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Group F - Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia

straw man

Hall of Fame Member
The over-riding issue must be consistency surely? You can'thave such blatant discrepancies between what's a send off or a penalty in one game and isn't in another, or even the same one. The penalty awarded to italy may well be a penalty if you take it in isolation. The fact it was awarded to a multiple WC champion in a match where they were struggling against a comparative minnow (no offence to NZ meant in saying that btw) when all countries, Italy included, do exactly the same thing, game in and game out without a penalty being awarded is an indictment on the game.
Summed up perfectly.

I'm glad I only watch this game every 4 years.
 

L Trumper

State Regular
So you'd drop Killen or Smeltz to play both Fallon and Wood? :mellow:

I was talking about the possibilities of playing Smeltz, Killen and Wood up front instead of Smeltz, Killen and Fallon.
I thought wood has better pace, may be Smeltz, Fallon and Woods. Then again Killen has EPL thing going for him. Wouldn't mind any of the three combo though. But thought wood did good for the time he is been there or may be he is just young I kinda imagined him to be good. I do admit I never followed their playing careers before WC, so your call should be better.
 

Craig

World Traveller
Made my day when I woke up and saw the result. There should be no way that New Zealand would get anywhere near Italy in a football match, but man what a performance.
 

Craig

World Traveller
Crazy to think that somebody like Andy Barron is not a full professional, he plays in New Zealand for Team Wellington and is taking leave from his day job from Westpac Bank. Some of the Italian players make in a couple of days what he would earn in a year.

Surely Rikki Herbert has to be in line for some national coach of the year gong.

Edit: Some Italian fan reactions:

Well New Zealand's goal was clearly offside. The commentators here in Australia all agreed. The New Zealanders also threw in many elbows and should been dealt with more red/yellow cards.

We should have won. We dominated possession and shots on goal. What annoys me most is that Di Natale, Camoranesi and Pazzini should have all started rather than being subs. Then Lippi tries to win the game in the second half when he has less time available.

We should have fielded three strikers and put them to the sword from the start! Also, yeah it would have been great to have Cassano in the team. We lack a true #10.

Dave Camerota, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA

How's the sour grapes mate?
 
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Athlai

Not Terrible
Thats all a load of bull, they did put us under the sword in the first half, in fact I'd say their pressure dropped significantly in the second.
 

Matteh

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
NZ were put to the sword in the second half with the exception of the last 10 minutes or so when Wood was providing a decent outlet up top.
 

Athlai

Not Terrible
NZ were put to the sword in the second half with the exception of the last 10 minutes or so when Wood was providing a decent outlet up top.
Reckon Italy came far closer to scoring in the first half, there were three or so attempts that could easily have went in. In the second they upped the tempo but we seemed to stand up pretty well, Paston's upsurge in confidence may have had a bit to do with why they didn't look as much like scoring to me.
 

Matteh

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Reckon Italy came far closer to scoring in the first half, there were three or so attempts that could easily have went in. In the second they upped the tempo but we seemed to stand up pretty well, Paston's upsurge in confidence may have had a bit to do with why they didn't look as much like scoring to me.
Nelsen and Paston were huge in defence but there were plenty of crosses coming in and Nelsen had that cracking block. They were still aimlessly hoofing it forwards for large parts and once Fallon had been booked he wasn't the target he was at the start of the game, once Wood came on NZ were much better at ball retention and Wood wasn't far off winning it with that shot.
 

99*

International Debutant
Haha, still can't believe we drew with them. Only a few years ago we watching them win the cup while we were struggling to beat teams like Fiji and Vanuatu. Just unreal.
 

straw man

Hall of Fame Member
Edit: Some Italian fan reactions:

Well New Zealand's goal was clearly offside. The commentators here in Australia all agreed. The New Zealanders also threw in many elbows and should been dealt with more red/yellow cards.

We should have won. We dominated possession and shots on goal. What annoys me most is that Di Natale, Camoranesi and Pazzini should have all started rather than being subs. Then Lippi tries to win the game in the second half when he has less time available.

We should have fielded three strikers and put them to the sword from the start! Also, yeah it would have been great to have Cassano in the team. We lack a true #10.

Dave Camerota, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA

How's the sour grapes mate?
It's enough to make you want to go and troll their websites :dry:
 

irfan

State Captain
It's enough to make you want to go and troll their websites :dry:
Kiwis got the best strike rate in the competition. 3 shots on goal & 2 goals. Bond-esque

To put that into perspective, Messi's had 10 shots without hitting the back of the net
 

Craig

World Traveller
It will be a struggle for Gold Coast United to keep hold of Shane Smeltz now. Golden boot winner in the A-League for two years in a row, and scoring against Italy will only increase his value. There's already a handful of Turkish and Korean clubs that want him.
 

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