The Italian Experience

After a couple days of travel through Italy we have finally settled down in a small village on lake como just north of milan. We got here just in time for the United States game yesterday afternoon. I thought my parents were going to have to take me to the hospital due to heart attack and after Landon bagged his goal the shouting was so loud from our room that the neighbors came over to check on us. Things were completely different today when Italy was playing, before kickoff there were italian flags in every window and you could tell that the italian peoples confidence was brimming. there is no way the current world champs lose in the group stage right? And all they need is a tie against slovakia to get through. and things looked ok for a while but after the first slovakia goal you could have heard a coin drop from a mile a way. the town was stunned and things only got worse as they were then given false hope before having there dreams crushed one last time. The whole town is still in shock and they have no idea what has happened. The one thing they have going is that they have tons of stuff they can blame the loss on. In walking to get food after the game we heard it was the ball, the altitude, and even the ref for not awarding a goal on the ball that was cleared off the like by Slovakia in the second half. The Italians seem to be good at diving and making excuses but not winning games in this World Cup.

Garrett