0
TAEJON (South Korea), June 18: Italy coach Giovanni Trapattoni departed complaining bitterly about the officials’ decisions.
The Italians were furious that forward Francesco Totti was sent off in extra time and Damiano Tommasi had a goal ruled out controversially for offside.
Trapattoni said: “It was obvious from the start which way the wind was blowing. I don’t want to talk about conspiracies, but there were negative situations.
“They talk about fair play and then on the pitch you see things like this. You can’t play a World Cup with incompetent linesmen. I’ve never experienced such a negative moment in my career.
“From the beginning to the end, behaviour like this makes you think anything...The boys are laid out. Crying? I have (cried) in my heart.”
He continued: “If Japan had gone through maybe it would have been different. There will be time to reflect and analyse but at the moment we are all bitter.
“We had many more chances but Korea played with their heart,” Trapattoni said. “It was a beautiful match but the winner should have been Italy.
“Unfortunately, this World Cup for Italy started by going downhill. I’ve seen certain things which have penalised us. Today we played a good game. I’d say we’re going out with our heads held high but with a lot to be bitter about.
“It was an emotional, beautiful, game. We had far, far more goalscoring chances than Korea but Korea showed heart. We had a lot of good situations.
“We had a player sent off — I don’t know why. We played with enthusiasm. If they was to be one winner in this match I think it should have been Italy.
“We had three of four chances to wrap up the match, we had a chance for a golden goal from (Gennaro) Gattuso and from (Christian) Vieri at the end of normal time.
“Perhaps we should have finished the game with those opportunities. That’s football, but I think that if one of these teams should have gone to the quarters it should have been us, given what we did in this competition up until now.”
ROME: Dismay, disbelief, anger and tears — Italy took the defeat like a slap around the face and blamed the Ecuadorean referee for their shock exit.
“Death to the referee,” chanted hundreds of Italian supporters gathered in central Rome to watch the game on a giant television screen.
“Frankly, that was complete robbery,” Bruno Pizzul, Italy’s most famous commentator told state television RAI immediately after the game.
Franco Frattini, Italy’s minister for public offices, said: “The referee was a disgrace, absolutely scandalous. I’ve never seen a game like it. It seemed as if they just sat around a table and decided to throw us out.”
People watching the game across the country in squares, bars and offices, hugged and consoled each other in stunned silence.
Many cried openly, tears streaming down their cheeks in the boiling summer sun as the Italian players trailed off the field in Taejon, Korea.
Italy ground to a halt for the game, the streets emptied and crowds gathered around huge screens set up in city centre squares, or else huddled around television sets in bars and offices. Cries of disbelief poured from open windows.
“Don’t betray us,” the main sports newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport yelled in a frontpage headline on Tuesday beneath a photo of the Italian squad.
But, for once, no-one was blaming the players when the final whistle blew.
“I can say nothing. It was the World Cup and it’s all over,” Maurizio Romana, wearing an Italian flag around his waist like a sarong, said in front of Milan’s imposing Cathedral.—Reuters
