The penalty arrives in the seventh minute, France ahead in a World Cup Final, Buffon in goal and the greatest goalkeeper of his generation at his finest. There are correct ways to take a penalty in this situation. A hard, low drive. A side-footed placement into the corner. Zinedine Zidane runs up and chips the ball down the middle with a gentleness that is almost comical — the Panenka, named for the Czech who first deployed it in a European Championship Final in 1976, the penalty that says: I know you will move, and I know the middle will be open, and I am at peace with all of this.
The ball catches the underside of the crossbar. For a millisecond the world holds its breath, uncertain whether the insolence will be punished — whether the bar will return it to play and Buffon will claim it and the 1.3 billion people watching will exhale in something between relief and disappointment. The ball crosses the line. France lead. Zidane has chipped the crossbar in a World Cup Final and scored, and done so with the languid authority of a man practising alone at training.
The rest of the night belongs to Italy, and then, in extra time, to Materazzi, and to whatever words passed between the two men that made Zidane lower his head and drive it into Materazzi's chest in the 110th minute of the last match he would ever play. He walked past the World Cup trophy on his way off the pitch — past the physical object he had won once and twice come close to winning again. No one knows with certainty what was said. Several plausible versions exist. The headbutt itself is unambiguous.
The 2006 final contains two of the most discussed acts in football history, separated by 103 minutes and joined by the same man. One was the most elegant possible statement of a footballer's confidence in himself; the other was a moment of such human frailty that it became, paradoxically, the most human thing about one of the least ordinary careers ever lived. Zidane's last act was a red card. His second-to-last was the Panenka. Football has never resolved the dissonance, and probably should not try.
2006
Italy 1–1 France (5–3 pen)
2006
Germany 0–2 Italy (AET)
2006
Germany 1–1 Argentina (4–2 pen)
2006
Germany 3–1 Portugal
2006
Germany 4–2 Costa Rica
2006
Argentina 2–1 Côte d'Ivoire