World Cup 22/06/06

The Czech Republic vs Italy match was a battle of the midfield. The first half saw the Czech Republic push forward, and the Italians lost Nesta on injury before the 20th minute. Just at half time the sending off of a Czech player for a tackle seemed to rattle them, and they lost steam in the second half just as the Italian midfield tightened up. There was not a single defender to be seen when Inzaghi scored the second Italian goal to guarantee Italy through to the next round.

The Hydro was off here during the Ghana vs USA match, so I didn’t get to see the whole 90 minutes of play. The first goal by Ghana was a lovely one, but the penalty kick at half time to put them up 2:1 over the USA seemed a bit of a harsh call.

I expected Brazil to dominate the match against Japan. The Japanese goal was a nice one, but then they allowed the Brazilians through to score 4 goals. And Ronaldo finally scored his first goals of this World Cup.

The Croatia vs Australia match was rife with drama. I was hoping the Australians would dazzle us with their skills. But the replacement Aussie keeper let in the first Croatian goal within the first few minutes of the game, and I just knew this was going to be a hellish game for me to watch. A penalty kick for hand ball resulted in the Aussies tying up the match before half time. Moore put that one straight down the centre! Not too far into the second half the Aussie keeper fumbled and let in a second goal, but, with a little more than 10 minutes of regular time left, Kewell scored to make it 2:2. Then insanity reined supreme and even the British ref Graham Poll just about lost control of the match. At one point there were two balls on the pitch at the same time, a ball that clearly crossed the line was ruled out as an Australian goal, and a series of bad tackles in the final minutes saw 2 Croatians and one Aussie being sent off after they received second yellow cards.