Three red cards, one own goal and one disallowed goal

Italy 1 – A Gilardino (22)
USA 1 - C Zaccardo (27) o.g.

What a game – Italy and the USA today played one of the most dramatic games of the World Cup. We had an early Italian goal, an own goal by an Italian defender, a red card for an Italian player, then followed by a marching order for an American player and then another American followed him out, and finally an overruled American goal.

At the end, even with players down, both these teams showed us urgency in trying to win the match. Both sides had good chances. For the Americans, their keeper Kasey Keller gave a man-of-the-match performance to keep his side level while his defenders, though less in numbers, played heroically in blunting the Italian attack.

As for the Italians, the sending off changed their rhythm of their game and this was further compounded when their playmaker Francesco Totti was substituted as a tactical change.

Still, this was a good advertisement for attacking football – not literally based in the number of red cards!

I thought everything in the game was good except for the refereeing. Maybe the first red card was correct as Italian midfielder Daniele De Rossi did leave a flying elbow on Brian McBride. The referee however got the other two red cards for the American players wrong.

And again, the man in black was wrong in calling offside the 65th minute American goal. Striker DaMarcus Beasley rifled a shot from the left which left Italian keeper Gianluigi Buffon stranded. I thought McBride, who was in the middle, was passive, the referee reckoned active.

At the end, it is now 12 games since the Americans defeated the Italians and are rooted to the bottom of Group E with one point and one game to play. Italy is on top with four points.