Italy Chokes

Italy scored on itself Saturday to give the U.S. a 1-1 tie, thus granting the U.S. another chance at escaping first round elimination. To advance to the Group of 16, the U.S. will have to beat Ghana, and Italy will have to beat the Czech Republic. Both matches are to be played on Thursday.

Earlier this week Italian soccer players and media magnates went bonkers over a comment by U.S. player Eddie Johnson, when he said the match would be "war."

The Italian press jumped on the occasion and inserted linguistic bellicosities into their provocative coverage. The words "retreat", "war", "soldiers", "battle", "marines" and "anti-USA" were frequent.

Prior to yesterday's match, Italy's Gilardino, said "we will go onto the field against the United States for our soldiers in Iraq."

In the 28th minute Italy's De Rossi received a red card for intentionally elbowing Brian McBride in the face. McBride left the field bloodied and his injury required 3 stitches. After the match U.S. goalkeeper Kasey Keller said, "we went out today and gave blood for our country."

The U.S.'s Pablo Mastroeni and Eddie Pope were given red cards later in the game, although for offenses that did not draw blood.

Commenting on the match, Bruce Arena, the U.S. head coach said, "I am not at all happy with the officiating... It seems like the Italians are professional divers. They exaggerated every call. I don't think we've ever played a match with two expulsions."