Under the lights of Berlin, one kick struck the crossbar and still found the net. Twenty years on, the documentary “9 July 2006” returns to the France-Italy World Cup final, opening again on Zinédine Zidane’s audacious sixth-minute penalty before tracing the night’s darker and more familiar images.
Quick facts
- “9 July 2006” is built around roughly 30 videos revisiting the 2006 World Cup final.
- Zidane scored France’s early penalty with a chipped effort that clipped the crossbar.
- The film also revisits his later headbutt, David Trezeguet’s missed shoot-out penalty and a major Gianluigi Buffon save.
- Less familiar moments include tense national anthems and Zidane’s shoulder injury in the 80th minute.
France won their penalty when Marco Materazzi fouled Florent Malouda. Zidane, playing the last match of his career and arriving after standout displays against Spain and Brazil, took responsibility immediately.
He approached with only a few steps, then lifted the ball down the middle. It hit the bar before crossing the line, leaving goalkeeper Buffon beaten and Fabien Barthez visibly stunned; the French goalkeeper appeared to mouth: “He is crazy!”
Zidane later explained that he had never previously attempted that type of penalty. He said a failed chipped kick can make its taker look foolish, but felt it was the right decision against Buffon, a goalkeeper he knew well and who knew his usual penalty habits.
“I knew that was how I would score,” Zidane said, while acknowledging how narrowly the ball had gone in. He insisted the attempt was not meant as disrespect, and later said he would have used the same technique again had he been available for the shoot-out.
A final replayed beyond its defining image
The documentary does not reduce the final to the headbutt that followed. It moves through the match’s pressure points: the charged atmosphere during the anthems, Buffon’s outstanding intervention, Trezeguet’s decisive miss and Zidane’s shoulder problem late in normal time.
It also brings back the commentary that became attached to the occasion, including Thierry Gilardi’s celebrated call. The result is a reconstruction of a final whose details remain as vivid as its most enduring image: Zidane walking away after a night that began with one of football’s boldest penalties.
