ok guys what about moving on now? i didn't meant to start a drama, neither i felt offended by jack in any way. there is a treshold between (strongly) disagreeing and getting offended.
as i already wrote this episode won't make me change my (good) opinion about jack.
scotland wasn't robbed at all. and we also have to point out that no scottish fan is saying it actually.
Jambotommy just showed us what fair play means, by congratulating to the winners, despite the terrific game ending (congrats to u mate :applause: it would be nice to hear your views about the match 
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another ref maybe wouldn't have done the mistake gonzales did by reversing that foul at the end of the match......... but probably he wouldn't have done the other mistakes even (wich means that the match would have ended 0-2)..... or maybe he could have done some other wrong calls or misinterpretations which would have effected the game eitherway.
each country in europe has his own refereeing style.... and even if we consider the refs of one country, well they still have their own differences, talking about their refereeing style, theyr approach to the game, their respect for the flow of the game, their ego (some refs like to be the main actors in the scene).....
there's just one thing they have in common; they all do mistakes, wich is pretty obvious.
but refs mistakes are part of the game and they must be accepted, exactly as the players mistakes (tackles missed, wrong passes, fouls...).
mejuto gonzales strongly influenced the game yesterday with his calls, but in the end he didn't effect the result as (as all of u are saying) the better team on the pitch won.
end of the story.
moving to more interesting things...
Cloud said:
By no way did Italy control the match and to be fair both teams had chances....
i was quite worried about this game honestly. scotland are a good team, in the last 15 years they made some huuuge steps foward, talking about the players technical abilities and their tactical imprint became much more "sophisticated".
10 years ago scottish clubs realised that they had not enough money to fullfill their desires on the market, so they became much more "penny-wise" talking about buyng foreign players and, most important, they started focusing their attention to their youth schools (just take a look at celtic and rangers youth teams)
nowadays they're reaping the fruits of their own work, and, as i already wrote, is not a coincidence if in the last year, scotland achieved those great results.
a very wise aspect in macleish's national team is that they play "their football". they do what they know how to do.... and they do it fucking well; a containing (and smart, with barry) midfield and flying fullbacks on the sides. they have a more than good keeper and i striker i really love (miller).
italy always suffers highly paced teams, and theese guys have a terrific pace and a striker who flies like a bee along the entire offensive line (miller..thank god he almost didn't play yesterday).
moreover they were playing one of the most important matches of their history, on their own turf, supported and (litterally) "lifted" by an amazing crowd.
so u will understand why i was really worried about the result. i thought we would have suffered their rhythm for the whole game. i thought scotland fullbacks could overwhelm our 3 men midfield, and i was sure it would have been a tough day for our cbs........
instead gattuso, pirlo and ambro were just awesome. they partecièated to both phases of the game (disrupting the opponents plays and producing football) with an outstanding coolness.... even pirlo was awesome in covering, wich is something u wouldn't expect from him. they didn't look scared by the atmospehere at all, and that's something that really surprised me.
barzagli finally showed what he always shows when he plays for palermo... in the past italy matches he always looked a bit too overwrought by wearing the national jersey (or by the international scenario, i don't know) and he did never expressed his real ability. yesterday he was just monumental.
scotland was the team wich HAD to win. they were playing at their own home and they had to dictate the tempo of the game....... but they clearely didn't as italy was really calm and cool on the pitch. the azzurri hid the ball to scottish with a wise passing game, and they didn't try to play scottish footie (wich would have been a suicide move).
in the first 15 mins scotland looked pretty confused by italy's passing game and they didn't even try to press us (which really surprised me).... this allowed us to keep the ball in their own midfield with no pressure... and this brought us to create 3 easy scoring chances (the first one was toni's goal).
after the first 15 mins scotland shacked the fear away and started playing their football, but still italy didn't collapsed, trying to follow the scots pace, as we calmly distributed the ball (at the end of the first half italy had 52% of possession, wich is pretty unusual as italy is not a teams that holds the ball for much time).
in the first half scotland's only scoring chances were born from corner kicks, wich tells a lot.... we almost kept them harmless.
even after our goal we didn't sit down, but we kept holding the ball to avoid the scots dictating the tempo of the game.
at the beginning of the second half the story didn't change. italy was controlling the game (by saying "controlling" i don't mean to say they dominated the game, Cloud. i mean to say they contained the scots... they ...."controlled" them :mrgreen
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but after the first 20 minutes of the game the situation started to change. the italians started to feel heavy on their legs. they started to feel tired. if any of u guys ever played on a wet pitch, u will know it's fucking tiring.... after 60minutes it becomes hard even staying on your foots (and moreover a technically sophisticated team as italy suffer a wet and fast pitch much more than a team like scotland)..... if u're not used to theese kind of pitches, it becomes really hard to play for 90 minutes.
another thing: i guess our players started also to feel worried about a scottish goal during the end of the match.... and this kind of worries can litterally freeze your legs.
the scottish instead weren't tired at all... actually i'd say they felt italy was lowering its guard, and gained courage.
the situation became every minute worse, and from the 75th min on, italy almost disappeared from the pitch and had a lot of work in trying to contain the scottish pressure.
waiting for some scottish opinions now
p.s.
Cloud said:
your appreciation is something i can just be happy about, as i always like to read your posts, mate
i also would like to thank Vanzandt for expressing my views in a (much) better way. sometimes it gets hard to articulate your points in a a foreign language
and thats probably the reason of this silly drama. once again i wasn't offended at all by jack's words, neither i would ever think he's racist just coz he used a silly generalisation for once.... me too, i sometimes apply racists\discriminating logics to my arguments, but this doesn't make me a racist at all. and i'm glad when someone helps me realizing it.
so there's no problem at all, jack (at least for me). as i already wrote, i decided to reply just cos i have a very good opinion about u. if anybody else would have written that post, i would have just ignored it (as i often do:mrgreen
:cheers:
