Quotes of the Day

Something happened, but no one knows exactly what yet. Early in the second period of extra-time, French star and soon-to-be-retired great, Zinedine Zidane walked passed midfielder Marco Materazzi, halted for a second at something the Italian did or said, and — knowing better — began moving along. But then, like some sort of bad habit or demonic temptation, Zidane then turned around and committed an act he'll regret for the rest of his days: head-butting Materazzi in the chest, where he could do zero harm, yet give the Italian more than sufficient reason to drop to the ground and act as though he'd just gotten a double-footed tackle in the face.

In the three minutes it took for the referee to get that obviously dead Materazzi off the pitch and consult with his assistants, enough Italian input — and the fourth referee's illicit review of TV replays — allowed the referees to rule an action none of them saw when it took place.

"I didn't see what happened, but neither did the referee — and his linesman saw absolutely nothing," marveled French coach Raymond Domenech after the match. "It was the replacement referee who weighed in, but no one is really sure what he saw, or what he thinks he saw. All I can say is, 'vivre le video' in football."

Domenech's frustration is doubly enormous: first, due to the glorious career of Zidane being ended on such a dismal note; and second, his team going down to defeat in a game it easily could have won. For both reasons, there is a considerable degree of anger in the French camp tonight over the refereeing in general (which, seeing no action short of mass murder it considered worth calling a foul), as well as the Zidane expulsion in particular. Domenech explains: "Something obviously happened, but it happened both before Zidane made what was doubtless a useless and unfortunate move. He didn't just decide to get kicked out of his final match because he was tired.

"But because something did happen — and happened by Zidane's hand (or head, at least) — Domenech acknowledges the bottom line isn't about controversy, but rather consequence. "I think it's very sad it ends this way," Domenech says of Zidane's career closing with a red card before billions of people. "It's sad, and everyone regrets it. Zidane also regrets it."

What exactly happened, and why Zidane allowed himself to blow a fuse as the most important, legacy-defining match of his life drew to a close will probably be known in the coming days. But what's clear already is that the genius and undeniable drive that powered Zidane from the Marseilles housing projects as a youth to the highest summits of international footballing greatness has a melt-down side. And that morphing from positive to vindictive gets him in to trouble. It did in 1998, when he drew a red card after stomping a Saudi player in France's group match during the World Cup — a suspension that forced him to sit out his side's extra-time Round of 16 Victory against Paraguay.

And it may have had some hand in the second yellow card he drew in group play here in Germany, when the frustration at seeing South Korea equalize late in the game may have allowed Zidane to become more physical with an opposing defender than he might have otherwise. Sure, the yellow card he got for trying to push past that rival during a goal-mouth scramble was iffy at best, but he may have gotten it for reputation more than anything else.

For as much as fellow players and referees alike respect the talent, technicity, and human quality of Zinedine Zidane, many also know he can blow his fuse. Tonight, Materazzi played on that, and the referee took it into account when making his call. The former rather hatefully sought to gain an advantage for his side anyway he could (Domenech even said "It wasn't Pirlo who was the man of the match; it was Materazzi"), but in such a terribly tight game with such huge stakes, who wouldn't? The former, meanwhile, can't be decried foremost for giving the ultimate sanction for something he didn't see; he'd made such a mess by refusing to call any but the most vicious of infractions fouls that his influence on the game had, alas, been felt far earlier.

So who is exactly to blame? Alas, Zidane. Tonight was to be his finest hour; his glorious curtain call. And it had all gone to script until then as well — with Zizou playing a marvelous match that his team dominated on the whole, and could very well have won. But as he did in 1998, and in his lurching move against South Korea, Zizou allowed the impotent darker side of his drive to get the best of him, and he paid for it in the most painful manner imaginable: leaving his career in the midst of a final his team seemed poised to win, but eventually lost without him there. The last view I had of Zidane was of him looking angry but crestfallen as he walked into the tunnel of the Berlin stadium, past the World Cup trophy that he'd dreamed of holding aloft just minutes later.

It would be insane and unfair to remember Zinedine Zidane for this misguided, stupid head-butt he made to some man's sweaty nipple. It would be blind for his expulsion in the final to eclipse all the amazing, heroic things he's done as a player and man to bring him to near legend status even in his own lifetime. But as great as Zidane is, it would also be self-defeating for fans and future players to forget the way he went out of the game. It is often our own internal flaws or wilful erring that prevents us those passing moments of perfection. It was Zidane's that deprived him of a perfect end to a virtually perfect carreer. Because of that, Zidane will go down serving as an example of all the best — and a bit of the tragic worst — of footballing excellence.

There really did seem to be something in Zidane's own, incessantly astounding destiny as a player that brought him and his French teammates back from the dump and to the brink of the unimaginable. His being denied that final reward was of his own doing, nothing so mighty as fate. In the end, however great, Zidane was a mere mortal. He's been telling us that all along, and now we have to believe him.

• Zinedine Zidane exits the World Cup in the worst possible way