Spanish Referee

[uberteeb]

What about the Kaka sending off last night, not only was it ridiculous for the Ivory Coast player to go down clutching his face but the referee was not even looking at the incident and neither of his assistants flagged, how then could he give him a second yellow?

[Steven H]

Not denying that there was a foul there, but the way he fully milked it and threw himself to the ground like he'd been assaulted was disgusting. Don't agree that it was a "full-on drag the fellow back shirt hold" though, no worse than the 1000 other times it has happened in this tournament without punishment and even if it was, that doesn't make someone fall forwards. Hence that quote.

 

Got to disagree here, although it was a bit of a soft one it was a penalty and New Zealand can have no real complaints. The Italian was trying to run forward and the NZ guy got a firm grip on the guys top and pulls him back, when the NZ player releases the shirt the Itailians momentum caused him to go down (he made it look worse than it was though). Think about it, if you are trying to run forward and someone tugs your shirt you will lurch forward when the 'tugger' lets you go, thus causing you to lose balance.

[arnus68]

Mick McCarthy (about North Korea) "They're well organised and they can also play foorball"...less than 10 seconds later..Wallop..Portugal 1-0 North Korea.

[jaggy]

Case and point. The Guatemalan ref in the NZ v Italy game was crap too. Their goal came from a dive that Michael Phelps would be proud of. Sure, there was a little bit of a shirt tug in there, but when he decided to fall over there was nobody touching him.

 

I liked this quote from the Sydney Morning Herald reporter Dan Silkstone - "Italian football can defy the laws of physics; only here does a small pull backwards on the shirt send a grown man tumbling forwards."

I don't hear too much about his assistant that never flagged for the NZ goal!!!! sorry, but it was offside so maybe 2 wrongs did make a right in the game. Apart from that, well played the Kiwi's

[crazy davie]

I don't hear too much about his assistant that never flagged for the NZ goal!!!! sorry, but it was offside so maybe 2 wrongs did make a right in the game. Apart from that, well played the Kiwi's

No need for an apostrophe there.

[Mr Bunny]

No need for an apostrophe there.

 

Good to see you on top of your game again CD.

[KiwiJag]

Got to disagree here, although it was a bit of a soft one it was a penalty and New Zealand can have no real complaints. The Italian was trying to run forward and the NZ guy got a firm grip on the guys top and pulls him back, when the NZ player releases the shirt the Itailians momentum caused him to go down (he made it look worse than it was though). Think about it, if you are trying to run forward and someone tugs your shirt you will lurch forward when the 'tugger' lets you go, thus causing you to lose balance.

Yep I feel ya, however watching the replay in slow motion, it's a long time between the shirt being let go and him going down, there was nowhere near enough in the shirt tug for that kind of dive. I do understand the physics of what you're saying, but there's another factor in this equation - hence the quote. It's not the penalty that I'm annoyed about, it's the way the Italians were so quick to go to ground (they're not the only ones guilty of this of course) throughout the entire match. Every time our forwards (Killen and Fallon in particular) came within three feet of the ball, the nearest Italian player clutched his face and fell to the ground. The pre-match predictions were that it would be men against boys. I question who those terms should refer to.

 

As for Smeltz being offside when we scored, yea he sure was However there is a difference between benefiting from a bad call and downright cheating. In real time I don't think anybody saw that there was a slight deflection off Winston Reid's head, except Reid himself of course.

[Steven H]

Yep I feel ya, however watching the replay in slow motion, it's a long time between the shirt being let go and him going down, there was nowhere near enough in the shirt tug for that kind of dive. I do understand the physics of what you're saying, but there's another factor in this equation - hence the quote. It's not the penalty that I'm annoyed about, it's the way the Italians were so quick to go to ground (they're not the only ones guilty of this of course) throughout the entire match. Every time our forwards (Killen and Fallon in particular) came within three feet of the ball, the nearest Italian player clutched his face and fell to the ground. The pre-match predictions were that it would be men against boys. I question who those terms should refer to.

 

As for Smeltz being offside when we scored, yea he sure was However there is a difference between benefiting from a bad call and downright cheating. In real time I don't think anybody saw that there was a slight deflection off Winston Reid's head, except Reid himself of course.

 

I agree, the Italians have always been the same, surely their 'sportsmanship' was not surprising. However if you dont pull a players shirt you wont (or shouldn't) have a foul given against you. Having said that, New Zealand have been much better than the so-called experts were predicting and I hope they can get a result against Paraguay.

 

The offside call, well its tough enough on tv slo-mo replays to determine whether it hit the head of an Italian or a Kiwi never mind in live play, benefit of the doubt goes to the attacking team so a fair goal imo.