Italy v Paraguay Tues 15 6.30am

Reynald Temarii clocks in with an insightful first post

Bien venue!

From Antarctica?

It's only just climbed to 5 degs here in Sydney & I'm rugged up so yes I imagine Antarctica must be feeling a bit nippy.Traitor2010-06-15 09:17:05

Well, I was hoping for a Paraguay win, not sure a draw does anything good for the All Whites.

I'm not yet convinced that the Italians have it in them to score a lot of goals in the group stages, I think the All Whites and Slovakia could well pressure them into mistakes.

Remember, defending champions, and aging captain, and under pressure to win; a defensive minded team doesn't do well scoring goals... so if they have to turn around and open their game plan to attack, that leaves opportunities for their opponents.

I think Paraguay and NZ through to 2nd round Ard Righ2010-06-15 09:18:42

As the pressure & criticisms begin to mount from back home Italy will just get better & better.

Optimism! 

Italy never fire up, they are more a 'just enough' side.  It's why i'm not too concerned about them really hammering us.  Unlike Paraguay.

Bloody hell, if our supporters' hopes were pinned on the idea that hopefully our game would mean nothing so the good teams would take mercy on us, then we really don't believe in the lads to get any kind of result on their own merits, do we?

As a sidenote, there's very low expectations of this Italian side back in Italy.

exactly-well put. Our first Wordl Cup in doinkeys and we should allow ourselves the freedom to believe.

Such dour, protestant 'realism' belongs in the silent stands of rugbydom
Fire up NZ!

we did a not spectacular match...as ususual ... as i said before, we have great problems at midfield... and Lippi renounced to some talentuous strikers, he preferred the historical group from juventus...who had a terrible year.

buffon had problems at the back... he often had these problems...

someone said that we dived... frankly, i didn't see all these dives...from this point of view it was a normal match...few faults...only 2 bad from paraguay and 1 from italy

there is not great expectation here in italy, nobody is surprised by this draw...and the team is not under pressure... Lippi is trying to put the team under pressure! he wants the pressure to wake up them!

nothing is changed for us after this draw... we need a victory against NZ... this doesn't mean that we will win... simply our tactics doesn't change.

cold blood! 

Nothing wrong with the header - there are different heading techniques depending on what you want and are able to do.

I thought he did a very good job - gave Buffon no chance.

Man, thats a bad dive

i think that there is a preconception.
in germany-australia, 2 germans received a yellow card for real simulations, but nobody said nothing...instead italians "have this in their dna"...mmm...ok...

thats the forum equivalent of a dive- a light brush on the ankle and he's over

i disagree.... but i like this reply

Glad you have a sense of humour!

I noticed the dives in Germany-Aus game- i thought that was very good refereeing to card them
well done that ref!

Every team dives to be fair - I've even seen Fallon go down a bit easily at times

Dive or just "pulling up"?

Where is the security at the stadium if a sniper was able to make it into the crowd :

Based on the Italian goal the Paraguay keeper looks a bit sus with crosses. Lets hope we get down that end and pump them over for Fallon et al.

Funnily enough, that was the only mix-up in the air he had - he was actually quite dominant in claiming crosses throughout the game (and much more difficult to claim than the one he missed).

Keeper cock-ups have become a feature of the tournament. Makes you wonder whether at some subconscious level all this talk about the new ball hasn't led them to psyche themselves out to a degree.