Why, Zizou, Why?

Shock after one of the most exciting World Cup tournaments I've ever experienced... Not only did France lose, but Zinedine Zidane ended his impressive career on a low note. With France and Italy tied 1-1 with a mere 10 minutes left in overtime - 10 minutes left in Zidane's 20-something year footballing career - he lets his temper get the best of him and he head butts the Italian Marco Materazzi hard in the chest and is then ejected from the game.

What makes this whole thing worse - this is Michele's first time really following the French team (I am most likely the one to blame for this) and she was honestly impressed with Zidane this whole tournament. She was impressed with his ball handling skills, but more so, she was impressed by the fact that he focused more on playing the game than many of the other greats of this tournament. Michele pointed out that many other players take dives and fall to the ground and feign injury to slow the game down - Zizou never did any of this. He was a player we both came to respect because he didn't have to do all the cheap little things to try to get an advantage, he was just that good.
Sadly, his end was not as glorious as the rest of his career and it was obvious that the French team suffered because of it. France's 3 best players and goal scorers, Zidane, Henri, and Ribery were all taken out in the last few minutes of overtime (red card, injury, injury) thus, also taking them out from penalty kicks at the end (Only those men on the field at the final whistle are allowed to take penalty kicks). Trezeguet and Wiltord came on and were never able to get into the swing of things in the last few minutes (ironically, these were the two men who scored against Italy in the 2000 France vs. Italy European tournament final).

One of the few aspects where Italy had the advantage over France was in injuries. Italy played every single person on their team this tournament other that the backup goalies. Everyone on Italy's team was good enough for World Cup experience whereas France played and relied on the same starters time after time giving them a clear disadvantage when their 3 best are no longer playing.
But dispite the loss, the French played amazingly well in this tournament and that is something that I am happy for. At the start, they tied South Korea and Switzerland and no one gave them a chance to make it very far. They beat Togo to stay in the tournament and then woke up and beat Spain, Brazil, and Portugal. They were the only team to score against Italy (the 1-1 tie in Italy v. USA was actually a goal Italy scored on itself).


In other news, the reason the Soviet Union collapsed must be because they didn't take things far enough! Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, has successfully silenced foreign press in Russia. From Mike Eckel of the Associated Press, "Authorities have dramatically curtailed the number of stations broadcasting Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America news programs, officials said Friday, sending an unsettling signal about the state of press freedoms in Russia."

Certain people in the US seem to want our government to go the same way: Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post writes, "Arizona Rep. J.D. Hayworth circulated a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert calling for the [New York Times]'s congressional credentials to be withdrawn. And New York Rep. Peter King continues to call for the Times -- which, he told Fox News, has an "arrogant, elitist, left-wing agenda" -- to be prosecuted for violating the 1917 Espionage Act."
Basically, one of our most legitimate newspapers should be tried for treason for following their responsibilities to the public.

Wow...

Sometimes, I think, maybe living in Mali away from up-to-the-minute media coverage of politics will make me sane again.