On the Road ... Tour de France

The agony of defeat 

Over the course of the past month, I have become a fan -- not just of the World Cup as an event, not just of a specific country and not just of a specific team.

All those things happened, but what I really discovered was a wonderful player -- Zinedine Zidane.

As you no doubt know, his soccer career ended horribly -- with a red card after head-butting an Italian opponnent.

Overall, this World Cup provided me with a seeming never-ending list of memories that I will cherish for a lifetime, but the one on-field event that will remain is that head butt.

In some ways, I don't feel like I have any room to be disappointed and certainly not disgusted with Zidane. I only discovered him during this tournament and therefore won't pretend to feel emotions reserved for those that went through far more highs and lows with the man they call Zizou.

Still, France's loss and they way it happened stung far more than I could have ever imagined.

I had grown to really appreciate that team and was rooting for them just as passionately as I have ever rooted for a team. The biggest reason I was rooting for them, though, was my newfound respect for Zizou.

He was by far the best player I have ever watched. His mastery with the ball was unlike anything I had ever seen on the pitch. And the more I learned about him, the more intriguing he became.

Of course, it was the same stuff that brought intrigue to his character that ultimately led to his unraveling, which is why I can't muster up much anger toward him.

Rather, I'm left with a sense of loss. He was far too good a player, with much too interesting of a story, to go out that way -- with his head cast downward as he walked past the World Cup trophy and into the lockerroom.

What makes it worse is that we may never know what happened to make Zizou crack. Did he just lose his mind after playing in pain and exhaustion? Somehow I doubt that. Was it something the Italian player said? Probably, but that hardly explains it. I sincerely hope that he will speak on the subject. But if I've learned anything in the past month, it's that we'll be the ones left making excuses and assigning blame, not the man himself.

posted by FreeSanJose at 9:43 AM

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