THE AFTERMATH
Italy 1 Australia 0
Italy were the favourites to win, with Australia coming in as the underdogs.
Was hoping for an upset; it would have been great to go through the city and see the place in a state of euphoria. It's just the whole atmosphere thing, you know? Ah, should have gone to Lygon Street to watch the match instead; then can celebrate in full mode with the Italian fans. Wish I had a camera! Walking back, I took the Lygon Street route, and it was utter chaos; the police blocked off entrance into Lygon Street, and the roads were filled with bottles and rubbish everywhere. I think they were probably preventing a riot from occurring. Fed Square didn't quite have that football frenzy atmosphere I was expecting; on the contrary, it was quite distracting, with some people just wanting to cause disturbances. At the end of the match, some people even threw flares (even though it was banned) and bottles at the screen (probably out of frustration) after Totti scored the controversial (?) penalty kick.
I thought Australia played well, and almost matched the Italians evenly, but as a friend put it, their "finishing is just crap". Anyhow, Italy have been, after all, three-time world champions. But guess it's really a matter of opinion as well; we're all biased by nature (no one can truly be objective and impersonal), and I admit I'm biased, and that's only because I'm in Australia now. Heh.
Refereeing has been one of the biggest issues at this World Cup so far, and this match was no exception. That penalty kick was rather/very/extremely controversial, and will probably generate many arguments or discussions in the days to come; I'm not knowledgeable enough to comment on it, and I shan't bother. =P
Overall, it wasn't a spectacular match - I've seen better ones, but oh well, that's soccer for you. Life goes on; Australia will probably go through some days of misery and heartbreak. But give it some time, and the soccer fever will die down.
Sigh. What a disappointment. Not because Australia lost or anything (I don't really care for Italy or Australia; got better teams to support =P), but I was really hoping for the game to go into overtime, and maybe even end in a penalty shootout. Anything, except for this kind of a dubious end, especially in the dying seconds of injury time. You probably can't get more controversial than that! Some fans will argue that it was justified; some will continue to criticize and lash out at the referee's decision; there will be no end to this debate.
Seriously, Australia may have made it this far by "luck" or whatever you guys may call it. I personally thought they played rather well - they exceeded most people's expectations, and despite the sceptism and criticism, made it up to this stage; although I was expecting them to be kicked out sooner or later anyway. But they did not deserve to go out this way.
Definitely not this way.
Btw, I've been using the word "soccer", mainly 'cause the term "football" has very different connotations here in Australia, where it is taken to refer to Aussie Rules, which is something like rugby, and they call it 'footie' as well here... I think. =P Someone correct me if I'm wrong. It's quite a craze here in Melbourne, and even back in Perth.
Italy 1 Australia 0
Italy were the favourites to win, with Australia coming in as the underdogs.
Was hoping for an upset; it would have been great to go through the city and see the place in a state of euphoria. It's just the whole atmosphere thing, you know? Ah, should have gone to Lygon Street to watch the match instead; then can celebrate in full mode with the Italian fans. Wish I had a camera! Walking back, I took the Lygon Street route, and it was utter chaos; the police blocked off entrance into Lygon Street, and the roads were filled with bottles and rubbish everywhere. I think they were probably preventing a riot from occurring. Fed Square didn't quite have that football frenzy atmosphere I was expecting; on the contrary, it was quite distracting, with some people just wanting to cause disturbances. At the end of the match, some people even threw flares (even though it was banned) and bottles at the screen (probably out of frustration) after Totti scored the controversial (?) penalty kick.
I thought Australia played well, and almost matched the Italians evenly, but as a friend put it, their "finishing is just crap". Anyhow, Italy have been, after all, three-time world champions. But guess it's really a matter of opinion as well; we're all biased by nature (no one can truly be objective and impersonal), and I admit I'm biased, and that's only because I'm in Australia now. Heh.
Refereeing has been one of the biggest issues at this World Cup so far, and this match was no exception. That penalty kick was rather/very/extremely controversial, and will probably generate many arguments or discussions in the days to come; I'm not knowledgeable enough to comment on it, and I shan't bother. =P
Overall, it wasn't a spectacular match - I've seen better ones, but oh well, that's soccer for you. Life goes on; Australia will probably go through some days of misery and heartbreak. But give it some time, and the soccer fever will die down.
Sigh. What a disappointment. Not because Australia lost or anything (I don't really care for Italy or Australia; got better teams to support =P), but I was really hoping for the game to go into overtime, and maybe even end in a penalty shootout. Anything, except for this kind of a dubious end, especially in the dying seconds of injury time. You probably can't get more controversial than that! Some fans will argue that it was justified; some will continue to criticize and lash out at the referee's decision; there will be no end to this debate.
Seriously, Australia may have made it this far by "luck" or whatever you guys may call it. I personally thought they played rather well - they exceeded most people's expectations, and despite the sceptism and criticism, made it up to this stage; although I was expecting them to be kicked out sooner or later anyway. But they did not deserve to go out this way.
Definitely not this way.
Btw, I've been using the word "soccer", mainly 'cause the term "football" has very different connotations here in Australia, where it is taken to refer to Aussie Rules, which is something like rugby, and they call it 'footie' as well here... I think. =P Someone correct me if I'm wrong. It's quite a craze here in Melbourne, and even back in Perth.
No comments:
Post a Comment