By MSN’s Matt Ball
Last updated June 18 2006
Day nine: three matches – Italy and the US play out a bloody and feisty draw. Wins for Ghana and Portugal.
Three sent off as Italy and the US fight it out
The US looked by far the better team early on in Kaiserslautern, playing at a quick pace and challenging strongly at every tackle while the Italians appeared disorganised, uninspired and surprised by the Americans’ robust approach.
However, Italy scored first as Gilardino headed in Pirlo’s free-kick on 22 minutes. Italy scored again five minutes later but in the wrong goal. Right back Zaccardo tried to clear a corner but succeeded only in slashing it into his own net to make it 1-1.
Worse was to follow a minute later as Italian midfielder De Rossi blatantly elbowed McBride in the face and was rightly shown the red card. McBride’s face matched the colour of the card as blood poured out.
Just before half time it became ten versus ten when American Pablo Mastroeni was sent off for a lunging challenge on Pirlo. The right decision? Yes, if you are following the Fifa directive on such challenges for this tournament - or yes if you agree it was a tackle that endangered the safety of an opponent as, er, that what is in the laws of the game anyway.
Just after half time the US were down to nine players as Pope was sent off for a second bookable offence – another nasty and needless challenge. Cue end-to-end thrills and spills as both teams tried to find a winner. No more goals were scored although Beasley thought he had won it for the US but McBride was ruled offside.
The ITV commentators seemed bemused by this offside decision but the American was clearly interfering with play by being in the line of the goalkeeper’s view of the shot. Some pundits these days even acknowledge that they do not understand the offside law. You would have thought it is something they are paid to know about but the good news is that help is at hand:
the Fifa.com website has a useful flash illustration to explain the intracacies of the offside law. Maybe they should check it out.
The match was also noteworthy for ITV co-commentator David Pleat saying that American Brian McBride is “pound for pound as good as any striker in the Premiership”. So, who would you rather have in your team: Thierry Henry, Wayne Rooney, Hernan Crespo, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Michael Owen or Fulham’s Brian McBride? And to think Chelsea have just wasted all that money on complete no-hoper Andriy Shevchenko when they could have put a bid in for McBride, eh?
Ghana shock Czech Republic
In an exciting game Ghana deservedly became the first African team to win a match at this World Cup. They went 1-0 up after just 70 seconds with a well-taken goal by Gyan.
The Czechs pushed for an equaliser but without injured strikers Jan Koller and Milan Baros they lacked an attacker who could finish off their neat midfield play.
On 65 minutes Czech defender Ujfalusi was sent off for a foul that denied a goalscoring opportunity but Gyan hit the post from the resulting penalty.
Petr Cech made a string of fine saves to keep the Czechs in the game but was finally beaten late on when Muntari scored with a powerful shot.
Portugal 2-0 Iran
Portugal reached the last 16 with an unconvincing 2-0 win over Iran. For the first 60 minutes the Portuguese huffed and puffed against an Iranian team focused on nothing other than defending but then a wonder strike from Deco gave them the lead.
Luis Figo was fouled inside the penalty area on 78 minutes and Cristiano Ronaldo, who had spent most of the match performing increasingly pointless stepovers to little effect, whacked the spot-kick past the keeper.
