Rose Cantine

There’s nothing like watching the finals of the World Cup - France against Italy - in a bar in Villeneuve-les-Avignon. The Italians dominated first half of the match. Zinedine Zidane scored on a penalty early in the first half but Italy scored several minutes later. The match slowly turned in favor of the French with Zidane getting a couple of excellent scoring chances. Then overtime (2 x 10 minutes). Surprisingly, Zidane was sent off with a red card after headbutting Marco Matterazzi.

Zidane is a veteran of so many international matches, plus he is the captain of the French team so it’s really unbelievable to see him lose his temper.

So after 1-1, the match enters the penalty phase and David Trezeguet misses. It wasn’t a terrible miss (unlike the Argentine misses in the quarterfinal against Germany) but still Trezeguet missed at the most critical moment.

Fabien Barthez couldn’t stop any of the Italian penalties. Am I the only one who finds Fabien Barthez’s goalkeeping style a little too nerve-wracking?

So the Clarence Seedorf* Memorial Award goes to David Trezeguet and the two Argentine players - Roberto Ayala and Esteban Cambiasso - who missed their penalties in the quarterfinals.

It was a bit sad to see the disappointment in the faces of the French fans especially since we have been watching the matches at various bars here in the Provence for over a week and in every match, they have won. And we’ve seen them drive on their motos and in their cars waving the tricolore as they zip by.

*Clarence Seedorf is a Dutch football player who missed too many decisive penalties in critical matches.