Italy!

I'll admit that I don't follow soccer as closely as I used to when my knees would let me play it. But Italy won the World Cup last night. They played France to a 1-1 tie and eventually won in penalty kicks 5-3.

French Captain Zinedine Zidane pulled the bone headed play of the year when he walked past Italian defender Marco Materazzi then stopped turned around and in full view of everyone headbutted Materazzi in the chest. This totally unnecessary behaviour was the final act of a great soccer career and was rewarded with a red card expulsion from the game.

Then again later in the evening Zidane was rewarded again for his childish behavior with the Golden Ball award for the tournament's best player. This is an award that is voted on my journalists. Which explains a lot. When was the last time you heard a european journalist who had a clue about what he was talking about.

Zidane with one act of childish anger tainted an entire career as a great player.

That may seem a little harsh but as a defender and backup goalie I was on the receiving end of several fits of anger by self important star strikers. I learned very quickly that I don't care how good you are on the field the moment you lash out at an opponent that way you don't belong on the field anymore. And you certainly don't deserve a top player award.

Zidane made as ass of himself and his career in front of the world. Then a couple hours later the journalist who voted for him joined him.