What a shame USA only got a point. Even if it was an own goal. But they had spirit and never gave up. That elbow foul in the face was digusting. Shame on the Italians for harbouring a maniac. FIFA should ban him full stop.

I hate when officials decide a match!

The shame of that match was the referee. He is a disgrace to the game, how he got to Referee a World Cup game with his backround should be questioned. He is from South America and has had problems in the past.

This tie will haunt Italy. I'm from NYC, but never root for The United States in World Cup matches, but after the horrendous officiating, I had to root for us because we were getting screwed.

A tie keeps The United Staes in it.

Well he is not the only one. But I think the red card for the violent Italien foul may go further than that. If someone did that to someone else in a high street they could go to jail. 2cm higher and he could have lost an eye. This WC has been absolutely amazing to watch. Except for Italy in this match.

jagger50 Wrote:
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> Well he is not the only one. But I think the red
> card for the violent Italien foul may go further
> than that. If someone did that to someone else in
> a high street they could go to jail. 2cm higher
> and he could have lost an eye. This WC has been
> absolutely amazing to watch. Except for Italy in
> this match.


Let's not be dramatic here. Youy wanna talk about nearly loosing an eye? See how Koivu was hurt during NHL Montreal - Carolina Game#3. That's a real eye injury. The elbow was not nice agreed. But that kind of things happen all the time, there's no big deal. The red card was appropriate, end of the story.

I hope Koivu is OK. Am not familiar with NHL sport. But the WC is the biggest sporting event on earth. Nothing comes near it. Children are wathching all over the world. That Italian didn't keep up standards. Nor do some of the refs either.

The ref was ok. Perhaps a bit harsh on the US, but he did nothing wrong by showing the three red cards. The Italian red card was absolutely ok. Against a player who should never have been at the World Cup. De Rossi has in earlier Italy-games shown that he is a violent thug. - USA played an excellent game : ) - against mama's small
vain boys...Exciting group after Ghana's greatly deserved win. Excellent.

Bingo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The shame of that match was the referee. He is a
> disgrace to the game, how he got to Referee a
> World Cup game with his backround should be
> questioned. He is from South America and has had
> problems in the past.
>
> This tie will haunt Italy. I'm from NYC, but
> never root for The United States in World Cup
> matches, but after the horrendous officiating, I
> had to root for us because we were getting
> screwed.
>
> A tie keeps The United Staes in it.

Well this is a rolling stones fan forum, but have to say all three red cards are correct.

De Rossi's red was right, but the ref showed at least 4 yellow too much. Also half a dozen too many offsides for Italy, maybe one penalty kick missed. Both teams played tough, but 3 men out... Can't believe it. It wasn't so dirty game. Ref just wanted to headlines...
USA played with superb attitude and deserved a point though. They blocked Italy's midfield game and for example Totti was that way played totally out.

PS: Saku Koivu is our national captain and a really tough guy. He beat the same cancer that Lance Armstrong 5 years ago and now he'll get his eyesight 100% back. No wonder he often scores in a tough situation...

i thought the game was exciting, both teams were equally good in my oppinion, a pity about those red cards but two of the players that got sent out deserved it, it wasn't very nice of De Rossi to put that elbow right in McBrides face and it wasn't very nice what that american player(don't remember who it was) did to Pirlo either, 1-1 was fair i think.

Annah!!!

Bingo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The shame of that match was the referee. He is a
> disgrace to the game, how he got to Referee a
> World Cup game with his backround should be
> questioned. He is from South America and has had
> problems in the past.

wooaaah there tonto! what did the ref do wrong exactly ? take off your stars and stripes tinted spectacles and tell me. each of the red cards was warranted (under the laws of the game), and you had a goal ruled out because one of your players was at least 5 feet offside

thats not bad refereeing! it was the stupidity by both sets of players that stopped the game from having a winner

When a player have one yellow card, the ref should or at least they usually do think twice to show him second and make the decision to the right proportion. This ref showed a huge lack of common sense. The match was not so dirty to deserve 3 reds and it destroyed the tactics for both teams.

So Bingo who do you root for if not yourself. You said you didn't ever root for the US until "..we were getting screwed". I root for both the US and Germany as my mother and Oma&Opa are German.

terrible ref...

the first red was right on...

the second red (first for US) was a bit too harsh.... it was like he was trying to "even" things because he did not want to screw italy..

the third red (second for US) was INSANE..i know it came off a second yellow but you do not usually give an automatic yellow for a semi-late tackle when the guy already has a yellow.i don't know how the posters can defend this.. anyone who watches soccer regularly knows that was not the correct call..

the ref became the center of the game .. thats just wrong

THE REF WAS VERY GOOD, the three red cards were ok, the problem is the american team not the ref, i think they should be playing basketball or hockey, not soccer, they are very bad, but i have to say they had today a lot of spirit....

Baloney!

the US was better than italy today.... so i guess italy is very very bad then..



anytime the ref becomes the center/focus of attention its a bad ref... the focus should be the game not the ref..

> wooaaah there tonto! what did the ref do wrong
> exactly ? take off your stars and stripes tinted
> spectacles and tell me.

He's not making it up. The Uruguayan referee Jorge Larrionda has a history. In fact, he was suspended from working the 2002 World Cup. Wikipedia (I know, I know) has a page on him.

He also has some history with the US team. An AP article I read today mentioned some thing about a penalty kick he awarded against the Americans in the 2003 Confederations Cup during a chippy match with Turkey.

I think some of his calls were questionable in the Italy - USA match. I think when the ref becomes the biggest influence in a match, especially in a World Cup match, that's a real shame.

you should see the match again...

Nothing wrong with the referee. If the teams can't score goals and if the players break the rules then don't blame the referee. USA had a great goalie and a big fighter instinct. That is what kept them in the game with only 9 players. While Italy seemed a bit tired in this game. Still one round to go in that quite interesting group!

Bjornulf

"the third red (second for US) was INSANE..i know it came off a second yellow"

er, you know it was a second yellow card offence but the sending off was insane. what on earth are you talking about ?

the refs job is to apply the rules of the game. if he hadn't sent the american off for the second offence then Italy would have had a justifiable gripe as it was a 100% certain yellow card

rules are rules. the player (sorry, i've no idea who he was) was the idiot for making such a stupid tackle whilst already on a yellow card

andy js Wrote:
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> rules are rules.


If rules would be rules, every little holding with hands (on shirt for example) should be taken off... and... and... Common sense. This ref should be passed out of the tournament. He was equal though, but his line was horrible. Destroyed the game that could have been a great one. 3 men out in a 30 degree weather lead to a match between 2 so tired teams they couldn't show any kind of skill. Except Pirlo-DelPiero&brilliant save by US goalkeeper, but it could have been like that without this stupid ref.

First of all I am Italian.
I'd like to point this out from the very beginning of my post.
I watched the game after soundcheck with my Stones tribute band, Rocks Off, we had a show last night.
De Rossi behaviour was completely unacceptable, everyone in Italy thinks so but please don't say the US deserved to win.
Their only goal was out of a mistake of a defensive player of ours.
In the 2nd half the action was only in the US half of the field, we attacked for 45 minutes straight and we hit a few woods that didn't end up as being goals by mere inches.
All three red cards were deserved, ours more than the US ones, but I guess all the tension was due to US coach Bruce Arena badmouthing us before the game, US players stating that for them this game was "like going to war" and stupid bullshit like that".
I always loved the US, I did even sing the Star Spangled Banner yesterday night, so I guess I am not an easy target for anti-US allegations, still we did a better game and we have a better team.
Period.

Andy Js
a. The goal was disallowed for obstruction, not off sides.

b. The ref was poor, towards both sides.

c. I do not expect the USA to be a factor at all in the World Cup. If you can't win a game playing that long with a man advantage, I don't expect Italy to either.

Glasses off.

MnLtMi Wrote:
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> b. The ref was poor, towards both sides.

I just wonder what kind of a game it would have been if:

a) Collina has been the referee

b) He wouldn't be Italian

c) He would be allowed to be the referee in WC without judging him out because of his age...

I'm pretty sure we would have seen a much better football game with the players in focus.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-06-18 15:56 by Hurriganes.

F****in hell, last time it was a bolivian sending off Totti, and now they let a amateur ref from Uruguay spoil a perfectly good game. Hats off to Ghana, I hope they kick out Brazil in the last 16.

You're a rag trade girl, You're the queen of porn, You're the easiest lay on the white house lawn!!

Hey Dunhil, yes Italy is VASTLY superior to the US team and probably always will be which,considering the US was playing a man down for most of the game, I can't believe you think Italy played BETTER??? They should have won 5-0 and yet,for this one game,because the US played good and Italy was aweful, it was a tie.

btw, Daniele De Rossi apologised to Brian McBride about the elbow-check afterwards.

"he came up to me and said he's sorry, he didn't do that on purpose.
That had class and it's settled now."

(maybe a bit crisscrossed translation,sry)

Well, it was obvious that he did that on purpose. No need to apologize afterwoods

no andy js..

refs dont' give yellows for every single foul...

if you give a player a yellow and he's a bit a late on a tackle (which is all it looked like to me) you don't give him another one! the ref should have known pope already had a yellow and not given him another.... when a player alrady has one you have to be a bit more restrained in showing him another.... he's already been cautioned for chrissakes.. now if pope had fouled again immediately after that, or if he's taken someone's head off..or committed a foul that generally deserves a red card (ie. taken down the last italian attacker) then it would be different.


fine, you think the US deserved two players sent off..

leave it at that.

The red of the 1st US player sent out should have been yellow, but that was to equalize situation judged to red by referee after sending earlier De Rossi out. Then he totally lost bike of his hands and started to show yellows in every little foul... and turned it finally upside down - now USA had one player less than Italy although there was only one clear red for De Rossi (and somebody could give even yellow for that)...