Czuch Chuckers: You bet. Yesterday was a sad day for the Czech Republic. Now we have to win against the Italians, which is going to be a tough game, considering the fact Baroš and Koller are out because of injuries and Lokvenc received his second yellow card yesterday. It's hard to win games without forwards!!! Anyway, I'll be rooting for the US on Thursday!

Pedro Martínez: Well the US has a couple out on red cards as well, did you see that game, very poor officiating IMO. Sorry to say, I am now a fan of the Italians :(

Czuch Chuckers: I'm afraid all the 3 red cards in the ITA-USA game were deserved and the refs did extremely good job in comparison with other referees at the WC. Actually this referee and the one who umpired the other group-E game yesterday (and the very first game of the WC) are the only two refs who I have had no objections against so far.

Pedro Martínez: Wow, even the Italian commentator on the US broadcast said that he thought the second red card was a bad call..... But I dont follow the world cup enought o know myself, maybe they are trying to crack down on sliding tackles? The guy had no yellow card and did a slide where he got the ball and no real injury, a yellow at best in my book.

According to you, a guy who takes an intentional elbow to the head and requires stitches is treated the same as someone who is tackled witjout injury and even gets part of the ball.

Czuch Chuckers: That Mastroeni's slide hit directly the calf of the Italian player. I remember that when I saw that tackle, I thought to myself "Ouch,I hope he didn't break his leg". It's was an extremely dangerous play and it doesn't matter that he got the ball as as well.

You cannot compare fouls for which a red card is given. There are simply situations for which a player is sent out. Compare an intentional hand ball on the goal line and and intentional kick in the head, for instance. That's just uncomparable. Yet both situations require red cards.

Pedro Martínez: I think that an intentional hand ball to stop a goal should allow the goal to count, and it would be nice if there were some difference in the infractions. Maybe a red card without loss of next game and one with loss of next game and one with loss of whole tournament, or something like that!