Fred Keenor wrote:
I don't think Italy are unique as a major footballing nation in their reaction to such things. In fact they're the norm.[/quote]

It wasn't so much their reaction after the game (everyone, as you rightly say, is prone to sour grapes) as their behaviour before the game that screamed of paranoia. They spent the whole three or four days bleating about how the whoel Denmark - Sweden was obviously going to be a carve up designed specifically to freeze Italy out. The old problem of judging people by their own standards. It was so clearly what Italy would connive to do in the same circumstances that it was inconceivable to them that anyone might behave otherwise (Italy v Poland 1974, anyone?). I lacked the time to go and root out the stories from before the Denmark - Sweden game, but they're there somewhere.

linus wrote:

QUOTE:
Alright, in case the last youtube link may have had caused some of you to defect from Team ABI:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFIUe9hFda0

Welcome back!!!

Blimey.

Just followed that link.

Why do people insist on banging on about that tedious old git Scott Walker when there is stuff like this around?

Why would that video make you hate Italy?

No idea. Doesn't even make me love France.

It just makes me feel, you know. The way I expect you felt during that shot of Luis Cumbers on Nuts TV tonight.

Hahahaha

I'm sure I don't know what you mean.

i like italy, always have done. it's probably not the full blown love affair it was when roby baggio was around but i cant think of a team i want to win it more than the azzurri

How's Luis Cumbers doing for your lot? Do you think he's anywhere close to Fourth Division standard yet?

He came on for Gillingham against Franchise in the Paint Pot and missed the crucial penalty in the shoot-out (although to be fair, he had to wait around a long time while the ref insisted that some sort of crowd kerfuffle be sorted out before he took it), so it's nice to see him fighting the good fight in a different way.

I've always liked Italy, buit the current political climate there with the government inciting people to set fire to Rroma camps and now deciding to make immigration a criminal offence, has convinced me that it would be better iuf they got stuffed. Particularly by Romania, one of the countries that is a a focal point of the Berlusconi government's xenophobia. Fuck them. Hai Romania.

I actually fear for the real life repercussions on the ground here where Romania to put Italy out. Life is hard enough for the Romanian and Rom populations as it is, given the increasingly poisoned environment that ad hoc describes.

He did well for us, we like him a lot. He's signed a one-year contract with the Gills this summer, and I would expect to see him play a good few games for you.

I really don't understand the level of hate aimed at De Rossi. As mentioned by others, he was caught in the act and punished accordingly. If people think the punishment was too lenient, then that's a different issue, but he can hardly be blamed for that, can he? It's not like the crime went unnoticed or unpunished (Schumacher-style) is it? That it's a bad piece of foul play is indisputable, but it's no worse than a thousand other similar challenges or fouls.

Also, that '06 Italy team were good to watch. I'm afraid you'll have to count me out of the ABI brigade.

JV, sorry to hear about your girl. Hope the docs can put her right.

QUOTE:
Purves Grundy wrote:

QUOTE:
Fred Keenor wrote:
I don't think Italy are unique as a major footballing nation in their reaction to such things. In fact they're the norm.

It wasn't so much their reaction after the game (everyone, as you rightly say, is prone to sour grapes) as their behaviour before the game that screamed of paranoia. They spent the whole three or four days bleating about how the whoel Denmark - Sweden was obviously going to be a carve up designed specifically to freeze Italy out. The old problem of judging people by their own standards. It was so clearly what Italy would connive to do in the same circumstances that it was inconceivable to them that anyone might behave otherwise

Haven't we just had a week where a huge topic of conversation in football was if Wigan would really try and derail Man Utd's title challenge in the final game? With Ferguson throwing some pretty poor barbs out at Bolton's players as well? These conspiracies abound in all of modern Big Football.

And the Sweden/Denmark game was the 2-2 it needed to be in the end.

Didn't De Rossi once admit to the ref that he'd used his hand to put the ball in the net, or was that somebody else?

As for the elbow, Brian McBride complimented De Rossi on his apology in the post match interview. If Brian McBride is happy, then that's all that matters, surely?

Nothing matters. F him.

To commit a foul like that, only to take a winning penalty and lift the trophy isn't my definition of what is right. People seem to sidestep the two hard fouls in the box against Ghana that he didn't get called for.

And yes I am bitter about Italy '06 winning, just as I'm bitter about Bush stealing the election in 2000. They were a nasty team throughout the tournament, had one scorcher of a game in the semifinal, and did and said whatever it took to win. No one will even convince me they were an honorable team, as I've had 2 years to think about what scumbags they were/are, so that's that. Feel free to disagree. But the "they're no different than other scumbags" argument will go nowhere with me.

I mean were talking about Totti and Del Piero, who campaigned against a resurgent Baggio coming to the team in 2002 because it was their turn. So the team was built on that attitude.

Then we have "Italy does best when there's a horrible scandal at home" bullshit. Ok, then have a scandal every 4 years.

To say it for the hundredth time, my first coach was Italian, the one who gave me my love of the game and all of that. I grew up with Giorgio Chinaglia, who scored the first goal of the first game I went to. The 82 team especially left a mark on my concious, as did watching Serie A on WNYC for most of the 80s. This team was the antithesis of all I grew up with.

The 82 team especially left a mark on my concious, as did watching Serie A on WNYC for most of the 80s. This team was the antithesis of all I grew up with

Antithesis? Antithesis? The 1982 team contained the most violent player in the world in Claudio Gentile, and in Paolo Rossi had a star player who was just returning after a 2-year ban for a betting scandal. Fucking antithesis, indeed.