After reviewing the HD replay over and over again I must concur with French coach Raymond Domenech's assessment of the Zidane affair. "But it's a shame. He (Materazzi) did a lot of acting for such a big man, a gust of wind made him fall over." Replay shows that Zidane actually did not make contact with the Italian's chest. He endured the insults thrown in his direction, outpaced Materazzi by several steps, then turned and faced him. In a sudden calculated move he brought his shaved cranium to within millimeters of the Italian's chest, actually making contact with his jersey before snapping his finely tuned neck back. The Italian, sensing the underhanded opportunity he had sought by his persistant insults was at hand, seized the moment and threw his body violently backward and to the ground. A conspiring 4th FIFA judge then claimed to have seen the whole thing but it took him 55 seconds to make the call to the center ref who pulled the red card. A lone gunman with a high powered rifle and scope lay on the floor of a nearby German textbook repository with Zidane in his cross hairs in case the plot failed, but his services were, of course, not needed.
