"Thinly veiled attempt to take a swipe at Australians?" If that's so, its coming from someone who hasn't missed a single qualifier, friendly or internaional since 2006. I love Australian football and if I didn't I wouldn't be on this forum.

My point is simple - after the 2006 world cup quarter final when we were outplayed by 10 men, very VERY few people focussed on this, even "football analysts" like Les Murray dismissed it. It all became about Grosso - he was the scapegoat, and Italy the deviant enemy. To the point where whether he dived or not was of little consequence, it was a convenient enough excuse. The fact that the Australian Referees Assocation said it was a penalty did nothing to assuage our collective vitriolic hatred against that man, that team, and that country. It has now become folklore, perpetuated by media and sucked on like nicotine for all but a few Australian football fans who saw the game for what it was.

Ad by deflecting reality what happened? We were duly spanked at the Asian Cup which followed. And we deserved it.

Edited by MINDSHAKCLE CORP.: 26/6/2010 01:40:06 PM

Hmm I didn't run into too many like that but I could see how it could get up people's noses.

My personal opinion comes from Italian "Australians" rubbing my face in the result at Germany '06.
No, I do not think that some deiety has looked down on them and punished them from on high, because of a result four years ago.
For me, this result goes out to all the Italian "Australians" on Norton St who rolled cars etc. and rubbed Australia's face in a 1-0 result.
I think Italy totally outplayed us, with 10 men, in Germany. But I did not deserve to have my face rubbed into their Italian heritage. Especially as most of them couldn't even speak Italian.

just love how everyone seems to think th eitalians are going to cry amazing hey Asutralai weren't crying this week when things weren't going their way, amazing Brazil is just as dirty and cheats as much as every other team no one calls them up for it. Amzing New Zealand plays more italian style football than the italins do and it was deemedgreat and courageous.
Don't get me wrong i was supproting Australia the other and was bitterly disappointed by them getting out but clowns on this forum makes wonder if they have sense to bring something up from 4 years ago must mean they have nothing else to hang their hat on.

Agree with you on that Football Lover good post.

It appeared more like a thinly veiled attempt to take a swipe at Australians, or perhaps Australian football fans in general, as being pre-disposed to espousing ‘hate, vitriol and racism’ towards others. Do you really believe that Australian football fans subscribe to some form of determinist therory in which the Italian team was eliminated as a result of an event four years ago? Of course not. The reality is that a number of Australian football fans are still hurting, rightly or wrongly, from a last minute penalty decision in the four years ago that saw their team dismissed from the World Cup.

To say that you have not come across any Italian football fans that vent their anger outwards and towards opposition players and/or officals is surprising as I have spoken to quite a few in the past week who seemed to have taken a particular dislike to the fact that Shane Smeltz was offside and the fact that neither the linesman nor the referee managed to pick it up. In fact a number of them spoke of the tactics being employed by a number of the smaller football nations of this world cup contributing to what was described as a disappointing competition.

You seem to have painted a simple picture of Australian football fans and Australian Football journalist by assuming that there has been no attempt to discuss the shortcomings of our own national team and their effect in our eventual elimination from the competition. Do you think its possible that some of the ‘external venting’ we see in the media is the result of uneducated, and in most instances uninterested, journalists who have vested interest in turning fans away from the game by attempting to paint it as corrupt, unfair and out of sync with national precepts of fair play?

I also find it interesting that the consistent underlying problems that exist amongst fans at club level football in Italy disappear when they switch their Inter, Roma, Udinese or Parma shirts for the Azzurri. I will be in Italy for the Quarter finals onwards so I will be sure to keep an ear out and have a chat about the world cup.

As far as the last comment regarding the cultural approaches and their results is so wide of the mark that it is like comparing chalk and cheese, considering the difficulties football has faced in this country. Another thinly veiled swipe perhaps?

To all the Italy haters - get stuffed!


I love the Socceroos but also have a lot of love for my country of origin.

Italy deserved to be where they are because the Football establshment in Italy let Lippi do what he wanted; eg selecting his Juve over the hill mates.Also, they have too many foreign players and young Italian players don't get oppotunities to development at the higher levels. Moratti and others have a bit to answer here!

Australia unfortunately got PIM the dill who all by himself stuffed our chances in the Germany match for a lot of the same reasons Italy failed.

Please don't bash teams when they fail, always look to the real reasons behind their failure.

I don't get joy when teams loose. Good luck to Slovakia, they played very well and deserved the win.

I just pray and hope that the FFA and Frank Lowy now chose the best person as the new Socceroo manager. If not, more crap in future.

I know about all that stuff and I'm not talking about the crap that gets said about players, other teams, regions, etc in club football. I'm talking about it in a footballing critique sense.

I contribute to many Italian forums and I rarely see racist, vitriolic comments being made about opposing teams or generalisations about the way they play, in an effort to deflect their own team's shortcomings. They almost always look inward, criticising their own play, their own tactics, their own skill levels, their own managers, their own ineptitude. I've been amused in the last few weeks about the amount of "heat" the Socceroos have copped from the media. That was obsolutely nothing.

Here we tend to vent outwards - the Italians did this, the refs did that. And in this instance, it has evolved into nothing other than two-bit, amateur-hour faux-football critique punctuated by racist slurs and cultural generalisations. I can tell you the Italians aren't populating forums about how Shane Smeltz was offside, or whether Quagliarella was onside. They couldn't give a shit. They want to know, demand to know why they stuffed up defense of a simple set piece, why they couldn't create anything for 75 minutes.

Culturally, two very different approaches. Over time, guess which one produces the better football...

Sorry but you just bugged that post up for me as I was agreeing with most of what you said. The Italians don't do "hate, vitriole and racism like we do" I sincerly hope you are joking. Have you been to an Seria A games in Italy? If so you would know that comment is so far off the mark it is not funny. Some of the stuff I have seen over there is pales in comparison to calling someone a diver. If you think that's the case then you should porobably speak with footballers such as mario balotelli.

I really don't get this "they got what they deserved business". They also faired poorly in Euro 2008...why couldn't that poor performance, and not this one, be attributed to the karmic forces of the universe? Oh thats' right, because philistines like [VforVictory] have adopted the unique and novel assumption that the way they see the world, is the way it really is, and the gods, being fundamentally on our side, have metered out this Karma to Italy on behalf of Australia via the proxy of our loyal allies, Slovakia.

Sounds ridiculous doesn't it. I must say, the level of vitriole on this forum and others, really only compares to the stuff I've seen people write in forums in the UK. It smacks of pettyness, nastiness, bitterness and at times, down right jealousy. Conversely it has always struck me as refreshing that the Italians so very rarely, focus on anyone else but themselves with regard to football. They just don't do hate, vitriole and racism like we do. They look inward, get their own houses in order, and occasionally, win world cups.

There might be some things we want to avoid copying from the Italians on the football field, but as armchair football analysts, there's a hell of a lot we could learn.

=d> Well said =d>

jamo91, your response is exactly why i said "clueless amateurs" in my last comment.. Mate, do u remember the game last WC? Italy didnt rob us!.. they outplayed us with only 10 men!.. dont get me wrong, we did well and were unlucky to concede the controversial penalty in the last minute.. but we were very lucky that matarazzi got sent off.. we really need to move on and stop blaming the opposition everytime we lose and actually be gracious in defeat. We are aussies.. we are better than that

HAHAHA Fuck off Italy didnt deserve to win it last time the whole team is a discrace!

+1

Although pretty well all teams have had an instance where 1 of their players has milked a peanalty, the Italians have seemed to turn it into an art form.
Looking to Aussies for sympathy??? Its in the dictionary between shit and syphilis!!!!

Despite the elimination of the Socceroos this has made me happy. Ramadamadingdong no one in there right mind would leave Italy alone. I still have nightmares over what they did to us in last World Cup. And in 2010 for a team so potentially skilfull, to constantly resort to injury faking , diving, writhing in agony, crying and generally cheating in order to take advantage of more naive teams makes my stomach churn. They got what they deserved absolutely nothing and have joined the list of other over rated hoaxers from Europe at this WC including France and Serbia who also recieved poetic justice.

Agree it was irritating, especially because there looked like there could have been another goal.

Not defending Italy or anything, but bloody hell Slovakia acted like a bunch or sooks in extra time. I know about running the match clock down but christ that was annoying to watch

Because they might cry?:)

Calling you out on your call mate...
How was the comment you quoted a troll comment?
For me the rest of you guys saying karma, praise god they lost, cheats, fucks etc is trolling...

Or perhaps your "troll" post was a troll post...
Hmmm...i need to lie down

Troll

By enjoying the failure of a team with awful cheating habits that has previously robbed us in no way makes us 'clueless amateurs'. you might have a soft spot for them but i have no idea why youd think the rest of us do after WC 2006.

+1

Agree Gian22. Sometimes these things need to happen. It would have been worse if they somehow scraped through to the the round of 16, or even to the quarters, because that would have positively re-inforced A LOT of bad strategy by the italian football federation.

The whole campaign was just filled with wrongness - from attitude, to player selection, to manager selection, to the build up, and most importantly, player quality. The personnel in the azzuri squad - with the exception of Pirlo and Quags, are just so-so, they're not top class like previous Italy line-ups.

I don't think it will take long for Azzurri fans to put this behind them, in fact, its been a disaster since 2006, and its kind of a relief. Easily the worst squad and the worst campaign I have witnessed in my lifetime.

New coach, new players, new era on its way.

By the way.. hating the ignorant "karma" and "diving" comments.. Dont make us socceroo supporters look like clueless amateurs!

wow, slovakia played out of their skin and deserved the win!
Italy were a mess but what an improvement once pirlo came on he is a champ.. disappointed to see them eliminated i hav a soft spot for them, but they have some gun young players coming through so they'll be right next WC

Lippi picked half the wrong team. Italy are still 4 times world champions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Now the "big name" cheating frickin' divers and handballers are out of the tournament we might actually get to see some football!!!"
Australia... check (god knows how many handballs and dirty tackles there's been)
France... check

Funny stuff. Totally agree with all the "get over it" sentiment.

Both finalists from '06 out. Not only out, but bottom of groups they were expected to win.

Is this a changing of the guard, or a blip?? Or does it just show that there is little difference between sides in international football these days??

loved the youtube clip. Very Italian
Go pick the fight, get beaten and then sulk.

Leave Italy Alone!!!!! :'(

No one seems to be giving much credit to Slovakia. They played amazing, and this is easily the best game of the tournament, and no, not because of Italy lost (well yes, okay because it is :P ) but the game was the most exciting one so far.