Halftime at the Final
It's halftime, and France and Italy are tied at 1.
First goal came quickly (8th minute?) on a Zidane PK. Materazzi was called for fouling Malouda, and the call looks bad on replay. But in this observer's opinion, in real time, it was not a surprising call. Ref was behind the play and to the players' right (where he should be), and from that angle I think it probably looked worse than it did from various replay angles.
Italy equalized about 10 minutes later on a Materazzi header off a corner. Italy had two more good headers off corners -- France has to work that out.
Advantage in the play so far? Probably Italy, but just by a little. France has looked dangerous at times, esp. when they get the ball to Henry in the box.
By Jon DeNunzio |
July 9, 2006; 2:52 PM ET
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Posted by: Rob Daniels | July 9, 2006 03:04 PM
Is Henry the best player on the field?
Posted by: Rob Daniels | July 9, 2006 03:05 PM
You forgot to comment about whether Italy should have been given a red card for a vicious hit on Henri in the first 2 minutes.
Posted by: FRANCE | July 9, 2006 03:05 PM
I think the Frenchman just answered my previous question. Wow.
Posted by: Rob Daniels | July 9, 2006 03:09 PM
I think it says a lot about this event that the players wait until the $$$ is allocated to their national federations before worrying about how much they get out of it. Think baseball players would play a World Series without having negotiated their financial take well in advance?
Posted by: Rob Daniels | July 9, 2006 03:12 PM
Henry needs to keep his head up. He concussed himself, not the defender's fault.
Posted by: no vicious hit | July 9, 2006 04:00 PM
That was a body-check against Henri and now fighting words to Zidane...good job Italy.
Posted by: France | July 9, 2006 04:26 PM
It was not a good game, Italy does not deserve to win, not on technical flair nor merits.
Rob, btw, I am neither French nor a man, just someone who respects the game as a uniting force when played fair and well. This world cup has been patchy, to say the least.
Posted by: France | July 9, 2006 04:45 PM
I find it ironic that the Italians *gave up* a goal on a bad penalty call...
Posted by: Steven | July 9, 2006 08:32 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
I predicted a scoreless game. I was wrong by the sixth minute.