Yes it was cruel but we have only ourselves to blame. We dominated once we had the extra man but didn't use it to our advantage and we were too slow passing the ball around and we did stupid long balls that were easily picked off especially by the world class of an Italian defence. It's no different to Aussie Rules. If you move the ball slowly then that allows the opposition to flood back. We missed the class of Kewell. We played dumb in the last 30 minutes and they picked us off in the last minute on the counter. A shame as this side was good enough to get past Switzerland or the Ukraine and at least make a semi final . A wasted opportunity even if before the tournament we would've been estactic to make it to the round of 16.
As for the penalty - yeah it was 50/50 but the send off was also 50/50.
being an italian-australian this match was weird to watch. it was like watching the possibles v the probables at tigerland.
i have not missed a world cup series since 1982, and can assure you the italians have had a rough deal with refs many times, i know how the socceroos feel after this world cup....but...in this game , the ref was not cruel, and didnt get it wrong. yes the italian exaggerated teh trip, but it was an illegal way of blocking that neill did, he went to the floor and turned his back on the player and did not connect with the ball at all. the fact that he went down and slid so early across him and turned his back was eveidence that his main focus was not on the ball, and that in soccer is a foul. matarazzi was sent of very early in the 2nd half and if u watch the replay he did not even connect with bresciano, bresciano's acting was by far the best act of the game which caused the red card.
now 4the biggest misconception of the game, all journos here are repeatedly saying the aussies were the better team and incontrol of the game, that is rubbish and all propaganda. yes austrlai dominated possession , but thats because italy let them, remember they were one man down for 40 minutes and when italy do this, they flood back , build a wall and are happy to give possession time to their opponents. but even in the second half , italy had more realistic shots on goal, shots on goal and corner kicks!!! so who dominated the game , italy did, australia just dominated possession time. woudl have been nice and a gr8 fairy tale if australian won, but italy just had too much class and experience. cannavaro killed veduka , was veduka actually there. this game could have been very ugly , being realistic, and if the italians radar was a bit better and if shwartzer wasnt so switched on, it coudl have easily been a 5-0 game.
the thumb sucking business that totti did was directed at guus the bs coach who was outcoached and outsmarted by lippi. guus 4 yrs ago when coaching sth korea, called the italians babies after they appealed the loss to sth korea in penalty shoot out. the italians kicked 2 goals that game , both legit, but both called offside, not by the linesman, but by the central ref, replays showed the goals were good and the ref was wrong. after the game abd protest hiddiink called teh italians sooks, i guess totti had a good memory.
i dont like hiddink, he is a bs mercinary, does not give a poo about teh team, just the contract
