Previous Encounters:
Italy have never lost to the United States. The two teams last met in February 2002, when
Italy won the friendly match in Catania (1:0). On American soil, at the US Cup in Chicago
on 6th June 1992, Team USA did manage a (1:1) draw.
Previous World Cup meetings between Italy and USA occured at Italy 1990 and Italy
1934; where Italy ran out winners on both occassions, (1:0) and (7.1) respectively.
The Match:
The United States started with the will to win and for the first twenty minutes made most
of the running and flustered the Italians, but just lacked precision when in front of
goal.
Then in the 22nd minute, Italy won a free-kick on the right of the USA
penalty area. Alberto Gilardino lost his markers dived to head the ball from Andrea Pirlo,
past Kasey Keller.
Five minutes later, Cristian Zaccardo tried to clear an American
free-kick and to his disbelief, the ball spun off his boot and into the net. USA had drawn
level with Italy.
Daniele De Rossi made things worse for the Italians when, less than a
minute after the equaliser, he jumped for a ball with McBride and elbowed the American in
the face. The red blood match the card Jorge Larrionda pulled out of his pocket; Italy
were down to ten men.
De Rossi also ended Francesco Totti's game when Marcello Lippi was
forced to make a tactical substitution and bring on Gennaro Gattuso in midfield.
The numbers were even out when, just before half-time, Pablo Mastroeni
slid into Andrea Pirlo with both feet.
Half-time: (1-1).
Then to add even more drama to the game, Eddie Pope was booked for a
second time and shown the red card; 10 vs 9 and America play with three at the back.
Bocanegra then headed onto his own bar before Lippi brings on
Alessandro Del Piero to try and take advantage of the problems the United States are
having at the back with one man less.
The Americans were then totally shocked when McBride's back-heeled
goal was ruled offside; correctly.
With less than twenty minutes left to play, Kasey Keller saved from
Del Piero as Italy tried desperately to take advantage of the extra man.
As USA moved the ball around, with eight minutes to go, it was hard to
believe they were the team with one player less. But they took too long on their build-up,
couldn't decide whether to break into the box or focus on defending and allowed the
Italians to get back.
Substitutions:
35 Mins (Italy) - 8 Gennaro Gattuso on for 10 Francesco Totti
52 Mins (USA) - 13 Jimmy Conrad on for 15 Bobby Convey
54 Mins (Italy) - 7 Alessandro Del Piero on for 2 Cristian Zaccardo
61 Mins (Italy) - 15 Vincenzo Iaquinta on for 9 Luca Toni
62 Mins (USA) - 17 DaMarcus Beasley on for 8 Clinton Dempsey
4 Yellow
Cards:
5 Mins - Francesco Totti (Italy)
21 Mins - Eddie Pope (United States)
47 Mins - Eddie Pope (United States)
70 Mins - Gianluca Zambrotta (Italy)
3 Red Cards:
28 Mins - Daniele De Rossi (Italy)
45 Mins - Pablo Mastroeni (United States)
47 Mins - Eddie Pope (United States)
