Viva Italia
Italy v Australia.
"No contest," people said. "Italy will make Vegemite out of them."
Even though I was pretty confident Italy would beat them, I didn’t think the Aussies would go without a fight. And let’s not forget they’re being led by the same guy who masterminded South Korea’s defeat of Italy 4 years ago. There was the potential for a major upset. I think a lot of my friends were hoping there would be one - sure would have been a glorious underdog story.
Would David slay Goliath again with another well-executed shot?
As I’m waiting for the next match to start at 3am, I’ll just recap the Italy v Aust match that took place earlier. Pretty bleary-eyed right now so excuse me if I have typos or my sentences are incomplete can’t be bothered right now…
Although I was rooting for the boys in blue (naturally), I have to say that Oz’s defence was pretty solid. Tight marking. Very well-organized. Not totally impenetrable though because the Italians, Luca Toni in particular, had several good opportunities in front of goal which they failed to convert.
First half ended in a stalemate.
Then, almost immediately after play resumed, Marco Materazzi was shown the red card for a sloppy challenge on one of the Aussie players. It wouldn’t be a first for him. I don’t like him - he’s a big, dumb brute who can’t tackle cleanly. A B-grade stand-in for Nesta. Don’t know why he was suddenly included in the starting line-up when he was a sub in the previous matches. Could be because he headed in a goal in the last game.
Jesus, that’s like Peter Crouch. Score a goal or two and you get to keep yourself on the pitch, despite being a total liability to your team. Yes, goal scoring is important but you gotta give guys like them at least 20 million tries to get one ball in the net. So they’re lucky once or twice, so what?? Someone please get those flamingos off the pitch.
Well, even with Italy down to 10 men, Oz never capitalized on this advantage and they were never any real threat to Buffon the Italian keeper. Like the other underdogs in the competition (Ghana, Ecuador, etc.), they are fit, strong and relentless but in front of goal, they’re about as dangerous as a bunch of koala bears.
The game looked set to be heading into extra time though which meant that Oz would have a real chance at winning this match. Their tireless running would eventually exhaust a depleted Italian side and sooner or later, they’d be able to break down the resistant wall of defence.
But it was not to be.
As dramatically as any World Cup match can go, Italy was awarded a penalty at the very last minute of the game. Grosso hit the ground after a tackle by Lucas Neill in the Australia box. Totti took the kick and drove the ball into the back of the net, sealing victory and ensuring a place in the quarter-finals for his country.
I felt extremely sad for Oz though, especially when the camera zoomed in on Neill’s extremely forlorn, dejected face as he sat on the pitch after the match. Someone give the guy a pint of Tooheys.
Every awarded penalty is always going to be hotly contested, especially when you’re on the side of the losing team. Hard to say whether it was deserved but don’t think it was deliberate at all, just a poorly timed tackle on Neill’s part. But I never do like to see a game won that way. And I don’t think Italy does either seeing as how they’ve gone out of the World Cup on penalties three times.
Of course, I’m still happy that Italy’s won. The quality of Buffon’s saves alone merit a win. He da man. Guess if he weren’t though, Juventus would ask for a refund (they paid a record-breaking transfer fee of 33 million pounds for him).
Sorry, Socceroos.
By the way, can someone please tell team Australia to get a less cuddly nickname? I was also praying fervently that they wouldn’t win just so I wouldn’t have to see stupid tabloid headlines tomorrow…’Socceroos hop to historic win’, ‘G’day to Italy, mate’…
Blech.
If Oz had won though, then Hiddink will really be the man with the Midas touch. Instead of wasting money on more useless mega projects, our dear ol’ government can consider paying millions to him instead to train our national team for the next World Cup.
You want to encourage national pride, well, nothing does it like sports.
June 27th, 2006 at 6:50 am
I should pitch this piece to the media lah, Steph hahaha.
BTW, about your closing remark, I don’t agree with you. The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) formed a young talented team in the 1990s to concentrate on getting a place in Olympics 2000. The players were each paid RM3,000 per month for their national duty. FAM even provided them with accommodation and daily meals. Guess what? The players purposely fail their test matches in the hope that they’ll be dropped from the national squad. Why? Cause they’re more interested in the RM5,000 pm salary the State teams were offering them. They’re not interested to don the national colours and play in the Olympics.
If these boys can’t play football, they’re only qualified to work in the a factory’s production line with a take home salary of RM300. No wonder when they kept losing, the former national coach, Hungarian Bertalan Bicskei said to them, “go back to your village and apply for a job in a factory”.
Okay, over to Steph in Germany hehehehe…
June 27th, 2006 at 7:02 pm
You are the queen of footie now…. yikes!
July 2nd, 2006 at 6:02 pm
I, of course, being one of maybe five Socceroo fans, must say my piece.
It wasn’t the last minute of the game, it was the last 5 seconds! And it wasn’t a tackle - the bloke had fallen over kicking the ball away, and our Italian friend dramatically tripped over Neill. Not to say it was on purpose, but it was certainly lucky for the Azzuri that the referee deemed it an obstruction to a clear goal otherwise. And of course they stated their case by lots of arm waving, dramatic gesturing and such. By they, I mean both the Aussies and Italy.
I didn’t think the Aussies would have won of course. Italy is a football giant. Until the Croatia match, the whole of Australia thought football was a wussie game. They prefer the rough and tough of Aussie rules and rugby. And then they saw the huge Croatians (they were all bigger than the Aussies). And the tackles. And the elbowing. And the flailing, kicking legs. (One has to love football eh?) So, yes, viva Italy. Anyone who has to play against Germany (boring, yawn), must beat them.
To digress, I must say, sorry Brazil lost, but France was absolutely stupendous. Zidane is the world’s greatest footballer. No argument. He totally deserves the World Cup just for making the Brazilians look like amateurs.
What are we gonna talk about when the World Cup is over??
July 2nd, 2006 at 11:52 pm
Jasmin: It’s a downright shame to know that. With no guts or passion, there can be no glory.
And yet I’m pretty sure when young Titus James makes his mark in the footballing world, locals will proudly herald him as an exemplary model of the “Malaysia boleh” spirit. Malaysia tak malu.
Annie: But I can’t compete with the queen of PORK, hahaha.
Alison: Cruel way for Oz to exit the World Cup stage. Italy may be my team of choice but I know they’ve got their flaws as well. I did consider that Grosso may have been looking for a penalty. We forget that a lot of the best players in the world can be, in fact, dirty cheats. Grosso, assuming he did deliberately trip over Neill, can join the likes of Michael Ballack, Francesco Totti, Luis Figo and Ruud van Nistelrooy in the Footballers’ Drama Club.
The Socceroos will be quick to learn this when some of them enter the European league. It’s sad to see because this sure ain’t joga bonito.
I agree that Zidane is in a class of his own. To all who said he was an ageing has-been, that was the best comeback ever. He’s a player who never needed to take a dive. I swear defenders just stand there with gaping jaws when he runs circles round them.
I don’t know what we can talk about after World Cup. Maybe the government can increase the price of fuel/electricity/water again. If there’s one thing that unites Malaysian citizens and gets them talking more than football, that’s got to be it.