Tuesday, June 13, 2006

First test passed

On the whole the first game against Ghana was a successful one for Italy, not only in terms of result. The defence was solid - with the exception of Grosso who did look like a giraffe on ice from time to time. The midfield was classy - especially when Pirlo got a bit of space to work. Up front big Toni was unlucky not to get his goal and Gila provided decent support.

The biggest disappointment was the quality of the refereeing. How on earth did the Azzurri end up with three bookings when they were kicked, elbowed and shoved around the park all night. I have no gripe with the yellow cards for De Rossi, Camoranesi (no surprise) and Iaquinta but the same rule was not used for Ghana. The fouls on Iaquinta, Totti and Toni (regularly) were awful. I hope those bookings don't cost us later on.

Still, three points are three points and another win over the USA would put the boys in blue in pole position before the final game with the Czechs who looked pretty good.

5 comments:

martinobhoy said...

Didn't see much from Brazil to get us quaking in our boots.

a.c.t. said...

It's the most positive I've seen Italy play in a long time and for once the BBC commentators didn't go on about about them being too defensive - despite this, they still managed to be patronising.

ginkers said...

I watched with the sound off for most of the game but the post-match stuff was reasonably positive. Certainly Gattuso would give us a bit more bite in the midfield and allow Pirlo to have the space he needs to hurt teams. I can't believe the US will be as bad as they were against the Czech Republic but still we should be able to beat them. As regards Brazil, I think I might blog about them later.

Spangly Princess said...

brazil were pretty underwhelming, indeed. if anything I think that croatia would give us more problems tactically.

Agree about the referring. but was a bit disappointed in your boy Toni. hoping he sorts himself out a bit more for the USA.

ginkers said...

Wait a minute, Toni is a God. Unless he leaves for Inter, of course, in which case he is a good-for-nothing, money-grabbing waster!