BERLIN - Zinedine Zidane hurt not only his team, but the sport of soccer
itself.
Instead of one last great performance, the French star made an inglorious
exit when he was ejected for violently head-butting Italian defender Marco
Materazzi in the chest. In a World Cup littered by a record number of red cards,
this topped them all.
What provoked Zidane still wasn't known Monday, and he got a measure of
redemption when he was given the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player. On
Tuesday, world soccer officials said they will open a disciplinary investigation
into Zidane's conduct. Such investigations are routine following a red card in
an international match.
Still, what happened deep into extra time of the World Cup final will be the
lasting image, a bit like Diego Maradona's positive drug test in 1994.
Zidane's head butt turned Italy's fourth World Cup triumph into an
afterthought.
The world's most popular sport found some solace in a new champion, Italy
taking over from Brazil by beating 1998 winner France 5-3 in a penalty shootout
in Sunday's final after a 1-1 tie in extra time.
But this was a World Cup that promised so much more. The story lines were
enticing.
There were the first World Cup appearances of Lionel Messi, Wayne Rooney and
Andriy Shevchenko and the talent that Brazil, Argentina and England put on the
field. A new crop of African nations was out to follow the past successes of
Cameroon, Nigeria and Senegal. Asia attempted to follow South Korea's semifinal
appearance four years ago, and the United States was poised to build on its
surprise success as a quarterfinalist in 2002.
All of that evaporated quickly. The World Cup reverted to a private party,
European teams on European turf.
Ghana was the only one of the five African nations to get past the first
round. None of the four Asians nations made it. Returning for the first time
since 1974, Guus Hiddink's Australia was the only bright light, but that was
extinguished in the second round by a contested Italian penalty in the third
minute of injury time.
Bruce Arena's American team made a fight of it after crumbling 3-0 in its
first game against the Czech Republic but looked out of its class, eliminated in
the first round.
Argentina became the favorite after a 6-0 crushing of Serbia-Montenegro but
didn't make it to the semifinals, beaten on penalties by a resurgent Germany.
Brazil's stars ¡ª Ronaldinho especially ¡ª left all their best form with their
clubs. Although Ronaldo eclipsed former German star Gerd Mueller as the World
Cup's all-time leading scorer with 15 goals, Brazil made no other mark on the
competition and was outplayed by the French in the quarterfinals.
By the time the semifinals arrived, Germany, Italy and France were getting
stronger.
The Germans and Italians played a standout semifinal and the hosts, who lost
that game thanks to two Italian goals within three minutes at the end of extra
time, went on to finish third by outplaying Portugal 3-1.
Luiz Felipe Scolari, who led Brazil to its fifth World Cup triumph four years
ago, extended his unbeaten streak to 12 after Portugal's penalty shootout
triumph over England in the quarterfinals. But he closed with consecutive losses
to France and Germany.
