The All White's Shane Smeltz kicks off the celebrations for Kiwis worldwide with his goal against Italy.Slovakia 0-2 Paraguay
Quite simply, the better side wins as Paraguay, though not breath-taking, comprehensively defeats Slovakia. Slovakia's first and only shot on goal came in injury time... enough said. Paraguay now look to take first place in the group.
Italy 1-1 New Zealand
The All Whites serve up the best result in New Zealand footballing history with a 1-1 draw against the defending world champs. The Kiwis goal may have been a little offside, but Italy's goal was once again the result of a highly questionable penalty kick from an Italian dive in the box. Apparently the Azzuri are picking up where they left off in WC2006... theatrics in the penalty area will be a major part of their goal scoring strategy. Congrats to New Zealand for their hard fought historic win!
Brazil 3-1 Ivory Coast
While the Ivorians start well, they concede the first goal to Luis Fabiano and Brazil looks themselves as they cruise to a 3-0 lead. Didier Drogba scores a consolation goal, but the end of the match is marred by fighting and then a second yellow card for Kaka which will see him miss the final match against Portugal. Replays clearly show the Ivory Coast's Keita running into Kaka's elbow and then falling to the ground holding his face... a shameful dive broadcast worldwide. How players are comfortable presenting this negative view of themselves on the world stage I'll never know.
3 comments:
Can we please get this referee and his team to call all of the other matches from now on? Even the two "missed" handball calls on Fabiano's second goal were caught by the officials since the ref quizzed Fabiano about it immediately afterwards. And he dealt with all the pushing and shoving at the end fairly well. Kaka's undeserved red card was due more to shameful diving than bad officiating. It's just unfortunate when the strongest impression taken away from a match is how good the referee was...
Kaka is certainly not entirely innocent - the replays also suggest that he intentionally used his shoulder to barge into Keita. That Keita over-reacted is certain, but Kaka could have moved out of the way.
i'd consider your point a little more closely 'JR' if your name didn't link to an online casino. keita's dive is embarrassing, plain and simple.
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