Only 1430 days until South Africa 2010!

Raul models the new adidas Real Madrid kit. Shame he stopped scoring goals for them about three years ago.

As I try to make my way through the post-World Cup daze, er, days, and get rid of this brutal Cup-withdrawal (think "Trainspotting" but substitute heroin for soccer - I see little baby Cannavaros crawling all over the walls), here are some more odds & ends that warrant mentioning:

The new Real Madrid kit

See above. adidas has, not surprisingly, used their standard World Cup design, with only a few minor tweaks. On the right side, level with the team crest on the left, there is a new symbol to remind everyone that Real was voted FIFA's Best Team of the 20th Century - when you don't win any trophies three years in a row, I guess you have to impress people any way you can. Could Real be accused of resting on their laurels, living off the past, etc? Of course, but they've been called worse. Let's recap their year: coach fired in December, president resigns in February, team eliminated from Champions League, Copa del Rey, and falls out of contention in la Liga, new president forced out in May, elections called for July, candidates rip each other to shreds for a month, mail-in vote system is ridiculously suspect (candidates simply collect all of the mail-in votes they can and then present them on election day - no neutral third-party, no notary...) and turns out to be rife with fraud and is eventually suspended, outgoing board of directors refuses to acknowledge new elected president leading to suspicions of favoritism but then caves in to pressure, new president sworn in and then immediately charged with tampering by leading clubs in Europe, crappy new uniform unveiled in July. And when the club has turned into a three-ring circus, what other recourse do you have but to fall back on your past success? Well, you do that and then you sell more jersey space to sponsors - hence the "BENQ" and "SIEMENS", whereas last year it was just the latter. Why not just sell some space on the shorts, socks, and maybe even shoelaces? It works for teams in Mexico. But I digress. The road strip is black and the third jersey is navy blue, which is a nice change from last year's hideous gray shirt. Full review coming in August's WSB edition of Uni Watch.

Klinsmann, Lippi step down

No surprise here. It's always nice to go out on top. Zidane tried, but fell 10 minutes short. Plus, it's hard to get fired up about signing a new contract while you're still coming down off the World Cup high and the next one isn't for another four years. You never got the feeling that Klinsmann would want to spend any more time away from California, so it's only natural for him to want to get back to the Left Coast. And I wonder if Klinsi didn't also know that it couldn't get any better than this: his team had overachieved, they had gotten an easy draw, been inspired by the home crowd, squeaked by Argentina on penalties, almost stole a win from Italy, and done more than anyone expected. Everything fell into place. It was like the perfect storm, but now it would all be different. Everything had done a 180. The players would have to be re-focused on the job at hand and humbled a bit before Euro '08. The fans would want trophies. Expectations were now sky-high. Or he could go out on top, head back to Cali, lay on the beach, and not have to worry about the world making fun of him prancing around like Tinkerbell after every goal. As for Lippi, after what he went through before the Cup (people forget that there was a serious campaign to get him to resign, even more so than there was with Klinsmann), it's understandable that he would want to get out while it's still good. This Serie A scandal is going to dominate the headlines once again, so it's a smart move to get out of the job before the proverbial stinky stuff hits the fan. Which brings me to my next point: is anyone happy that Italy won the World Cup? With the Serie A match-fixing scandal, some of Italy's best players and coach all being implicated, De Rossi's elbow, Grosso's dive vs the Aussies, a poor performance in the final, Materazzi's taunts, and the anti-Semitic graffiti during the celebration...there can't be many people outside the boot who think that the World Cup is in good hands.

Zidane/Materazzi part deux

The thot plickens. In an interview on French TV tonight, Zidane refused to say exactly what Materazzi said to provoke him, other than that the Italian insulted his mother (who is ill) and sister repeatedly and used some very strong words. Zidane said that he tried to ignore him, but Materazzi kept repeating the taunts again and again. Zidane apologized for his violent reaction, but said that he doesn't regret it because it was simply a reaction to very harsh words. Zidane also denied that Materazzi had called him a terrorist, an allegation that had been publicized by the French group SOS Racism and then quoted in a post on this website on Monday - an apology is therefore owed to Materazzi, who was accused of being a racist. What these revelations do not change is the fact that the Zidane incident and what Materazzi said to him has clearly overshadowed the game itself and the Italian victory. What is also clear is that while Zidane may have headbutted Materazzi, the former is still regarded as a great player and class act who simply lost his cool, while the latter is a classless punk whose complete lack of FIFA's esteemed "fair play" provoked Zidane into the headbutt. It is easy for people around the world to criticize Zidane's reaction and claim that such an experienced veteran should never allow himself to be provoked at such a critical juncture of the game, but that is precisely what makes such a reaction understandable: with 10 minutes left in a hotly contested final, Materazzi pinched Zidane's nipple & insulted his seriously ill mother and sister - Zidane did what most people would do: he reacted. If he did anything wrong, it was that he should have directed that header at Materazzi's face.

Zidane/Materazzi part trois

Wanna smash your skull into Materazzi's chest, too? Now you can:

http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Sport/2006/07_Luglio/10/pop_zidane.shtml