Thank you! Italy's team is completly cheap, and it was all obviously planned. I've been playing soccer since 3, and my italian neighbors (who recently learned the rules of soccer) are the worlds WORST! but somehow because of their faking, and complaining they win. 

Well, I do not even think the Italians played brutally or anything. Sure, they are actors, but so are many other teams' players - for instance, the Portuguese outdid them this time by no small margin.

The whole issue of the insult being "political" was refuted, and to be honest i did not believe in it for a sec - as any person who knows what these kinda guys say to each other it is rarely beyond "basic insults" and in the scene Zidane started talking to Materazzi and said more than the Italian (who just reacted with some dirty words).

 I find the whole "let's find excuses for a great player" misplaced. Sure, he was a wonderful player, but a physical violence of this sort does not belong to the game and cannot be excused by anything the Italian might have said to provoke him. In sport games, you gotta keep your cool. 

The whole tournament was great and it's so bad it ended this way.  I am not a soccer expert and I only watch soccer games every four years as it is amazing and a real pleasure to watch the world's best players in the field.

One expects, above all, sportsmanship and the best of every player and team.  It's a pitty what over 3 billion people saw from the Italian team during the last stages of the tournament.

 I am not particulary fond of the French but this time, to be fair, Viva Zidane!  Viva La France!

give me a break the only cup the italian should have got, is a cup for acting.. I mean did you see their games against germany ? The game was constantly slowed down by fool falls.. The Italian were having an outstanding team but it was tainted with dishonesty. I think italy should be stripped of the cup. Look at the Italians fans, they are still carrying little flags on to of their cars,( we got four years to hear them non-stop) The german and the mexican played honorably, if you consider..

Besides soccer rules, anyone who saw the game remembers Zidane was hurted badly in the shoulder before.  Several faults were commited against him by several Italian players during the whole game and the referee didn't show any card to the Italians.

Want to know the type of game the Italian team played during the World Cup?  How many players of the U.S. team were hurted during the game against the Italians?  And how many of the German team?

Many clubs and players (more than half of the National Italian team) are under investigation in their country for conspiracy to arrange matches and commit fraud.

The Italian Soccer Federation authorities are dirty... the Italian team's style and strategies during the World Cup were dirty... no doubt now that Materazzi's mouth is also very dirty.

You state that "the red card was fully deserved" and I agree. But you and FIFA's investigation should also take into consideration what happened before the aggression and even more important if it was a planned strategy of the Italian team.  I believe it was and if I am right then the Italians won as the whole tournament can't be repeated and as far as I am concern FIFA doesn't have rules to punish this behavior... so moraly the French should be considered the real winners.

Respectfully, Carlos R. Lou, Guatemala

 

Zidane had that "resistance" spirit goin', I guess. And that was a powerful blow to the chest, too, knocked him like *wham*.

All seriousness aside, I'm happy for the victorious Italians. I think Stephen Colbert pointed out, it's true, that the U.S. ought to be the "co-champion" for seeing Italy score on its own goal when we played them early on.

This is from Le Monde: 'Selon des spécialistes de lecture labiale interrogés lundi par la chaîne de télévision brésilienne Globo, Materazzi aurait traité la sœur de Zinédine Zidane de "prostituée", tandis que d'après plusieurs journaux britanniques, qui ont consulté également des experts, le défenseur italien aurait traité le Français de "fils d'une pute terroriste".'

Basically, the Brazilian TV station Globo consulted lip-reading experts who said that Materazzi called Zidane's sister a 'prostitute'.  British journalists also consulted the same experts who said that Materazzi called Zidane a 'son of a terrorist bitch.'

Do you know anything about soccer rules? Merely pushing another player or making any violent gesture, not to talk of a headbutt (to any part of the body) is punished by a straight red card. It is especially worse when the ball isn't even in play because you can't try and excuse it as unintentional and a struggle for the ball.

 

The red card was fully deserved. In fact, and although Zidane planned to - and has - retire after that game, he would normally have been investigated and banned for a couple games because of his violent conduct. I'm a fan of his football skills, and his anti-racism activities, and I think he deserves it.

it was a strange cup,, the two finalists were not the better teams in my opinion. the red card was exaggerated in my opinion..its a head butt to the chess..not to the face.. on top the ball wasn't even into play..

Dubfaction  Oh how easy that is to say from the comfort of a nice chair in front of a computer screen. Unfortunately in a high octane World Cup final the nuances of anti racist rhetoric may not come quiet as readily as one would like.