Final Thoughts

Okay, so I thought Italy would win in regulation. I wasn't off by much.

Once the match went to penalties, the only logical outcome I could think of was Marco Materazzi missing the penalty that would cost Italy the final, seeing as how he was intrinsically involved in the other three big plays of the match through 120 minutes. Fortunately for the Azzurri, I was wrong.

There are two potential upshots of the biggest story of the final. First, it has apparently breathed new life into the previously moribund lip-reading industry. Given the wording of Materazzi's denial, we may be able to strike "dirty terrorist" and insulting Zidane's mother from the list, but not insulting Zidane's sister. And I'm not sure if the Italian defender's claim of ignorance absolves him of the esoteric "son of Harkis" allegation.

The second potential positive is that Zidane's violent action will get American sportswriters off of their "soccer is for pussies" talking point, purely because there's more entertainment value in talking about the head butt than there is in reflexively trashing the entire sport.

A co-worker tracked me down late yesterday to ask why the announcers were making a big deal about the "controversial" offside call that negated an Italian goal. I managed to ignore most of the commentary at the bar, so I was blissfully ignorant that they were making any kind of big deal over the play. Yes, the player who headed the ball into the net was onside when the ball was kicked. Yes, the player who was offside didn't touch the ball. But I think the referee actually made the correct call here, even if it meant it may have been inconsistent with past interpretations of the passive offside. The fact that the offside player didn't make the final play is largely immaterial, in my opinion, because he was clearly in the goalie's field of vision and therefore affected the outcome.

Unfortunately, many referees don't see it that way, but that bullshit the Red Bulls got away with earlier in the MLS season forced the issue, so maybe things will change for the better on that particular rule's interpretation.

Anyway, I'm glad to see Italy get the penalty kick monkey -- and would that be the penalty kick cheese-eating surrender monkey? -- off their backs, and now we can focus on the idle speculation of who will replace Bruce Arena as US manager.