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Another iffy call (surprise) and a penalty kick choke
June 27, 2006If you watched all 210 minutes (plus injury time) of soccer this afternoon, you didn’t see a goal scored in the run of play.
You would have witnessed a weak penalty kick and game that was decided by penalty kicks, but not an actual earned goal. Pretty hard to do.
If you haven’t caught the highlights, Italy’s 1-0 victory had another officiating blunder (and in other news, the sun is hot and water is wet).
Despite playing a man down (on a semi-weak red card, I might add), the Italians scored the game-winning goal when Francesco Totti converted a penalty kick with no time left.
If it had been a legit foul, I would have accepted it. But, to sum up what happened, an Australian defender dives to block a shot, only to have Fabio Grosso (he should have been carded just for that name) cut back and trip over him in the box.
I’ll admit I was openly rooting for the Aussies. They’re fun to watch and I thought they could make a run. Oh well. They ain’t the first team to get screwed, and they won’t be the last.
And if you missed the Ukirane-Swiss, game let me recap:
First half — each team hit a post.
Second half — each team kicked the ball a lot.
Extra time — each team came nowhere near scoring a goal. ZZZZZZZZ.
First penalty kick — each team misses, with a couple of nice saves.
Holy geez, can anyone score? Can we eliminate both teams and retroactively advance Mexico or the Netherlands? Can Italy just get a bye into the semis?
Finally, the Ukraine converts three straight PK’s, while the Swiss choke harder than I did on that one-pound burger the other day, missing their final two as well.
Stat of the day: Italy scored the first goal of this World Cup while playing a man down. The last time it happened, Paraguay scored twice shorthanded in a 3-1 victory over Slovenia in the 2002 World Cup.
Next up: Two fantastic matches, to be sure. Brazil-Ghana has the makings to be a fantastic one, but Brazil could easily win by three goals. Both teams will play at a torrid pace, but Ghana will miss stud midfielder Michael Essien.
France-Spain is also worth watching, although I believe Spain is a superior team. These border rivalries always peak my interests.
My quest: As enjoyable as the soccer was (and despite my earlier rants, any World Cup watching is enjoyable), I enjoyed a three-way phone call more.
I’ve been talking to high school buds John and Derek this World Cup, but the three of us haven’t hung out together since my wedding — almost two years ago.
Our senior year, we’d get out of high school at 12:15, and every day headed over to John’s house to watch soccer, mainly the Premier League.
Today, we somehow talked three-way on our cell phones (don’t know how, all John) for about an hour, talking smack and soccer.
And for what it’s worth, John (the lone contributor to this message board, except for my dad’s one post) and Derek both are calling Germany the champs.
I stand by my Spain pre-WC pick, but if forced to choose now, I’d go with Argentina.
Posted by at 12:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
