italy Page 8 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Dr. Z Is Mad As Hell (Again)
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 ...

Your Last Zidane Roundup
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, a...

Hirshey: Madness, Glory And The Self-Correcting Aneurysm
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...

Zinedine Zidane, Slightly Perturbed
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 equivalen...

World Cup Final Live Blog: Italy Vs. France
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....

Just One (Real) World Cup Match To Go
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....

Hirshey: One More Time For Some Old Frenchmen
David Hirshey — whose beauty has been captured photographically at ESPN.com — is writing for Deadspin throughout the World Cup....

Hirshey: Auf Wiedersehn To All That
David Hirshey is writing regularly throughout the World Cup....

Hirshey: Forza Italia!
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 ...

The Semifinal Preview, Deadspin Reader Style
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....

Live Blog: Italy Vs. Ukraine
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....

The Real Story Of The World Cup
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 ...

All Hail The Glorious People's Italian Football Collective!
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...

Hirshey: B'Day, Mate
David Hirshey will write regularly during the World Cup....

Live Blog: Italy Vs. Australia
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 State...

Live Blog: Italy Vs. Czech Republic
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...

Live From Kaiserslautern
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....

A Closer Look At Jorge Larrionda
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. ...

I Suspect Mafia Involvement
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....

A Love Letter To Ghana
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....