Moving on from the previous match which had little or no controversy and drama if there was any, now it's time for the ultimate David vs Goliath match so far. Alright, not many people support Italy (even some Italian guys that I know of support countries such as Spain). To be frank, I am also not a fan of Italy, no, not the food, not the country, not the team, but the selection policy of Marcelo Lippi. Alright, he has contributed a hell lot for Italian football, culminating in his World Cup victory in 2006. However, I am not a big fan of the way he has been selecting the players for gli Azzuri. Besides preferring to choose players who are 30 and older, he also chooses players on a like and dislike basis at a very personal level such that he refuses to call up absolutely able players such as Antonio Cassano and Fabrizio Miccoli just to name two just because he does not like them. But nevertheless, Italy is a very big name in the footballing universe, the defending champions in this World Cup, and thus they are the Goliath. Meanwhile, New Zealand is much more known for the All Blacks than the All Whites who are in the World Cup finals arguably because of Australia decided that the AFC (Asian Football Confederation) is a greener pasture for them. This is their first appearance in World Cup finals since their maiden appearance in 1982 and they have just collected their first point, along with the first goal in the previous match against Slovakia. To cut the long story short, they are the David.
On paper, this match was a shoe-in for Italy's obvious victory. Prior to the match, I was able to see many people dishing out bold predictions to the tune of 5-0 to Italy, which also happened prior to the match between Germany vs Serbia not so long ago, and we know how that match turned out. Thus, I wasn't drawn into that false image of a football game seemingly being concluded on paper and I knew something great is going to happen. Besides, just smarting from the lack of drama and controversy from the Slovakia vs Paraguay match, I was longing for more drama, more surprises, more controversy. Besides, I won't be ashamed to admit that I am pretty much an underdog guy, so yeah. Basically, I got everything that I wished for prior to the match, and the match turned out to be one hell of a complete package of whatever I had wished for as mentioned.
The match started with a surprise, the first thing that I wished for. New Zealand scored after only 6 minutes through their best attacking player Shane Smeltz, albeit a controversial one as he was in an offside position when he latched on to a lobbing free kick. Italy, who had started the match like someone who is jarred from a very deep REM sleep, suddenly felt a sense of urgency and started to dominate the match. However, another controversy as from here on (although the second half is not as bad as the first), the Italian players seem to fall down rather “very very easily” with the slightest of nudges bringing them down onto the pitch. Even if they have fouled an NZ player, they would just tumble down themselves to give the illusion that it was not a foul, but a crashing incident. At the 27th minute, Italy got what they want after Daniele de Rossi fell down quite easily in the penalty area, taking advantage of the fact that his shirt was grabbed moments earlier and V. Iaquinta equalized from the resulting penalty shot.
Besides both goals of the match, the first half also saw some incidents relating to the debates that have been raging about the Jabulani match ball. The first incident was when during Riccardo Montolivo's completely missed long range shot, the ball suddenly swerved wickedly mid flight and managed to clip the post, nearly entering the net. Another one was at the 45th minute, when de Rossi's long shot changed direction wickedly in mid air, and the NZ goalkeeper Mark Paston spilled it when he tried to parry it.
The second half also had its fair share of drama especially in the latter part of the game. Throughout this half, Italy also continued to dominate the game and threatened the New Zealand goal but they were not able to find a way through to score the winning goal mainly because of the great performance by the Kiwis' goalkeeper Mark Paston who made marvelous saves to deny Italy. He's my personal choice for the man of the match for this game. New Zealand also gathered confidence little by little as time passed and they even came close through substitute C. Wood at the 82nd minute, which would be a historical day for New Zealand as a whole if that goal had gone in! As an underdog guy, the last 10 minutes of the game (ie. From 85th minute all the way to the end of the 4 minutes injury time) seemed to have been an eternity and also a passionate period of time such that just like during the first NZ game against Slovakia, I felt like what a New Zealander would have felt during the aforementioned 10 minutes period. Ultimately, New Zealand held on despite memories from a certain Man Utd 4-3 Man City match last season started to haunt me but ultimately, that kind of silly capitulation didn't happen to the Kiwis despite the referee prolonged the injury time for a bit at the end of the 94th minute. Truly a historical day for the Kiwis as they managed to hold the defending champions of the World Cup 1-1 and they managed to match the Italians in all departments as they even came close to winning this one to boot!
New Zealand could etch even more history and spring even more surprises by qualifying to the last 16 by defeating Paraguay, as unlikely as it sounds, but don't write off the Kiwis just yet before the final whistle of that match has been blown. As for Italy, this draw is not as fatal as it seems (as far as their World Cup chances is concerned) as they only need to win against Slovakia in their final game in Group F regardless of what happens in the New Zealand match. In any case, just for this night at least, the All Whites of New Zealand have stolen the good spotlights from their more illustrious All Blacks rugby team counterpart!
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