The Official 2006 FIFA World Cup thread. (3 Viewers)

[7th Sign]

circular quay went off lol their was more then 10 thousand their for sure!!!!

any one see that itallian taxi drivers cap get jumped on ahahha soo crazy liek ten dudes jumped on it kicked in the doors and shit....

I didnt see any itallian fans all nights lols....except at star city at 4am their was a few around lol...they copped some verbal abuse hahahah

also another highlight was that fire work hitting the offic window, smashing that....

as for the kid who said fuck off a few times when they scored i dont think any one woulda heard dat I was like right in the middle of the crowed and all I could heard was verbal abuse in many forms hahahahh...

 

[Komit]

It was a difficult decision to make by Cantalejo at a difficult stage. I think he would have called it a penalty even if it was in the 1st minute, but probably shouldn't have called it at that stage.

Even if it turned out like this, I'm still happy and proud of what the Socceroos have achieved. They epitomise what the World Cup (and football in general) is about. Pride, perserverence, highs and lows. We have experienced both ends of the spectrum and even though we bowed out in the worst circumstances possible, there is no reason why we should be angered. We came in with nothing and we will leave the World Cup knowing that the true Aussie spirit has reverberated around the world. To me, that is much more important. Besides, we will get back at them in 2010.

 

[bazookajoe]

I wouldn't have even minded if we lost in extra time. But conceding a 50/50 penalty in the last play of the game was just too much for me.

 

[sweet_as]

just shattering

 

[mecurial]

It was a difficult decision to make by Cantalejo at a difficult stage. I think he would have called it a penalty even if it was in the 1st minute, but probably shouldn't have called it at that stage.

Even if it turned out like this, I'm still happy and proud of what the Socceroos have achieved. They epitomise what the World Cup (and football in general) is about. Pride, perserverence, highs and lows. We have experienced both ends of the spectrum and even though we bowed out in the worst circumstances possible, there is no reason why we should be angered. We came in with nothing and we will leave the World Cup knowing that the true Aussie spirit has reverberated around the world. To me, that is much more important. Besides, we will get back at them in 2010.

Arse.

The team was reaching its collective peak - many of them will not be back in four years time.

We will have fuck knows who coaching us.

In terms of the draw we will be faced with a completely different situation. (Judging by the standard of this match, semi finals would of been very very possible. Once we are in a semi-final, winning the World fucking Cup is a very distinct possibility.)

This opportunity may never come again.

But hey, sure, let's accept the generic lines of how we did ourselves proud and competed in a great spirit, and whatever other bullshit is fed to us.

 

[sweet_as]

I feel for u mike... noone should have to go through the torture of Jessica Rowe

Bad luck to the swiss too

 

[what971]

omg I Fucking Love You Ukraine!!

<3 Ukraine!! Love Ukraine!! Ukraine Is The Greatest, Now Beat Italy For Us As Well!!

 

[what971]

Bad Luck Australia, you were clearly the better side and I was cheering you on but I guess it really is good luck in 2010!!

 

[otay]

The referee should not have the power to decide the game, which is exactly what he did yesterday. You can't give that a penalty in the best of times, let alone at the very very very end of extra time. You are just handing them the game on a silver platter. What a crock.

In the end we didn't create or convert enough chances, and I hate to say but Guus was out of line in playing for extra time. I really woulda liked to see Kennedy on earlier. So harsh but nothing we can do now. It seems like as with all sports though, the luck will come and go, hopefully that in 2010 our luck will come.

AS I said in another post though, referee was actually very good for about 93 mintues, only in the last few seconds was he fooled. Im boycotting everything ialian as well. Meat pies over pizza.

 

[swisstruffles]

the refereeing standard of this Cup has been appalling..is there anything anyone can do about it, to pressure FIFA to look into it? as other ppl have said, this level shouldn't be tolerated in this biggest football tournament in the world. one bad judgement can make or break teams and maybe even their chance of winning the trophy. with so many controversial incidences of bad refereeing so far, i hope that FIFA will put their act together for 2010. maybe all the refs should be isolated before each match so they aren't influenced by any media claims disparaging any team's behaviour. ie. all the badgering about australia being a 'dirty team'.

on another issue, all the talk has been so far mostly about that one penalty decision. but as hiddink suggested, the whole game, or the result may not just come down to that one goal. did we really have a decent chance of scoring, even if it came down to extra time? from the past 90 mins, it seemed to me that while italy had several huge chances to score, we maybe only had 1 or 2 chances which were in themselves not as clearcut an opportunity as italy's chances. even down to 10 men, italy were rock solid in defense which objectively, i thought was very impressive. while a couple of looping balls to italy's frontmen gave them big chances to score. maybe we would have had a better chance of winning the match during the penalties instead of extra time, is my thought.

overall for those who will still be around come 2010 and for all the up and coming youngsters, this will be a valuable learning experience for playing at the highest level. i hope we can take this on board and mount an equally if not higher campaign for the next WC. for now, i just hope that argentina will beat germany so they can SMASH THE ITALIAN DIVERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[otay]

We started creating more chances towards the end. Our downfall was playing for extra time. It's always extremely dangerous. We did lack a little creativity and I have no doubt that the presence of Kennedy would have helped, and Im pretty sure Guus was waiting for extra time to introduce him. So cruel.

And to any1 that says "oh but the red wasn't a red". OK first off I agree, BUT that decision influenced the game, it DIDNT FUCKING DECIDE THE GAME. The penalty decided the game. No chance for Australia to even kick off again. For me, that is wrong. Bring on the ashes now

oh and go ghana

 

[copious]

what a sad way to end. BRING on the ASIA QUALIFIERS!!!

 

[acmilan]

Firstly, im probably gonna get attacked for this, but i dont care, its my opinion. As a dual italian/australian citizen, i chose to stay neutral this game and cheer on whoever progresses. I'll be the first to admit that Italy shouldnt have won. This game was destined for extra time since goals win matches, and Australia didnt look like cracking the Italians in normal time. As soon as i saw Italy get the penalty, the first this i said was "this wasnt meant to end this way." Thats a pretty big thing to say, most die hard fans will take a win however it comes.

Firstly the penalty, most certainly not a dive. He tripped, simple as that. Doesnt mean it was meant to be a penalty, but you cant blame the Italians as cheats because the ref decided to give a penalty. No team in the world would get up and say that they think the ref should reverse his decision, the ref would never reverse it unless the linesman stepped in. Conspiracies to let Italy win? Hardly. You dont send someone off a team if you want them to win and make them defend with one less man for as long as they had to (IMO that was never a red card offence anyways). Two shit decisions by the ref for both teams, unfortunately Australia's one cost them the game, whether the red card wouldve cost Italy the game in extra time no one will ever know.

As for penalties deciding a game, a penalty is given when someone illegaly prevents a goal from happening. So the ref has every right to gift a team a goal (or a 50/50 chance of a goal, at least) if he thinks there was a clear cut chance of scoring that was illegally prevented.

Lastly, i love Australia, and I have sympathy for the true fans (no sympathy for a certain group of fans though). I've been in the same situation, holding off for 90 minutes then losing isnt the way to go, more so in controversy. However this game has shown why I'm not a die hard aussie fan. Just like in 2000 when Australia played Italy in Melbourne, within 30 seconds of this match i was insulted by 4 people, called a spag, spick, cunt etc. Taunting people is one thing, but being down right offensive solely because of where one was born is crossing the line - especially considering these people didnt even care to ask who I was supporting, in which case they wouldve seen i was not for either team. I will cheer Italy proudly from now on, just like I wouldve cheered for Australia had they proceeded.

Start criticism.

 

[HotShot]

what a sad way to end. BRING on the ASIA QUALIFIERS!!!

Perhaps they should look into a third umpire for any problems in the penalty area. Like the run-outs in cricket.

The referreing has been ridiculous, but regarding this incident, the philsophy is and should be you dont give the penalty until you are absolutely sure that it deserves it. If you look at the croatia Australia match we should have had like three penalty kicks, we only had one.. in that way its better.

but anyway, Australia were all over the Italians. As for the red card, i feel he deserved it , Bresciano was through on goal if he hadnt been tackled and he was also tackled by two italians both not challenging the ball. So either a yellow card to both players or just a red card - i dont know...

either the italians never really looked like winning this match. Of course had some oppurtinities but this time they were some shots at target - an improvemnt, buffon was of course brillaint.

this just shows where AUstralia stands though - they played without Emerton and Kewell and still gave italians a very tough battle. Surprised that TOni was subbed, he was giving a lot og trouble to us.

Finally, just where AUstralia stands, we beat uruguay, greece, drew netherlands, beat lieche, beat japan, lost to brazil, drew croatia, then narrow loss to italy.
italy beat czezh ranked 2nd. so it shows that we were highly underrated, and although we had little experience Hiddink cover that part.

Full marks to Hiddink, i thought he had the right idea, it was important not to concide a goal rite to the end. We saw how good the italian defence was. There were starting to tire i felt. But noone could have guessed that ridiculous decision..

Well done Socceroos - they played like they were the world cup champions.

Replying to Acmilan: "As for penalties deciding a game, a penalty is given when someone illegaly prevents a goal from happening" thats true, but how do you decide if it was illegal - and thats where the problem is. There has been too much inconsistency with this. if you look back, australia then should have walloped croatia 5-2 and japan should have been 3-2 (with cahill) but those werent given. And thats the thing, its better not to give. thats what seems anyway.

 

[what971]

the refereeing standard of this Cup has been appalling..is there anything anyone can do about it, to pressure FIFA to look into it? as other ppl have said, this level shouldn't be tolerated in this biggest football tournament in the world. one bad judgement can make or break teams and maybe even their chance of winning the trophy. with so many controversial incidences of bad refereeing so far, i hope that FIFA will put their act together for 2010. maybe all the refs should be isolated before each match so they aren't influenced by any media claims disparaging any team's behaviour. ie. all the badgering about australia being a 'dirty team'.

I feel that is ironic that the 'best' referees are responsible for such bad mistakes. Merk, Poll, Ivanov, Cantalejo are all from the best league in Europe (the Russian referees in Euro CL as well), but they are all very bad in this WC. Remember in 2002, when the European teams complained about referees in 'third-world' footballing countries were making the bad mistakes? Well now it's proven that the 'better' referees are just as bad, if not worse.

My feeling is that there should be two referees, one for each half, it probably sounds stupid, but remember these referees run basically as twice as much as the players on the field, and have to make crucial decisions that might be hampered by fatigue etc. Cause we all know how hard it is to think properly after exhausting runs etc.

EDIT: Forza Ukraine!!

 

[HotShot]

I shall await the phone calls from my Ignorant Italian friends today. What will my be response be? 'You beat us because you were better at feigning death you greasy fuck, not because you're half decent at football. Wait until Argentina puts 5 on you'.

Lol, don tbe surprised if Ukraine beat Italy, seriously i would rather lose than win like that - complete demoralising. It shows how deep Italy were in shit...

 

[Rafy]

Such a shallow 'win' for italy.

They dont have much to celebrate with that. Australia dominated.

FIFA reallly need to look into the standard of refereeing so this world cup is never repeated. Bring in Video refs or something

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRO626ImQek

 

[otay]

I'm sorry acmilan but that was not a foul. It really is jsut that simple. It WAS not a foul. I have friends all over the world emailing me today, YES ABOUT 5 ITALIANS TOO and they all AGREE that it wasn't a foul. And no i disagree...unless it is a blatant foul (i.e. you pick the ball up and throw it or kick the guy in the nuts) the ref should not have the power to decide the game. Every other decision in this tournament has influenced a game. That was the only decision that decided it. Watch replays again. He left a trailing leg...any1 who knows football knows this is a CLASSIC example of trying to draw a foul when no foul exists. It is blatant cheating. Nothing else to it. Like claiming a catch you KNOW has not carried. Really its so sad that such a beautiful game is played like this. Unfortunately it's ingrained in the culture and for the most part people are too blind to notice since it happens for and against every team, it is just accepted. Really though it's a fucking joke.

HE WAS NOT TRIPPED.

And I disagree...Italy had the better chances and i dare say that they probably did deserve to win (thank god for shwarzer) but they did not deserve that penalty.

 

[acmilan]

I'm sorry acmilan but that was not a foul. It really is jsut that simple. It WAS not a foul. I have friends all over the world emailing me today, YES ABOUT 5 ITALIANS TOO and they all AGREE that it wasn't a foul. And no i disagree...unless it is a blatant foul (i.e. you pick the ball up and throw it or kick the guy in the nuts) the ref should not have the power to decide the game. Every other decision in this tournament has influenced a game. That was the only decision that decided it. Watch replays again. He left a trailing leg...any1 who knows football knows this is a CLASSIC example of trying to draw a foul when no foul exists. It is blatant cheating. Nothing else to it. Like claiming a catch you KNOW has not carried. Really its so sad that such a beautiful game is played like this. Unfortunately it's ingrained in the culture and for the most part people are too blind to notice since it happens for and against every team, it is just accepted. Really though it's a fucking joke.

HE WAS NOT TRIPPED.

And I disagree...Italy had the better chances and i dare say that they probably did deserve to win (thank god for shwarzer) but they did not deserve that penalty.

If you read my thing you will see i said it WASNT a foul, that doesnt mean it was a dive. When i say trip i mean one person falling over another, nothing intentional, and in my opinion thats all it was. Slow motion sometimes reveals a lot more than there is. And agreed its part of the culture and a joke, but thats the game, everyone suffers from that.

Refs and world cups isnt a first time issue, Rafy. It was an issue in 2002, and in many other world cups. Its just unfortunate that Australia had to suffer from it this time.

 

[king_of_boredom]

first and foremost, great run by the aussies. shows that we can mix it with the world's best on the world stage.

secondly, let me refer to a post i made before the match.

kk, its gonna be a great gayme tonight. cos, even if we lose, we'll still put up a great fight.

BUT IF WE WIN, WERE IN THE QUARTS. WITH SCHWARZ.

and not kalac.

but in all seriousness, i think we have a great chance at beating italy. let's just hope the reffing isnt SHIT.

quoted for emphasis.


i think it was fair to say we got knocked out in the worst fashion possible. but, thats the way it unfolded and that's that.

shevchenko's unit have a great chance at beating italy in the quarters though. let's just hope the reffing isn't shit.