Italy, how dare you point fingers?
Posted on June 18, 2012 11:10 am
(EDIT: I would love to know what will Lippi and co. say now after the matches. Not just that there was no “biscotto” but Spain could have taken a goal on purpose in the last minute of their match after the Italian match had finished to send them out. It obviously didn’t happen, but I’m under the impression that it won’t do a thing against the conspiracy theorists who have their new theories ready for next time)
Italians love their conspiracy theories. Every time you talk to an Italian football fan, he will probably try to explain why football is completely taken over by two or three rich and influential guys and every match is rigged one way or the other. It’s part of their culture, they are born with them and will die with them.
In fact, we might say that in the dark shadows of the calcio world, those theories have some basis behind them. After all, this is a country in which the National team best striker was suspended (Paolo Rossi) for a year for fixing matches, which biggest team (Juventus) was relegated for buying referees and in which every four or five years there is a new scandal of some sort of cheating.
The problem is when they try to extrapolate their ghosts and apply them to everyone else. I know Italian fans are going to hate me for this but, for example, while the Korea-Spain in 2002 was an embarrassment for football in general, I don’t see anything wrong with the Italy match in that same World Cup. Despite having five of the best offensive players in the world at the moment (Vieri, Totti, Del Piero, Inzaghi, Montella), Giovani Trapattoni’s team was utterly crap. They should have gone out in the first round after losing to Croatia and being played out of the park by Mexico and they were the worse than Korea that night. The red card was soft, but not entirely unjustified and if Vieri scores that golden chance in the last minute of regular time, there wouldn’t even be a conversation about this.
Then there is the 2-2 in Euro 2004. It’s true that it was a suspicious result, albeit the match between Sweden and Denmark was quite entertaining and it didn’t seem fixed to a neutral eye. However, Italians tend to forget that their team was also awful in that competition, only defeating a very poor Bulgarian team in injury time, and that they had put themselves in that position by not being able to defeat two rivals that should be below their standards.
So, here we are in the same crossroads again, and it’s again Italy’s fault. Their result against Spain was great but to be honest they should have defeated Croatia. And now, they start to point fingers even before the last round of matches start because, well, it’s a great way of not taking the blame. No Italian fan remembers how awful the 2002 and 2004 teams were, only the “fixes” that happened in those tournaments.
Croatian right back Vedran Corluka said it better than anyone. “How dare you point fingers, Italians, after all the scandals in your country?” How dare Lippi imply that there will be a fix when his son was very much involved in the calciopoli scandal? How the media dare to say that there will be something irregular when they have probably the worst sports journalism in Europe, inventing stories as they breathe and working by the same obscure interests that they “denounce”.
The worst thing is, Spain and Croatia won’t draw 2-2. The Spanish players are too good for that and the team’s reputation is too important to take such a risk. But, it happened, there should be only one team to blame, and that are the Italians themselves, not that they are going to do it of course.
Wow. The Irish promote complacency and every Italian subscribes to a conspiracy theory. What’s the matter Martin, not getting enough hits on your blog?
Wow, talk about taking things literally. By the by Pablo, are you saying Italians don’t make up conspiracy theories to rationalize their team’s losses?
No, I’m implying the author of this blog is not above making generalizations in an effort to increase his hit count.
By the by jobsqeu, when you make generalizations about a nationality or race, chances are you’re going to offend someone…ergo more hits on Martin’s blog posts.
I’d provide you with a few generalizations about Spain to prove the point, but I’m sure all it would do is generate more hits for Martin.
Pablo, I agree with you that Martin is as wrong as can be in this blog entry and his previous one. However, I think that he is honestly so, that he is not saying things he doesn’t believe just for the sake of hits.
It’s the nature of sports fans to succumb to conspiracy theories, but that doesn’t give you the right to place a negative stereotype on all Italian supporters. That’s akin to saying all Italians are Mafiosi, it’s more than just borderline racism really. You should be ashamed of trying to conceal your hatred that way. In 2002 both Italy and Spain were unjustly eliminated. In 2004 a fear of collusion and a weak attempt to save the tying goal eliminated the Azzurri. Naturally some people would be afraid that history might repeat itself, but there are a lot of positives that one could focus on too if they didn’t carry a repugnant opinion such as yours.
When did I say ALL Italian supporters? I love how people accuse me of being radical when they don’t even pay attention to what I write.
Maybe you should pay attention to what you write.
“Italians love their conspiracy theories” is a generalization.
“Every time you talk to an Italian…” is a generalization.
“It’s part of their culture, they are born with them and will die with them” is a generalization.
If you made any attempt to preface any of your generalizations with some sort of comment that indicates you are not applying such statements to an entire nation, then you’d minimize your exposure to racist accusations…but then again if you did that your hit count would be much lower.
It’s well implied in your title. If you really have had a
proper education in journalism you would know that, which I believe you do.
Nature of the beast it seems. Make outlandish, absurd claims, and watch as the hits and comments roll in. I guess it kind of relies on most of the rest of the content on here being worth reading otherwise you just get written.
For the record, under-performing does not excuse match fixing. Match winners aren’t decided by who deserves to win, but who does win, and manipulating that is unfair.
Not even going to touch the stupidity of saying that because Italians have been cheaters in the past then it is absurd for them to claim that anyone else could be cheating.
Stupidity???? Let me ask you this, is it more probable that the italians are creating a story about a conspiracy against them to deflect the spotlight from their failings rather than that there is a conspiracy? If the answer is yes, then I think you would have to agree that that claim is absurd.
I think what you were trying to say though is that just because it’s the Italians claiming it, then that doesn’t mean that there isn’t someone cheating. I agree with that, but i still say it’s absurd for the Italians to claim cheating; not just because they are italian but because the probability of cheating is low.
Corluka compared apples to oranges. Italy NT has been more damaged than helped by refs so far and it has nothing to with the match-fixing scandal which refers to football clubs. Don’t bring in the Grosso’s penalty against Australia in 2006 beacuse it was “compensated” by Materazzi sending-off.
Are you serious? Your point is fairly sustainable about the Italian mentality in these tournaments. However, if you see nothing wrong with having a player sent off for a dive, which WASN’T a dive in a WC, against the home team, you’re just simply biased. Italy was robbed in that game, just like Spain was robbed in theirs.
4 Stars
Biased, and frankly, uninformed with regard to the Italian sides of which he speaks. Not worth the read.
The thing is that you don’t want me to be unbiased but rather to think exactly like you think…
How can you blame the Italians for thinking the 2002 WC match against South Korea was fixed? After all, the referee for that match was the notorious Byron Moreno of Ecuador (prominently profiled on the picture posted above showing a yello card). Where there is smoke, there usually is fire. Read all about him here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron_Moreno
Wow, so the ref was suspended multiple times for corruption in his own country and it currently in a US prison on drug smuggling charges. Yet and still, it is farfetched for Martin to believe that this guy was on the take? Really? It was worse than I though. Again though, I watched that game and WANTED South Korea to win. But what ended up happening was a travesty against the Italian team. You can say anything you want about Italy. But the fact of the matter is that they would have won that game but for the refs. Plain and simple. And to try to make it seem that Spain was a poor victim in 2002 but with Italy it is sour grapes …. well, that’s simply the bias of Martin speaking on the issue. There is simply no other explanation.
No, it’s not a bias at all. And I like the Italian team in general, it’s just that I don’t feel they were robbed. The dive was a dive and while the yellow was harsh, it was within the rules, Trapattoni made a mess of a fine team and Vieri missed the unmissable. But people rather prefer to say it was a fix.
Both the Croatia and South Korea games vs Italy had suspect refereeing and the Mexico game had bad referring. South Korea also had central america style home officiating bias which puts some of it into perspective. The 2002 World Cup was the one where the corruption was so frequent and blatant that it couldn’t be overlooked. Hadn’t seen something like that since 78. Bad luck Italy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pm4jD5kU4U
After reading the first paragraph I stopped in my tracks because I realized senor Martin is just another bias spick bastard that watches Italy games with the same partiality toward whoever Italy is playing as most of the world. Lets face it Italian fans, most people don’t have a team to support with as much pedigree and history as Italy which allows them to talk bad about us, justified or not. Del Palacio over here is just another example of an uninformed, dick-riding La Liga and (probably Premier League) fan who holds no opinions on soccer other than what he hears on FOX SOCCER REPORT. Get off the train bro, Italy is back. You and the rest of the world will see that. The only audience your word holds any value in, Palacio, is poor Latin American countries that wish they had the players, coaches and soccer knowledge that all Italians grow up with. Keep the sewage that spews from your mouth in your own head because you only make yourself look like a fool. Its funny how in the 2002 World Cup Italy had 2 valid goals called back against Croatia only to then be stuck with Byron Moreno after somehow getting through the group stage with all that CORRUPTION, yet you still place blame on the performance of the team. Italy is the guinea pig to point the finger at when it comes to match-fixing, but the fact of the matter is in the last 10 years Italy has been a victim of it in international competitions. That 2002 teams was crazy good with all that attacking talent and the rocks at the back of Maldini, Cannavaro and Nesta not even letting water through, let alone when it got to Buffon (in his prime). Fast forward to 2004 where Denmark is down 2-1 in the late minutes of the game only to score and force Italy out of the tournament on technicality. Save your bullshit MARTIN DEL PALACIO, like is said, your word only rings true in the eyes of spectators that know nothing of this sport and watch the likes of the Mexican Clausura or some bullshit Central American league.
Again, you don’t want me to be unbiased, you want me to think exactly like you do. Not going to happen.
While derogatory racist epithets like “spick” might help you get whatever you think your point is across, line breaks and (at eyeball estimate) 3x as many periods and commas would do the job much more effectively.
Is this Wanker On Pcp gonna get redcarded for saying “spick”? C’mon mods…
sempreITALIA – “spic” was totally unnecessary you racists POS!!!
I think Martin is on to something here. Italy is really in no position to point fingers at any “crooked” football for another decade or so.
Though that’s two blog posts in a row that Martin bashes Trapattoni. Next he’ll be talking about how garbage VfB Stuttgart was back in 2004….
Oh yeah, and semprelITALIA…..let me guess, your favorite player is Paolo di Canio?
IPA, when will India field a team? Di Canio was a great player and tore shit up in the Premier League. Why do people feel its necessary to judge athletes on their personal lives and what they believe in? At the end of the day the only reason you know who the fuck these guys are is because they have a better grasp on ball with their feet than most of you (DEL PALACIO) have on the English language. Fuck off to all the haters (most notably Don Palacio) and watch Italy qualify for the next round…or should i hold my breath?…..we could witness another instance of the “world against Italian football” cause today ladies and gents.
I figured as much.
Yo Stoney my favorite player is Antonio Cassano. Il Gioello di Bari Vecchia! Thank God I’m Pugliese and, above all, thank God I’m Italian.
Puglia … well that explains the obnoxious irrationality.
Stop,strunz … stop.
You perceive that Italians will hate you for this because you project your hatred through your repugnant article. Your opiinion doesn’t make me hate you, but feel sorry for you instead.
The guy who wrote this article is a fool. yes italians at club level have fixed games but this idiot see’s it one way. Mexico did not play Italy off the park and italy had 2 goals disallowed in that game and missed many early chances and also one goal chalked off vs korea. Italy dominated sweden at euro 2004 ibra got that great 85 minute back flick. If teams are genuinely hard done by, they have a right to complain. vs Australia had a man sent off controversially too cant just look at the penalty or things one way.
Italy didn’t have two goals disallowed against Mexico, it was against Croatia. And Mexico completely played Italy out of the park that night, to the extent that the Italians decided they wanted to backpass for the last 10 minutes of the game. Get your facts straight before writing nonsense.
Italy had 2 goals disallowed against Croatia, 2 goals disallowed against Mexico, and one about to be goal disallowed against Korea. See the you tube link I posted up a bit.
The first goal against Croatia is a refereeing disgrace. In the second, Inzaghi pulls Simunic’s shirt before finishing. Against Mexico, in the first goal he’s fractionally onside, but he’s offside in the second, the same as the Korea one. Those last three are too close.
But let’s say that there was a conspiracy against Italy, the question is… why? Who would win from that?
Weren’t both called-back goals in Italy vs Croatia called back by the linesman?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA you pathetic moron! Shows how much you know! Italy also had 2 goals disallowed vs Mexico you twit. You didnt even know this and youre telling me get my facts straight? Youre a pathetic jealous cluless moron! Go look up the game and see the highlights you moron.
13 shots to 8 says otherwise moron!
I just watched the video on YouTube of WC 2002 posted by Eliezar I can honestly say that the 2 goals against Croatia should have been allowed. They were 100% legit goals. On the other hand, the 2 goals called off-sides against Mexico were good calls, specially the 2nd. goal where Vincenzo Montella was clearly off-sides. The 1st. (vs. Mexico) was a close one, but Filippo Inzaghi was in-line with the mexican defender and the rule says that that is off-side. Against S.Korea the goal is an obvious off-side. So 3 out of 5 disallowed goals by Italy were correctly called by the refs.
By the way, I’m a big fan of the Azzurri and have no doubt in my mind that they will reach the finals in the Euro 2012.
moreno who once added 17 minutes of stoppage time in a game in ecuador hahahahahahaha yeah Italy werent hard done by tommassi called offside on his goal and totti shown a second yellow for diving when it was a penalty ruled out goals vs croatias x 2 and montella and Totti goals chalked off vs mexico get lost fool this guy is a clueless muppet.
” But spain were hard done by and not italy ” rofl what a moron
btw those who were guilty of match fixing were dealt with cant shoot a whole nation because some are guilty one track minded moron hey an american person shot someone lets put all of them in jail. BTW idiot, match fixing and corruption is ALL OVER THE WORLD in many shapes and forms
match fixing and corruption happens in all levels of sport in every country and not just in sport itself. Frigging spastic.
Italy-Croatia 2002 was a far bigger travesty than Spain-Korea 2002. I was worried when I saw that Italy-Korea was to be officiated by an Ecuadorean ref, a few days after Italy knocked out Ecuador, and saw those concerns borne out all much long–up to and including the infamous second yellow.
And for those of you who are just not catching on to Martin’s latent racism, his first post from the Euros this year–”Why So Serious?”–amounts to: So what if black people aren’t safe to walk down the street here? I’m here, and I’m not black, and I’m having a good time, so fuck the haters!”
Did I say that? Really? Really? You don’t have a clue on what’s happening here, not even one. And now I’m a racist… WTF
My pet conspiracy theory from 2002 was that the anti-UEFA team match fixing was a way for Blatter et al to oust Johansson.
That says as much as your last post. Thanks for this.
It doesn’t have to be true. It just needs a couple of bullet points to get people to stop talking about how this country or that country was robbed and move on to something less than 10 years old.
BTW, at least a dozen Koreans complained to me in 2006 that their WC 2-0 loss to Switzerland was fixed, because Blatter (whose name they could never remember) was Swiss and wanted to make sure his team won. And unlike me, they believed what they were saying.
“True, Ukraine is not a model country, far from it. Trains do not arrive on time (but neither in Italy), the economy is not exactly booming (but unemployment is way lower than in Spain), racism exists, no doubt (but I once was on the London Underground with West Ham fans who chanted “fucking Jews” to Tottenham fans), there are problems of hooliganism (but Donetsk good citizens tremble! The English are coming!).
The advantage of tournaments is that they provide a window for the world to look what is inside these non-modelic countries. Expose their shortcomings and allow the international community to realize what happens in them. None of their problems should be forgiven, and must be evidenced by the international media. But they shouldn’t just see the speck in their neighbor’s eye. Of course, it is not right to set a major tournament in ridiculous places like Qatar, or totalitarian dictatorships like Syria, but I see no problems as to stage them in football nations like Ukraine, Poland, Russia and, of course, Brazil.”
There you go.
Ok, and where in all of those two paragraphs did I say that I didn’t give a shit if the black people weren’t safe walking down the street? (by the way, I have seen quite a few, and they don’t seem frightened at all). I would love to know, it seems to escape my understanding of my own writing.
By implying you’re on the spot (which you are) and the concerns of the alarmist English-speaking press are silly because logistical/bureaucratic incompetence isn’t that big a deal, which is substituting a criticism that is easy to dismiss for one–the big one, as far as I can tell from the press I’ve been reading–that isn’t.
Then the references to an anti-Semitic slur (which was reprehensible) heard in London and English hooliganism to imply that since hate speech and fan violence are present elsewhere, that one can’t impugn Ukraine, Russia, et al for having more than zero racism, fan violence or racially-motivated fan violence. You’re poo-pooing criticisms you only pantomime acknowledging–and I don’t believe for a minute that’s a misstep made in ignorance, given how intelligent and knowledgeable you are–which goes beyond dismissiveness and into complicity in my eyes.
Maybe for most of your fans you started going wrong with the Ireland piece, but for me it was the “Why So Serious?” piece.
Racism against whom? I’m a half-Latin American, half-Jewish, brown-skinned liberal. My grandparents had to leave Europe in the Holocaust. Why would I be racist against anyone? You got the entire message wrong. It was against the higher moral ground holier-than-thou attitude that the English journalists tend to take while writing about other countries. It hadn’t anything to do with race.
But wasn’t the English press, by and large, taking the high moral ground because of race? If so, how do you take them to task without the core of the piece being centered on race issues?
I think my last reply isn’t showing up, but I just wanted to say that I don’t think there was an anti-Italian conspiracy in 2002, it was all about fixing matches for gambling and someone paying off some refs to let Korea do well. As far as I’m concerned the US vs Korea, Italy vs Korea, and Spain vs Korea matches were all more than dubious.
Also, I remember reading an article that tracked last second gambling on matches with no drama vs matches with weird ref decisions and showed a correlation between the strange decision matches and last minute betting in the favor of the outcome. I believe Spain vs Korea was the poster child, but that there were 5-6 matches in total where that happened.
Sucks.
They published a story based on what hooligans do, and then they extrapolated it to the entire country. That’s sensationalist, misleading journalism. Hooligans are shit everywhere, and normal people tend to be quite cool everywhere.
After three weeks here I can say that there hasn’t been even ONE racism act against anyone since the beginning of the tournament, and I’ve seen black people, asians, latins and locals mingle and party together. What’s wrong with saying that if that’s what’s happening?
Nothing. Probably a blog post in it, no?
That’s exactly what I thought I did, maybe I was wrong…
Which post? Not “Why So Serious?”, right? Did I miss it?
Please…I’d love to see you kick a ball Ji Sung Park. You make yourself out to be Coach Beckenbauer over the internet, but you’ve probably not even played 5 years of football in your life. I’ve met a lot of people like you living in the States, you’re all “Mr. Know It All”, but when I sit down and watch a game with your kind I see things that you don’t even know exist in the sport. You and Alexi Lalas would get along splendidly speaking of nothing and stirring controversy with uninformed opinions. Save your post-2002 knowledge about the world of international football for people that have a little less experience with the sport. Again, coming from you…a Korean….what do you know other than Manchester United?
@sempre I guess that’s directed at me? I’m American/Italian and, if you look at my profile, have Manchester United listed as my least favorite club.
Your run-on sentences are just getting annoying.
SempreITALIA, you’ve got more racist projections in this paragraph than “Birth Of A Nation.”
If I was still doing work at UC Berkeley I might give a fuck about punctuation or your idea of a complete sentence. In this blog, the fact remains you don’t know shit. Si vede che non sei Italiano….
How so? You being angry at me for telling you calling someone a “spick” is bad form doesn’t mean I don’t know shit. And the fact you went to Berkeley (and still cavalierly throw “spick” around?) doesn’t make up for the fact you publicly declared me 1) Korean 2) a United fan, despite a whopping 3 seconds of work being all it would take to see otherwise.
I’m still not sure why you’re pissed at me though. Part of that might be that you’re hitting “reply” at the bottom of the page instead of after the relevant comment, implying that you don’t know your way around “in this blog.” What did I say, man? Why the hate?
Although I don’t entirely disagree with his article – at least in the part where it says Trap’s Italy was unwatchable (which is true, regardless of the fact they had many controversial decisions against) – the way these thoughts are laid out show all the frustration of the moment for MDP since he was hoping for a 2-2 tie in Spain-Croatia with Italy out of the tournement. Thank god, the players of his national team are well more professional than he is and this did not happen. When I started reading the article, I thought I would get irritated and offended, since I am from Italy, but eventually I was only laughing to the frustration of this mediocre journalist and even more little man.
Why do you think I was hoping for that result? Did you even understand the article? Geez!
Italy didn’t deserve to win the match against korea. Refree? oh please have u seen the fouls that the Italians committed against the Koreans. They were exactly the same level, if not worse.On top of that they missed so many sitters (eg. Vieri’s 1-1 chance 6 yards from the goal and gattuso’s 1-1 chance) while the Korean’s took theirs properly.
“oh please have u seen the fouls that the Italians committed against the Koreans.”
Here’s a good video on the fouls committed by the Italians on the Koreans… and that goal by Tomassi that was “offside” too, or the penalty foul on Totti that earned him the 2nd yellow. Yes, Italians have no claims that they were hard done by. And to those who say Italy defended the lead in that game…you’re clueless.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4lG2RYalS8
Pay particular attention to those dirty Italian fouls at:
0:32 and
0:38 (Italians elbowing Koreans in the head)
0:42 a punch to the back of a Korean players head
0:51 a kick to a Korean players ankle
0:58 hip check to a Korean player advancing into the Italian end
1:10 STUDS UP tackle to the leg, no ball contact, usually this is a red card…
1:17 Hip check and elbow
1:28 body check interference, I believe that’s also known as running a pick in Basketball…fouls in both games
1:37 KICK to the back of the head, ball about 2 feet gone by now
1:42 seen from another angle
2:08 no ball contact but a knee to the thigh – normally this is a penalty kick
2:13 onside golden goal…
Another disappointing and overly provocative blog. What gives Martin?
Maybe to say Italians will always be around cheating or that they will always love conspiracy theories is a bit unfair. Who knows?
Buffon, Italy’s captain said before that match that Italians shouldn’t speculate about conspiracy. They should just try to beat Ireland.
Well they did it, and Spain had a bad time to beat Croatia as well.
Both struggled a little bit to advance. Nobody said first round would be easy.
Motta said the same thing, as did Prandelli. But it’s easier for haters to say “All Italians are Conspiracy Theorists, divers, cheaters, or mafia…” that’s just the nature of hating.
Had a girlfriend that would accuse me of cheating. After we broke up I found out she was the one cheating! Cheaters assume everyone else is cheating to justify their cheating.
My gf always thought I was cheating but then I caught her when I axed her where she was last night. She said she was with her girl. She lied. *I* was with her girl.
yeah good theory mate you got everything sussed out dont ya! HAHAHAHAHAAHA! If you werent such a dud she wouldnt have cheated on you. Who could blame her, youre a fool.
“(EDIT: I would love to know what will Lippi and co. say now after the matches. Not just that there was no “biscotto” but Spain could have taken a goal on purpose in the last minute of their match after the Italian match had finished to send them out. It obviously didn’t happen, but I’m under the impression that it won’t do a thing against the conspiracy theorists who have their new theories ready for next time)”
1-1 would have still eliminated Croatia, are you that unaware?
You perceive Italians fans hating you for your comments because of the hate you put out mate. I don’t hate you for your comments. I feel sorry that you’re full of hate though.
No, it would have not, as Croatia would have had one more goal scored than Italy, get your facts straight. And I’m not full of hate, why would I? I have lots of Italian friends. You are the one that can’t accept an opinion that it’s not yours.
You believe Italians will hate you for your comments because you suffer from projecting your hate, and are clearly in denial of it.
Wasn’t a questionable penalty called against Italy in the game against South Korea? I believe there was and although it was saved it’s worth mentioning. I do believe Italy was robbed and I’m not even an Italian fan. I didn’t want to believe it, but after South Korea v Spain, I couldn’t help but think that the fix was in. South Korea did play exciting soccer and I can understand getting a home country call here & there. But they seemed to get every single (critical) call in their favor. Even in the group game against the US the ref helped South Korea, although they did outplay the US.
There was a penalty called early on. Arguments that it was legit are valid but normally you would see refs letting something not too blatant slide, however what followed leads you to believe that Moreno already knew how he was going to call the game from the get go. That it was consistent in the next match vs Spain should get a “journalist” from “Barcelona” off our backs as Italian fans, but I guess hate is hate and it comes in all shapes and forms. I’m guessing he’s Spanish and even being the current World and European champions hasn’t helped him get over whatever angst he has against Italians.
this twit is JUST A TRY HARD JOURNALIST. Not even a real one.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, you don’t have a clue about what a real journalist or not is.
” My name is Martín del Palacio Langer, I live in Barcelona and I’m a freelance contributor to FIFA.com ”
says it all. Freelance journalist. Fake!
Journalistic standards?
Ha! These blog post by Martin sure do provide entertaining comments. The italians are too easy thought, Martin, but I will continue reading these animals post comments. Keep barking italians.
Are you implying that the point of the article was to get a rise out of Italians? Obviously. Your comment about Italians being animals tells everyone what they need to know about you though.
Call me (or any Italian) an animal to my face and I will more than bark, trust me, you racist piece of shit. Real brave typing on your computer, punk.
And Palacios is just as bad. Racist pigs.
You just named one of the best attacks in the world and then said “aside from them, the team was crap”… I guess you forgot that Gianluigi Buffon, one of the greatest keepers of all time, and Paolo Maldini, widely respected as THE greatest defender of all time, were both in the back field. Plus Zambrotta, Panucci, Gattuso, and the list goes on. You are ignorant to say this team was “utterly crap.” If this team was “utterly crap” then what was Spain’s team that year? Utterly nothing… Therefore, this article is deemed irrelevant.
About Martin del Palacio
My name is Martín del Palacio Langer, I live in Barcelona and I'm a freelance contributor to FIFA.com, World Soccer magazine, Kicker, MedioTiempo.com, PasionSports and some other publications around the world. I love the tactical and statistical side of football but understand that passion is the most important ingredient in the game. Hope you enjoy this blog and feel free to contact me in the comments section or in www.twitter.com/martindelpENG (for English) and www.twitter.com/martindelp (for Spanish)Popular Store Items
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