French go insane for their hero Zidane
By TERRY JONES, FRANCE '98
SAINT-DENIS -- "Zizou! Zizou! Zizou!"
Zenedine Zidane. The Double Zee. Z.Z. Top. On the top of the world. With the top
of his head.
"Zizou! Zizou! Zizou!"
They chanted it in the stands. Then they chanted it in the streets as hundreds
of thousands of fans painted Paris rouge, blanc et bleu as they paraded not only
around the Arc de Triomphe but down virtually every street and quite possibly
drained every ounce of champagne in the country where they make the stuff for
such wonderful occasions.
Zinedine Zidane. What a wonderful name! And what a wonderful game!
"Zidane gave the game it's light. He illuminated it. He was the beacon," French
coach Aime Jacquet said.
Zidane, the Algerian whose face is five stories tall on Adidas ads painted on
the sides of buildings all over France, was to this game what the Eiffel Tower
is to this town.
He put his name on the game. And he did it in duplicate.
Two first-half goals, both with his head, killed the spirit of the killer bees
from Brazil and gave a most memorable conclusion to arguably the most watchable
World Cup ever.
It's not hard to believe that Zidane would be the hero for France. He's their
best player. But he became the man of the match, the man of Mondial, a man who
will not be forgotten in the history of France.
But he did it with his head. Zidane has a bald spot on the top of his head, but
he didn't get it from pounding soccer balls into the back of the net with his
noggin.
Even his coach, who said he always believed all things were possible and that
his team "Wanted to win this World Cup, not just be in this final but wanted to
make our flag fly over this stadium," found that hard to believe.
"He scored with his head. Who would have believed that?"
While the populace poured on to the streets to celebrate through to the national
holiday tomorrow, one wonders if they really realized what had happened here.
France didn't just win the first World Cup in its history and become the first
first-time World Cup winner since Argentina in 1978, it beat Brazil. And it beat
Brazil 3-0. Nobody, in the history of World Cup play or even World Cup
qualifying has ever beaten Brazil that badly. A couple of times it lost 3-1.
Once, back in the '50s, it was beaten 4-2. And it has been 48 years since Brazil
has been beaten in a final.
Who possibly would have ever predicted it?
France had hoped to score first. That would make things interesting against the
four-time world champions, the defending world champions. But who ever expected
them to score first, second and third?
The French didn't just win it. They dominated it. Forget Zidane's two first-half
goals on headers from corner kicks. Stephane Guivarc'h had more golden
opportunities than Ronaldo and the rest of the Brazilians combined. It wasn't
close.
Oh, it wasn't as if Fabien Barthez, the French goalkeeper with the bald eagle
look, didn't have anything to do. He came down with two balls on the goal line
and watched Denilson hit the crossbar in referee's time before, in the 92nd
minute, Emmanuel Petit put it away for France. But mostly Barthez' role this
night seemed to be to provide facial expressions and body language which spoke
to the world.
"This was the greatest evening of my life," he said. "When I took the field, I
said to myself 'Tonight you'll be world champion.' But I can't believe 3-0. And
it could have been many more than three."
Zidane, for his part, sounded still stunned.
"It was the most important match of my life," he said. "We've done it! We've won
the highest prize in football. It hasn't sunk in yet. It will dawn on me when we
meet our fans.
"The only thing I know is that the World Cup will stay in France for the next
four years. I'm just happy to have opened the mark. I wanted to repay my
teammates for all they've done for me during the tournament."
Zidane was the story. France is the glory. End of story