be happy Belgium recieved a GIFT goal.

Moron, go lose to Nigeria 4-1 again.

I was deadset against video replay in football, but after the last 2 years, I think that the positives outweigh the negatives. Some people didn’t like the idea of retroactively punishing divers/people-who-go-uncarded but in general it seems to have gone well. Given the awful refereeing I’ve witnessed recently in Juventus Stagione 2007-2008, Euro2008, and this unbelievably incompetently adjudicated game, I think it’s time. That, or Platini’s 5 referee plan needs to be implemented fast.

Did you even WATCH the game? This is exactly why it’s impossible to talk with you about stuff like this: you thrive on controversy, and by some obscure mechanism (which I have yet to figure out) your “jackass” button turns on whenever someone mentions anything that even remotely does not agree with you. There are forums for that, where you and another 1000 idiots can go back and forth saying “it was a penalty” or “no it wasn’t”.

At the very least here, I would have expected you to READ what I wrote.

I *specifically* said I wasn’t going to use the conspiracy theory card, yet somehow that registered differently in your head. No one here is lecturing anyone on sportsmanship, just making statements of fact on the refereeing: Belgium’s first goal was not a goal, Italy were denied two penalty shots in the second half. Period.

You can go on and blabber all you want about who deserved to win more, that is absolutely irrelevant. We are not living in some kind of cosmic soccer equilibrium where the wrongs are righted with the “good” team winning it in the end. This is real life. People make mistakes. Intelligent people notice those mistakes. Idiots prefer to talk about “crybabies”. Your call.

When will Italians stop complaining and finding excuses for their own losses? When will they recognize the merits of their opponents (Belgium played with so much more heart and determination than Italy)?

Will these crybabies someday be able to say “well done mate, you were better” instead of lambasting the ref time and time again?

Will they someday refrain from lecturing other people about sportsmanship when they have consistently demonstrated that they were not really in a position to do so? Read Italy 0-0 Cameroon and the ridiculous way both teams refused to play given that they both qualified with a draw. Read Italy 1-1 Mexico in WC 2002.

I guess we can all dream, can’t we?