Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[CP]

I read a story entitled "Materazzi Reveals Details of Zidane Exchange" at this Web site:

http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-materazzi&prov=reuters&type=lgns

Remember how Zidane was ejected, and probably cost France the World Cup title, by head butting Materazzi during the final match last July? The early reports were that Materazzi was saying insulting things about Zidane's mother and sister, and Zidane lost his temper.

Of course, there is "trash talking" in every sport, so it wasn't surprising that Materazzi might have said something. But I thought it was totally unprofessional -- not to say idiotic -- of Zidane to assault Materazzi physically. He must have known he would be ejected, and he was France's only real hope of winning the shootout. Whatever Materazzi said, Zidane should have stayed cool.

But now I respect him even less than before. According to Materazzi, this is what happened: Materazzi held Zidane's shirt, and Zidane said, "If you want my shirt, I will give it to you afterwards."

Materazzi replied, "I would prefer your sister."

That's it! That's all he said!

I would have laughed if he'd said that to me -- or maybe said, "You mean my brother, don't you?"

But Zidane flipped his lid, head butted Materazzi, and disgraced himself in his last match.

Foolish.

[ClarissaMach]

Hum. . . I was told that Materazzi actually said "la tua sorella e una putana" (your sister is a b i t. . .).

Who are we to trust?
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Stormy Weather.

[CP]

Well, I am just taking the word of Materazzi himself. He is the one who was interviewed, and if he lied about what he said to Zidane, he knows that others heard him and could contradict him.

His answer ("I'd rather have your sister") is a more likely answer to Zidane ("If you want my shirt, I will give it to you afterwards") than calling his sister a b-tch, so at least what Materazzi said in the newspaper has the ring of truth.

But even if he called Zidane's sister terrible names (and in the story he said that he did not know that Zidane even had a sister; he was just trash talking), Zidane should have recognized what Materazzi was doing.

Zidane spoke first. He is an experienced player. He knew that Materazzi would say something back, and probably nothing very nice. He should have expected the worst and still conducted himself as a professional.

After the match, which Zidane might have won for France, Zidane was retiring. He had the rest of his life to get even with Materazzi, if he wanted to.
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[goettingen]

We all make mistakes.It has gone,let's forget it.