Italy Nosedives

No, I'm not talking about Italy's GDP.
No, I'm not talking about Italy's foreign investment.
No, I'm not talking about Italy's 0% economic growth rate in 2005.
No, I'm not talking about Italy's birth rate, the second lowest in Europe.
No, I'm not talking about Italy's dwindling number of practicing Catholics.
No, I'm not talking about Italy's dwindling number of clean beaches.
No, I'm not talking about Italy's expanding concrete coastline.
No, I'm not talking about Italy's poor treatment of its immigrants.
No, I'm not talking about Italy's youth leaving Italy for elsewhere.
No, I'm not talking about Italy's North pounding the secession drum.
No, I'm not talking about Italy's absence of fair judicial processes.
No, I'm not talking about Italy's credibility as a functioning democracy.

I'm talking about Italy's #3, appropriately named Grosso, that performed a phoney nosedive in the box today to give Italy an undeserved penalty kick, that in turn granted them a 1-0 victory over Australia in the last second of stoppage-time.

After the match, Guus Hiddink, the Dutch-born coach of Australia said, "I said before that Italy had changed, but I was mistaken, it's still the same old team... ...They made a defensive wall the whole game and then it finished how we all saw: with a penalty kick for a foul that wasn't even there.

Vergognatevi! -- Be ashamed of yourselves!