Italy is through to the quarterfinals after beating Australia 1-0 this morning. The game was nil-nil for about 92 minutes, until Australia was called for a foul in the box, and Italy was awarded a penalty kick.
I can’t really say if it was a bad call or not… mainly because the wildly inconsistent officiating in this thing has made me question what little knowledge of soccer fouls that I actually do possess. But my man Danks says it was a terrible call, and the Deadspin liveblogger describes the call as a “terrible, horrid” decision.
I’m in no position to make the call… but I do know that the whistle is usually swallowed in that situation, you almost never see a penalty awarded there, and if nothing else, Italy is very, very, very fortunate. And of course, Australia didn’t do themselves any favors by playing the whole game like they had a 2-0 lead, despite being tied and having a man advantage. They failed to bury a lot of chances in the first half, and they refused to commit to an attacking style in the second half, and they paid for it.
And now Italy, who just doesn’t seem that good, will be playing either Switzerland or a one-man Ukraine team in the next round.
Garthmeister J.
Have to agree with you here MJD. In the last moments of extra time I don’t think there is any way you can call that foul. But we put ourselves in that position by not putting goals on the board with a man advantage. Aloisi provided a spark once he came on, but he needed to be there sooner than with 10 minutes to go.
June 26, 2006 at 4:23 pm
mazdak
If you want a view on what is and isn’t a foul go to this website http://referees.worldcupblog.org/
The writer has a good grasp of the rules.
With regard to the penalty, it was not a penalty Grosso saw the defender on the ground and left dragged his foot so it would make contact and then feel over. This is blatant cheating, players should not drag their legs, or leave them out to make contact, it is against the spirit of the game. Players should try to avoid contact and stay on their feet.
June 26, 2006 at 4:57 pm
Edward
It wasn’t a great call, but (1) the defender must NEVER go to ground in that situation. He had no reason to (he had Grosso on the wrong foot, from a bad angle), he was in a position to challenge for the ball or at least make him pass it away…and he throws himself down. Grosso goes for the penalty, and gets it. The defender made it easy for the ref to get it wrong…you only know it’s a bad call if you see it from the right angle.
Look, this is the sort of thing that happens in football. Especially since Blatter and FIFA want niggling fouls called, but haven’t said enough about calling the flop. In a world cup, every team would take the option the Italian did…avoid 30 more minutes of play and the possibility of a coin-flip shootout. It’s not very dignified, but Italy are still playing (with a clear shot to the semis) and the Ozzies are drowning their sorrows in Victoria Bitter.
June 27, 2006 at 3:23 am
Andrew
I wouldn’t take into question your knowledge of the rules – the World Cup refereeing has indeed been horrible. That being said, a lot of people are giving the refs a hard time by saying that they handed Italy the game at the end because they are a traditional powerhouse team, but the straight-up red card call in the first five minutes of the second half was just as awful a call. I know there’s a huge difference between a penalty call and a red card, but a red card call like that with 40 minutes to go is a big deal, and that’s being overlooked. If anything, that was maybe a yellow, and just barely.
On two other notes – that deadspin live-blogger was awful. “Terrible, horrid” as he might say. Aside from being so biased, and clearly unfunny when he thought the game was boring (which is weird because it was a decent game to watch), I don’t think the phrase “LOL” should ever appear in a World Cup live blog.
Finally, as far as Italy not looking good – I’m inclined to agree, save one part. During the Switzerland game yesterday, all we heard about was how the Swiss had yet to give up a goal in this cup. That’s nice (except they can’t score them). Italy, however, has given up one – to the Americans – and it was an own goal. The only team that has scored on Italy the whole tournament in Italy, as their defense has been stellar, even without Alessandro Nesta. Buffon has been lights-out in goal, and the traditionally defense-minded national squad hasn’t changed a bit. Toni hasn’t scored, but he got awfully close last game, and the way the Azzurri are playing – it seems like they’ll only need one in any game they play.
June 27, 2006 at 11:02 am
Shane
I commented once on fouls in another blog, but I agree. While not really a soccer fan by any means, the consistency of the foul calls is just plain silly. Also the fact that you can actually not get to play a whole next game for two cards? The yellow cards are given out for close to nothing at times. Stupid game with stupid fouls.
June 27, 2006 at 4:48 pm
Lorenzo
A couple of things:
1. World Cup officiating has NOT been stellar by any stretch.
2. I agree with Andrew when he says that the Deadspin live blogger during the Italy – Aussie game was to use his own words “terrible, horrid”. Aside from the fact that he hardly described the game going on and his obvious dislike of all things Italian, his frequent knocks on Totti were ridiculous and not even close to funny. Any non-Roma fan will tell you that Totti is not a “god” to any other fan than those in Rome. Please, this guy is the brunt of sooo many jokes that there’s even a book published containing all of them. Furthermore, this guy couldn’t even get the names of the players right!
3. The penalty awarded to Grosso in the box was a tough call. However, the Aussies should know not to slide in the box – not ONCE but TWICE! At that point, you are basically asking for a call.
4. Gattuso (an Italian midfielder) pretty much summed it up by saying that if Materazzi isn’t unjustly and inconceivably penalized with a straight red card, the ref would have never called a penalty in his dreams at the end of that game. I believe he wouldn’t have needed to either b/c the Italians would have put the game to rest (according to my Green/White/Red colored glasses, haha).
5. The Aussies played basically a whole half with a man advantage, yet only managed 4 shots on goal for the whole game. Did they really deserve to win? Put the ball in the net boys!
6. The Italians have played well. Their defense has been traditional in snuffing out scoring chances for opponents. (Now if we can only manage to keep our own players from scoring on our own goal we’ll be good!) Their offense has sputtered at times, yet it should be noted that Luca Toni has just been downright unlucky to still have a ZERO for a goal tally (Aussie keeper dives the wrong way on a great shot and manages to still save the ball with his foot!)
7. If I have to hear another word about the scandal going on in Italy and what the players must be going thru I’m going to scream! Does it look like the investigations back home are bothering them?! How many times must you bring that up during a game??
8. The game can be summed up like this: “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oy, Oy, OOPS!”
June 27, 2006 at 6:51 pm
Don Paco
The thing is, the biggest mistake in officiating came earlier. No way that Italian defender should have been sent off – that foul wasn’t worthy even of a yellow card.
The penalty decision is wrong, but by then Italy had been forced to play 40 minutes down one player.
In fact, that’s been the worst thing about World Cup officiating so far: how easily players are getting sent off for ticky tack fouls.
June 27, 2006 at 8:24 pm