... and After

Well, what a disheartening way to end an otherwise exciting run for the World Cup championship. Unfortunately, Zidane ended his career rather ungracefully with a red card for head-butting an Italian player. (Now, no doubt, the guy probably deserved it for all of the trash talking he was doing, but it was still a blatant red card offense.) It's a shame that he couldn't keep his composure just a little bit longer -- at least long enough to participate in the shoot-out. Plus, the red card meant that he couldn't even stand on the podium at the end of the game to accept his silver medal.

Watching the game at the stadium wasn't nearly as much fun this time. The crowd was really tense and stressed out from the moment that Italy scored. Plus, there were a lot of what my dad would call "Walters," more commonly known as @$$holes, in the crowd. The less offensive of the misbehaved consisted of one or a group of people who thought it was really fun to light firecrackers and throw them into the bleachers below them. Unfortunately, they didn't get caught because the event staff and security guards were too busy dealing with gang warfare on the field. (I don't think I'm exaggerating too much here.) There was a whole group of hoodlums who were clearly at the stadium to do nothing more than get into fist fights. They basically walked back and forth around the track, constantly starting fights with event staff or fans. So stupid. On the bright side, the people we were sitting around were very angry at this group, and whistled and booed them every time they started a fight. Eventually, the group gave up and left, but there were a lot of spectators carried out on stretchers. All in all, we felt pretty lucky because we weren't sitting in the path of the firecrackers or the fight-starters.

Anyway, we did get a good night's sleep, which was nice. Our neighborhood is the quietest that it's been in quite some time, which is a little sad. Everyone is really disappointed. Honestly, I don't think it would have been so bad if Zidane hadn't left in such disgrace. I got the impression that he really let people down with his actions -- not exactly a glowing way to end your professional career. But, for us, things go back to "normal" now that the World Cup is over. And, we're still proud of "our team" for going so far. It sure was fun while it lasted!