Italy...

I have a strong deja-vu feeling

[There'll be no wedding today...]

Congrats to Italy and regrets to the Ozzies. You did well to get into the knock out round!

Always the same history with Italy..... ufff.... I hate the football!!

Italy is playing with 13 players, the ref and FIFA, its a shame!!! always the same, very good Australia did a great job againts a poor team without ideas...mmmm i have a bad feeling about Germany-Argentina ...lets see what happens...the FIFA did it again!

Yes, it is always the same: if "my" team has lost the match it is refree's fault. ALWAYS!

come on did you see it?, its a shame, lets see what happens on friday with Germany-Argentina.

TooMuchAlcohol Wrote:
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> Yes, it is always the same: if "my" team has lost
> the match it is refree's fault. ALWAYS!

Well, that is "Football No. 1 Axiom".

[There'll be no wedding today...]

When Portugal or Holland played with ten men, they just played harder and showed great spirit and will to win.

Italy, when reduced to 10, had absolutely no idea what to do, they lost their plot. Then they win on a ref's bad decision. Third Umpire please. It's there on film. At such a crucial stage the 'offended' team should have the right to appeal and have the ref see the dive.

I hope that the Swiss teach them a lesson!

SeNdEr Wrote:
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> come on did you see it?, its a shame, lets see
> what happens on friday with Germany-Argentina.

Yep yep, but what about if it had happen in other side? Could you honestly said that you are here shouting that is was false penalty?

Four Stone Walls Wrote:
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> When Portugal or Holland played with ten men, they
> just played harder and showed great spirit and
> will to win.
>
> Italy, when reduced to 10, had absolutely no idea
> what to do, they lost their plot. Then they win on
> a ref's bad decision. Third Umpire please. It's
> there on film. At such a crucial stage the
> 'offended' team should have the right to appeal
> and have the ref see the dive.
>
> I hope that the Swiss teach them a lesson!

Are you honestly saying that Holland team showed great spirit? What I saw is absolutely shameless play from Holland's team yesterday. One of the low point of this tournament.

Aussies were shafted....

Italy get's all the breaks in this tournament for some reason......

Four Stone Walls Wrote:
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> Italy, when reduced to 10, had absolutely no idea
> what to do, they lost their plot.

I couldn't watch the match, but I'd bet blindly that they indeed played their game. A 0-0 score by the 80min would be their starting plan!

Much to my sadness, they will not only beat Swiss, but reach the final.

[There'll be no wedding today...]

well the ref looks to me made an error at the end… although from far away without the replay it did look like a penalty..however the ref should have been closer than me watching tv and seen that it was not a pk and if he was not sure he should not have awarded it..

however, guys lets face it: australia was not going to score.. they could have kept attacking all week and would not have scored..italy created the better chances and either italy would have won in overtime OR they would have won in penalties as buffon may just be the best goalkeeper in theworld..

ultimately, if you are an australia fan i can see how you would feel very bitter (i wish the ref had not awarded the penalty) but when you are up a man an entire half and don’t score thats going to come back to haunt you and it did..

a lot of the blame has to go to the ineffectual australian attack.. when you’re up a man you have to take advantage before the ref either evens up the count by sending off one of your players (suprrised he did not do this) or makes a mistake against you…

australia did not take advantage of being a man up on a questionable call by ref and ultimately fell victim to another questionable call (maybe more questionable i will agree)

i say look at the world cup like boxing..

italy is the defending champion and australia the challenger.. the challenger always has to do MORE to win in boxing and it strikes me watching this world cup that its the same here…its not so much that its not fair but more that the burden falls on the challenger…

that is why argentina-germany is going to be a fascinating match… cause both are champions..and even if game is in germany i hope ref stays out of it and lets them duke it out fair and square

Too Much Alcohol,

Yes, Holland got dirty, but Portugal weren't that holy. The ref was the main offender in that game. But Holland did still keep going forward and trying to create their own chances, rather than just defending deep and waiting to play on the counter-attack.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-06-26 20:38 by Four Stone Walls.

BTW, I must admit I wouldn't mind Spain beating France tomorrow the same way Italy has won today, LOL!

[There'll be no wedding today...]

stoned_in_DC,

many valid points ............. but we just don't know who would have won in ET.

Australia deserved at least that. They kept plugging away in other matches (eg Korea, Croatia) and Italy could have got tired in ET.

Buffon is probably a better keeper, but Schwarzer has an excellent record on penalties. It would really have been down to the nerve of the penalty-takers.

But we'll never know. And WE were denied the pleasure and tension of another 40 minutes!

Was Moggi there?

yes Four Stone Walls,

i was eagerly awaiting the overtime! but did you notice towards the end of fulltime Italy had a real good chance even before the penalty? and australia's attacks were getting weaker and weaker and slower and slower....incredibly slow actually..not sure if that was a tactic....


i wish the ref had not awarded that pk..particularly as it came right at the end of overtime.... to award it then seemed a bit excessive... as did in my opinion tacking on three minutes of extra time

Liddas must be starting one of his boozer-parties right now...

[There'll be no wedding today...]

I wouldn't like France to win the same way Italy did today !
I want to see goals tomorrow and let the best win with no "help" from the referee.

France will win tomorrow 2-1 (goals from Trezeguet and Zidane)
That's written in the stone.
Feel sorry for the castillan-catalan team.

stonefan Wrote:
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> I wouldn't like France to win the same way Italy
> did today !
> I want to see goals tomorrow and let the best win
> with no "help" from the referee.

Don't worry stonefan, France won't win the game Not with any style. Spain is superior comparing to France team.

It's strange. Yesterday, the Netherlands were obviously better and Portugal was way too sneaky. Same today. It's kind of sad.

SeNdEr Wrote:
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> come on did you see it?, its a shame, lets see
> what happens on friday with Germany-Argentina.

I see it very well sender
I see that if Materazzi's fault was a red card, Hol-Port last nite would have ended Goalkeeper vs Goalkeeper
I see that if it were a player of your team in that last minute action and the referee did not call the penalty you would have screamed for robbery
I see that Australia led the game, Italy played bad expecially in the second half
I see that we have had 5/6 shots close to goal while australia was barely able to shoot one or two balls around Buffon
I see that I dont like how my team play but I also know how soccer goes
and that was not a fraud

Four Stone Walls Wrote:
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> Too Much Alcohol,
>
> Yes, Holland got dirty, but Portugal weren't that
> holy. The ref was the main offender in that game.
> But Holland did still keep going forward and
> trying to create their own chances, rather than
> just defending deep and waiting to play on the
> counter-attack.

Portugal weren't "holy" at all. Absolutely not. But the Holland team made match so ugly. The crucial points of that match were: 1) Boulahrouz's very dirty tackle against Ronaldo, 2) Heitinga didn't gave the ball back to Portugal after they have gave it away for injury 3) Figo headbutting Van Bommel (and Van Bommel's acting after that). I would say that the case #2 was unexceptional and after that the match turner very dirty.

The Aussies were robbed tonight - its an utter disgrace - the ref should be booted out of the tournament & the Italian who dived should hang his head in shame.

Reptile wrote
"Yesterday, the Netherlands were obviously better and Portugal was way too sneaky"
Because Im portuguese I may sound suspicious, so I pick up two different sources about who was the sneakiest team
The Guardian (UK)
73 mins: It's all going off again! Wonderful stuff. Holland ignored the unwritten gentlemanly conduct rule after a bouncing ball, playing on when Portugal expected to get the ball back.
Expressen (Sweden)
Jonas Esbjörnsson: Ivanov kan ha grusat Portugals guldchans
NÜRNBERG. Underbart är kort, sägs det.
Men kortslutningen i Nürnberg sent i går kväll var mest tragisk.
Jag hoppas att inte domaren Valentin Ivanov förstört guldchanserna för ett av världens bästa landslag.

Van Basten back in 1990 after been complety cleaned in a Portugal -Holand Match hit with an punch in the face the Portuguese defender Veloso , because he was so frustated with another defeat against the Portuguese team,and yesterday he again showed his lack of fair play by accusing the Portuguese team of theatre ... when the game was stooped in the 73 min and the referee throw the ball in the air , the Dutch team was suposed to give the ball back to the Portuguese , because we stopped an attack due to one dutch player was one the ground, the Van Basten reaction??Shouting to his player to attack as fast as they could!!
Sneaky!?!??!?!
Sneaky was was n3 from Holland who didnt received red card after the vicious attack on Cristiano Ronaldo legs after only with 6 min played!!!
Well since I´m in History mood , in ten games that Portugal and Holland played we only lost one and won 8!!!
Come on Reptile You can do better than that!!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-06-27 02:06 by Riffbuk.

the dutch were far worse.... thats obvious to anyone who watched..

stonefan Wrote:
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> I wouldn't like France to win the same way Italy
> did today !
> I want to see goals tomorrow and let the best win
> with no "help" from the referee.

Come on Stonefan, for sure you would prefer your team winning that way rather than coming home... Those are beautiful words, but when it comes to a World Cup, I don't want the best team to win, but the mine.

(In fact my dream would be Spain winning the World Cup, beating Italy in the min 90, with an offside goal made legal. I know it won't happen, sadly. LOL!)

[There'll be no wedding today...]

A World Cup you dont Play...You win it ( Jose Mourinho)