Zidane, Why? 10 July, 2006

Last night was The World Cup Final and Zinedine Zidane’s last ever game in football. He was sent off with this head-butt on Materazzi who quite obviously said something to Zidane who reacted violently and unnecessarily in what what was his final move as a footballer and will mar his outstanding career. I thought it was quite a good final really, was full of exitement and drama, it started off with Thierry Henry coming off badly in a challenge in the 1st minute and was down for quite a while which was quite worrying. He eventually returned to play and Gooners around the globe I’m sure relieved to see him running around fine again. Zidane scored the first goal of the game which was a penalty on 7 minutes, it was a cheeky chip whip hit the underside of the bar, bounced over the line and then bounced out again, reminiscent of Geoff Hurst’s 1966 final goal. Materazzi equalised in the 19th minute with a header from Pirlo’s pin-point cross.

The game stayed at 1-1 with some chances but none taken, Titi had a few Italy hit the post and crossbar and in extra time Zidane had an opertunity with a header just like in ’98 but aimed it just above Buffon who made a fine save. Then in the 110th minute was that head-butt by Zidane and after about 2 minutes of arguing the 4th official told the referee Zizou needed to be sent off, he must of seen it on a TV monitor for him to come to a decision like that, but FIFA insist no video replay was used. After that the French booed the remainder of the game not knowing what actually happened and with France having substitued Henry and Vieira though exhastion/injury they were missing their captain, our ex-captain, and our current captain and held out for the shoot out. Those 3 players probably would have all taken a penalty but France only missed one of thiers with David Trezeguet hitting the bar which prooved crucial as Italy converted all of thiers and won the World Cup.

Zidane’s maddness in extra-time meant he wasn’t allowed to collect his runners-up medal and was left in the dressing room thinking about what he’d done; he must have been the loneliest man in the whole world. However despite this he was still crowned the player of the tornament and claimed the Golden Ball award. Germany’s Miroslav Klose who has been linked with Arsenal by our new scout Jens Lehmann picked up the Golden Shoe. And another player linked with a move to North London is World Cup Winner Gianluigi Buffon who also took home the Lev Yashin award for the best goalkeeper and only let in 2 goals in the entire competiton.

So finaly the World Cup is over and all concentration is on the domestic season, although I’m happy to be saying this, Serie A fans wont be as we will soon get the verdict on the match-fixing scandal. Which will hopefully pave the way for many signings. A brand new link which was come out today is Ghana’s captain Stephen Appiah who is interested in a move to Ashburton Grove.

“No deal has been done yet but 50 percent of me is coming to Arsenal. Clubs like AS Roma, Juventus and Marseille all want me, but I don’t want to go to Italy again. I prefer Arsenal, they are my number one choice.”

He also said he’s in the best form of his career and wants to go to North London where he can win tropheys. Appiah currently plays for Turkish side Fenerbahce who don’t want to let him go, but if they were able to have Sol Campbell then a deal might be done. However Harry Rednapp and Tony Adams are set to make an offer. I think Arsene might want him to go to Turkey so we could secure the services of Appiah, maybe that’s why he’s said Sol will be going abroad. Now that the World Cup is over there is no excuse for Arsene to bring in a couple of new signings to strengthen the squad. Hopefully my next post’s title will be: ‘Second Signing of The Summer Revealed’, untill then.