Horrified!

If you were like me and simply unable to sleep last night then there is a chance that you watched the World Cup final.

I was decked out in my 1998 French sweatshirt and was simply fascinated by the whole match. With just one vocal chord operating I did not have the luxury of shouting myself hoarse at all of the exciting moments. Indeed had I been able to speak or express my emotions I would have felt as if I was betraying the French team because I sound so much like Marlon Brando in his role as the Godfather and the last thing I wanted was to make the French an offer that they could not refuse.

An exciting match it was. The thrills and spills of the game, the near misses, the injustice of fouls not being spotted by the referee or the linesmen, the skill of the goalies, all had me enthralled right up to the point at which the impossible happened.

Zidane head butted an Italian player and was sent off.

I was stunned!

Zidane, in his last ever match, the scorer of France's only goal, the master tactician who seemed not to have lost his skills and who played brilliantly and was on the verge of scoring France's second goal only to be thwarted by the extraordinary skill of the Italian goalie Buffon.

What could possibly have been said to this man to make him completely lose his cool and end an illustrious career in a moment of madness? I have absolutely no idea, perhaps this is something we will discover along the way. If the rumours about Zidane being hired for a five year contract with Canal + are true then I have a feeling that this channel may now regret signing him.

In the coming days there will be unending dissection of that moment of madness and no doubt considerable effort made to ascertain exactly what happened. There will of course also be speculation about whether or not had Zidane stayed in the match the penalty score would have been different or not.

Regardless of the outcome and regardless of whatever was said to Zidane, his response was horrific and inappropriate for any soccer match much less the world cup final.

While I will continue to support the French team and think that frankly (no pun intended) they were the better team on the day I can think of nothing that will excuse Zidane's behaviour this day. I mean in a worst case scenario punch the Italian out, but AFTER the match!

As for the Italians, congratulations especially to Buffon. To hell with the penalty shoot out.

Buffon was the man of the match in my view. His save against the header from Zidane is what I think won the match. The rest was simply a tragic farce!