Artikel yg best dari sorang Frenchman...

Got this from my kengkawan kat porem. Kredit to my fren...

Well, i have a strong feeling that World cup 2006 finalist will end their Euro 2008 tomorrow. My instinct is saying that Netherland will line-up their 2nd stringmorrow and the desperate Romania will win the match and automatically qualify themselves to the quater finals.
Well, thats football, as i said, anything can possibly happens, and it is where it is so sensational and dramatic..
We'll see tomorrow...


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Before I start what is sure to be the most heated Euro 2008 debate so far, I would like to clearly point out that I am a Frenchman, and so for quite obvious reasons I am far from being the greatest sympathiser towards the Italian nation.

Despite this it is simply impossible to write a piece on Italy’s Euro 2008 journey so far without coming to the conclusion that they have been crucified by the refereeing officials. Three simply massive decisions have incorrectly gone against the Azzurri during their two games. The first of course was the Ruud Van Nistelrooy opener for Holland on Monday night. Even if you implement the ridiculous new Fifa offside law about players off the pitch still being active, the goal should still have been disallowed. The ruling states that a player has to voluntarily leave the pitch for him to still be active. If you watch the replay you will see that Christian Panucci was bulldozed into touch by Gianluigi Buffon. Is that voluntary or involuntary I ask you?

Onto the Romania game yesterday, and another two huge decisions went against the Italians, the first of which probably cost them the three points. Luca Toni headed home at 0-0 in first half injury time, but was flagged offside, even though replays show that he was two yards behind the last defender. These are not millimetres we are talking about, a mistake such as this is unforgivable, and I don’t blame the cynical Italians who say that it could not have come as a result of human error. If things couldn’t get any worse, with 10 minutes remaining the referee then appallingly awards a penalty against Christian Panucci for a supposed shirt tug on Nicolae Dica. As a furious Luca Toni, who himself was denied a fair few decent penalty shouts, correctly pointed out after the game, “If that was a penalty, then we and every other team should have five per match.”

Buffon’s save from Adrian Mutu’s spot-kick meant that this decision was academic; however it certainly doesn’t prevent many Italians from drawing inevitable links between these Euros and the scandalous 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan.

For those of you who need reminding, Italy were eliminated in the second round in 2002 after probably the worst set of refereeing decisions ever to go against a team during the history of the World Cup. During their final two group games against Croatia and Mexico, Giovanni Trapattoni’s men had four perfectly good goals disallowed, but somehow managed to scrape through to the second round where they met South Korea. Against the hosts, Italy again had a valid goal chalked off, a golden goal from Damiano Tomassi which would have taken them to the next round. Francesco Totti was sent off for diving when replays showed he had lost his footing, while the Koreans were awarded a controversiol penalty for a Christian Panucci tugging offence. Sound familiar? Italy eventually lost after Ahn Jung-Hwan’s golden winner, but the match and Ecuadorian referee Byron Moreno (pictured above) have gone down in Italian football infamy.

As a side-topic on Moreno, the official would later that year receive a 20 match ban after he played an extra 13 minutes of stoppage time during a match between Deportiva Unive** de Quito and Barcelona Sporting Club. During this time Deportiva scored twice to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 victory. After retuning from his suspension, Moreno was suspended again after controversiolly sending off three players in one match. He retired from officiating shortly after.

Back to the 2002 World Cup itself. The Italian nation cried that there had been a conspiracy against them, and they were soon joined by the Spanish, who in the very next game against Korea had two perfectly good goals disallowed as they were eliminated on penalties.

The conspiracy theory was that 1) there was a plot to throw Italy out of the World Cup, and 2) there was a plot to try and get South Korea as far as possible. The hosts also had some dubious calls go their way in their final group game, which saw Portugal eliminated.

Many people in Italy and Spain refuse to recognise the legality of the 2002 World Cup. Whether this should be viewed as bitterness or due to the fact that the tournament became something of a farce due to the ridiculous amount of ‘errors’, this is up for each individual to decide.

What is clear is that many Italians are starting to draw links between the 2002 World Cup and the 2008 European Championships. While Italy have clearly not played to their potential in Austria and Switzerland, and would surely have lost to Holland anyway regardless of the Van Nistelrooy opener, they would in all probability be sitting on three points had it not been for the dreadful Toni offside decision in the Romania game.

This would mean that they would have their destiny in their own hands for the match against France. It would also mean that Les Bleus would have controlled their future too. As it happens now a Romania win against an already qualified Holland will eliminate both World Cup finalists.

In tournaments it is often one goal that decides games so a bad referee can have a big influence in a team going home. Those of you who point to the slightly fortuitous penalty that Fabio Grosso received against Australia in the last World Cup should rewind the tape of that match 35 minutes and review the ridiculous sending off of Marco Materazzi before declaring, as some have, that “what goes around, comes around.”


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