked on replay, he was onside and the player next to him was off. But he wasn’t interfering with the play from any practical standpoint that I could see. So it should have been a goal, right?

Maybe somebody saw that one a little differently than I did, but that’s how I interpret the rule on the play.

2: In any case, it feels more or less like the right team won. If the ref had seen it all with perfect instant replay vision, we’d have been 2-1 Azzurri. (Assuming the Butterfly Effect didn’t exist, anyway… 🙂 )

3: It’s a shame that a spectacular career like Zidane’s ended in such incredible disgrace. I wonder if he’s about to become soccer’s Bill Buckner.

4: Hat’s off to Marco Materazzi, though. Your success at any level involves your ability to win the psychological battle, and whatever he did or said that got ZZ to melt down like that has to stand as one of the greatest psychic victories in the history of sport. I’ve suckered opposing players into taking stupid fouls, getting carded, and in one case getting sent off, and it’s a strangely satisfying feeling. These aren’t the moments you’re proudest of as a human being, of course, but you beat the guy mentally, and as a result you took him off the pitch at a critical juncture and deprived your opponent of their best PK taker.

Materazzi played a great defensive game, he scored Italy’s only goal, and he dominated one of the greatest players in history psychologically.

Man o’ the Match…

:xpost: