Italy beat France on penalty kicks to win the World Cup. Penalty kicks? Is that any way to win a championship? Penalty kicks seem a bit like the three-point shot, the designated hitter, and other affronts to purists. But someone has to win, right? Like the Astrodome fans of the Bad News Bears, I found myself chanting: "Let them play." Oh, well.

Justice prevailed in the outcome, as Italy got jobbed on an offsides call that negated a goal in regulation. From France's perspective, however, they were coming on late whereas Italy was gassed and depleted. After dominating early, Italy came across as a prizefighter who had taken one too many shots to the body. Italy seemed built for a sprint whereas France was ready to run the marathon.

The story of the game, on so many different levels, was Zidane. He scored a goal. He went down with an injury, but unlike Real Madrid teammate and English captain David Beckham, France's captain dramatically stayed in the game. The hero morphed into the goat. Through frustration(?), fatigue(?), or some inexplicable reason, Zidane headbutted an Italian player in the chest resulting in a red card. Even in his absence, Zidane was the story, as France's chances would have been better during penalty kicks had Zidane not lost his head in an opponent's chest. It was not a storybook ending for the French star.

A few mysteries, questions, and observations: Why were refs awarded medals following the big game? Could Americans learn something from the sportsmanship of soccer that results in teams kicking the ball out of bounds when an opposing player goes down? Did you catch when announcer Dave O'Brian identified Bill Clinton as one of the "celebrities" in attendance, and then quickly rebounded by calling the former president one of the "dignitaries" on hand? Did you think the first label a better fit? Why do people who equate football fans with primitives think watching a soccer game with glass of wine in hand the height of culture? Isn't all the faking and acting that goes on (nothing in the NBA even compares) revolting? Doesn't Italy's victory put a silver-lining on America's early exit, as Team USA can now say they played with the best of the best? Why did they use soccer balls that look like this instead of ones that look like this?

See you in South Africa in 2010.

I really don't understand the hatred of penalty kicks. Isn't it exactly, almost, in same kind to batter vs pitcher? mano e mano?

How else should a game be won where both teams have beat themselves to a physical stand still? a coin toss?

OJ: The Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox played a 19-inning game on Sunday. Should they have forgone the extra ten innings and instead competed in a home-run derby?

Btw, did any of you actually enjoy the game? Please qualify your enjoyment with where you watched it (home or bar).

Myself, I was stuck in a bar in Boston with a bunch of Italian fans. (2 others and I were the total of France fans, and with my poor eyesight I clapped at the same time I thought France had scored a goal when everyone else was clapping because they hadn't).

Baseball is a totally different creature. All exhaustion is from the fans, not the players.

Clever point, OJ.

I watched at home.

Lol, Bill Clinton a dignitary. I'm not even a Clinton basher but thats funny.

That's the problem, Dan, you made the mistake of watching the game in English. I have found that people are better off pressing the mute button or listening to the game in another language than to put up with the commentary of the American commentators.

I watched the game at home with my brother-in-law, who played for Aguacalientes, and we both agreed that the French player took a dive in the box in the sixth minute. France should have never been on the scoreboard. Furthermore, for ninety minutes France looked more like the Olympic diving team. They were not sending their midfielders up to support Zidane and Henry, it seemed that they were falling on first contact in an attempt to set up free kicks. Zidane would have made no difference in the shootout, because the French coach would have still used Trezeguet.

And as far as your claim that America hung with Italy, the U.S. never scored. It was an own goal that kept them in the game.

If France took a dive to get on the score board than it was just payback for Italian diving which is legendary.

The French were taking dives against Portugal also. I admit that Henry did have his leg clipped, but it was his fall that sold the penalty kick. I do not see how France's dive is justified because you say that Italian diving is legendary. Every team has their divers, however, for France it seems it is the only way they can score against a better team.

BTW, Dan, don't book your tickets to South Africa just yet. There is speculation that FIFA may relocate the 2010 World Cup to South America. Something about rape, crime and the little problem that they have not built the venues or even finished the plans for building them.

No team took more dives through out the World Cup than Italy. I felt the two teams were fairly even through 120 minutes, although I thought France was a little better, but obviously not in penalty kicks. The U.S. outplayed Italy in there game as well. Hats off to Italy for winning it, but I wasn't overwhelmed.

The team that took the most dives was Portugal.

I feel bad for Zidane. He lost his cool for a second. I'd like to know what the Italian player said to him. I'm sure it was insulting. And what about the ridiculous dive the Italian guy took? There's no way a mere head butt to the chest would send anyone flying like that. He looked like Ric Flair flopping around after a bionic elbow from Dusty Rhodes!

I thought France outplayed Italy for most of the match, particularly the last 45 minutes of the game. I don't believe that France dove nearly as often as Italy ( and nowhere close to Portugal or Brazil ). Zidane, in particular, did not get key calls which may have led to his meltdown. I love the world cup but this tournement has to make major adjustments to retain it's status as the premiere sporting event in the world. FIFA needs address the "diving" and overtime. PK's are not the way to end any tournement. They need to stop being over officious and permit an extra yellow before a player is suspended. Ties should be discouraged as should playing not to loose. Any tournement that sees penalties spike and goals fall is less than successful.

The Italians should win a collective Academy Award for some brilliant acting. Any French player within a breath caused his Italian counterpart to dive, fall or otherwise fake an injury.

This is why this will never be a sport near and dear to Americans. It's not that we "don't get IT", it's just that we're too damn tough and respect grit and strength.

I and a bunch of other guys had just watched a hockey game and came out to catch the W.C. match. The groans and head shaking highlighted the fact that even world class soccer is something we watch when no other sporting events are on.

Up until the late 80's every team had their own 'hard' man ,Vinny Jones (better known over here for his presence in Guy Ritchie movies) was a prime example. Their job would be to 'take care' of the opponents most skillful/influential player, this worked a little too well so teams employed the tactic of -if it's illegal contact then go down whether it actually forces you to or not.This somewhat understandable strategy is taken too far by (pro)players from romance-language speaking countries.
asdf please go and watch a local hispanic league game or better still go and play in one.

I thought the biggest injury faker was Zidane himself. I'm sure his shoulder hurt because he landed awkwardly, but this is soccer, where shoulders don't matter a whole lot. And the theatrics of begging to be taken off in a stretcher and then walking back on two minutes later... uhg. I guess watching American football and boxing -- where guys actually play with broken bones in body parts they use in the game -- has spoiled me if Zidane is seen by Euro-weakling soccer fans as heroic.

I don't know. Most of the matches I saw, by some degree, had players who were constantly bitching and complaining, diving, falling or faking injury. Maybe the all hispanic leagues are different and contain more contact? And to qualify the previous statement, I did play a season a couple of years ago in an indoor league with a mixed bag of hispanic, Italian, Irish players. I $ucked, but their skill and toughness impressed me very much. Still, can't take to the game. And why should I need to? I gots so much to choose from right here in the good old U.S.A.!

I would encourage skeptic to write sentences which make sense gramatically and syntactically(unlike that last one there).

I would next ask, if shoulders don't matter, whether skeptic would like to run 2 to 4 miles, or jump 3 feet in the air amidst other players with a bruised or dislocated shoulder ... No? Didn't think so.

Then I would ask skeptic if he'd like to get that same head-butt from Zidane, either in the chest or the face...?

In a back alley in Marseilles, perhaps?

No, didn't think so.

Flynn misses the real stories here, however:

1.) The history of the game, and the invention of the penalty shoot-out: it was developed by a Bavarian referee in the late 1960s.

Before that, such games were decided by the flip of a coin... would that somehow be better?

Also, the limit on substitutions makes it rather difficult. If you could substitute more than three players in soccer, then perhaps playing longer than 120 minutes would make sense. Usually, however, a trainer has substituted all three of his players by the 90th minute. They would have to change that rule.

2.) The corruption in the Italian league. Two points:

a.) if FIFA had acted similarly to the body which governs cycling, the Italian team would have been benched from the get-go. Not only were some of the players on the list from Dr. Fuentes in Spain (the doping doctor), but they played for teams which are involved in a major game-fixing scandal at present. To say only the trainers and managers are involved (which is what most people are saying) is naive at best.

b.) if you didn't notice how often the ref was blowing the whistle to Italy's benefit, then you must have been asleep. I watched the game in German, and anyway, I have two eyes in my head, and have done little but watch soccer for the past few weeks: it was obvious. The ref was favoring Italy.

I say Zidane's head-butt was a cri de coeur of frustration against the corruption of the Italians, their baby-ish whining, and the corruption of the FIFA-appointed referees.

Whatever the Italian said to him, that was just the occasion.

Last point: even if Italian soccer were NOT rotten to the core, their style of play alone: this flopping, this woman-ish crying out for penalties, this lying around when you aren't really injured to rest up -- all this makes them unworthy to be crowned world champions.

I say: Basta Italia!