Zidane and fifa 06 for me :-(

“This morning the sense of incredulousness is still there.” screamed a French daily, on the dawn of the day following Zidane’s exit in world cup 2006. And that is the case.
The moment I saw the replay of Zidane headbuting Materazzi, we were aware that the referee has not seen it. I started hoping that it stays so. But alas the fourth referee had seen it and informed the other over the headset. I know, I know red card was deserved, but it didn’t feel like it, the maestro’s last match of his career, the stage as grand as it can be where football is concerned, the audience emotions on the highest fervors, France and Zizou seemed so close to the fairytale ending that would have made him a legend among legends, but they were still to be decided with 10 odd minutes in the extra time to go. But all hopes smothered at least for Zidane as he gave in to the provocation by Materazzi.

Italy went ahead to win the world cup, with penalty shoot out win, thanks to an unlucky miss by David Trezeguet. But gloom and what gloom had descended around me from the moment he walked out of the field. The player who brought charisma back into this world cup, the one who raised the stakes, the team which pounded Brazil was no left destitute.

My passivity is painfully cultivated one, I stopped watching cricket though I used to enjoy it so much as I rationalized that when we guys scream and shout and get all worked up, for all you know they had just written the end of the story long before the match began, and then they (at least Indian team) play every third day and from dawn to dusk, no sense in wasting my sentiments on the game. But this soccer season I get lured again, Germany’s defeat the nation’s collective sorrow was so hard to watch that especially because the defeat came suddenly in the 119th minute. I think man soccer is too much of high intensity drama, with unexpected climaxes and anticlimaxes. Like Harsha Bhogle said, it’s an unscripted drama unfolding in front of your eyes, performed at the greatest of the theatres, the end of which no knows.

Zidane’s early exit brought with it such incredulousness. Such tainted chapters of your career are not avoidable but so sad that they had to be the closing chapter of his career. I just hope we all forget the last one and remember him for all that had come before, the 98 victory he brought to his nation and the only victory his nation has had at fifa world cup.

I would once again like to snare passivity in and forget soccer , for the sudden cruelty that it unleashes, it leaves lots of ifs and thens in your mind, tormenting you to go over what happened wondering if just one piece had been moved around a completely a different glorious reward would have been awaiting the now declared losers. But I guess that also is the lure of it, that so much is at stake and gambled away sometimes and almost worlds move around in a matter of seconds, that the beginning an end of the same game might seem so alien to each other.