I suggested, a few days ago, that I couldn’t wait to see the outcome of Zidane vs. Brazil, Round 2 (8 years after Zizou headed France to World Cup glory), but I never imagined that at 34 years of age (with every game threatening to be his last) the old magician could conjure up a performance of such breath-taking wizardry, invention and panache.
While France (as a team) were brilliant - with Brazil never more than just OK - the profusely sweating ZZ1 was (even on a field packed with other footballing giants) a true colossus. Back in RTÉ Sport HQ Graeme Souness spoke for many when he said that over the last decade no player had given him more pleasure than Zidane. Peter Collins beamed and gushed with similar praise; Johnny Giles nodded and declared that the great man was "back to his best". The normally calm and critical RTÉ panel don’t (usually) do ‘love-ins’ but even the hardest, most clinical heart could not help but be swept along by a sumptuous example of what makes this (above all others) the beautiful game.
The intriguing sideshow to a marvellous match was the coming together of the old master and his most obvious successor. Zidane vs. Ronaldinho. The past vs. The present. Those journos who had their "passing of the torch"/"changing of the guard" pieces ready to go soon found themselves penning an entirely different narrative. The pretender (magnificent as he is) looked anxious, over-eager to please…somewhat desperate. Zizou, in contrast, gave a master class in calm assurance, bewitching elegance, and total self-belief. As Souness suggested, it was (simply) a pleasure to watch.
When the final whistle sounded all I could think of was that lovely phrase - used by the Liverpool faithful when referring to Bill Shankly - "He made the people happy".
He sure did.
Update: Just found this marvellous compilation. Doesn't include his many moments of magic against Brazil the other night, but some of those can be found here.
England 0 Portual 0 [1-3 on Penalties]
- Christy Moore eat your heart out [back]
Main Entry: acumen
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: intelligence
Synonyms: accuracy, acuity, astuteness, awareness, brains, brilliance, cleverness, comprehension, cunning, discernment, discrimination, farsightedness, good taste, grasp, guile, ingenuity, insight, intellect, intelligence, intuition, judgment, keenness, perception, percipience, perspicacity, perspicuity, refinement, sagacity, sensitivity, sharpness, shrewdness, smartness, smarts*, understanding, vision, wisdom, wit (Most of which apply to Zizou).
Antonyms: denseness, dullness, ignorance, inability, ineptness, naivete, stupidity (All of which apply to David Beckham)
Verdict : NO COMPARISON ! ;)
Great WC blogging J.
July 8th, 2006 at 3:33 pm