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It's being reported this morning that opposition forces have captured Al-Saadi Gaddafi, the third son of the soon-to-be outgoing dictator. It's a great day for the people of Libya, but a sad day for Serie A. A conviction at the International Criminal Court would likely prevent Saadi from adding to his resume in the top level of Italian soccer: three season, two appearances, 26 minutes. More »
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A match between Termeno and Dro, two clubs in Italy's lower division, went to penalty kicks earlier in the week. A Termeno player's attempt hit the crossbar, and as the Dro keeper sprinted towards his teammates in celebration, the ball came down with enough backspin to carry it into the net. Termeno will advance to a higher serie next season with the win, reminding us all that we should never count out the physics. More »
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Yes, we know that headline sounds redundant. But check out what Lega Pro (third tier) side Foggia pulled off yesterday. Down a goal with five minutes remaining, a Foggia player went down "injured." As is customary, Gela kicked the ball out to give him a chance to recover. But Foggia rushed a throw-in against the unsuspecting team, and scored the equalizer. That's when shit hit the fan. More »
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Four years ago, in the World Cup final, France's Zinedine Zidane defended the honor of his whore sister and ended his career in an unimaginably bizarre fashion. Afterward, David Hirshey bid a sad adieu. More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5578678&view=rss&microfeed=true Following the Azzurri's early exit from the World Cup, an interview with an Italian fan and his son became an instance of public nudity when an unidentified woman stepped into the frame and flashed the camera. [Dailymotion] More »
]]> http://deadspin.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5575533&view=rss&microfeed=true The man writhing around on the ground as if he'd been splashed in the face with acid is Italy's Fabio Quagliarella. His theatrics led to Slovakian keeper Jan Mucha's yellow card. Thankfully, the universe doesn't stand for that shit. More »
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Can the All Whites eke out their first win? Will the Italians join the ignoble list of champions to not advance from the group stages? Follow along at home and comment below. More »
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Can New Zealand shock the reigning champs? Or will the Azzurri grind the plucky All Whites into the ground with their jackboots? Watch the match and comment below. FINAL: New Zealand 1, Italy 1. Wow. More »
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Mandioca! Anything carbonara! Fight! It's Italy and La Albirroja, the darkhorse Paraguayan squadron. Bring your best Pavarotti jokes and comment as you watch the last of today's matches. More »
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Italian referees can now use instant replay to determine if players used naughty language, and book them appropriately. Meanwhile, Bud Selig is still not sure about this "checking home runs" thing. [Football Italia] More »
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Italian Olympian Flavia Zoccari was disqualified from a race yesterday after her swimsuit literally tore her a new butthole. That's not going to sit well back home, but hopefully it will all work out in the end. [DailyMail, via Slanch] More »
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And now for something on the lighter side ... guy falls down, loses shorts. Ha ha. I would not have expected tighty whiteys from the Italian team, though. [TotalProSports] More »
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Not content to allow LeBron James to sweep up all the attention for his leaked interest in going overseas for $50 million, Kobe Bryant stepped into the fray yesterday from Beijing. Telling The Boston Globe that he'd go to Italy for $50 million a year. You know, sooner or later the NBA brass might have to acknowledge that Europe is a legit threat to their league. Or maybe they'll claim that Bryant was misquoted. Kind of hard when you see this quote: More »
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There are a couple of surprises here, first, Shawn Kemp is only 40. Surprising only because Kemp has a daughter who's 32. Second, an Italian basketball team called Premiata Montegranaro has offered him a contract. Of course this report comes via Ball Don't Lie (via The Sport Count) who claims that this article reports that. Only the article is in Italian. And my mom's basement doesn't have a pocket Italian translator. More »
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Tired of watching all your soccer matches on regular, boring sports stations, with "highlights" and "scores" and "information?" Our Italian friends have just the solution for you. More »
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The gigantic Italian soccer scandal has finally reached a resolution, with the Italian Football Federsation's prosecutor ruling that three clubs, Juventus, Fiorentina, and Lazio, will be demoted from Italian Serie A to Serie B. And another team, AC Milan, will be starting next season with a fifteen-point deduction in the standings. Juventus is also being stripped of their 2005 and 2006 league title, and will start next year's Serie B season with a 30-point deduction, which means that they'll be in Serie B for the 2007 season as well. More »
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In a time of heated rhetoric, political grandstanding and continued confusion on the facts, we looked forward to an interview with Zinedine Zidane's ailing mother. Perhaps the woman would provide us with some much-need perspective, give everyone a chance to just cool down and realize that it's just a game, that mistakes happen, that she loves her son and that's all that really matters. More »
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As far as defenses against accusations of making racist remarks go, we have to say, Italian player Marco Materazzi has a particularly good one after being notoriously head-butted by Zinedine Zidane. More »
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We'll get into an update of all the fun Zinedine Zidane theories a little later today, but we wanted to pause to take a look at Paul Zimmerman's column for SI.com yesterday. We have no shame about this: We love Paul Zimmerman. We know he's old, we know he's cranky, we know he probably spends most of his evenings drinking wine at his kitchen table while grumbling about the kids on the "Information Superhighway" and how the Whole Goddamned World Is Going To Hell. We know all this, and we don't care. He's a wonderfully natural writer, he knows more about football than just about anyone else we read and, mostly, he seems half-drunk most of the time. How do you not love him? More »
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In case you haven't exhausted your Zinedine Zidane animated GIF quotient for the day, here's a compendium of some of our favorite ones; the Butterfinger one is still the best. And if you like your moving online stuff to be interactive, here's a game that allows you to collect Zidane red cards. Oh, and people are even coming up with conspiracy theories. More »
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Madness. Can there be any other word for both this World Cup and the way it ended? It would be like Tiger Woods, moments from donning another green jacket at the Masters, bringing his putter down on top of Vijay Singh's skull. Or Michael Jordan stepping up to the free throw line in the final ticks of an NBA championship game and breaking Kobe Bryant's nose with a basketball. More »
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So, it has been about 16 hours, and we still haven't quite gotten over the amazement of Zinedine Zidane's brutal headbutt to end his soccer career. It was truly one of the most astounding sports moments we can remember; like many Americans, we struggled to come up with an American sports equivalent, save for maybe Michael Jordan decking Byron Russell with two minutes left in Game 6. And even that wouldn't quite be the same. More »
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Well, it took long enough, but it's finally time for the World Cup Final. It's your favorite divers from Italy against the surrender monkeys from France. It's non-stop fun; it's the World Cup. More »
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All right, well, this is it: Just one more World Cup game — one that counts, anyway — and this whole thing is over. On Sunday, it's France vs. Italy for the World Cup title and all the international respect for its citizens and its style of play that comes with it. More »
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David Hirshey — whose beauty has been captured photographically at ESPN.com — is writing for Deadspin throughout the World Cup. More »
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David Hirshey is writing regularly throughout the World Cup. More »
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Forget the match-fixing scandal and apparent suicide attempt of former beloved defender Gianluca Pessotto that were going to be such huge distractions that Italy would retreat into its mournful defensive shell and not come out until they had to board the plane to go home. As anyone who has glimpsed those glossy Chippendales-esque ads of Zambrutta, Gattusso and company surely attest, the Azzuri haven't been this oiled up and ready to party since '82, when they de-pantsed the Germans in the final in Madrid. Did I mention I was there, sitting with my Dad in the mean heart of the Deutschland end, waving an Italian flag, shouting Forza Italia, and hoping the Germans had a sense of humor? More »
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Hey, many many thanks to all those who sent in their thoughts on the World Cup semifinals, to which Spain is not invited. Here are some of the finer selections. More »
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It's still hard to believe that the United States tied a team that's one game away from the semifinals. We think maybe the Italians should be disqualified on that indignity alone. More »
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After all the talk of diving in soccer yesterday, we couldn't possibly have been happier to receive this comprehensive study from "Information Builders." The point of the study is to look at the World Cup so far — up to but not including this morning's Germany-Argentina game — and tally which teams are flopping the most, which teams aren't singing their national anthem, which teams are throwing the most tantrums, so on. It's quite instructive. Some highlight findings: More »
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Reverberations from Italy's 1-0 World Cup win over Australia on Monday continue. The Italians won on a disputed penalty kick in the final seconds of stoppage time, and it's caused a whole fuss. Australian assistant coach Graham Arnold told the Australia Daily Telegraph that "FIFA didn't want us here in the first place," and Australian Prime Minister John Howard told the BBC he was "brokenhearted." Many people are stopping just short of claiming that the match was fixed. More »
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David Hirshey will write regularly during the World Cup. More »
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As we continue along the Round of 16 — these games really are quite more exciting when they loser goes home — we start off your weekday live blogging with a team representing a country that was founded by the exiled convicts of another country ... and, much worse, a team that tied the United States. Heavens. How pathetic. More »
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It's always important to have villains in international sports — because what's global goodwill except for an excuse for everybody to hold hands and smell of patchouli? — and last Saturday, Italy played the role right good. Now, of course, We Are All Italians. The United States needs to win its game, then have Italy win here. Not a draw, either; win. More »
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I've got a couple of live reports from fans who were in Kaiserslautern for the USA/Italy World Cup match yesterday. First, at The Third Leaf, is this photo essay-ish look at the atmosphere surrounding the game. To say that it looks like a hell of a lot of fun would be an understatement. More »
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I don't often blames losses on officiating. And I'm not doing that here, either, particularly since there was no loss to speak of, and sure, both the Italian and United States sides have complaints. But there is plenty of controversy concerning red-card happy official Jorge Larrionda of Uruguay. As pointed out by commenter BillyPaultzRules, Jorge's Wikipedia page has already been updated to reflect today's events More »
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Okay, not really. But given the credibility of top Italian football officials at the moment, I think it's fair to let the mind wonder. The ref in the United States/Italy game was handing out red cards like they were commemorative souvenirs. More »
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With their courageous defense and scorching balls, Ghana has provided hope and inspiration to a United States soccer team that can use all it can get. With their unlikely 2-0 drubbing of the Czech Republic, a US win over Italy today leaves Group F wide open. More »
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David Hirshey's World Cup Closer begins today. Enjoy. More »
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All right, we wrap up a rollicking day of live-blogging — a TRIPLEHEADER, as they sometimes say — with that time honored international rivalry: Italy vs. Ghana. What can we tell you about this game? Well, Roberto Benigni will most certainly not be playing. More »
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