Welcome to the life of a Chelsea fan. Standard discussion: Chelsea fan: We were doing fine until Drogba was sent off against Barcelona. Barca fan: No you weren't - we were dominating! Chelsea fan: But you only had two shots on goal and both of those were from beyond the box and bounced to Cech Barca fan: But did you see all our possession? You barely had the ball! Chelsea fan: But we scored Barca fan: But you couldn't complete a pass.......etc. etc. To quote a great thinker, just win baby.
It truely is a sad testament to the state of men's soccer in this country when they have to turn to a female former player to serve as an expert studio analyst for the world's most important male sporting event. I guess you can consider Corby Jones part female for FSC.
You mean that retard who thought Australia was going to beat Italy, and I quote, "no worries." Him and that other moron, Max Bretos, should be summarily executed. They are both ignorant and Bretos is SO INCREDIBLY ANNOYING.
When the Financial Times publishes an article ridiculing the state of football broadcasting in the US, you know its bad.
I am not an Italy fan, but I agree that the Italian team is treated really unfairly by ESPN (and many other media). If you take all the bad calls and penalties so far, the Austrialia call is not even close to the top. It was a tough call, but the defender should never had hit the ground and missed the ball in the box. Far worse so far: 1. Ukraine-Tunisia PK. Sheva tripped over himself and got an undeserved PK in the deciding game for the group. 2. Portugal-Holland. So many dives, pretend injuries and blatant attempts to trick the ref by both sides. One of the worst games ever. 3. France-Spain. Henry drew that critical foul by pretending he got whacked in the face and the replay shows he was never touched in the head or face. Ukraine, Portugal and France do not get blamed for diving or tricking the refs and all moved forward because of bad calls and good acting. You guys get a bad rap. I have been impressed by Italy and thought that they had a lot of toughness in both the US game and the Australia game. Down 10-11 players, they play better and look more dangerous and that is impressive and hard to do. They got no credit so far for being a man down in two big-time games and playing better than the other team during the entire time. Good luck to Italy and I hope you beat Ukraine.
Before their halftime spots on the "Italy Off-Field Problems." I think they showed the graphic like 6 times in the last 10 minutes of the 1st half!!!
^^ I noticed that too. Yet I haven't seen anyone question that, especially not ESPN, and that goal was just as important as the one Totti made agaisnt Austrailia.
Buffon cracks his head on the goalpost and the ESPN boys speculate that he's just acting. Then, after the replay they say he's not faking it - "this time". The Italians attacked with danger and flair, defended solidly (as usual) and put up an impressive performance yet throughout the match the ESPN nnouncers continually harped on "diving". The bias is pretty blatant.
At halftime Wynalda says that the Italians will just pull back and hold the lead, an implicit critisism of their style of play. Wrong again.
I wrote this before once along time ago and I'll repeat it again: England and soccer: never has a country shown such arrogance towards an endeavor for which they have accomplished so little. That any English person has the balls to write anything neagtive about another country's play in this world cup is a freaking joke. Take a look in the mirror already. England has played the worst soccer BY FAR of any of the final 16!!
Did anyone notice how Michael Ballack crumpled like a bag of potatoes and grabbed his face as if he was hit with a sledge hammer in Argentina's box today. Then the replays show that Ayala barely touched him. The ref didn't even give him a card! The announcers barely said anything. Ridiculous double-standards!!
Harkes really crossed the line today... hopefully it's the last time we will ever have to listen to him. O'Brien and Balboa are not good either, but at least are more professional.
I saw that too, and he certainly deserved a card. I saw some other Oscar nominations by the Germans as well. If we win the World Cup im sure ESPN will say we dove our way there. Ive had it with them and dont watch that station anymore, I watch it all on Univision where the commentators tend to be alot less bias and are much better at their commentary. They still believe that the PK Italy got vs. Aus was incorrect however, and they too think the "scandal" in Italy may be waying on them which I think is crap. Absolutely no mention of Pessotto and how that probably unified them team more then they will ever know. Regarding the Germany game, did anyone catch how many technical errors they made in their defence and how many balls they gave away? Argentina almost capatalized on one mistake that was made by their back line which passed back to the GK. They cleaned up their act after their first goal however.
What did he say? By the way, congratulations on the win, with Holland out, I hope you go all the way. Canna was outstanding, as always.
It was not one outrageous comment... more like 50 comments spread throughout the match. He finally stopped talking about diving after the third goal. Idiot.
The Dutch media focussed mainly on how poor the Ukraine were. And rightly so. But I really enjoyed the fast paced Italian passing in this game. One touch, alot of it, too...very nice.
I do not know if anyone posted this. I just came across it on Fox Soccer. More of the same bullshit and jealousy. Cant wait until tuesday so we can shut up these arrogant classless pezzo di merda's. I have been to Germany and these strunzo's fart and burp at the dining table. German site slur provides inspiration for Italy Associated Press Posted: 18 minutes ago HAMBURG, Germany (AP) - Italy already has some inspiration to beat Germany in the World Cup semifinals.An article posted on the Web site of German weekly Der Spiegel earlier this week defined Italians as "parasites, mamma's boys and slimy," causing outrage in Italy's World Cup camp. Der Spiegel pulled the story as soon it got wind of the controversy it created. The magazine also issued an apology, but the damage was done and it's sure to be discussed again ahead of Tuesday's World Cup semifinals. "As an Italian and captain of the national team I feel offended," defender Fabio Cannavaro said. "These stereotypes applied to us come from an old culture that has been overly abused. It shocks me that this can happen in a civilized country like Germany." On Friday, Italy advanced to the semifinals after a 3-0 win over Ukraine. Germany beat Argentina 4-2 on penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw earlier in the day. The semifinal match will be Tuesday in Dortmund. Italy set up its World Cup camp in industrial Duisburg, an area filled with Italian immigrants, with the idea that the team would be inspired by the success stories of its countrymen abroad. Antonio Pelle, the owner of the hotel where the Azzurri staying, worked his way up from a dishwasher in his native Calabria. Some 600,000 Italians live in Germany, the second-largest immigrant population after Turks. "From fashion to restaurants, we're a population of workers," defender Alessandro Nesta said. "People criticize us, but then they want to dress and eat like us. There's a bit of jealousy. "If everyone's attacking us, it must mean that people fear us. We have great pride in what we're doing," Nesta added. Italy can also look back to its 4-1 rout of Germany in March in a friendly match. Alberto Gilardino, Luca Toni, Daniele De Rossi and Alessandro Del Piero each scored before Robert Huth notched Germany's lone goal in the 82nd minute in Florence. Between them, Italy and Germany have won six World Cups and four European championships. They also played one of the most memorable games in history - Italy's 4-3 extra time win over West Germany in the 1970 World Cup semifinals. In the 1982 World Cup final, Italy beat West Germany 3-1 for its last major title. "For me, Italy-Germany will always be that legendary 4-3," Italy coach Marcello Lippi said before the game in March. "Even though we won a World Cup against them in '82, it's that game from 1970 that I always remember."
to tell the whole story, that was a satyrical piece by a writer who has this assignement in the magazine; it wasn't meant to be a "serious" article. However, the writer went overboard with the stereotype and worse of all, wasn't funny at all
He should have thought twice before he wrote it. Not that Italy need any help but I am sure this will be on the bulletin board in the locker room and will add to an already highly motivated team.
Back to the original ESPN bias thing, we watch Univision in my house. Watching Italy play on ESPN2 is unacceptable. And I don't speak spanish either, but I still watch Univision.
Guys, I hate to inform you that Univision is just as biased as ESPN against us. Chilavert and Fiore are two pieces of garbage.
It helps if you can't understand it, I guess. What I hate the most is when someone makes a statement like Wynalda's at half time, and then, when proven wrong, just doesn't even mention he'd expected something else to happen
Univision is biased but they do know the game alot better than ESPN so ill keep watching their broadcast. Plus they dont make nearly as many stupid A$$ remarks as ESPN.