Jason Pendleton said he never saw it before at the World Cup level.

The infamous headbutt that Zinedine Zidane delivered to Marco Materazzi during the World Cup finals stirred up controversy about whether the Italian defender made racist remarks to Zidane. Materazzi denied those claims, but admitted Tuesday he insulted Zidane.

Regardless, Pendleton, Free State High soccer coach, said the headbutt was uncalled for and bad for the game.

“You’re playing for the biggest prize in the world,” Pendleton said. “In that moment, even if the words were offensive, you’re a representative of French soccer. He’s got to be bigger than that and go about the task at hand.”

Pendleton said Zidane was the best player he saw in the World Cup, for his age. Zidane turned 34 on June 23. Because of Zidane’s importance to France’s success, Pendleton said Zidane let his teammates down.

“He undermined his team’s chance to win the World Cup,” Pendleton said. “There might be someone in Italy saying, ‘It was brilliant that you got Zidane to do that and get Italy the World Cup.'”

The coach will remind his Free State squad of the incident leading up to next season.

“I’ll definitely remind them of Zidane not keeping his head at a crucial moment,” Pendleton said. “He hurt his team in a selfish manner not recognizing his actions would affect the whole team.”

Pendleton also will show the Firebirds positive aspects of World Cup play, specifically defense. If you want a defensive clinic, just watch tapes of Italy on the field. The Italians gave up only two goals the entire tournament – and one of those was an own-goal.

“To win championships, it starts with defense,” Pendleton said. “It’s hard to lose if you don’t get scored on.”

Pendleton followed the United States the closest during the tournament. He offered two main reasons why the Americans didn’t get far this year: They played in a difficult group and lacked dynamic players who create opportunities for their teammates.

He said the players who have created opportunities have done it at the MLS level – not the World Cup level. Landon Donovan, for instance, scored two goals the day he returned to the MLS after the World Cup.

“Soccer’s a simple sport that involves passing the ball and receiving the ball,” Pendleton said. “But it’s about how quickly you can do it. You can get away with things in the MLS that you couldn’t do in Italy.”

As for Donovan’s successful return to the MLS? Pendleton was not impressed.

“If players feel comfortable against lesser competition, maybe they’re getting a false sense of accomplishment,” Pendleton said. “Our best players need to be playing in Europe so they can continue to do well.”