We got a goal against Italy! And almost got a second one. Their goal was a dubiously awarded penalty--Italy have got diving down to a fine art--so I think we did bloody well considering.
As for
that blatant and utterly shameless Cote d'Ivoire dive that succeeded in getting Kaka sent off for a slight tap on the chest (Keita falls, clutching his face in pretend agony) I do in fact have words.
It's time soccer used something like cricket's third umpire who makes the final decision based on replays if asked by the two on-field umpires. Dives and handballs are shown pretty clearly on the big screen at major matches; how hard is it for a "second ref" to do that, or even for a the ref and linesmen to actually look at the damned thing and see what happened? I hear that rugby players are fined or penalised for behaviour captured on camera (I don't watch rugby) but I'm told it's cleaned up the game a lot. Soccer could do with this. At the very least, the decision against Kaka could be reversed, but right now the ref has the final word and it's sometimes just wrong.