Grande was wrong, but unlike Zidane, eventually got it right

The long story short is that I criticized Zidane when he visited Montreal for a charity soccer game and spent an afternoon talking to kids in Montreal North.

The crux of my argument is that Zidane still to this day has not apologized publicly without justifying his actions for headbutting Marco Materazzi in the last World Cup, essentially ruining France’s chances of winning the Cup and setting a terrible example for those who look up to him.

Interestingly, just this week we’ve been presented with a soccer quandary of our own.

The Montreal Impact has become one of our city’s most cherished sports franchise’s over the last decade or so, and with the construction of Saputo Stadium just last year, the team has gained even more esteem in our city.

Couple that with their inspirational CONCACAF Champions League run last winter and their title as 2008 Canadian Champions and it’s a great story overall.

The 2009 season hasn’t been quite as kind to the Impact, however, and last week things came to a head when midfielder Sandro Grande grabbed Impact legend Mauro Biello by the throat – an incident which was caught on camera.

Grande has since been suspended by the team and as of today is still waiting to find out his fate.

Unlike Zidane, however, who embarrassed himself not only by headbutting Materazzi in the chest in front of millions upon millions of people on the second biggest athletics stage in the world, Grande took the time to apologize for his actions.

And he did it like a man, not a whiny child.

Whereas Zidane was all about “but he egged me on and I retaliated” to justify his actions, Grande said basically “look, we’re buddies. He said something that pissed me off and I over-reacted. It happens. We talked after the game and we’re all good, but I do deserve the suspension.”

Grande, of course, is no Zinedine Zidane.

What most of the people who told me to “jump off a cliff” or called me a “stupid Canadian” for criticizing Zidane completely failed to understand was that my column wasn’t about saying Zidane is a bad soccer player or not a good guy.

I was simply saying that one major act tarnished his reputation in the eyes of many because he apologized, yes, but he apologized like a child does – blaming it on the antagonizer instead of being a man and just saying sorry.

Grande, on the other hand, said yeah, Biello apparently egged him on – but no words can justify the actions of strangling a teammate.

I’m not calling Grande a hero here, either. He did nothing special –all he did was man up to a mistake, like Zidane is still yet to do.

Some other notes

With four local athletes participating, the West End has a special connection to this year’s Maccabiah Games in Israel.

A note from NDG Baseball’s Ken Quinn on the subject:

Bradley Lis-D'Alessandro is currently a member of the NDG Minor Baseball family, playing competitively on the NDG Senior Lynx team.

Brad has been a member of numerous Little League Quebec Provincial Champion teams during his time in NDG Minor Baseball. His most recent championship team was in 2008 with the NDG Junior Lynx who won the Little League Quebec Junior Provincial Tournament in Rouyn Noranda before travelling to British Columbia to compete in the Little League Canada National Junior Championship.

Zachary Aaron, a Hampstead resident, is currently a middle infielder/pitcher for the Montreal Royals team from the Baseball Quebec federation. Zach enjoyed some success as a member of the NDG Minor Baseball family. He was a member of the 2006 Major Lynx team that won Little League Quebec's Provincial Little League Championship in Valleyfield against the team from Valleyfield. The team subsequently travelled to British Columbia to compete in the Little League Canada Canadian Little League Championships.

Robert Schneidman was a long time member of the NDG Minor Baseball family. Most recently Robbie was a member of the 2008 Senior Lynx team that won the Senior Provincial Championship in Cote St. Luc before travelling to Oakville to compete in the Senior Nationals.

NDG Minor Baseball is equally pleased to see former member Benjamin Hiscott compete with the 2009 Maccabi Canada Jr. Boys (93-94) Basketball team as the lone team member from Quebec.

You can always reach me at noahsidel@gmail.com