How many bad decisions can FIFA allow?? Ridiculous. You know you are playing the Italians who can act their way out of anything. I think the referee just wanted to go home and eat a meal and watch TV.
The Socceroos played well but they were naive. They came up against a clever and cynical team. Totti was the goat in that South Korean match 4 years ago, this time he goes back to a piazza named after him.
Bah! The referees have taken over.
20 comments on “Totti’s PK: Grosso sells a fake, the referee falls for it”
amen, the Ref handed the game to Italy on a silver platter. I hope Italy falls HARD against their next opponent, they don’t deserve to have won, it should have gone to overtime.
I feel for Australia, they don’t deserve to go home.
MEDINA CANTALEJO Luis
Nationality: Spain
Role: Referee
Date of birth: 1 March 1964
thats the ref that wanted to go home for some pizza. I bet he wanted italy to win or he just want to go home to his mommy. italy players are cunning. i’m never gonna support italy in any game if they are gonna win like that.
totally agree. Its sad when the game is decided by a poor ref and a cheat. I even heard the commentator (marcelo balboa) congratulating the italian player for selling the foul that resulted in the pk… what a dick!!!. A very sad day for soccer
As a passionate England supporter now living in Australia I too have gotten carried away with the performances of this little known soccer nation. Having thought that Italy might be a step too far, I am pleased that the socceroos weren’t fazed by the task & played with great unity. Their progress in this tournament in my opinion is down to the brilliance of the now departing manager, someone I only wish could lead a lucklustre England in it’s search for footballs “Holy Grail”
I also agree with many that, sadly this tournament is being upstaged not by the nations themselves & the players but by the referees. Although some of the refereeing decisions make for entertaining matches there is so much more at stake than just entertaining viewers & “putting bums on seats”. If this is the future of football I think I will be reading more comics.
To say that the Spanish ref was biased towards the Italians is a little out of line, the red card against Materazzi was extremely harsh.
The Australians were definatly dominating the 10-man Azzurri, and was quite awe inspiring. This years squad was not to be taken lightly
However, that penalty kick was legitimate. You can’t dive in front of a player like that and expect to make it out alive.
The azzurri have been the victim to overly critical calls of “Diving”, yet when we look back at the game the Australian’s had their own share of simulation.
Was the PK harsh? Yes, but a completely necessary call.
I might have to tread VERY lightly here, but I just don’t see this foul in the league as some of the others.
Okay, Grosso “embellished” but the ref was not out of line in calling for the PK. And do not tell me that you don’t make the call with 15 seconds left – the referee should NEVER look at the watch to determine the call.
I will need to take a look again at the replay from YouTube, but let me cast blame in a different direction. What the hell was Neill thinking going to the ground??? Whenever you slide tackle across the travel of play, you set yourself up for this call. Stand up, clear it out and give away the CK.
I do wholeheartedly agree that this was a crappy way for the Socceroos to go, but I also don’t see this call being as bad as some.
Let the name calling begin…
Yes, another match played by the referee. The red card against Italy was totally not a red card, and then the penalty awarded to Italy was a hint to the referee that he needs a new pair of eyes and also a new pair of legs. Italy was totally wrong in picking their classical style against Aussies in the first half, they should have gone for full attack against Aussies, instead they just knocked the ball around in their side and once in a while sent the ball to Luca Toni, oh man anybody can fall asleep watching this kind of football. Well done Australia, a nation of Cricket and Rugby finally made it. I hope that my country India can do the same in near future, given that they beat Aussies once in a while in Cricket or Hockey.
I’m going to have to agree with Tilam on this one. Materazzi’s foul was a definite yellow card, but I think he got the red due to his reputation as a “dirty” player (which I do think he is). About the PK; sliding in like that at that moment of the match was a risk to begin with. Neill did have defensive support so the tackle wasn’t entirely neccessary. And any player in that position would look for a penalty, whether they’d be Italian or not. So don’t say that the Azzurri were “disgraceful.” I know that the reputation of Italian football preceeds it, but I’m sure if this was any team but Italy, the PK would be called “questionable” and not “shameful.” With that said, full credit to the Aussies for putting up a monumental fight against Italy. They showed a lot of determination and they certainly had their chances to score, but were denied by an in-form Buffon. Being an Italian, I do not like the reputation we’ve earned, but throughout this WC, there have been a LOT worse calls than Neill’s tackle on Grosso (see USA v Ghana and Onyewu’s “foul”).
After seeing it live and on several replays, I have to go with the concensus and say it was a total idiot call. Regardless of whether Neill should or should not have slid (I cannot count the number of goals or crosses I blocked because of a slide), the truth of the matter (IMHO) is that there was little contact during the slide itself. The italian player tried to run over Neill, INITIATED contact himself more than Neill, then performed is Emmy award winning dive. It’s a crappy way to determine a game, especially since it was handed to the Italians. Not with less than 30 seconds to go. Make them earn it.
I think this goes to show that “favorites” are being given some leeway or benefits to ensure that certain teams make it deep into the tournament.
Let the flames begin!
No more whingeing, Australia. Maybe we were catastrophically unlucky, maybe not. But it wasn’t unfair. And as for all that drivel from the anti-Italian, anti-referee brigade, what a load of brain-dead bullshit.
If Fabio Grosso hadn’t produced that storming heroic run, we would have won the game: 30 minutes of extra time against 10 tired Italians & two fresh players up our sleeve. If it goes to penalties, my money’s on Australia with Italy’s demons chewing on their souls.
Was it a penalty? Of course, it was – for an unintentional trip caused by Lucas Neill flinging himself into Grosso’s path in the shadow of the near-post. Grosso didn’t dive – he didn’t need to. He stays on his feet, he scores. Was it bad luck for Australia? Sadly, I doubt it. It will be there in the replay. Somebody on the left of Australia’s defence let Grosso get away. Somebody else failed to stop the pass into his path. What happened? I suspect that with 10 seconds to go, Australia was waiting for the whistle and forgot to mind the shop. It’s an old and sad story.
Give Grosso credit. He ran 60 metres and blew Bresciano away, left him flat on his face down on the turf. He made bound-for-Barcelona Neill look ordinary. Somebody further upfield exposed Bresciano, and Bresciano exposed Neill.
The penalty was absolutely correct – and so was Matterazzi’s red card.
Matterazzi put in a flying, two-legged tackle on Bresciano with no attempt whatsoever to play the ball, with Bresciano – so far as Matterazzi could tell – through on goal. It was a classic professional foul on a goal-going player – and that’s a red card every day of the week.
So we’ll agonise over the replay and somewhere around 15 seconds to go, we’ll find the if-only moment when the ball might have gone anywhere else but into the path of Grosso.
Did Australia deserve to win?. No. We got four shots on goal – none of them seriously dangerous – in 90 minutes, and for 40 minutes against 10 men. Hiddink is only human – he lost his nerve and fell for the old fiction that Viduka’s a superstar: if he brings on Aloisi a lot sooner, and Josh Kennedy also, we could have had a red-hot go at the Italian defence.
All that tells us our World Cup result was about right: the spirit was willing, even wonderful, but the technique was lacking, and until Australia adopts a blanket national approach to junior development – starting with the five-year-olds – along the lines of the French or Dutch system, our technique will always be lacking, as in this World Cup for every World Cup to come.
There is no comfort for Italy here – but for that fatal lapse, Australia would be preparing for a quarter final against Ukraine and a semi against Argentina. What a run! What a result from the debutante’s from DownUnder!
No more whingeing, Australia. Maybe we were catastrophically unlucky, maybe not. But it wasn’t unfair. And as for all that drivel from the anti-Italian, anti-referee brigade, what a load of brain-dead bullshit.
If Fabio Grosso hadn’t produced that storming heroic run, we would have won the game: 30 minutes of extra time against 10 tired Italians & two fresh players up our sleeve. If it goes to penalties, my money’s on Australia with Italy’s demons chewing on their souls.
Was it a penalty? Of course, it was – for an unintentional trip caused by Lucas Neill flinging himself into Grosso’s path in the shadow of the near-post. Grosso didn’t dive – he didn’t need to. He stays on his feet, he scores. Was it bad luck for Australia? Sadly, I doubt it. It will be there in the replay. Somebody on the left of Australia’s defence let Grosso get away. Somebody else failed to stop the pass into his path. What happened? I suspect that with 10 seconds to go, Australia was waiting for the whistle and forgot to mind the shop. It’s an old and sad story.
Give Grosso credit. He ran 60 metres and blew Bresciano away, left him flat on his face down on the turf. He made bound-for-Barcelona Neill look ordinary. Somebody further upfield exposed Bresciano, and Bresciano exposed Neill.
The penalty was absolutely correct – and so was Matterazzi’s red card.
Matterazzi put in a flying, two-legged tackle on Bresciano with no attempt whatsoever to play the ball, with Bresciano – so far as Matterazzi could tell – through on goal. It was a classic professional foul on a goal-going player – and that’s a red card every day of the week.
So we’ll agonise over the replay and somewhere around 15 seconds to go, we’ll find the if-only moment when the ball might have gone anywhere else but into the path of Grosso.
Did Australia deserve to win?. No. We got four shots on goal – none of them seriously dangerous – in 90 minutes, and for 40 minutes against 10 men. Hiddink is only human – he lost his nerve and fell for the old fiction that Viduka’s a superstar: if he brings on Aloisi a lot sooner, and Josh Kennedy also, we could have had a red-hot go at the Italian defence.
All that tells us our World Cup result was about right: the spirit was willing, even wonderful, but the technique was lacking, and until Australia adopts a blanket national approach to junior development – starting with the five-year-olds – along the lines of the French or Dutch system, our technique will always be lacking, as in this World Cup for every World Cup to come.
There is no comfort for Italy here – but for that fatal lapse, Australia would be preparing for a quarter final against Ukraine and a semi against Argentina. What a run! What a result from the debutante’s from DownUnder!
Fabio Grosso is a discrace to the game. not only is he a diving cheat. he ruined the ambitions of an entire nation grips to the game. Australia had dominated that entire game and italy were pathetic for a team of italy surposed “calibre” to beat a team that had never even scored in a world cup game. by a dive os pathetic and i beileve that people should have a second look at what they think of the italian national team…If i was italian at the moment i would be discrasced by there national team
Fabio Grosso is a discrace to the game. not only is he a diving cheat. he ruined the ambitions of an entire nation grips to the game. Australia had dominated that entire game and italy were pathetic for a team of italy surposed “calibre” to beat a team that had never even scored in a world cup game before this year. by a dive is pathetic and i beileve that people should have a second look at what they think of the italian national team…If i was italian at the moment i would be discrasced by there national team
ESPN’s Marcelo Balboa is an embarrassment. The way he congratulated the Italian flopper for “doing a perfect job of selling it….(the final flop)”. WTF is that hearing that crap? There is a big difference between taking the occasional missed offsides call versus actively “selling” a flop in order to cheat. Yet, Balboa congratulated the Italian flop as if it was a well executed skill that our kids should try to master. As someone who used to coach AYSO at the 8-10 year old level, I am pissed that ESPN would have someone with such poor sportsmanship announcing a game with kids in the audience. Fricken disgraceful.
idiot Aussie said:Fabio Grosso is a discrace to the game. not only is he a diving cheat. he ruined the ambitions of an entire nation grips to the game. Australia had dominated that entire game and italy were pathetic for a team of italy surposed “calibre” to beat a team that had never even scored in a world cup game before this year. by a dive is pathetic and i beileve that people should have a second look at what they think of the italian national team…If i was italian at the moment i would be discrasced by there national team
We talking about the same guy??? The Grosso who put Italy into final with a well executed goal in the far post? IItaly Vs Germany hmmm no diving in that game and they still won. Aussies played well against the Italians but get over it…was Neils mistake…hahahha you sore losers need to accept the fact that you lost and Italy (including Grosso) is clearly a better team!!!
Grosso wasn’t disgraceful. He was typical of modern european and sth american footballers. He dived though. End of story. Yes, Neil was less than perfect, but when a player is on the ground in front of me, and HASN”T MADE ILLEGAL CONTACT AT ALL, I go around him and continue, like a player should, not flop like a pansy.
Congrats to Italy on the final, they did play quite a decent game. However, I hope nobody is silly enough to label them as the best team in the world…..
Grosso DID not dive. Having seen him play quite alot he hasn’t a reputation for cheating. What is more i think O’Neil (Aussie defender) dived in too rashly and, whilst he may not have tried to foul Grosso, he got in the way. O’Neil, who plays for Blackburn, is a very rash defender at the best of times.
you guys are just jelous that Italia beat Australia. Italy is obviosely one of the best soccer teams in the world, and definetly the sexiest. It was sad to see Australia go home, but it was wainting to happen, when they came across an excellent team. Grosso doesnt dive, everyone in soccer FIFA dives, its not like other games, if they injure their legs, there careers are over, so diving is safer, Italia isnt the only one who dives, and i think Italy is the best and sexiest team. Austrialia got out because of Lucas Neil, not grosso.
Three years on it still hurts. Only watching Italy vs Korea in the 2002 world cup will cheer me up italy has some absolutely fantastic soccer players don’t get me wrong and if their up to it they can play wonderful football but diving in the 90th minute against a nation whose won what 1 game in a world cup that’s just cruel