Yes, it is. Today’s Italy vs. South Korea match was one of the greatest games I’ve ever seen. I’ve never known an atmosphere like it. I watched the game at lunchtime, and the highlights again tonight. Even knowing the result then, the winning goal had me in tears for the second time in just a few hours.
Tim
Yes. I’ve got World Cup fever so bad my doctor thinks he may have to operate.
Bad neck from lying on the settee for the early game. General malaise when there’s not a game on. Waking up in the middle of the night nodding that header that Uraguayian missed v. Senegal in (that still upsets me). Welling up when South Korea score/win a corner/throw-in/sing their National Anthem. Thinking it’ll be a crime if England don’t win it when they should
piss it.
the country is about to declare war on Korea – most newspapers today have page-wide titles such as “THIEVES”, “WORLD CUP ROBBERY” and “A PLOT AGAINST ITALY”. the Parliament will discuss urgently the matter today in a debate broadcast live on TV. people are calling for boycott of Korean products, etc. but in fact, we had a weak team which only played for the 1-0, never tried to get a second goal, wasted lots of chances to score, and was physically exhausted (the Koreans trained together for 4 months – we ended our national league 1 month ago, it was fought up to the last minute, and 9 players on 11 among those playing yesterday were in the three teams struggling up to the end).
so I was curious to see whether in foreign countries anybody noticed anything strange (or mistaken) in the referee’s behaviour, or anything seems perfectly normal.
Honestly: Did decisions go against you? Yes. Would it have nade a difference to your chances in the tournament? Maybe – who knows? Did Totti deserve to be sent off? Probably not, but a) the defender made contact with the ball, so it was not a penalty and b) if you see the TV footage from the side, he was going down *before* any contact was made. Even Trappatoni made a “diving” motion with his hands and shook his head after watching the replay at the fourth official’s table — I’m sure they’re not showing that in Italy. Furthermore, are Vieri (fot the miss in normal time) and Montella (from earlier games) part of the conspiracy too? Italy were lucky to get a draw against Mexico to go through in the first place, and their tactics were their downfall, not the officials. If you’re 3-0 up, you don’t get extra time. The cynic might suggest that the outcry in Italy (where you have a reputation for corruption) is merely you judging the rest of the World by your own standards…
yes, possibly it is. however, it is also true that historically our tactics are to defend for the whole game and then get a goal on a sudden change of side. if you cancel all of our goals made in that way, we’ll almost never score a goal. and the fifa site is not even mentioning the cancelled golden goal scored by Tommasi, which was regular. so, basically, we were playing badly, but possibly we had won the match before Koreans, and we wouldn’t even have met Korea if the previous matches hadn’t been heavily influenced by referee mistakes.
but I don’t think we would have won anyway.
however there are some nice episodes here… such as the fact that it is not usual for your game to have a referee from a country that you have previously beaten and sent out of the cup. and he was chosen because he was more or less the only available referee not from Europe or Asia – but the rule “not from your continent” was broken for Turkey, who asked and got Collina because they feared something similar against Japan. if we had some more international weight, we possibly would have got a better referee.
Yeah, you could level a similar accusation for Brazil vs Costa Rica — a Jamaican referee, when the Brazilian FA financed Jamaica’s trip to the World Cup in 1998. Very dubious. However, it still comes down to the tactics in the end. If Italy are looking to blame everyone apart from the manager, then he’s getting off very lightly.
well, when you choose a manager like Trapattoni, you know exactly which kind of play he is going to have. it is also true that we don’t have great players: our midfielders are the worst in the last 15 years, apart from Totti, and our defense has 2-3 great players – if they lack, it sucks.
but in the end, you are right.
by the way, our people seem somewhat wiser than our newspapers – for example, polls say that 75% think the defeat was on the game level, only 25% that it was a political plot etc.
you know, before the cup there also was a big discussion about capping Roberto Baggio or not. he was left out because the other players didn’t like him – too charismatic. and also, Trapattoni wants to be the only leader in the team. but, for example, Vieri is a key player who never plays more than 2-3 consecutive games without being hurt: in the league, he rarely plays more than 50% of the season. but we brought lots of 2nd attackers (Inzaghi, Montella, Del Piero and Delvecchio) and no alternative to him (for example, Maccarone or Di Vaio or Marazzina). yesterday, after the first half, he was so tired he could barely walk.
Yeah, and Maccarone looks like a great player… wasted in the under-21 side. He should have been taken along for the experience at the very least, and used if neccessary.
Muriel
Yeah, I sure think that this is the best world cup ever too! I sure hope we beat Brazil cos you know they need their little bottoms kicking! Oh well, if we don’t win we always have next year! See ya!
ummm… i think i heard somewhere that u.s.a. is doing pretty good. so i guess that’s pretty cool. can’t seem to find any mention of it in the news here, tho. :)
frank
I think soccer is the greatest sport in the world but the way Portugal, Spain, and Italy were treated was wrong. $$$ that is all that counted I am not surprised it was not a Japan South Korea final. Anyways everyone always picks on Italy well guess what we now have the best team in the world and the rest of the world better be scared forthe coming years . here we go,I predict Italy will win the next 2 worl cup/.
Yes, it is. Today’s Italy vs. South Korea match was one of the greatest games I’ve ever seen. I’ve never known an atmosphere like it. I watched the game at lunchtime, and the highlights again tonight. Even knowing the result then, the winning goal had me in tears for the second time in just a few hours.
Yes. I’ve got World Cup fever so bad my doctor thinks he may have to operate.
Bad neck from lying on the settee for the early game. General malaise when there’s not a game on. Waking up in the middle of the night nodding that header that Uraguayian missed v. Senegal in (that still upsets me). Welling up when South Korea score/win a corner/throw-in/sing their National Anthem. Thinking it’ll be a crime if England don’t win it when they should
piss it.
hi
we need a third party opinion.
the country is about to declare war on Korea – most newspapers today have page-wide titles such as “THIEVES”, “WORLD CUP ROBBERY” and “A PLOT AGAINST ITALY”. the Parliament will discuss urgently the matter today in a debate broadcast live on TV. people are calling for boycott of Korean products, etc. but in fact, we had a weak team which only played for the 1-0, never tried to get a second goal, wasted lots of chances to score, and was physically exhausted (the Koreans trained together for 4 months – we ended our national league 1 month ago, it was fought up to the last minute, and 9 players on 11 among those playing yesterday were in the three teams struggling up to the end).
so I was curious to see whether in foreign countries anybody noticed anything strange (or mistaken) in the referee’s behaviour, or anything seems perfectly normal.
Honestly: Did decisions go against you? Yes. Would it have nade a difference to your chances in the tournament? Maybe – who knows? Did Totti deserve to be sent off? Probably not, but a) the defender made contact with the ball, so it was not a penalty and b) if you see the TV footage from the side, he was going down *before* any contact was made. Even Trappatoni made a “diving” motion with his hands and shook his head after watching the replay at the fourth official’s table — I’m sure they’re not showing that in Italy. Furthermore, are Vieri (fot the miss in normal time) and Montella (from earlier games) part of the conspiracy too? Italy were lucky to get a draw against Mexico to go through in the first place, and their tactics were their downfall, not the officials. If you’re 3-0 up, you don’t get extra time. The cynic might suggest that the outcry in Italy (where you have a reputation for corruption) is merely you judging the rest of the World by your own standards…
yes, possibly it is. however, it is also true that historically our tactics are to defend for the whole game and then get a goal on a sudden change of side. if you cancel all of our goals made in that way, we’ll almost never score a goal. and the fifa site is not even mentioning the cancelled golden goal scored by Tommasi, which was regular. so, basically, we were playing badly, but possibly we had won the match before Koreans, and we wouldn’t even have met Korea if the previous matches hadn’t been heavily influenced by referee mistakes.
but I don’t think we would have won anyway.
however there are some nice episodes here… such as the fact that it is not usual for your game to have a referee from a country that you have previously beaten and sent out of the cup. and he was chosen because he was more or less the only available referee not from Europe or Asia – but the rule “not from your continent” was broken for Turkey, who asked and got Collina because they feared something similar against Japan. if we had some more international weight, we possibly would have got a better referee.
but again, that’s the italian way of thinking.
Yeah, you could level a similar accusation for Brazil vs Costa Rica — a Jamaican referee, when the Brazilian FA financed Jamaica’s trip to the World Cup in 1998. Very dubious. However, it still comes down to the tactics in the end. If Italy are looking to blame everyone apart from the manager, then he’s getting off very lightly.
well, when you choose a manager like Trapattoni, you know exactly which kind of play he is going to have. it is also true that we don’t have great players: our midfielders are the worst in the last 15 years, apart from Totti, and our defense has 2-3 great players – if they lack, it sucks.
but in the end, you are right.
by the way, our people seem somewhat wiser than our newspapers – for example, polls say that 75% think the defeat was on the game level, only 25% that it was a political plot etc.
you know, before the cup there also was a big discussion about capping Roberto Baggio or not. he was left out because the other players didn’t like him – too charismatic. and also, Trapattoni wants to be the only leader in the team. but, for example, Vieri is a key player who never plays more than 2-3 consecutive games without being hurt: in the league, he rarely plays more than 50% of the season. but we brought lots of 2nd attackers (Inzaghi, Montella, Del Piero and Delvecchio) and no alternative to him (for example, Maccarone or Di Vaio or Marazzina). yesterday, after the first half, he was so tired he could barely walk.
Yeah, and Maccarone looks like a great player… wasted in the under-21 side. He should have been taken along for the experience at the very least, and used if neccessary.
Yeah, I sure think that this is the best world cup ever too! I sure hope we beat Brazil cos you know they need their little bottoms kicking! Oh well, if we don’t win we always have next year! See ya!
ummm… i think i heard somewhere that u.s.a. is doing pretty good. so i guess that’s pretty cool. can’t seem to find any mention of it in the news here, tho. :)
I think soccer is the greatest sport in the world but the way Portugal, Spain, and Italy were treated was wrong. $$$ that is all that counted I am not surprised it was not a Japan South Korea final. Anyways everyone always picks on Italy well guess what we now have the best team in the world and the rest of the world better be scared forthe coming years . here we go,I predict Italy will win the next 2 worl cup/.
Lets hope we have even better games in Germany 2006. This Cup will be great