Italy Survives

Hoisting its fourth World Cup, Italy survives France 5-3 in penalties after a 120-minute 1-1 draw. And I mean survives. France dominated play the final 45 minutes of regular time and for the first 20 of overtime. Even having Thierry Henry subbed off three minutes into the second OT period and then losing Zidane to the most bizarre red card (and most clearly deserved) three minutes later, France remained more of a threat than Italy. In fact, Italy rarely challenged the French defense, keeping 7-8 players back no more than 20-25 yards from their defensive goal for much of the OT period. It seemed less about playing for penalties than simply being completely drained: Italy was playing its second 120 minute game in four days.

What to day about this picture? Look at yesterday's post. The saying is that a picture is worth a thousand words. This picture and the ones posted yesterday bring stunned silence. Today's papers offer no explanation. Zidane hasn't spoken to the press since the Cup began. What could he say? What could Marco Materazzi have said or done to have warranted such a reaction? I once had a 16-year-old boy tell me he pushed his opponent because the other guy said something that required him to defend his honor. You expect overreaction and dumb behavior from a 16-year-old. Zidane doesn't have that excuse.

But nothing should be allowed to tarnish Italy's overall performance. The team's defense lived up to its reputation: no goals scored against it in the run of play, one on an own goal and one on a PK. But it was more of a bend, not break defense: Buffon led the tournament with 27 saves (by contrast, Barthez made only 14 saves in 7 games). But he rose to every occasion, here nudging Zidane's late header over the cross-bar.

One final note on the officiating over the past several games. Hector Elizondo, yesterday's ref, did a superb job, as did the refs in most of the knock-out games. He had great field presence, was remarkably fit -- covering as much ground as any of the players (without the option that field players have of conserving energy when necessary). While some will dispute the PK in the 7th minute and question whether he should have awarded a second to France in the 53rd, I think both were strong decisions, easily defended. (The difference between the penalty called and the noncall, it seems to me -- and I'll need to review the second incident -- is that in the first incident, Malouda took the ball and was splitting two defenders, moving towards the goal with ball still within playing distance, when the trailing defender clipped his heels. In the second incident, Malouda was running to the left of the goal, pretty deep, and the ball was going away from him and into touch. I don't think he would have had a chance to play the ball before it went out of play had he stayed upright. Elizondo also seemed to have a pretty strict standard when it came to player falls, being particularly wary of flopping.)

So that's all from me for now. What do you think??