The Beast And The Best - How will you remember Zinedine Zidane? - LITTLE BOY BLUE'S WORLD CUP DIARY

Last updated : 10 July 2006 By Little Boy Blue






Prior to his Berlin brainstorm, there is a fair chance you would recall the brash player who burst on to the scene with Bordeaux, playing a major role in their run to the 1996 UEFA Cup Final.  Or maybe he didn't catch your eye until his move to Juventus, playing in two Champions League Finals before starring for France in the 1998 World Cup Final and Euro 2000.  Perhaps some younger Bears didn't become aware of ZZ until he was transferred to Real Madrid and he hammed home a stunning volley which won the European Cup at Hampden four years ago.

His has been a glittering career and there were many who thought he could turn this World Cup Final into his very own testimonial match, bowing out on the highest of highs.  For so long it looked possible, maybe even probable…then he blew it!

With the passing of time, the memory of all his magic will fade.  But etched in the memory for all time and sure to be reshown over and over again will be his idiotic head butt into the chest of Italian defender Marco Materazzi.  Whatever prompted his action, whether it was some Materazzi lip wishing him a far from happy retirement or the tweak of the nipple, as ITV's Clive Tyldesley suggested, Zidane can have no excuse.  And with the inevtiable red card, France's hopes of lifting the World Cup evaporated.

The glory would belong to the Italians.  With their domestic game in tatters, Marcello Lippi's squad have seen the World Cup as an opportunity to restore some respectability to Italian football and they sure grabbed it with both hands.  After an uncertain start, they had grown into the tournament and their semi-final success over the host nation was undoubtedly one of the best team performances of this World Cup.

Italy didn't scale the same heights in the final but they showed great character to bounce back from the loss of an early goal.  They might even have been ahead by half-time but spent much of the second half on the back foot and, even when facing a team reduced to ten men by Zidane's stupidity, they looked more inclined to hold on than to go all out for victory.  Having peaked in Dortmund, this was maybe one game too many for Lippi's team and they must have recognised they were more than a wee bit fortunate to win.

Amidst it all, who did the Italian players lift shoulder high on their triumphant lap of honour?  It wasn't their outstanding skipper Cannavarro, headline-grabbing full-back Grosso, the artistic Pirlo, Totti or Del Piero, or goal machine Luca Toni.  The man on top of the world was former Ranger Rino Gattuso and nobody deserved it more.  Injury forced him to sit out their opener and only a dramatic reshuffle forced on Lippi by the early red card to de Rossi in the next game saw Rino brought back in ahead of schedule.

Suddenly there was great drive in the Italians ranks and they started to believe in themselves.  Having beaten Germany, they were a stick-on to win it in my eyes but the Zidane factor could not be overlooked.  Playing his last game before hanging up his boots, there was a niggling feeling in the back of my mind that he might be the man to undo Italy.

One Bear in the Vic in Kilwinning was so convinced that it would be ZZ's night that he put a fair wad on Zidane to be the first goalscorer and after only six minutes I was wishing I'd grabbed a slice of that action when Malouda went down when challenged by Materazzi and the ref pointed to the spot.  Up stepped the main man and, with the cheekiest of clips off the underside of the bar, France were 1-0 up.

It was the early goal popular opinion reckoned the game would need.  If Italy had got it, they might have been content to sit back on it, choke the game and hope to do more damage on the break.  But now the Italians had to go for it and they rose to the challenge.  With Gattuso making sure Zidane didn't go on to build on his dream start, they took the game to France and Materazzi, having given away the pen, made amends in style after 19 minutes when he rose to head home a Pirlo corner kick.

Now it was the French who were being asked to respond and for the remainder of the first half they had little to offer.  Italy pressed forward, especially down the left side were full-back Grosso was always available but it was corners on the right, just like the one which produced the equaliser, which really troubled the French.  Materazzi got in another header, only to be somewhat harshly penalised for the slightest of nudges, then Luca Toni rattled the crossbar with a header.

Made to do the chasing, veterans like Vieira, Thuram, Henry and Zidane did not enjoy the best of first halfs but they must have had a meaningful conflab at the interval because it was the white shirts which caught the eye after the restart.  And this is where Rino Gattuso was in his element.  No matter how swiftly they knocked the ball around, the wee man was in there, snapping at the heels, getting in the tackles and breaking up the play, then giving his own team-mates the chance to do some damage at the other end.

Italy had a goal dusallowed for offside but it was the French who had the upper hand, although I couldn't figure Clive Tyldesley's voice going up an octave or two whenever Henry was in possession.  For me, Ribery had his best game of the tournament and, had he not run out of steam, looked like the best partner for Zidane.

As had become the way of things in the knock-out stages, towards the end of the 90 minutes both teams became aware of the dangers of losing everything to a late goal and got more cautious.  Only when they knew they had a full half-hour to go for it, or claw back anything lost on the counter, did sides open up again.  So the regulation time ended rather tamely but again it was France who called the shots in extra-time, with Ribery coming close to shooting them into the lead.

Towards the end of the first period, a brilliant header from Zidane forced an equally impressive save from Buffon and the outcome was perhaps settled there and then.  Had his header gone in, ZZ would have took whatever goading Materazzi had to offer and gone on to have the last laugh.  But it didn't, he didn't and, ultimately he couldn't.

So it went to penalties, all but David Trezeguet scored and it was Rino Gattuso who was being carried on the shoulders in celebration.  Zinedine Zidane was somewhere in the bowels of the stadium, out of sight, out of the game he had graced for so many years and possibly going out of his mind for having thrown it all away so stupidly.

LITTLE BOY BLUE