Blame that penalty on the wind: Del Piero

Spot on Tim. Exactly right. For the record I was supporting Australia. I switched to Italy only after the Aussie's were eliminated.

Hehe no worries mate.

Sorry Tim...Thought you were someone else for a second.

I think, overall, we agree Titus.

I mention before earlier in this post that Neill was guilty of unfairly obstructing grosso Neill fall down in the box and Grosso run into him (which is within his rights). It is barely consider a tackle of a deliberate tripping of a person. However according the rules the offense of obstruction or/ impedes the progress of an opponent is an indirect free kick Therefore it should have been an indirect free kick in the box not a penalty

That's your opinion. And you're entitled to it.

I think Hiddink thought that with the extra man specifically playing his 3-6-1 that they would tire alot more quickly through their midfield, given that we were one of the more athletic squads in the tournament. We should have reverted to a formation using wingers and full backs explicity and tried to expose them down their flanks and beat their defensive line with width, stretching their defense rather than attempting by brute force to tire them out through possession in central areas. They comfortably sat back for 30 odd minutes and it was us who tired and lapsed at the end by continually trying to find gaps against an incredibly well organised defensive unit whose main areas of containment have always focused on central areas. Hiddink compounded this error in tactical judgement by taking off Sterjovski (who was playing a widish wing forward type role, a role which also had in effect pinned Grosso further up the pitch) for Aloisi, an out and out striker. Had Sterjovski stayed on, or a like for like substitution occurred, Grosso wouldn't have had the freedom of the entire flank to maraud forward on that fateful attack unopposed until the final third, Bresciano being his only opponent. Australia's formation after that substitution was left unbalanced, the right wing effectively surrended to strengthen an area where we weren't really threatening from to begin with as the ball wasn't getting through to the striker in any real danger areas anyway. The blame therefore in my opinion lies in the following in order: 1. Hiddink for not reacting to the man advantage in an offensive capacity. 2. Hiddink eventually reacting wrongly by taking off a widish player for an out and out striker, exposing the flank which was ultimately the area of the final attack which led to the goal. 3. Neill for going to ground in his own box without any realistic attempt at winning the ball. 4. Bresciano for not committing the professional foul on Grosso near the corner. 5. The ref for giving a penalty on a 50/50 in the 93rd minute of a World Cup round of 16 game.

the penalty never needed justification. neill fell in front of a player in the box who fell over him penalty. lucas neill's fault. australia's fault. its only the australian 'we was robbed and never lose to no-one' card that is played that portrayed it as same monumental decision that was intentionally awarded against our little country that robbed us of winning the 2006 world cup routine. IMO its still heartbreaking, still devastating. it was time to move on years ago.

+1

I'm over this, and wasn't going to comment until I saw some of the comments in this thread trying to justify the decision. Let's be clear here guys. Yes, Grosso made mince meat of Besciano, but that doesn't make it a penalty. Yes, it was stupid of Neill to go to the ground in the box. But that also doesn't make it a penalty. Yes they were down to 10 men for a decent chunk of the match, and we failed to capitalise.... still doesn't make it a penalty! The reality is this - could it have been called as a penalty? Answer is yes. Some refs, on some ocassions would call that a penalty. Should it have been called a penalty? Answer is probably not. Most refs, on most ocassions, probably wouldn't call it. But that's how the cookie crumbles, and as Del Piero said, everything went right for Italy that world cup. Also, well handled by Del Piero. I'm very impressed.

Exactly Colin. My immediate reaction was F**k!! We had a chance to take it to them and we chickened out. What was Guus thinking? Play for penalties from the 45. minute onward? Now that's what you get in the end. The penalty? pfff...yes it stung for a little while but I got over it pretty quickly.

That planted the seed of doubt in Hiddink's head. And then against Croatia we get Kalamity Kalac! Sorry Spider, great career, great bloke...but your match against Croatia was a shocker of the highest order.

We all gotta grow up some day.

Isn't it interesting that we've spent 6 years talking about THAT penalty which has completely overshadowed how embarassingly bad we played that much against 10 men and how poorly coached we were (no real attacking plan or substitutions when needed). Did I just say that? Poorly coached? Absolutely!! Guus Hiddink messed up big time in this one and he can thank his lucky stars for that penalty otherwise there would have been a great deal more attention on him if it had been a goal out of open play in the 93. minute.

My abiding memory of that match was Australia not going for the win after Italy went down to 10 men. Italy, as expected sat back and invited Australia on to them, but they went forward rather tentatively. So, considering the opportunity was open to them, Australia didn't grab it and, in the end, were punished for not grasping at the chance of moving into the quarters

I will say though that Neill definitely impeded and obstruct Grosso However, the penalty for obstruction is.... indirect free kick inside the box. Direct free kick/penalty shouldn't be given for obstruction. His act of falling down didn't make contact with him. The contact came because Grosso ran into him because Neill unfairly impeded his path. In any case I'm not going to say we were rob because it was one of the decisions where it look like a penalty in real time. I also don't hold any grudge to grosso because Neil was impeding him and he shouldn't had to dribble around him when Neil was blocking the path to the goal as it would put his team in a disadvantage. Also there's no reason to think that Italy couldn't have scored from an indirect free kick in the box however I will say that australia was slightly unlucky with the penalty though

Yeah but for how much longer will he? He's the sort of person I believe who'll say with kindness to move on rather than storm outing a huff but I bet there are some journalists waiting to ask the question, again.

My recollection of what Hiddink said in a post-match interview was that we just basically didn't have the the skills as a football nation to break down Italy's defence. He was right. We never looked like being that creative in breaking them down at all over 120 minutes let alone 90 - not to forget how good Italy is at defence. Grosso might have milked it, but Neill offered him the opportunity to do so on a platter. Probably Neill's one and only mistake of the tournament. But in any case someone's asked the question now, let's not have every journalist in the country ask the same question again. Don't know about Del Piero but I'm already sick of it being brought up at every conference already and he hasn't even been here a week.

Yeah its a 50/50 call but for me its bad keeping more than anything,you expect your keeper to come out and annihilate anything in his path in that situation.They've been given as fouls on the keeper on more than one occasion though.

As I recall Emerton was suspended for the game against Italy, so the goal would not have counted had he scored.