Si, si, two to zero!!

Sorry girlonthego!! But I am wishing you and your family a beautiful 4th of July!

Well Ezlivin, we and the millions of other soccer fans must just have some genetic misfunction. I thought it a superb game, and I'd like to take back all the things I've said about oring or Diving Italians - not tonight.

What a final 3 minutes!
I was so glad it didnt go to penalties -Too much excitement for me!!!

Of course America (via Liverpool) eventually got a look in.

The German supporters bade farewell to their team with "You'll Never Walk Alone". Originally (and highly forgettably) from Rogers and Hammerstein's 'Carousel'

Turned into THE global football anthem by Liverpool Catholics Gerry and the Pacemakers, under the inspired direction of the Pacemakers' Liverpool Jewish manager Brian Epstein, and adopted as the team song by the Liverpool (Protestant) football team.

Could there be a better song to sum up the New Germany?

Forza Italia...great match

euroseptic:

Looks like you just killed the thread!
It's been an hour since you last posted and this thread was humming along nicely.

What the h&ll did you post about that killed everybody's enthusiasm?

Incredible match! Onward Italia!! :-d
Germany played an excellent Cup. I don't know how people think football/soccer/calcio is boring, but to each his own. We thought this was one of the best matches of this World Cup. Can't wait for tomorrow.

Just came back from a beautiful, warm evening in Luzern. The streets were empty while we had our tour of the city.

And then suddenly, you heard cheering from the crowds in the restaurants and pubs. Down below in the train station, there was a huge screen set up for spectators. People were using flags as capes or waving them with joy. Honking cars and screaming, enthusiastic fans were suddenly all over the streets. The police blocked off the bridge between old and new Luzern so the fans could celebrate without causing a traffic chaos.

Oh, it was wonderful.

Go Italy!
As an Australian it is a great result...shows how well our team did!
We also have a great Italian community here and Leichardt ( the centre of Sydney's Italian community) will be going off!!
;;).

Are they happy and cheering because the populace of Luzern are partial to the italian team?

Just curious.

I'll try to explain for the umpteenth time why many Americans who if they even care find this whole thing boring...

We came within 2 minutes of having had our 3rd semi final game with only 1 real goal scored...

And of course, although I doubt most don't understand this or want to understand this, we know FIFA has set up a seeding system to try to ensure that

1. The European teams plus perhaps Argentina and Brazil go through as far as possible because that is where their bread is buttered in terms of sales of FIFA approvied merchandise.
Although they can deny it until the chickens come home to roost, the United States team was shafted in the seedings and everybody knows it

and

The officiating....well let's not talk about the US vs. Italy game where an Italian broke the nose of an American player and rightfully was thrown out of the game but then two very very very nebulous American ejections followed (interestingly enough the Americans were the only ones who got a pont against Italy so they weren't really as bad as some made them out to be) and then

There was the non existant penalty call against Australia in the round of 16...and we all know that if an Italian had committed the same "foul" against an Italian in the last seconds of injury time no penalty would have been called.

That is why the whole thing is a travesy and luckily most Americans could care less so they don't really comprehend the royal screwing that was done to the USA (not that they would have won the tournament anyway but their performance against Italy clearly shows they were not the worst team in the tournament).

Incredible match, bravissimo! Respect to Germany for a well-fought match and being great hosts but they should've known Lippi was determined not to go to pk's.

Forza Azzurri! :)

The Blick (Switzerland's answer to The Sun) reported that half of Switzerland was for Germany and the other half for Italy. The spectators in Lucerne seemed to be more for Italy but I don't doubt there were plenty around rooting for Germany too.

It's amazing to see the enthusiasm for this World Cup. Switzerland lost in the second rounds and still everyone is hooked on this competition.

Personally, I'm for Portugal.

xyz - as a hardcore Rossoneri & Italia fan, please don't speak for this American.

tully...

Very few Americans actually give a damn and in this case, I can speak for the vast majority...just listening to a sports call in show right now in NY and all they're talking about is the Mets!

>Mets
Some sort of sausage?

Hey Logos:

What's the Stimmung like in Germany? They've put on a great World Cup and played wonderful soccer.

"...all they're talking about is the Mets!"

Not really. They're also talking about the primary international sporting event that is going at present -
the streaker at Maria Sharapova's match in Wimbledon today.

"Although they can deny it until the chickens come home to roost, the United States team was shafted in the seedings and everybody knows it"

Glad you have explained why it is "boring" - a follow-up question - could you let us know whether, perchance, the US had not been "shafted" but had continued the game would still be "boring"?

>Stimmung
Until half an hour ago lots of noise from italian fans :-). Now it's silent. Tomorrow we'll see. Didn't go downtown to watch the game today.