I would like to state for the record that Manchester United’s Gabriel Heinze is one of the worst players to watch in my opinion. Now, I am not saying he is a bad player; he is very skilled and savvy, something you have to be to play for the Argentinean National Team, but he is a bad player to watch.

 

The reason why is because he is one of the nastiest players in the World. Let me explain. He lives by the code, “I am going to stop you even if it means to hack you down.” Don’t get me wrong, many professionals live by this code, but Heinze is a special type of hack. He is the type of hack that plays soccer second and hacks first.

 

Let me break it down to you. In his mind, he is thinking of the cheapest way to destroy what you are trying to do offensively—anything from stepping on your foot when you are close, to elbowing your jaw when you jump with him.

 

His playing style is totally designed for you to be thrown off your game, not for him to be a superior soccer player then you. He is a dirty player, but not necessarily the dirtiest. Materazzi, the Italian defender, who came to fame by receiving a head butt, is the dirtiest player in the world. It is not because of the infamous head butt, but for the hundreds of cheap shots he has put on his opponents that I have witnessed before this summer.

 

Even yesterday, a jumping two footed tackle against Bayern Munich player Lucio was a testament to his credo.

 

Let’s get something straight though, there is a distinction between being a dirty player and being a nasty player. You are dirty if you intend to injure like Materazzi, you are nasty if through your whirling attempt to stop your opponent, you employ everything outside the book first like Heinze.

 

Yes, your opponent might get injured in the process and normally does take damage, but your objective is not necessarily to injure, it is to stop. Still both of these ways to play are outside of the lines of sportsmanship, and if all of us didn’t abide by the unwritten or written rules of sportsmanship, we might as well be kicking a severed head around out there.  

 

The worst thing though about Heinze and Materazzi is the constant denial and pleading for innocence on every occasion—something that absolute liars do. They will kick you before the ball even arrives and then point the finger back at you in the aftermath.

 

Some might say it is part of the game. Well, cheers to all of you getting what you deserve. Thank the lucky stars that what goes around comes around. I’m soooooo sad Heinze missed the World Cup and got nut-megged on a back-heel against Benfica on Wednesday.

 

Gabriel Heinze, it will be a pleasure hoping you get schooled every time you are on the field. Karma is coming for you again, just keep building up all that bad mojo.

 

To Materazzi, your situation is a little more difficult because you play for Inter Milan. So I will have to let the Soccer Gods on High sort out your punishment, while hoping that Inter will not have to pay the price, even though I think that someone is paying up on old debts with two losses in two Champions League games.

 

Mediations from the Mongoose

This entry was posted on Friday, September 29th, 2006 at 2:01 am and is filed under Soccer World, England. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.