If Italy is so good, how come they couldn't beat the United States with a man advantage for half the game?

1. Italy is a less performing team against weaker opponents. This is an Italian issue, both in National and Club teams.

Let's have numbers speak instead of opinions.

Coach Lippi first match was lost 2-0 against ICELAND (!) on 18 Aug 2004. Another lost in WC preliminaries was its 4th match, 1-0 SLOVENIA (!).

Then, he had a strip of next 25 match without a lost one.

Total 29, 17 win, 10 draw, 2 lost. Besides WC, the best Lippi's match were Holland 3-1 on November 2005 and an impressive Germany 4-1 on March 2006.

What does it mean? It could be self confident attitude as well as lack of willingness and focusing.

2. Of course, a FIFA WC must be an error-free tournament to those who hope to win. ITA-USA match starts when GHA-CZE was ended with Ghana's win. This means Italy needs win; a draw or lost match would have the consequence of a next death match against feared Czech. I agree with Alvin Corneal of FIFA TSG (linked) "Italy, in contrast, looked nervous and inhibited"

because:

i) It was a must-win match, due to GHA-CZE result

ii) Italy has poor performance against lesser opponent. In Italy USA was rated as the weaker group team (sorry, I agree).

iii) Italy was playing WC with a never seen before crowd, press and network pressure, due to football scandal. Before tournament starts many people and columnists said Lippi, Buffon, captain Cannavaro weren't worthy enough to play in Italy.

Host manager Beckenbauer said "Italy will fully pay its scandal in this WC".

3. Resuming Corneal quotes, "but (Italy) showed all of their guile and killer instinct in the 22nd minute to take a 1-0 lead with their first real sight of goal", a fair way to say they were lucky.. " The Azzurri were slowly beginning to take a stranglehold on the game when Cristian Zaccardo’s own goal gave the USA a fortuitous equaliser".. again a lucky affair.. but this one was a shock! As above, they were too nervous... and the next foul by De Rossi showed was going on. "When Daniele De Rossi was dismissed, Italy were intelligent enough to take the pace out of the game and deny their opponents any chances on goal" now I disagree, I can't spot it out as a willing tactic, but I guess they're unable to react. Too shocked. They could easily fail the match, when USA paired the dismissal, and this saved Italy. Shock remains and they had an unimpressive second half, with few scoring opportunities.

4. Anyway, stats say Italy had 10 shoots / 3 on goal, USA 8/0 (so the question could be switched in "how come you could score a goal never shooting on goal ;-)), 11 offsides against 1, and Kasey Keller was the man of the match.

**Finally, AUS was another failed match. Italy - as USA - played a full half outnumbered, and the final stats are however on Italian side. With France it was a draw, no doubt at all. Simply, we won WC at penalties..

1) Italy spotted the U.S a goal! Italy scored on their own goal. Actually the score was a 1-0 Italy win. Plus Italy had a bad day it's that simple.

How come Italy beat the Chech's and Ghana when the U.S.A couldn't?

2) In the Italy/Australia game the Italians didn't have their best player, Nesta! Plus like i said before it was a good call by the ref on that penaly kick. On the play leading up to the penalty two Australians were faked right out of their shoes by Italy's Grosso. One of the "faked out" Australians fell in front of Grosso causing the foul. It was a good call! Don't forget how Luca Toni almost scored 3 or 4 times in the first half alone! Australia played there best game that day and Italy played there worst yet the latter still won with 10 men! Australia were up a man for 40 minutes yet couldn't score.

3)Actually Italy beat France 2-1. Because Luca Toni's goal was taken away from a bad offsides call. He was clearly not offsides! You could even say Italy won 2-0. That was a dive from the France player that lead to that penalty kick which Zidane barely made. Don't forget that Italy almost scored several times in the first half! Italy sat back in the second half because they were tired from the long German/Italian game.

Well, to tell you the truth, the only reason Italy got to the final 8 is because they played against crappy teams like USA, Ghana, and Ukraine. When they got to the final 16, they had to cheat at the end of the game just to beat Australia. Italy should have been out right there and then. Then when they get to the final four, they finally play a good team, Germany, but get some last minute luck and don't forget how they got Frings suspended, too, so there they go using their dirty cheat tactics to win, then against France, they did the same thing, France, like Germany, played better than Italy the ENTIRE game, then at the end, it goes to penalties, and they get lucky that Trezeguet's kick hit the post. So Italy didn't deserve to win this World Cup at all. Sure they played better than USA and Ukraine, but they played like **** against the great teams, they cheated from the beginning, and that's how they won. Cheating and luck, that's just the truth. Germany and France just got very unlucky, unfortunately.

As an aussie and an italian, I have a feeling that I may just be drawing fire :-)

Italy did what it needed to do to win the group. The team played weakly in the group stages but managed to win the group without a string of suspensions. Italy dod not tend to waste effort (Brazil will keep attacking and smash a team 5-nil but Italy are happy with 2-nil. Different approach and style)

It started coming good after the game against Australia- I will not comment about the game against Australia because I am too biased :-)

It had the depth of players to spread the yellow cards between a large number of player and arrived at the business end of the cup with few key players missing and won.

The world cup is a series of games not just one - the team must survive with the players to play its best in the final. Australia may be able to win against much fancied teams (such as Italy) on a one-off basis (and some luck) but 6 games it different - we do not have the depth of players to win the WC.

Italy is the World Campion not necessarily the best team. It played the series of games the best.

Well I sort of think what De Rossi did could be considered a little more than rough. So that argument defeats itself. This is something I have wondered too. Not running anyone down but many did say that Australia failed because they should have scored with a man advantage. Maybe that is true but the fact still remains that Italy were in the same position and failed to capitalise on that also.

and spud...not everyone that posts a positve or supportive post in relation to Australia is an Aussie. Perhaps they just happened to make a few new friends and MAYBE they have a different opinion to you.

man... the teams that italy played against through all the tournament are weak... at first Ghana...then USA.... then Czech...they are good but don't forget that they were in extreme pain after loosing to Ghana... After that Italy qualified and played with Australia...Australia played better although it ranks 33.. then comes Ukraine... they dont know how to touch a ball... know that Ukraine ranks 15, but doesnt worth... then comes Germany.. from here starts the good teams.. won by mistake...then comes france and win by mistake also...

all in all... i think that Italy doesnt worth to hold the cup...

"santosh s"you dont know shi*t!!!!!!!! about FOOTBALL if you dont play Rough and Tough than your team or you are/is gonna be the shi*itest one you have to have Skill Heart,Determination and be ROUGH in order to play the game. Your goal when you play a soccer game is to DOMINATE the other team and give it all you got, with out being ROUGH or AGGRESIVE during a game your just gonna be put to shame and never make plays or goals and that why the US tied because they didnt want to loose. soccer isnt the most famous sport in the U.S., so they should the europeans how well they play football and what there skill are like and not to underestimate them. even tho i dont support the US natoinal team thats the Truth.

ANd DE rossi his foul was ROUGH a lil too rough because he ddint do it on accident.

Because the Italians were lucky not to loose the game, and for those who claiemd rugby, what about the De Rossi foul?

The other games were all fixed, and their best performer was referee Medina Cantalejo

I'm not an Italian fan but I can tell you one thing:anytime a small team can beat a better team.For example 3 years ago an amateur team from Belgium beat Club Brugge.

Doesn't matter that they didn't beat the US. They still won the world cup didn't they. At the end of the day that's all that matters, not how they did it.

Also a message for the Aussie's. Stop winging!