The soap opera that is the World Cup continues. After the embarrassment of the horrible officiating that cost the US a win against Slovenia we have the French players refusing to train one day after one of their teammates was sent home after arguing with the coach. This was followed by multiple officials quitting the team. It also needs to be pointed out that most people think the coach should have been fired 2 years ago. The players don't seem to have any focus & don't seem to care. The fans back in France are incensed & probably hope the team doesn't advance, which it won't anyway. This would not happen here.

Then there's Italy. Before the game against New Zealand started the ESPN announcers, a brit & a scot, I believe, said Italy would destroy the kiwis. Oh well. Instead we got one of those awful matches where a team with little talent & almost no chance of winning, simply loads up in front of their own goal with 10 players making it almost impossible for the opponent to score. In fact, it appears New Zealands goal shouldn't have counted, since the scorer was offsides. So now we have the possibility of both finalists from 4 years ago not getting out of group play. It doesn't help that Italy's coach has made some strange decisions concerning players. Like leaving top players home so he could bring older & lesser players from his favorite club, Juventus. A team that finished low in Serie A.

And in one more case of bad refs, Brazil has to play their final group game without Kaka because of a bad call. An unneccessary yellow that translates to a red, being that it's his second yellow. Same reason one US player has to sit out a game. You would think that the officiating in a world championship would be higher caliber than this.