For FUN - WorldCUP, Whom do you stand for?MOD EDIT: CONGRATS ITALY!!!!

[Icarus]

oh my, we were robbed, no questions asked.

[KenSaba]

Taday, my guess is Brasil 3x2 Gana.

And I am for Argentina reach the final, because to a brazilian, win Argentina on final match ll be… priceless!

Final: Brasil 4x1 Argentina lol …

[P_T]

I would like to point out that the Aussies made an excellent impression in this WC and my impression is that they will be a regular guest at these tournaments (as opposed to some of the african one-hit-wonders)

Oh yeah we will be, didn’t you know? we got out of Oceania and joined Asia. Kinda suck really, to stay in Oceania which doesn’t have a guaranteed seat in the World Cup is not fair for Australia since we do play good football but to join Asia is unfair to them as well since we’ll be robbing a chance from one of their countries. Oh well, welcome to the real world.

[JWRodegher]

“I havent seen the replays yet, but you have to understand that the referee does not have a replay. He has to decide within seconds. I cant tell wether or not it was a penalty. We did not lose today, because of that penalty, but because we did not score a single goal today.”

What a gentleman! That was a very mature statement!
My respects to this man, and the wishes that most players take him for example!
Australia was great in the WC. They have to be proud! cheers!

[Digit]

Yeah, it would be great to see Australia become a regular in the world cup

[Peddy]

thats why this game is so frustrating sometimes. its so unforgiving. the ref blows his whistle and he cant take it back or redeem it. that shouldn’t have been a penalty kick. Even the Italian red card wasnt deserved.
All that time they use to process silly and often unavoidable player collisions they can use to look at again or get a video referee opinion so less people are pissed off.

[JohnnyAlucarD]

thats why this game is so frustrating sometimes. its so unforgiving. the ref blows his whistle and he cant take it back or redeem it. that shouldn’t have been a penalty kick. Even the Italian red card wasnt deserved.
All that time they use to process silly and often unavoidable player collisions they can use to look at again or get a video referee opinion so less people are pissed off.

Don’tknow if I agree with you - firstly it WAS a penalty - it happened and Australia went home - secondly if they had defended as well as the Italians it would have gone to extra time - the defender did not need to go to ground - see my earlier post about that
Something else too : football has a habit of evening out over time - any of you remember the last team Hiddink managed at the world cup finals against Italy - it was South Korea and with what happened then to the Italians they deserve a run of luck - the goal they scored then WAS legitimate but they still went home.
I am not an Italian fan (England all the way I hope!!) but…I am getting fed up with this idea that Australia were “robbed” by fate and/or the cheating Italian who got a penalty out of thin air - in truth they had over half an hour playing ten men - their manager wasn’t aggrressive enough with his substitutions after the sending off - and ANY defender who dives in the way the Australian player did is just asking for trouble. Also, by the letter of the law, there WAS contact, it WAS obstruction and therefore it WAS a penalty - it wasn’t down to bad luck it was down to not being able to score against 10 men, who defended better then they did (not many people here mention THAT btw) and finally it was down to a player who SHOULD and could have done better in the situation and stayed on his feet.

[nitindesign]

ok world cup is almost over so message edited

[parallax]

Don’tknow if I agree with you - firstly it WAS a penalty - it happened and Australia went home - secondly if they had defended as well as the Italians it would have gone to extra time - the defender did not need to go to ground - see my earlier post about that
Something else too : football has a habit of evening out over time - any of you remember the last team Hiddink managed at the world cup finals against Italy - it was South Korea and with what happened then to the Italians they deserve a run of luck - the goal they scored then WAS legitimate but they still went home.
I am not an Italian fan (England all the way I hope!!) but…I am getting fed up with this idea that Australia were “robbed” by fate and/or the cheating Italian who got a penalty out of thin air - in truth they had over half an hour playing ten men - their manager wasn’t aggrressive enough with his substitutions after the sending off - and ANY defender who dives in the way the Australian player did is just asking for trouble. Also, by the letter of the law, there WAS contact, it WAS obstruction and therefore it WAS a penalty - it wasn’t down to bad luck it was down to not being able to score against 10 men, who defended better then they did (not many people here mention THAT btw) and finally it was down to a player who SHOULD and could have done better in the situation and stayed on his feet.

You’re the only person in the known universe who thinks this was a penalty.

[FabioMSilva]

Hi
For FUN - WorldCUP, Whom do you stand for?

Portugal of course!

But more importantly, fair play on all games:bounce:

[JohnnyAlucarD]

You’re the only person in the known universe who thinks this was a penalty.

Heheh lol! I seriously doubt it - erm… there was the ref for a start! Heheh also I would advise you to actually read the rules regarding contact/obstruction in the penalty area. And perhaps you also didn’t listen - as I did - to a group of professioanls discussing this very thing.

Peace

[atzfratz]

Don’tknow if I agree with you - firstly it WAS a penalty - it happened and Australia went home - secondly if they had defended as well as the Italians it would have gone to extra time - the defender did not need to go to ground - see my earlier post about that
Something else too : football has a habit of evening out over time - any of you remember the last team Hiddink managed at the world cup finals against Italy - it was South Korea and with what happened then to the Italians they deserve a run of luck - the goal they scored then WAS legitimate but they still went home.
I am not an Italian fan (England all the way I hope!!) but…I am getting fed up with this idea that Australia were “robbed” by fate and/or the cheating Italian who got a penalty out of thin air - in truth they had over half an hour playing ten men - their manager wasn’t aggrressive enough with his substitutions after the sending off - and ANY defender who dives in the way the Australian player did is just asking for trouble. Also, by the letter of the law, there WAS contact, it WAS obstruction and therefore it WAS a penalty - it wasn’t down to bad luck it was down to not being able to score against 10 men, who defended better then they did (not many people here mention THAT btw) and finally it was down to a player who SHOULD and could have done better in the situation and stayed on his feet.

I still disagree with you on the penalty. But you`re right that italy had some decisions against them last time and the red card was quite arguable as well.

But that penalty was just wrong. Just try to think of that happening somewhere in the middlefield. A player is lying on the ground and the other runs straight into him and dives. Noone would call that a foul.
Italy played like they wanted a 0:0 from the beginning. Defending with 11 guys against Australia is just plain wrong.
You`re totally right that the aussie defender acted stupid when he went down. But that the italian took the chance to dive is everything what bothers me about nowadays football. The refs are so bad this time its not funny. Fifa thinks it brings us nicer football when they sanction every little thing but the opposite happens. The players are acting more and the game is stopped too often.
I dont wanna see a professional athelete dive like a faggot 3 seconds afters he has been hit by a “headbutt”. You can always see it in the replay, they get hit, they think “wtf” and then the coin drops and they cry loud while their knees bend from all the pain the suddenly suffer. its such a joke.
And that penalty was such a thing. He looks down and thinks " hmmm, great , the angle is too small to shoot anyway, i just dive over that guy here."
How the f*** can a sane referee give such a penalty in an K.O. WC match 12 seconds before the end? i still dont get it. Not italy send Australia home, it was the ref. And thats whats wrong about it.

When they ever bring replay into decisions than please for the only purpose of getting rid of that shit because i dont wanna see it.

[JohnnyAlucarD]

I agree with you bout the fact of the same incident happening outside the area - I doubt it would heve even been a free kick. As for playing defensively for 90 minutes well that IS Italy’s trademark and has been for years - formidable Italian defence is legendary, isn’t it? It hasn’t exactly hurt either the national side or their club sides. Look how many trophies Italian sides have won throughout the years - all built on rock solid defence and tactics.

I have never stated I agreed with the erm…“fall” but, and it is a point that again, European teams are also well known for falling over - when Ronaldo plays for Man U in England this reputation still haunts him, even though I would say he has definately cleared it from his game.
All I can say is poor preperation - I cannot believe a manager with the experience Hiddink has could not have hammered, over and over into his team about the consequences of ill timed tackles on opponents, particularly as it was Italy they were playing.
All that bothers me are postings on how Australia were robbed - I disagree - as an England fan I have been on the end of many shameful and wrong discions over the years but you just get on with it. Personally I don’t think Australia were robbed - I believe they were naieve and unprepared for the tactics some teams use. I think the amount of time you spend following a team that regularly competes at European level, you get used to the cynicism, the diving, the play acting etc that has become (sadly) part and parcel of modern football.
It comes as a shock I think at major tournements - what happened to Australia the other day is nothing new in football, particularly at this intense level.
I will say this again - it was a penalty (by the law) and had the defender not panicked as the player beat him into the box and lunged in, and stayed on his feet there would not have been a penalty, and maybe they would have gone on to win the match. But looking at how impresively the Italians defended I have my doubts.

[atzfratz]

there is a difference between playing out of a strong defense or hardly trying to score a goal. You cant seriously believe its a good tactic to defend a 0:0 against a (on paper) way inferior team and hope on a penalty.

i feel for everyone who bought a card for the quarter final italy-ukraine, that will probably be one boring ugly game.

[Art2]

All I can say is poor preperation - I cannot believe a manager with the experience Hiddink has could not have hammered, over and over into his team about the consequences of ill timed tackles on opponents, particularly as it was Italy they were playing.

Maybe he did… :shrug: players tend to forget what was told during preparation in the heat of the game. It’s natural I guess, adrenalin and stuff.

“No, not that way you stupid!”

“I told you fools to attack d@mnit!”

“Oh God, make these guys listen to me just once…”

erm… that’s not the Mexican coach…

[system]

there is a difference between playing out of a strong defense or hardly trying to score a goal. You cant seriously believe its a good tactic to defend a 0:0 against a (on paper) way inferior team and hope on a penalty.

In the last 16 of the world cup and down to 10 men, I dont see why not? Youre not necessarily hoping on a penalty (though thats clearly the dream scenario) but you are relying on a set piece or so.

I dont think it was a penalty but the defender was extremely naive there, perhaps he just lost concentration for a split second but it was exactly the sort of opportunity that italian players relish. If you give them the opportunity to leave a trailing leg and con a penalty then thats exactly what they will do. Some would say its cheating, others would say it’s clever…but it certainly wasn’t a surprise to me. Sad for the aussies cos they had a real go in this tournament and Hiddink would have had 3 sets of fresh legs to bring on had the game gone to extra time. That’s just the way it goes in football sometimes and is why we love and loathe the game in equal measure.

Can’t wait for Spain vs France tonight

[JohnnyAlucarD]

Maybe he did… :shrug: players tend to forget what was told during preparation in the heat of the game. It’s natural I guess, adrenalin and stuff.

“No, not that way you stupid!”

“I told you fools to attack d@mnit!”

“Oh God, make these guys listen to me just once…”

erm… that’s not the Mexican coach…

hehehe! Nice one!
Cameo I agree totally with you. I am also waiting with baited breath for Spain France - it’s amouth watering tie - it’s the beauty of this tournement - GAME ON!!
(don’t expect me to be like this come Saturday afternoon though…oh no no, then it’s all worry, wait and bitten nail time!!)

[Dennik]

oh my, we were robbed, no questions asked.

Tell me about it. I know shit about football but i knew that penalty was a gift to Italy. The game was bought thats for sure.

[nitindesign]

ok world cup is almost over so message edited

[Gangstashers]

that was a easy 3th goal… i hate to see Ghana loose.

[edit] well that was that, now lets see if france can hold spain.

Sheherryar