What an ending.
Well done Slovakia.
Italy beaten 3-2 .
Wow. Italy had a decent chance at the very end to make it 3-3 and qualify. How amazing would that have been ?
That was a hell of a second half.
ISTR that at the time of the draw for the World Cup, I singled out Italy as having a particularly easy group…
That last Italian goal that went in … almost surreal.
In other high-scoring matches, Isner just beat Mahut 70-68 in the fifth at Wimbledon.
Excellent game by Slovakia, pretty lame showing by Italy. Sure they had some calls go against them, but the last 2 Slovakia goals Italy simply got outhustled.
It’s too bad joke sockpuppets are banned. I’d be tempted to go ballistic as “Aviatore Porte” for humor value.
Hehe, I hadn’t been watching, but wandered into the living room after a work call and my daughter was nice enough to let me change the channel from an old Mickey Mouse cartoon. I checked in at just the right time. A few minutes later Slovakia scored their second. An amazing finish; I had Italy squeaking through to the next round but was so happy to see Slovakia hold on for the win. This WC is certainly providing an amazing amount of drama in some of the groups.
France and Italy, the finalist from 2006, BOTH ELIMINATED in the group stage? Unfreaking believable.
In fairness, it did look to be the correct call, although a damned close call at that.
I’m sorry New Zealand couldn’t get the upset over Paraguay. They deserved to win against Italy.
Colpa tua, peggio per te.
For 15+ minutes Italy indicated its potential but failed to advance with the minimum of efforts this time. Holland will be pleased.
From a commenter at theshinguardian.com,
Good snark.
I can’t imagine the rage in Italy right now, senior citizen squad or not. Before June, their group looked about as easy or easier than the U.S. group, and they can’t beat Slovakia? And need a copyrighted dive in the box to tie New Zealand? Just embarrassing.
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In fairness, it did look to be the correct call, although a damned close call at that.
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Here’s the goal, at least until FIFA gets it yanked from youtube. Maybe the guy’s technically offside, maybe, (it looks to me, when the ball was struck, like the Slovak defender’s right leg is further back than the Italian player) but is that really the kind of attack the offsides rule was meant to prevent? I get the idea behind the rule—we don’t want guys camping next to the goal—I just think there’s a better way to achieve the desired result.
That offside call was close, but clearly correct. I’m as sad to Italy sent home as anyone (well, maybe not quite), but that was the correct call.
You can’t blow your chances as much as Italy has and have any right to bitch about close calls. Slovakia showed far greater creativity.
France out! Italy out! England or Germany out this weekend! Spain probably go out tomorrow, since Chile has the hemisphere advantage. If Ivory Coast can put up a touchdown vs. NK tomorrow, Portugal goes home too. Brazil will beat Portugal, with or without Kaka. The Dutch are fortunate to not have one of the 8 southern hemisphere teams in their group.
I think there’s a strong possibility of no European teams making it to the semis (or maybe even the quarters). :eek:
He is manifestly offside, but I understand your point of view, having been in the same camp for a long time. But I now think that if you concede that some kind of offside rule is beneficial, you have to accept edge cases, not that this was one. And now that the recommendations for offside have been adjusted in favour of the attacking side, and linesmen are ruling accordingly, I’m OK with it. I’m very impressed with the standard of offside calls in this tournament. Time and again calls that I initially thought were questionable have turned out to be correct.
Might as well just accept it as part of the game. And there is a certain art in defences maintaining the back line, and attackers timing their runs to beat it.
I personally don’t think it was offside - he was level. Had they taken it to 2-2 I think the game would have ended right there.
Italy’s actual awarded second goal was just a piece of magic. Goal of the world cup so far, from a team destined to be eliminated less than 3 minutes later.
Another great result for the bookmakers, who have been cleaning up on the upsets such as Switzerland over Spain and Serbia over Germany. (Gamblers tend to back favorites, for anyone who’s unaware.) And the U.K. bookies, who usually like to see England lose, got what they wanted with the win over Slovenia, as England exiting at the group stage would have meant much less betting on the rest of the tournament.
Looked clearly offside to me.
First ever post after 2 and a half years of lurking.
Given England are playing Germany in the 2nd round, there will be at least one European team in the quarter finals and, at the minute, it looks a pretty decent chance that Holland or Denmark will play Slovakia, so that will be two European sides through to the last 8.
:smack: You are right. OK, I predict no European teams in the semis. Has that ever happened?