Italy - Australia

MisterAnarchy

5 Last 16 matches played so far and 4 have been of very poor quality.
A man sent off in 3 of the 5 and Heinze should have been sent off in another.

rcs

Hate to see the diving Italians go through..

But Lucas Neill has to take responsibility for this one.. In the last few seconds of the game you have to stay on your feet until the last possible moment.. You can't afford to give the Italians any opportunity to go down.. And go down he did!! Swan Lake wouldn't be in it!!

Dave!

Silly tackle by Neill, an Italian was always gonna fall over that leg. Devastated for the Aussies, they were really good IMO. Lots of structure, solid passing, no tricky stuff. They took advantage of the extra player, had all the possession, loadsa time, but just couldn't do anything once the ball went into the box. Brilliant defence from the Italians, though.

_blank_

Neil was stupid.

But come on Italy, I have them in a sweep!!

therecklessone

Sean, just saw your skydive pics in the sig. Was your tandem master a Yank? Looks like the guy I jumped with.

Mr. Presentable

Longfield wrote:

I suppose in balance, the better team did win in the end.

The aussies will go home with their heads held high and rightly so, I'll not be supporting that team of divers in the next round though!

So which team of divers will you support, then?

PHB

Jesus christ, what a match! best of the WC so far, incredible

Pepe LeFrits

Painful way for Australia to lose but despite having a man advantage for half the game (which was not a red card as far as I'm concerned), they showed very little ambition or desire to win the game and were punished for it. Italy were the better side for most of it.

Supercell

nipplenuts wrote:

So which team of divers will you support, then?

Lol!!, I think yer too cynical there nipplenuts, there are teams where pure skill wins out (sadly with a certain amount of diving).

I know this is posting suicide but have to just say it..Brazil!

Yes they have their divers, but they do have honest to God great footballers and if diving was totally ruled out of the game would still expect the likes of Brazil to remain on top..and Italy to have a wake up call!!

WhiteWashMan

gutted.

eirebhoy

Cannavaro is a whole defence in himself, defender of the tournament so far. No opposing player has scored against Italy in their 4 games so far. 4 shots on target for the Aussies against ten men for half the match.

Pissed off that Gattuso got booked, there's no way he'd last then next couple of games without another booking. Zabrotta's was bloody foolish though. Italy won't win this world cup without an in form Totti so I'm delighted he scored that peno. What a peno it was, probably the most pressure he'll ever be under in his career. Italy seem to want this cup more than anyone, they go mad when they score.

It wasn't a penalty but I think you're all being a bit harsh on Grosso. He only did what every single player in world football would do. Anyway, it wasn't a red card for Matterazi either.

rcs

PHB wrote:

Jesus christ, what a match! best of the WC so far, incredible

Ah, come on, dunno if I'd go that far!

eirebhoy

Some pics of the penalty incident:
http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/8084/712992397ja.jpg
http://img427.imageshack.us/img427/2476/712993219zp.jpg

Whether it was a foul or not I don't know but I wouldn't call Italy "diving cheats" just because of this.

Dave!

eirebhoy wrote:

http://img427.imageshack.us/img427/2476/712993219zp.jpg

Now the other angle please, that shows the 3 inches he had to lift his leg to get over Neill -- if he wanted to.

(I know the other picture shows from the other side, but no action shots)

Skittlebrau

I won't be popular in work tomorrow but I would have given the peno. One thing that's drilled into defenders from a young age is Don't Go To Ground. Neill did and Grosso was clever enough to use it to his advantage. When you see it it slow motion Neill moves even more into Grosso's path while he's on the ground making Grosso's decision a real no-brainer. It wasn't a dive but he did look for the penalty.

Australia's lack of experience showed. They had 40 mins against 10 men (very harsh sending off BTW) and barely created a decent scoring chance. They looked pretty clueless when they got in the final third (reminded me a lot of watching Ireland to be honest).

A horrible, horrible way to get knocked out though but hopefully it'll help football take off in a big way over here now.

A Dub in Glasgo

Grosso decided to fall over Neil rather than jump over him (he had the time and space to do it). Neil did not foul Grosso.That is why Neil was extremely stupid to go to ground.

Chucky the tree

A Dub in Glasgo wrote:

Grosso decided to fall over Neil rather than jump over him (he had the time and space to do it)..

he didnt though. The defender was coming in to make a challenge. If neil had stayed on his feet the italian player would of been able to side step him and have a shot on goal. Because neil dived in the italian player didnt have this opition.

The italian can either try jump over and miss out on a goal scoring chance because the defender will have the extra time to come in. Or he can take the tackle and get the penalty.

If that was duff against swiss last year in lansdowne i know what we would all want him to do.

RedPlanet

I thought it was a penalty.
It was the only call the ref could make really.
Silly defender.

Bluetonic

The Yanks are onto FIFA.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/soccer/la-sp-soccer27jun27,1,3948423.story?coll=la-headlines-sports-soccer&ctrack=1&cset=true

deman

Video from Italian training camp-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTr3bndGf7Y&search=cheat%20dive

Lex Luthor

Neil went to ground. It was a peno. And what a peno it was too. Fantastic....were the Swiss not watching that to see how its done?

Totti rips off Garcias trade mark thumb in the mouth celebration though....

eirebhoy

Lex Luthor wrote:

Neil went to ground. It was a peno. And what a peno it was too. Fantastic....were the Swiss not watching that to see how its done?

Totti rips off Garcias trade mark thumb in the mouth celebration though....

What is the celebration all about? I knew I'd seen it before in the WC but couldn't remember who had done it.

Totti:
"We should’ve been ahead at the break, but the goalkeeper did well to keep us out. It was about time I got to do that celebration [sucking his thumb]."

Italy have been practicing peno's the last week and if Totti's is anything to go by I can't see them getting knocked out on peno's this year. Del Piero is disappointed he wasn't on to take it as he said he would have had the strength to score.

Earthhorse

eirebhoy wrote:

What is the celebration all about? I knew I'd seen it before in the WC but couldn't remember who had done it.

Didn't Totti's missus give birth recently?

Don't know about Garcia...

Lex Luthor

eirebhoy wrote:

What is the celebration all about? I knew I'd seen it before in the WC but couldn't remember who had done it.

I think Garcias is meant to mean that it was easy...like being a baby could score against you...something like that

Ronan|Raven

Garcia started doing it after the birth of his first child and has carried it on since.

Dave!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzF6C7gzhOQ&mode=related&search=cheat%20dive

eirebhoy

I can't believe the bias by all the minnow lovers tbh. It's about time Italy got a bit of luck. Knocked out 3 years in a row on penos and the last time by golden goal.

super_furry

eirebhoy wrote:

Some pics of the penalty incident:
http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/8084/712992397ja.jpg
http://img427.imageshack.us/img427/2476/712993219zp.jpg

Whether it was a foul or not I don't know but I wouldn't call Italy "diving cheats" just because of this.

I wouldn't either, I'd call them diving cheats on the basis of watching them cheat for the last 20 years. It was a blatant dive, but what else would you expect from them? I really can't stomach Italian football.

Lemlin

Stupid move from Lucas. As Phil Neville found out back in Euro 2000, you can't dive in that late in the game. It's sad to see Australia go home.