cklarock

I love Italy.

In theory.

I mean, I love the sound of Italian spoken, I love Italian art. I love the concept of the city-state, and I love this image I have in my head of the trains not running but nobody cares because they're all smoking cigarettes, drinking grappa and taking shots of espresso. Two of my three favorite painters Of All Time are Italian, and at least in the South of Italy, I know I'd love the climate. So why can't I like their football?

I want to like the Azzuri, but I have to admit that I just flat-out dislike Italy for being the diving-est no-trying-est team I'm forced to watch underachieve every four years. Their coach Marcelo Lippi was just quoted as saying that *not trying* is just part of the Italian football culture. In fact, he said, "Why did I have fear, before the game, of us easing off? It was because that is part of our DNA."

Is that the strand right next to the cheating and diving strand? Fuck the World Cup, Italy should send their footballers out for Summer Olympics just to assure a run on the medals in diving. They could win freestyle diving, high-diving, synchronized diving, tricky diving, and of course the-replay-clearly-shows-you-were-diving-diving.

Although, annoyance aside, I have to admit that they are really good at it.

I bet they run diving drills in practice. It'd be like up-'n-downs in American Football, except when they hit the turf, they clutch their ankles or faces and roll around.

Italy vs. US was a gruesome match. Those of us watching it at my house were kind of stunned that Coach Arena let the game end with two substitutions still in his pocket. I really felt that he could have pulled out some fresh legs and gone after the 3 points. Getting the one point is a brave result after going down to 9-men (more ranting on the horrid officiating later), but we have several sharp midfielders on the bench who can play both ends of the field for 20 minutes.

I suppose his choice was the safe, tactical one, but as the team remained on the attack, they didn't get the full support from the bench that might have made the difference.

Officiating: The first red card against Italy was completely justified. That foul was a Krav-Maga-textbook elbowing and deserved the ejection. But both of the US ejections were bad calls. Refs get it wrong sometimes, but to get it wrong and eject a player? TWICE? Whatthefuckingfuck, over.

The first ejection looked like it was a make-up call, but making up for what? The absolutely correct earlier ejection? It's just a mystery.

The second red card was adding insult to injury. It was a late tackle, granted, and should have drawn a penalty, but giving Eddie Pope his second yellow was too much, particularly when it just took all the air out of the game.

I'd say the ref had been bought off by Juventus, but he (or his linesman) utterly *botched* an offside call they made against Italy that prevented what would have most likely produced the winning goal. So the douchebag sends two of our players off, but saves the game for us anyway?

The upside for the US is that their spirited and determined play forced a point out of a tough Italian team, and put them in a position to go through, provided they beat Ghana *and* Italy beats the Czech Republic.

The downside for me is now I have to pull for Italy to beat the Czech Republic, and since a draw would most likely send them through, you *know* the Italians are going to just sit back.

It's in their DNA.


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And in other news, France choked again, I took a long nap today, and Sophie's new haircut is gorgeous. Go-hor-gee-ous.