Neowin's Official World Cup 2006 Thread

[L3thal Veteran]

Well, there will always be criticisms and many people will think "If the bosses of these teams fixed matches in their country, what makes me think they won't do it in the World Cup?" That kind of thinking ballooned with that atrocious call the referee did against the Australians in the last minute of stoppage time.

[ambiance]

http://www.gazzetta.it/openxlink.shtml?htt...org/zidane.html

[zipgenius]

I'm glad Zidane head butted him

L3thal, you are a forum moderator. You should avoid flames in topics, not trying to create one. Believe me: I am a forum admin somewhere else and I always say to my staff: "if you can't stand someone else's opinion, respect it, reply gently, avoid flames".

France was the best team, I'm sure.

After Half Time Italy don't play, It's difficult to lose with penalties........

It could be better if a jury vote for the best team of the match.......

It's very difficult for Malouda, because Canavarro & Materazzi are too close. and there was penalty I'm sure, Materazzi touched Malouda, I'm sure.

there was no penalty on Australia vs Italy............... :whistle:

Too problems with Italy........

- Juventus doping

- Cheating

- Racism

- Injury Simulation

etc.......

Italy, is always a Mafia.

It's the dustbin of football....

This is not racism against Italy, isn't it?

[zipgenius]

Wow that's some lovely ignorant generalizing there at the end of that post buddy. Real classy. I love how people are attacking an entire ethnicity because of a soccer amtch. And to my fellow Italians here, stop the bragging and being petty. Don't even justify the ignorant comments with responses. You should have enough pride to ignore such worthless belittling comments. By stooping to that level you do yourself and the rest of us an injustice.

(...)

OK I just had to say my piece and I'm done with this thread. The amount of flaming and baiting is just ridiculous. Grow up everyone.

True :(

Anyway, the cup now is in Rome.

This is a picture of yesterday.

Over 3 millions people along Rome streets cheering the Azzurri that were on that bus and 1 million at the Circus Maximus.

Other pictures:

Alex Del Piero singing "We are the champions":

[L3thal Veteran]

L3thal, you are a forum moderator. You should avoid flames in topics, not trying to create one. Believe me: I am a forum admin somewhere else and I always say to my staff: "if you can't stand someone else's opinion, respect it, reply gently, avoid flames".

How was my comment flame bait? :rolleyes:

[Vykranth]

I think ziadoz made an excellent point two pages ago: at this point, everything is just speculation and extrapolation by rabid journalists.

Zidane has announced he will speak on that matter in a few days. So, we shall see what he has to say. In any case, whatever Zinedine will say cannot excuse his behavior.

If Zinedine affirms that Materazzi insulted him or his family, Materazzi will deny it and ultimately, it will not matter because the match cannot be re-played.

Still, if Materazzi did insult Zidane, both players are to blame: you are supposed to respect your opponents in any sport. Insults, racism do not make football any better.

[ekerazha]

Regarding the "Italy are Mafia" comment, take a look at the guy's post again. You can clearly tell that English is not his first language and therefore what he said wasn't really what he meant. I am not Italian by any means, but from what I can infer, he was just trying to say that when it comes to football or soccer, whatever you call it, Italians are cheaters due to the scandals occurring in Italy for the past few months and therefore some representatives of Italian teams are "Mafiosos" for doing what they did.

You clearly don't know what are you speaking about.

[ekerazha]

Well, there will always be criticisms and many people will think "If the bosses of these teams fixed matches in their country, what makes me think they won't do it in the World Cup?" That kind of thinking ballooned with that atrocious call the referee did against the Australians in the last minute of stoppage time.

Because they are two totally different things. We are talking about Italy not about some "team managers", and in Italy these managers are under inquiry.

Uhhh... maybe we cheated for the not-existent sending off of Materazzi against Australia... or maybe we cheated for the many not-existent our offsides etc. etc. Yeah... maybe we cheated for the fake French penalty...

The penalty against Australia was absolutely legitimate. As I've already said you should perhaps revise the basic football rules.

I understand, envy is an bad thing and your team is loser: just live with it.

Edited July 11, 2006 by ekerazha

[wicker_man]

I'm all on Zidane's side. Sometimes things like that matter more than a World Cup final. On the video footage when Zidane was walking away you can clearly see a smile on his face (meaning fine, whatever, I'll get on with it) and the next second you Materazzi saying wahtever he said and then goes Zidane. Yes, people can say that a player of his class mustn't do this and that, but I strongly believe that he did that because he is THE MAN and he stood up for himself and his family against abuse from a scumbag, and that's all there is to it. It's a shame the scumbag didn't end up in the hospital with broken chest.

After all, FIFA should review video footage of every match and fine ###### like that for diving and verbal abuse. Once they write a couple of 100000 checks they will stop doing that.

Materazzi isn't at all close to Zidane's legacy and he made a great footballer finish his career like that, and I hope his will go down as well. Screw Materazzi and the rest of scum like that who trash this beautiful game.

[Martyn]

You know, I am not surprised if Materazzi called him a dirty terrorist because of Zidane's Algerian background. Materazzi is a total scum bag and that is proven with his ridiculous "I don't know what terrorism is, I am ignorant" comment. What, has he been living secluded from the rest of the world?

Not only is he a scum bag, but he is one dirty player on the field as the video posted earlier of him shows.

I'm glad Zidane head butted him. I am pretty sure he had the nerve to call him a terrorist and now he makes these nonsensical remarks about not knowing what a terrorist is.

I tottally agree with you here L3thal. Providing of course that Materazzi did say something about him being a terrorist or about his family, we will just have to wait and see until we find out the whole truth though before we can form very firm opinions.

Even William Gallas said that "he want's to smash Materazzi's face in" :blink:.

[D!rtySh@dy]

Zidane is always a genius. :cool:

It's strange none speak about De Rossi injury vs USA

[ekerazha]

Zidane is always a genius. :cool:

Zidane simply had a childish behaviour.

It's strange none speak about De Rossi injury vs USA

1) De Rossi "injury" was in a game action. Zidane "injury" was voluntary and had nothing to do with the football game.

2) De Rossi was disqualified for 4 matches. Maybe you're not very informed.

[FlibbyFlobby]

I think ziadoz made an excellent point two pages ago: at this point, everything is just speculation and extrapolation by rabid journalists.

You can tell its speculation because of the things he supposedly said. They're all totally different and contradicting:

"Your a terrorist"

"I hope your family die an ugly death"

"You sister is a prostitute"

"F**k off"

Something about his mother

Its all crap until we know what was actually said, not what the media are dreaming up. Its a shame people are already calling Materazzi a scum bag, without knowing the truth. It just goes to show how people jump to conclusions so quick because of media hype; and how a media/footballing icon like Zidane can be forgiven just because people have built him up into something special.

Edited July 11, 2006 by ziadoz

[D!rtySh@dy]

De Rossi injury had nothing to do with the football game....

Zidane is just an human, lot of players have alrealdy made it..........

Totti............ :rolleyes:

[Kev1n]

Damn I love Zidane!

The Italian Job: The Razzi Teleport

[kombolcha]

:rofl: it was only a matter of time before this animated gifs appeared..

you guys are still crying? wow... let it go. Italy IS the best team and they proved it by winning the cup.. there's no winning by luck or anything. It's all skill. there were quite a few games where buffon never touched the ball (except to kick it) because of the excellent Italian defense.

on the radio this morning, they were talkina bout the zidane hit. supposedly, materazzi, it was materazzi that was hit right? anyway, i think at one point he was holding zidanes shirt and zidane said if you really want my shirt i'll give it to you after i win the match, and the italian said, no, i'd rather have your wife's shirt... the other thing was that materazzi called zidane a son of a terrorist ######. :pinch:

[Vykranth]

Its all crap until we know what was actually said, not what the media are dreaming up. Its a shame people are already calling Materazzi a scum bag, without knowing the truth. It just goes to show how people jump to conclusions so quick because of media hype; and how a media/footballing icon like Zidane can be forgiven just because people have built him up into something special.

I just found this article of the BBC in which Materazzi admited insulting Zidane.

Now, for the content, we will wait to wait for both of them to explain themselves before the FIFA

[L3thal Veteran]

Zidane simply had a childish behaviour.

If Zidane's behavior was childish, then Materazzi's behavior was disgusting and abysmal. You don't go onto a field and insult your opponents like he did. You have respect for each other and when he lacked respect for Zidane, Zidane lost respect for him too.

The penalty against Australia was absolutely legitimate. As I've already said you should perhaps revise the basic football rules.

:laugh:

I like it how you call it obstruction when Grosso is the one that forcedly leaves his leg behind when he dribbled the ball already and was half way passed the defender. The defender did not even make any attempt to stop him, the only player that attempted to stop Grosso was Grosso himself and he succeeded. Its no surprise why Totti ran onto him right after it was called and hugged him saying "haha, good dive, mate".

You clearly don't know what are you speaking about.

And you do? :rolleyes:

As I've already said you should perhaps revise the basic football rules.

Can you enlighten us on what basic rules you are speaking of that justified that penalty, or lack there of? I don't think there's a rule in the FIFA rulebook that says if a player is down on the group and another player runs into him, its a foul, or is there? :huh:

Even William Gallas said that "he want's to smash Materazzi's face in"

He deserves it.

[mz_]

The penalty against Australia was absolutely legitimate. As I've already said you should perhaps revise the basic football rules.

(Y)

Finally someone around here who knows what he's talking about and doesn't just follow what the stupid press says.

I wish I knew more english to discuss this, but everyone who knows just a little about football already knows that if someone separates his elbow from his body trying to interrupt the other player is foul.

[ekerazha]

De Rossi injury had nothing to do with the football game....

De Rossi made an "injury" in a football action and it was faul. This is football not "classic dance".

Zidane made an "injury" outside a football action, this isn't football, this isn't foul... this is "Fight Club".

Zidane is just an human, lot of players have alrealdy made it..........

Totti............ :rolleyes:

And they all mistook.

[ekerazha]

If Zidane's behavior was childish, then Materazzi's behavior was disgusting and abysmal. You don't go onto a field and insult your opponents like he did. You have respect for each other and when he lacked respect for Zidane, Zidane lost respect for him too.

You forget something. You can't know what Materazzi said ;)

And even if he provoked Zidane, that's normal in football game, don't make the false hypocrites. But the words and the physical violence are two well separate things.

:laugh:

I like it how you call it obstruction when Grosso is the one that forcedly leaves his leg behind when he dribbled the ball already and was half way passed the defender. The defender did not even make any attempt to stop him, the only player that attempted to stop Grosso was Grosso himself and he succeeded. Its no surprise why Totti ran onto him right after it was called and hugged him saying "haha, good dive, mate".

Grosso didn't "forcedly leave" anything, did you ever "run" in your life? Did you lift your legs 1 meter from the ground? I don't think so. He was running with his ball, the Australian player throwned down between Grosso and the ball (he failed the tackle) after having been dribbled, disinteresting himself to the ball and stopped Grosso with his body making him stumbling. Maybe he also hooked the Grosso's foot. In Europe this is foul, maybe in USA you usually have different rules. Don't result to me Totti said that thing, however in Europe we have another thing called "irony".

And you do? :rolleyes:

Yeah, because I live in Italy and I'm surely better informed about Italian matters ;)

Can you enlighten us on what basic rules you are speaking of that justified that penalty, or lack there of? I don't think there's a rule in the FIFA rulebook that says if a player is down on the group and another player runs into him, its a foul, or is there? :huh:

He deserves it.

Yeah... that is "obstruction". Search for "obstruction" on the football rules: you'll understand because I'm right and you're wrong.

If you want you can translate this from Italian, or search for the rules in English language:

2) fa intenzionalmente ostruzione, cio? non giocando Il pallone si interpone tra lo stesso ed un avversario, costituendo per questi un ostacolo;

;))

[L3thal Veteran]

Yeah, because I live in Italy and I'm surely better informed about Italian matters ;)

Yeah... that is "obstruction". Search for "obstruction" on the football rules: you'll understand because I'm right and you're wrong.

Oh, so only you know what goes on, correct? :rolleyes:

Of course you are "well informed" about what happened because it was your team that benefited from such call. Do you actually think the Italian media is going to say it wasn't a penalty? Come on, enlighten yourself.

So I am wrong and you are right? I'm sure. Just like you were right when you made this post :whistle:

[ekerazha]

Oh, so only you know what goes on, correct? :rolleyes:

Me and the other Italians, of course ;)

Of course you are "well informed" about what happened because it was your team that benefited from such call. Do you actually think the Italian media is going to say it wasn't a penalty? Come on, enlighten yourself.

You were talking about "Mafia" and such things not about penalties.

However... I don't know about you, but I use my eyes and my mind, not the eyes and the mind of some tv/media.

So I am wrong and you are right? I'm sure. Just like you were right when you made this post :whistle:

Of course.

[ekerazha]

Of course.

Edit: I was wrong about that thing, I've no problems admitting you're right when you are right :)

However I'm right about *this* thing ;) Just look at the rules of the game of football:

2) fa intenzionalmente ostruzione, cio? non giocando Il pallone si interpone tra lo stesso ed un avversario, costituendo per questi un ostacolo;

This is the rule for "obstruction" in Italian language... I'll try to translate it:

"He made intentionally obstruction, that is not playing the ball he interposes him among the same [the ball] and an adversary, constituting for these an obstacle."

[I am Reid]

Isnt it time to unstick this, the NBA thread was done right after game 6.