Tue, July 11th 2006
After an exhaustive study of the match video, and with the help of an Italian translator, Rees claimed that Materazzi called Zidane “the son of a terrorist whore” before adding “so just f*** off” for good measure.
From: The Times
Seems to be corroborated here: The Daily Mail
Mon, July 10th 2006
Fifa says video replays played no part in France captain Zinedine Zidane’s dismissal in Sunday’s World Cup final.
Referee Horacio Elizondo acted similarly with Wayne Rooney’s sending off earlier in the tournament. He appeared to be taking no action for some time against Rooney before pulling him aside and showing the red card.
Zidane seemed in no doubt he was guilty. He could be seen taking off his captain’s armband some time before being dismissed, but put it back on after the thinking the officials had missed the incident.
Zinedine Zidane has been awarded the Golden Ball as the best player at the World Cup, despite his sending-off in the final last night.
Italy 1 - France 1 (Italy win on penalties)
Zinedine Zidane’s career came to a staggering end as he saw red for his brutal head butt on Italian Materrazi.
Thu, July 6th 2006
France 1 - Portugal 0
After a first half penalty from Zinedine Zidane, France closed down the game with ease to qualify for the second World Cup final.
Wed, July 5th 2006
Italy 2 - Germany 0
After a raft of uninspired knock-out phase matches, the hosts Germany and Italy fought out one of the most exciting semi-finals of all time, and restored the reputation of the World Cup.
Tue, July 4th 2006
The Italian Football Federation’s prosecutor has called for all four clubs at the centre of the match-fixing scandal to be thrown out of Serie A.
From: BBC
Mon, July 3rd 2006
England 0 - Portugal 0 (Portugal win on penalties)
England lose in the quarter finals (again) on penalties (again) to Portugal (again). The inquest started immediately with the prime villains being Eriksson, Rooney and Ronaldo.
Wed, June 28th 2006
Johan Cruyff has blamed Holland’s World Cup exit on the country’s immigration minister for not allowing Ivory Coast-born Salomon Kalou to become a Dutch citizen.
Not being allowed to include players from another country, is quite some excuse…
See: BBC
Puyol, Aragones and Spain were unhappy at the free-kick awarded to Thierry Henry that led to France’s decisive second goal.
The striker [Henry] was angry at the referee for not taking action over the rough treatment he received from Puyol in May’s Champions League final in Paris, which Barcelona won 2-1.
After the match, Henry said: “Next time I’ll learn to dive maybe, but I’m not a woman.”
From: BBC
It was a stupid, unnecessary foul by Puyol, but it was hugely disappointing to see Henry go down holding his face when he clearly was not struck there.
There are beginning to be too many sour tastes being left in the mouth after games in this World Cup.
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