The World Cup

[rudi]

I can't read anything he writes without thinking of him looking embarrassed when he got rumbled colluding with Max Clifford to essentially stalk Louis Theroux at Sainsbury's.

Huh? Something I missed? Link?


Basically- ZZ ASSAULTED someone - that's it in a nutshell.

Can we all ge back to life n stuff now...?

[aaaaaaaaaargh!]

I'll be glad when this is forgotten and people will stop writing tedious crap like this about Zidane and like, what his headbutt meant for humanity and what great questions it raises.

It reminds me of a real film I have seen - Michael Haneke's brilliant Hidden, which also happens to have a post-colonial French-Algerian protagonist at its heart and perceived racism as its subject. More important, it is also about unknowable motives.

In Hidden, Daniel Auteuil plays a middle-class television presenter sent creepy surveillance videos of his house. The audience becomes a participant, watching and rewatching the videos alongside Auteuil, trying to work out whodunnit, and why.

With Zidane, though, there is no such ambiguity about the perpetrator. We saw it with the help of the camera's eye, even if the referee and his assistants didn't. The ambiguity here is motive.

That must be pretty much a nailed on certainty to be in Pseuds Corner in the next Private Eye

[AlexS]

For me, the lasting memories from this World Cup will be an overall pathetic England display, Saudi Arabia Vs Tunisia, Portugal Vs Holland, South Korean fans, Maxi's Goal, how Ghana should have beaten Brazil, Vierra telling that cunt Aragones to "Shh" and obviously Zidane.

Also left with a slight pessimism over future international tournaments with unambitious football and an appreciation of Brazil's achievement 4 years ago to win all 7 games inside 90mins.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

an appreciation of Brazil's achievement 4 years ago to win all 7 games inside 90mins.

Quite right too. And that side are still labelled as average. They were a lot better than the 98' side and the 06' side, that's for sure. Even the 94' lot, arguably.

I'm fairly pessimistic about future tournaments too. The obsession with the not-losing-at-all-costs mentality has crept into the Premiership in recent years and you know when two sides line up with a 4-5-1 style formation there's much less chance of having an entertaining game of football than two sides playing 4-4-2.

Last season I found it quite interesting watching MOTD on Saturday night and then The Championship on Sunday morning. 90% of the time The Championship's highlights were far more entertaining. I think two good Championship sides going head to head is the most entertaining spectacle in English football at the moment (bar Boumsongs defending).

Part of me wants Brazil to come back strong in the next World Cup and remind everyone of how brilliant football can be to watch, and for Real Madrid to buy some players and start playing the awesome football of 4 years ago again. And for Arsenal to carry on their approach (at least at Highbury where they won't lose playing that way) this season. In periods they've been the best football teams I've ever seen in my short life.

[chand]

I can't read anything he writes without thinking of him looking embarrassed when he got rumbled colluding with Max Clifford to essentially stalk Louis Theroux at Sainsbury's.

Huh? Something I missed? Link?

It was in the Louis Theroux doc about Max Clifford. Hattenstone wanted to interview Theroux, who had been turning down requests, so Clifford secretly arranged for Hattenstone to 'happen' to be at Sainsbury's when Theroux was there with Clifford shooting some footage. Theroux knew that it was a lame setup but hilariously both Hattenstone and Clifford attempted to act like it was a coincidence. The cameras then caught the sound of Hattenstone and Clifford privately talking about how they'd been rumbled, and when Theroux went back to Clifford saying they'd overheard this, good ol Max stormed off in a huff. It wasn't a big deal, it was just hilarious to see how sheepish Clifford and especially Hattenstone looked.