The Italians have now completely lost their marbles. The gamewinning goal scorer Ahn, who is a player for Italian club Perugia has been sacked by the president of that club, they don't want him showing up for coming season. He said something like: he knocked us out of the WC, i knock him out of our club. What a bunch of dumbasses. [img]graemlins/1dizzy.gif[/img]

Oh well, I'm sure he won't have a lot of problems finding a new club. He's certainly a decent prospect and any canny marketer will realize that having Ahn on their playing roster means $$$ from merchandising in Korea.

Typical reaction from them. All they do is whine. Look if they had not tried to "sit" on a one goal lead for almost the whole game they might not have been in the position of having to complain about a bad call in overtime

[ 06-19-2002, 09:06 AM: Message edited by: Lanthir ]

They do that all the time and that's exactly why they haven't won any important cups lately. I don't know if you guys in the US keep track of the champions league and the uefacup, but there were some good examples of it last season. It was all and all quite an embarrasing year for Italian football (not that i give a damn :D )

Some analysis of the Battle of Daejeon:

1. Was Trappatoni an idiot for trying to shut the game down after 60 mins, yanking Del Piero and replacing him with Gattuso? Yes.

2. Was the first penalty to SK a penalty? Didn't look like it.

3. Was the Totti yellow card deserved? Probably not. Wasn't a penalty, but not a dive either.

4. Was Tommasi offside when he went for that goal? Didn't look like it.

5. Was the ref influenced by home advantage? Big time, by the looks of it - who wouldn't be, in that atmosphere? Maybe someone like Collina or Anders Frisk.

6. Why did Vieri miss a sitter in the 89th minute that would have put Italy through? Because he was buggered and needed to be replaced. Why Trap kept strikers of the caliber of Montella and Inzaghi on the bench is unbelievable.

7. How did Italy's team of multibillionaires manage to lose to a team of part-timers, only two of which played in an overseas league? Who knows - fitness? Maybe they choked? The Koreans certainly finished all over the Azzurri.

8. Did Italy treat a technically inferior team like South Korea with contempt, playing to defend a 1-0 goal instead of getting forward and attacking with their galaxy of stars? ABSOLUTELY. Did it backfire on them? BIG TIME. Did they deserve to lose as a result? YES!!!

9. Did South Korea deserve to win for never saying die? You bet.

PS. Did I mention that Trappatoni is an idiot? [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

Memnoch, you should apply for the job of headcoach of the Italian national team, i think that position will be open very soon ! :D

you would have thought he woudl have watched Sk play of even listen to things they said. they are well known to be in great shape and the games they do win tend to be in the last 15 minutes. They infact plan on playign to keep it close so they can go allout then.

Oh I dissagree that he started in the 60th minute playing to hold the lead. I felt they did it almost right after they scored.

<font color="silver">Edit: OMG - sorry Lanthir, I thought I clicked on Quote but I clicked on Edit Post and accidentally overwrote your post. [img]graemlins/awcrap.gif[/img] One of the disadvantages of having edit access to everyone's post.

I've fixed it up as best I could and put your original text back in. I think I got all the quotes back in. Sorry! - Mem</font>

[ 06-19-2002, 11:27 AM: Message edited by: Memnoch ]

Realistically, SK were extremely lucky to win the game - Italy effectively let them win it with their negative tactics. They call it "gattapacccio" in Italy I believe - "cat-and-mouse, I'm 1-0 up, come and get me" type play. They've been doing this for years. Italy pissed this one away. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Not quite I felt - Italy had a number of good chances and were making inroads up to halftime. The first half was pretty much all Italy. The second half, they sat back and defended. Trap must've been fooled by the fact that the Koreans looked INEFFECTUAL in the second half - wayward crosses, poor service from midfield to the box, they hardly threatened. What they SHOULD have done was replace Del Piero with Inzaghi, pull Vieri off and replace him with Montella, and let those two work behind the Korean defence which was pretty thin since most of them were forward by the 70th minute.

Trap pretty much f*cked up I felt. Hiddink outfoxed him. [img]graemlins/laugh2.gif[/img]

[ 06-19-2002, 11:26 AM: Message edited by: Memnoch ]

Er! That's 'extra time' Lanthir. ;)

Tin hat time! :D

Mem if you watch Sk play then tend to alwasy get going in the last 15 minutes they just tend to wear their opponets out. The trick is to be able to out last them in the last 15.