How cheated were Australia?

In the wake of Australia's defeat against Italy, many fans and neutrals have comeout to lambast Italy, labelling them as cheats. After sampling a sizeable range of such views, I believe it is fair for us to consider the coin in its fullness.

It is understandable that fans of the Socceroos and neutrals who want to see a fair game feel brokenhearted over what happened. But to label the Italians as criminals worthy of being thrown out of the world cup displays as little maturity as the Australians displayed big game experience.

I feel brokenhearted for Australia. But taking it out on Fabio Grosso isn't really fair either. Here are a few points to consider.




1. The world cup is full of dirty players. Guys like Asamoah Gyan, Ghana's free-falling striker, take cheating and diving to an artistic level. The Portugal v Holland game was replete with dirty play from both sides. For the largest part, because diving teams like Ghana and Ivory Coast are out, we feel like justice has been served, and perhaps because the Portugal/Holland game descended into such a farce, we file it separately from cases like Grosso's penalty. But it shouldn't be like that. In the larger scheme of things, Grosso's penalty claim, if it falls under the category of "dirty", is by far one of the most innocuous claims of dirt among its peers.

2. There is no place in football for playacting. But think about this: five seconds left, you're running into the box with the ball. You've just shaken off some shirt pulling and suddenly a defender flies in front of you, tackling air. You're moving forward with the ball. He didn't get you. What do you do? A bigger man would probably have shot, or skipped over the defender and let the ball run off. In that split second, Fabio Grosso kept his feet on the ground and fished for a penalty. You can't deny that there was contact - Neill was getting up and turning when Grosso clumsily ran into him. Sure, Grosso's clumsiness is circumspect, but the line is thin and as much as it hurts, Lucas Neill's "tackle" did not win any ball, and thereonend became an obstruction to Grosso. He was cunning to keep his feet down. But the line is thinner than you think.

3. The frustrating thing is that Australia probably didn't deserve to win anyway. The best chances in the game were made by Italy. Italy played with 10 men for 40 minutes, and still the Australians never managed to gain an advantage. There was no sign whatsoever that the extra half an hour would have yielded a different result. Guus Hiddink waited till the 80th minute, for crying out loud, to bring in an extra striker. With five seconds left on the clock, they allowed Italy's left back to run down the flank and bring the ball into their box, what the hell were they thinking? Nobody put in a challenge while he was outside the box, the best Mark Bresciano could do was to tug at his shirt without much conviction. With five seconds left, the Australians lacked that bit of big game experience to perhaps intentionally concede a free kick rather than a penalty, to hoof the ball out, keep the ball in midfield and retain posession. Nobody wants to hear this but it's true. Australia didn't do themselves justice.



Ultimately, do I think it's a penalty? Maybe not. Do I think Italy cheated? I may not go as far as to say that either. Football is a tricky sport and bad calls even themselves out across a longer period of time. Good penalty claims get ignored and poor penalty claims get rewarded. Today, you're crying foul, tomorrow you're benefiting from a poor decision. These things happen all the time. To suggest that Fabio Grosso's weak penalty claim makes the Italians cheats just ignores the reality that a lot of worse things go on in football, and just because Grosso chose a very heartbreaking moment to keep on running doesn't make Australia any more deserving of a victory.

This is not a pro-Italy piece, this is an attempt to balance a lot of anti-Italy slur that's making its rounds now. Football is like that. The timing was lousy, but penalties get given day-in-day-out for a lot less than what you saw there. We just have to separate our sentimentalism for Australia from our objectivity of looking at the sport from a wider perspective.

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