11 July 2006
Dubai: Pourquoi L'at'il fait? (why did he do it?). It was the question on everyone's lips whether you are French or not after Zinedine Zidane head-butted Italy's Marco Materazzi to the ground in the final of the World Cup on Sunday.
The French maestro's moment of madness came in a fraction of a second - though it appeared that he had reasoned out his actions before executing them - enough time to send his image spiralling down south.
Zidane's fall from grace is a warning to us.
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Do not look for signs of God in your sporting hero. You will not find it. It was the classic example of the failure of the human mind to cope with pressure.
In sporting parlance, they call it 'Self-Instructional Training'. It is about learning to control precisely what goes through your mind during high tension - because there appears to be natural human tendency to flood the mind with uncontrolled thoughts, which make failure more likely.
The psyche coaches use the phrase 'clear your computer' as the way of teaching you must erase from your memory banks a poor moment, so you cannot be affected for the next one.
Irrespective of the various theories that are now being floated on what forced Zidane to carry out the worst foul of the tournament - and this has been a Cup of ugly fouls and brutal dives - one thing is clear: the maestro may have fallen victim to a piece of classical Italian trickery.
The Italians are masters of the art of deception, exploiting the angles, striking from the shadows. Strike once and then padlock the front door with the catenaccio.
They win by thwarting. They win by irritating. They win by frustrating. And they did that all night long with Zidane. They nipped at his heels, tugged at his shirt, never quite fouling him, but driving him to despair. Open spaces were closed out.
Able ally
They also had an able ally in the referee Elizondo prefers the 'flowing style' of play never encouraging pleas for fouls. The champions never allowed a goal on the run of play.
Zidane's frustration grew. He left the field after injuring his shoulder, but returned. In the 104th minute, Buffon tipped his sharp header forcing Zidane to scream his displeasure, he was on the verge of cracking up.
Then came the annoying arm around his waist by Materazzi and Zidane imploded. Materazzi's tumble, after a month of classic dives, was acceptable.
That was when Italy won the Cup. Zidane was caught. It was an unfortunate way to end a glittering career for he will always be remembered just as much for this cheap act as for being a master geometrician who exploited every angle on the field.
It was an absurd moment for a genius, who played as if he were well aware of the absurdities of football.
By Staff Reporter
Gulf News 2006. All rights reserved.
