2006 FIFA World Cup

[J.E. Sawyer]

I thought they were quite a bit better than the germans over the course of the whole game. And, also, there were those two strikes against the woodwork in the beginning of extra time.

A post strike and a crossbar strike aren't goals, they're missed shots.

 

Then again, it's a lot better than Lahm and Podolski sailing balls 10' above the crossbar.

 

Italy deserved to win because of the two shots they did make, but I still don't agree that they were particularly phenomenal in the second half.

[Pidesco]

I didn't say phenomenal either, just better than Germany. And I think that's impressive in Italy's case. While they seem to have a knack for scoring goals in the nick of time, they usually don't do much throughout their games to really deserve it. Except this time. I actually enjoyed watching them play in this game.

 

 

 

Portugal usually does awfully against Italy, so this is actually bad news for us.

[SteveThaiBinh]

Yes, that match was a lot more fun to watch than I'd expected - not a dull defensive game, just a game between two teams with excellent defences. The goals, when they came, were pretty good, too.

[Meshugger]

Wow, Italy was playing with more than one forward this time, yay! (w00t) And defense was pretty solid aswell (especially Cannavaro).

[213374U]

I didn't know they could play games without a ref. Amusing, indeed.

 

Anyway, great game from Italy. Instead of relying on their classic catenaccio, they were on the offensive the whole time, which paid off in the end, and made for a fun match to watch.

 

So it looks like we'll have a France-Italy Final.

 

And France is going to win.

 

 

edited for typos

Edited July 4, 2006 by 213374U

[Pidesco]

I didn't know they could play games without a ref. Amusing, indeed.

 

Anyway, great game from Italy. Instead of relying on their classic catenaccio, they were on the offensive the whole time, which paid off in the end, and made for a fun match to watch.

 

So it looks like we'll have a Portugal-Italy Final.

 

And Portugal is going to win.

 

 

edited for typos

 

 

You forgot the biggest typo of all.

[Tigranes]

Monsieur Zeedane disagrees with your assessment.

 

So I woke up at 7:30am and saw 0:0 at half time, and decided the game wasn't worth watching. Guh?!

[Elite_clone_commander]

well, I saw the game "Germany-Italy", I sleep the first time, then my cousin woke me up screaming like a monkey because Germany missed a shot.

Portugal have to win the cup to revenge Germany, and that day, I know I will be victim of another bunch of Hooligans, but I will do it again.

[J.E. Sawyer]

I didn't know they could play games without a ref.

The ref was fantastic. He fell for virtually no diving. Ballack and Podolski were bad, but Totti was ridiculous. That "charge n' roll off the back" move was absurd and the ref just waved at him to get back up.

 

Personally, I'm glad the ref didn't call much because there wasn't much honest fouling to call. He sure called a lot of accurate offsides and legit fouls when they happened, though.

[Atreides]

FORZA ITALIA! Who needs penalties when you have Grosso. Not just against the Socceroos(lose?) and now a beauty past Lehman. He was solid in defence too. Odonkor didn't get many chances to put dangerous balls into the penalty box.

 

Cannavaro is just superb and Matterazi too. Respect after getting concussed blocking the shot. Some of the midfield passing was superb. Most of the time the final ball to Toni and Gilardino was a little sloppy and eaily intercepted.

 

Totti went after the ball and jumped out of the challenge, hence the back flip thing. Aikido dudes would be proud of Ballack. Fun times!

[mkreku]

So.. Italy pussified themselves to a final again. Good job! I've noticed I can't watch an entire game of football when Italy is one of the teams on the field. They're diving in defence, they're diving to get free-kicks/penalty shots, they're diving to get waterbreaks.. They're rolling around like piglets in the grass most all of the time. It must be horribly frustrating to play against them when you know that whatever you try to do with the ball will end up in a rolling, screaming italian somewhere on the field and a whistle from the referee.

[Atreides]

I'm sure it's easier to keep those stereotypes when you block off performances like last night's.

[213374U]

The ref was fantastic.  He fell for virtually no diving.  Ballack and Podolski were bad, but Totti was ridiculous.  That "charge n' roll off the back" move was absurd and the ref just waved at him to get back up.

Yeah, it's easy to give the impression that you're not to falling for any diving, when in fact you're just allowing for everything. There was lots of diving alright, but there were many fouls which the ref just chose to ignore. No team was favored by this though, which probably means he was trying real hard not to punish either team too severely to avoid hurting the final.

 

 

Personally, I'm glad the ref didn't call much because there wasn't much honest fouling to call.  He sure called a lot of accurate offsides and legit fouls when they happened, though.

If you say so. The game probably benefitted from the ref not stopping it at every turn, but only because no team took advantage of it and stepped up the aggression.

[Lucius]

I'm sure it's easier to keep those stereotypes when you block off performances like last night's.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How so? What he said was true.

[Nexus]

So.. Italy pussified themselves to a final again. Good job! I've noticed I can't watch an entire game of football when Italy is one of the teams on the field. They're diving in defence, they're diving to get free-kicks/penalty shots, they're diving to get waterbreaks.. They're rolling around like piglets in the grass most all of the time. It must be horribly frustrating to play against them when you know that whatever you try to do with the ball will end up in a rolling, screaming italian somewhere on the field and a whistle from the referee.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Don't you think you'd be rolling around in the grass like a screaming Italian after getting hammered in the head by a knee, cut in the neck by an elbow, or socked in the face repeatedly? The Italians got their act together in those last 2 minutes, and that's all that mattered. 2-0.

Edited July 5, 2006 by Nexus

[Guest The Architect]

I think these days, diving is a handy tactic to have. I know it's technically 'cheating', however, if you decide to dive, then you've made a choice, a choice that could potentially result in negative consequences if your caught diving by the ref, but if you can get away with it, then you can earn your team free kicks, penalties and possibly get a player from the opposition booked.

 

So it's no surprise that diving is very common in modern soccer, because like I've said, it's a tactic, but a dirty and unfair tactic, but still, you either get a away with it or are penalised, if the ref fails to recognize that you've dived, then it's his bad luck, not yours.

 

When I hear people say that Italy are a bunch of diving cheats, etc, well for a start, nearly every soccer team has a diver/s, so if you accuse a certain player/s from a certain team of diving, take a look at your own team that you support first, before you choose to say that a certain player/s from a certain team dives, etc.

 

Also, I wonder how many people have mistaken diving for an actual foul. For those who have played or are still playing soccer in a league/tournament at a decent skill level then they should know that at the pace at ground level that soccer is played at, that it's very easy to go down, especially when the amount of tackling is high, so if you accuse someone of diving, watch carefully, because you might be wrong about your assumption about whether someone has dived or not.

 

So what's the point of all this? Well, I see that Italy are being targeted by most people as 'diving cheats', well, I disagree (that's right, I'm defending the team that knocked out my country)! From what I've seen, I fail to see how Italy are a bunch of diving sissys, yes, they dive, but most of the time, they are mistaken for diving, and when they dive, they dive well, they dive effectively.

 

As much as I want to kill Grosso for diving against us and earning that late penalty, if I was in his position, I probably would have done the same thing, the one who I blame more than anything is the referee, for failing to recognize that Neill did not foul Grosso, even Neill himself said that he dislikes divers, but he can understand why Grosso did what he did, and so can I, it's just the refs fault for being fooled into thinking that Neill fouled Grosso, but was his decision influenced by $$$? Possibly, but it's in the past and nothing can be done about it.

 

So IMO, Italy have been playing some fantastic technically adept soccer, and deserve to be in the final, because no one has been able to shut down Italy's smart game, I think if we learnt how to dive, then maybe we could have gone a long way.

 

I still cannot go for Italy, because they knocked us out in the worst possible way, and despite the fact that Italy are my second team because of my Italian heritage, if I supported them, and made it clear to other people that I was going for them, well then, I would live a very short life, and I don't intend on dying any time soon.

 

But I don't want to support Italy anyway, I'll support them in Euro 2008 and the 2010 World Cup (but NOT if they play us again)! So my support for the rest of the World Cup lies with Portugal, although I like the French too. Bah, may the best team win...

Edited July 5, 2006 by The Architect

[Atreides]

I think the French will have a hard time against Portugal. Costinha and Deco are back as are their flying wingers (well, jogging for Figo). I think eventually playing games in the space of 3-4 days will catch up with the ageing French squad.

[Tigranes]

Practically, diving is a good idea to employ in 'moderation' in modern football. That's practically. I also know that we now see diving in little kids playing soccer, and some (especially under 20) believe it is 'entertaining'.

 

I don't know. I think it's horrible, and while it will never be eradicated, this kind of "oh well" attitude makes it worse. Diving is a horrible thing, because if everybody stayed on their feet like their lives depended on it we'd see much more flowing, and much more entertaining football. IMO diving should be abhored and their dedicated disciples (e.g. Drogba) attacked much more severely.

 

The Italians have always been guilty of it in the past, but since I haven't seen the semi-final I won't presume to apply the law of precedence there. Italy are a good team and they can sometimes play very entertaining football, but there's a reason I don't support them.

 

Anyway, Frenchies. Scolari's Portugal is aggressive and isn't afraid to use such tactics, so we shall see how the older French squad rides out the frustrations, I don't think they'll snap like the Dutch did. The fitness question might come into play, however, if it goes into extra time, especially since Ribery and Henry will be exhausted during normal time as the main sources of pace in the team.

[Atreides]

Diving and exagerations will be around for a long time because the stakes are getting higher. The consequences of not wining are getting huge and the pressure is on the players. Even ones that said how much they hate diving do it themselves when the time comes.

 

On the other hand I don't see it much in friendly games where there's generally not much advantage to be gained. As Cantona eloquently said in the (ironically) Henry Joga Bonito vid, there's honour on the streets.

[mkreku]

Maybe they should get rid of the on-field referee and start using video referees instead..? Or maybe football just isn't for me.. Maybe I should stick to hockey, where it's considered manly to suck up pain. I've seen players spit out teeth and continue playing in hockey.

 

Of course, I would think doping is much more common in hockey than in football too.. especially painkillers.

[Checkpoint]

Way to go Italy! I watched last night's game with the frame of mind that the final would be awesome whoever went through, so I put aside this Germany come-on I've had because I wanted them to be in for the sake of the tournament, and just sat back to enjoy.

 

And I did enjoy!

 

Italy came out with the mentality that they're a big football nation with a lot of pride, and they wanted to show the Germans that in front of their own fans. The Italians are obviously under heavy fire because of what's going on with Juventus et al, so they can take on an us-against-the-world mentality that's a perfect fit for an away game in the WC semi final.

 

And they played well!

 

Off-the-ball pressure well into the German half and early presence marked by Materazzi (who actually is a player I can't stand) and the ever-superb Fabio Cannavaro. About fifteen minutes into the game after the teams had exchanged a few half-chances the Italians took over. Pirlo was absolutely dominating and from time to time Totti came down to collect a few balls almost as if out of jealousy. The latter mixed the odd brilliant through-ball with some displays of arrogance (i.e. he was Totti), but Pirlo continued to shine.

 

The Germans addressed this in the second half and we had to wait until about 70-75 minutes in, when the players started tiring, before it opened up and this case went from bad to worse in extra time. Again Italy! A post and a cross-bar. The Germans had their chances too, but Lippi showed courage in having all of Gilardino, Iaquinta, Totti, Del Piero and Pirlo on the pitch. It paid off, since when you have people like Cannavaro and a tireless midfielder like Gattuso on the field, the case of a guy like Grosso being out-run by Odonkor isn't as much of a worry. I think Odonkor isn't a whole lot more than pace, and when Grosso gets the help he needs they pretty much neutralise him.

 

And the goals!

 

Two beautiful Italian goals to spoil the party for Germany. Pirlo's pass to Grosso for the first one is superb and Grosso's finish is about as close to perfect as you get. Not to talk about Del Piero's goal on the counter-attack two minutes later. I've never been a huge fan of Del Piero as a player, but the guy is a class act and deserved to get that goal. With the actors from Portugal (sorry Soulseeker) up against the retirees from France I will definitely be rooting for Italy in the final. Although I must say I enjoy watching that Ribery guy on the French team a lot. Great player. And Zidane looked as though it was 1998 all over again in the quarter final.

 

Anyway, longish post, but I haven't had a lot of opportunity to talk World Cup, so that's why this happens.

[Tigranes]

Even kids are starting to dive around in the little league. What I mean by that is that some of the growing generations (in which I'm included) are beginning to accept diving as a *legitimate* attempt at something which is perfectly fine if you get away with it, and should be congratulated. Diving needs to be minimised, not left to fester as it is now.

 

mkreku: football players are expected to do that, too. But only after rolling on the ground and earning a free kick. THEN they can bandage their whatevers and fight on heroically!

[Atreides]

If that's the case I think refs and coaches should start discouraging that. The thing I don't like to see is players pretending to need treatment (putting the ball out) if their team's vulnerable to a counter, just to let the players get back into position.

[J.E. Sawyer]

I think Odonkor isn't a whole lot more than pace, and when Grosso gets the help he needs they pretty much neutralise him.

Odonkor barely played, but I certainly didn't see anything from him that indicated a bursting talent. A few bad crosses (par for Germany throughout the match) and a wild shot on goal after the first Italian point... eh. His speed certainly didn't help him.

 

Germany didn't do that well in the game, but they did do better than many expected. Then again, historically hosting teams tend to go 2.5 rounds more than average. Anyway, Lehmann did put in a fantastic performance and Miro Klose exits with the WC scoring lead.

 

With the actors from Portugal (sorry Soulseeker) up against the retirees from France I will definitely be rooting for Italy in the final. Although I must say I enjoy watching that Ribery guy on the French team a lot. Great player. And Zidane looked as though it was 1998 all over again in the quarter final.

I'm wearing my Netherlands jacket today so the ghosts of the fouled will rise up from the first round to torment Portugal!

[Blarghagh]

Thanks man, us Dutchies appreciate it.

 

Especially since, with Germany out, the only people we have left to utterly hate are the Portugese for teh ninjakicking (that grudge definately won't go away until... the end of the World Cup, we have short attention spans).

 

We'll hate Germany forever though. No country gets to border us and be not hated. Secretely, we're sabotaging the Belgians too.