Well, those weere the days of summer 2006, when the World Cup was on. This was the office where I was working at those times, and of course we worked sooooo hard, all of us, while watching the matches ;-). Actually it was not allowed to bring a TV in the office, but IT people have ideas - sometimes! ;-) Mike brought his laptop equipeed with a TV devoder, I brought an active antenna, Tommy brought the projection canvas, and Markus (you see him here) brought the overhead projector. It was the biggest hack of the century for me to connect it all together to a TV-set but it worked. You see the set and the balck laptop over there in the middleground.
I took the photo from my desk and you can see the french flag on my screen - oh yes, at that times I covered the wall behind my desk with images of the one and only Zizou! Anything non-french should be immediately disgarded in a radius of 5 meters around my desk! ;-)
And we all know who was the real champion - go for it Zizou! That guy didn't simply play - he was *celebrating* football, and the ball was dancing with him. This wasn't soccer, this was hovering magic!!! Forget all Ronaldos, Ronaldinhos, and the rest of them. The simple elegance of Zizou was stunning and efficient. While they were all running like wild, he would be rather caressing the ball, sending it to the most beautiful journeys ... OK, OK, I shut up! ;-)
On the final game.. what an excitement! There couldn't be any better day as Zizou gave that unworthy man the headbutt!! Lost the game and the championship but preserved the personal integrity. Unfortunately it was only a headbutt - I would stomp that unshameful guy into the ground! ;-) But see now, we remember and bitterly miss Zizou - does anybody care about Materazzi??? ;-)
Anyway, the image may be more personal than I'd like it to be, but it is a relatively acceptable one, considering the fact that I didn't use any flash in that darkened room. We had all windows closed, as you can see, so that it could be kept as a "secret" that we were watching the matches - of course nobody wondered why we closed all windows, ey? ;-)
Any comments would be very welcome.
Oh, and search for "Zidane" in youtube... what a nostalgia! I could give anything to see hom playing again... But so it goes. When great people go, they leave such a hole behind.
Undoubtfully it was Ian! Exactly as masterful as in many too many other matches to mention, in which he demonstrated that "the summit of intelligence is simplicity". More than his skills, however, one has to admire his deep conviction that he has to work for the team. No superstaring here.
Unfortunately most available videos on the web are too biased towards his dribbling skills and goals, but show very little about his ability to create free space, to pass the ball in the most unexpected way, to do so much for the team in such a silent and non-flashing manner.
Many have contolled the ball with masteship, but none has ever controlled the playground with such an intelligence and flowing movement.
OK, I'd better stop now, I know, but it is impossible to not miss that guy.
And our boss laughed even more succesfully when he realized what was going on there behind his back. He was so hilarious about that, that he just took a can of beer and sit there - but only under the premise that somebody was playing the "guard" at the door of the office. ;-)
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