Curious

[fpb]

My LJ entry last night was written from the heart, as soon as Totti had scored and almost before the game was actually over. Then I listened to two separate teams of English commentators, neither of them with any sympathy for Italy (any time Italy win a soccer match, two English journalists get nosebleeds) and at least one of them shamefully pro-Australian; they agreed that the penalty was right, that the Australian player had flung himself into the Italian's so as to force him down whatever he did. The opinion of Alan Shearer, former England captain and one of the finest goalscorers England ever produced, was particularly strong in this regard: if that had happened to him, he implied, he would have expected to get a penalty and regarded himself as cheated if he did not.

Now I have been reading the Italian commentators. They all seem to agree with me that the penalty was "soft", "generous", even dubious. So: all of us, glad though we are to be through, seem to worry about the legitimacy of the penalty; while all the English commentators I heard, rabidly jealous of Italy though they may be, odiously partisan and biased, agree that the penalty was there. I'm not saying that you could not find, in both countries, people who disagree; but that seems to me to be the atmosphere. So, who's right?

Comments

[privatemaladict.livejournal.com]

Hey, what's so shameful about being pro-Australian? :)

Well, I have no idea who's right. Everyone around here seems to feel that the penalty was not legitimate, but that Italy had been treated somewhat unfairly earlier in the game, and did deserve to win.

Perhaps the British are just relieved they don't have to play Australia? ;)

[fpb.livejournal.com]

There is nothing wrong about being pro-Australian as long as it is not because you are grotesquely prejudiced against the opponent. The English sports press is the final hiding place of all the odious prejudices and attitudes that have been driven out of the rest of the country's life; witness how hard they have worked to destroy the career of England coach Sven Goran Eriksson, merely because he was not English, and how they mounted an assault on the great Felipe Scolari, when he was mentioned as a possible future choice, merely because he was not English either. As for Italy, well, we just make them sick. Nobody can honestly hate Brazil, not only because they are too much better than anyone, but because they always look like they have such fun playing; and as for Germany, the English cope by imagining that they have a rivalry going with them - a rivalry on their side alone. But they simply cannot forgive Italy for having more success than themselves. As I said, any time that Italy win a football match, English journalists get nosebleeds. And Australia speaks English, not some funny foreign lingo.

[lyssiae.livejournal.com]

The Dutch commentators I was listening to also said that it wasn't a well-given penalty as Australian chap was already lying on the ground when Italian chap fell over him. Personally I'm of the opinion that Italian chap should have picked his feet up.

But I was supporting Australia in that the boyfriend of a good friend of mine - and with whom I was watching the game - was born in Australia. Thus I'm far from unbiased.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

"Picking up your feet" while in full run and having to overcome a large human body flung in your way, is a rather ambitious suggestion. Perhaps you mean "jump as high as he can and hope that your feet don't get entangled anyway". The issue was not whether the guy was in the way - he was - but whether this was grounds for a penalty kick.

[fishity.livejournal.com]

I don't know what to make of it either. The commentaries I heard or read have been very diverse...from "giving the penalty was absolutely justifiable" over "what was the Australian player supposed to do - dissolve into thin air to avoid the collision?" to "the referee made Italy a present".