Sunday, July 02, 2006

World Cup Diary - Day 18

Italy seemed to have an easy route to the Semi finals with Australia and then Ukraine or Switzerland standing in their way. I watched half the match. It was quite a poor match with Australia not able to capitalise on the Italians red card at the start of the second half. The Australians couldn't turn their possesion into a goal.

The legendary Italian defense withstood all the Aussies attacks without much trouble.

In the end the Italians got a synical foul with one of their players just falling over an Australian defender. They got a penalty and Totti stepped up to convert it. I felt sorry for the Aussies who deserved to go to extra time atleast and only were stopped from doing this, by the gamesmanship of the Italians. The Australian defender went to ground to early in the box but this is no excuse for the Italian to take advantage so cruelly.

Some Australian supporters were interviewed after the game. They were disgusted by the antics of the Italians and asked if this kind of thing was common at the top level of the beautiful game. Unfortunately it is all too common.

ITA 1 AUS 0


I think I was one of the few people who watched all of the Switzerland vs. Ukraine match. Both teams were so scared of losing that they wouldn't go for the win. It was a really poor game (especially the second half) and it seemed that the match would never end. Fortunately it did end with Ukraine winning on penalties

UKR 0 SWI 0 (UKR 3 SWI 0 Pens)

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