Postcard Wars

Your World Cup final was decided by penalties for the second time in history. And, as in 1994, this final featured the Azzurri — but apparently Fabio Grosso is no Roberto Baggio, and didn’t come close to firing his crucial shot over the net. For Grosso, it was the third game-winning performance at this tournament — first came the penalty kick he drew vs. Australia (Francesco Totti put it home in injury time), then came the amazing match-winner vs. the Germans in the 119th minute and now the cold-as-ice PK past a more or less useless Fabian Barthez to give the Azzurri their 4th World Cup title.

It was a fascinating game in a lot of ways. Two goals in the first 20 minutes, including a Zinedine Zidane penalty in the seventh minute that called forth memories of Geoffrey Hurst’s goal in the 1966 final at Wembley Stadium (England 4, Germany 2). Then a beautiful equalizer by Marco Materazzi off a corner kick by Andrea Pirlo, and Postcard Wars thought we would have a final that would counter the many goal-depleted games of this low-scoring World Cup. But that was it for scoring, though Zidane had a great chance in the first extra session saved by Italian keeper Gianluigi Buffon, who allowed only two goals during the entire tournament — one an own goal, the other Zidane’s hard-to-stop penalty.

Clearly, however, what everyone will remember about this World Cup final occurred in the second extra period, when Zidane totally lost his cool and head-butted Matterazzi in the chest, dropping the Italian to the ground and earning the French captain/legend a red card, just before penalty kicks were due to begin. David Trezeguet wound up missing his kick in an eerie replay of Zidane’s earlier conversion — this time, however, the ball bounced off the crossbar onto the other side of the line — and no Italians missed. That’s a wrap, and we have a world champion for the next four years. But this game certainly didn’t end at the final whistle, and debate is raging over whether Italy was the best team in the tournament, whether the Azzurri deserved to win even this game and — more than anything else — what Materazzi said to provoke Zidane into such an uncontrolled reaction.

“Traitor,” you say?