The Guardian’s Kevin McCarra has speculated about what may have provoked Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt on Marco Materazzi during yesterday’s World Cup Final, suggesting the French captain may have been called a ‘terrorist’ by the Italian defender. So much for, ‘a time to make new friends’ as the tournament’s slogan urged us. I guess the one upside of Zidane playing his final game is that he has nothing to fear from an extended ban by FIFA’s disciplinary panel.

It was a supreme irony that the Marseille-born number 10 was today named as FIFA’s player of the tournament (as a result of a half-time vote taken last night), after he indelibly left his mark on World Cup 2006 (and hopefully Materazzi’s chest) during extra time of the final. At least there was no subsequent rigging of the vote to avoid this embarrassment, as FIFA attempted to show itself as a less corrupt organisation than four of Italy’s leading clubs. A bigger consolation to Zidane though, should be that his dismissal probably had little effect on the final result in Berlin.

Sure, France lost a man for ten minutes. But the sending off galvanised them and they seemed keener to win the match during normal play than they had been during the first period of extra time. Yes, there was Zidane’s header, but I’m guessing there were more attacking moves after his dismissal than had occurred in the 20 minutes of extra time that led up to it. Sylvain Wiltord had the best opportunity of setting up a winner as the final whistle neared, although he chose to go for glory instead of squaring for David Trezeguet to tap in.

Once penalties came, if Zidane had remained on the field, yes he would have taken a penalty. But so, I’m sure, would David Trezeguet. The captain’s dismissal did not alter that, and I suspect the result would have turned out just the same. Only our memories of the game would have been different. But it was, ultimately, all about Zidane and Materazzi – the two goal scorers, the red card incident, Materazzi giving away the penalty for the French goal and then scoring himself in the shoot-out.

And it’s easy to condemn Zidane for his actions, but there is a fine line between genius and madness and to give us so much of the former, many walk a fine line occasionally stepping over into the latter. In the heat of the moment, Zizou would not have thought, I am in a World Cup final, I am captaining France, this is my last ever match of professional football. His thoughts were pretty clear. You bastard, how dare you, take that. The ability to wind opponents up is undoubtedly one of the key weapons in many a sportsman’s armoury, not least a football defender’s. If you want another irony, FIFA made a huge thing about the anti-racism issue before the four quarter final matches with the eight captains reading out a prepared statement in their native tongues. Where was Materazzi then? Not in the Italian eleven, but unable to take part in the match suspended due to indiscretions of his won against Australia. If he called Zidane a terrorist or insinuated participation in such activity, that would come under racism in my book. But Italy is a very racist country so no real surprises there.

Although logically, I expected Italy to win before the match began, there was still a feeling that past events might shape to confirm existing dominant positions. Earlier in the tournament, France had beaten Spain, Brazil and Portugal, England had failed to beat Sweden and lost to Portugal. Italy had beaten Germany. Germany had beaten Argentina the last time they had met in a European-based World Cup. Anywhere there was an echo of previous World Cup or European Championship meetings, positions, results from as long as 36 years ago, had been confirmed and repeated. Italy had lost to France in 1986, 1998, 2000.

And then there was the penalty shoot-out issue. Italy’s history as bad as England’s although generally at later and more critical points in the tournament. France had been involved in two before and were 1-1, although the previous occasion had seen them eliminate Italy in Paris on the way to their only World Cup triumph. That it was Trezeguet (after his golden goal in 2000) who should miss the decisive spot kick was a further twist in the tale. If Buffon had not been his club team-mate, I suspect he might have gone for a more conventional penalty.

All these meetings between countries with a bit of football history between them added enough spice and tension for this viewer to declare that, in spite of the goals drying up a little in the knockout phase, this has been a very good World Cup Finals tournament. Those who say otherwise probably don’t appreciate their football history and may even be the type that place their interest in a tournament on how well England have entertained them. For me, the one thing you cannot deny about England is that in Germany 2006 they provided entertainment in the way of pure farce, although I accept that anyone who ever believed they had a chance of winning the thing was probably disappointed. They were also pretty dim.

I was interested to read in The Times this morning that their player rankings for the final had two French players – Thuram and Henry – with higher marks than any of the eventual winners. Henry did have spells when he was creating havoc, but ultimately, his inability to score will have many trotting out the usual refrain about his not performing in the big games, which is crap. The margins between success and failure can be wafer thin. An inch for David Trezeguet, an inch for France. Henry will rarely dominate matches where he is alone up front. If he scores, he’s the best forward in the world. If he misses, he’s hiding and doesn’t perform when it matters. How much did Henry do in the Bernabeu over the course of 90 minutes in February? Pretty much f**k all. Won the tie for Arsenal in the ten seconds he did though.

I’ve enjoyed the tournament, and will suffer my usual withdrawal symptoms until we are back in the groove with the domestic fare. It will be the usual Arsenal focus from now on here at onlinegooner. But for now, even though I wasn’t backing them last night, congratulations to Italy. Ultimately, the best team in the tournament, if not the best on the pitch in Berlin on July 9th.