i dont think it really happened. remember... even cruz said there was nothing. and if cruz says theres nothing how can the fifa come up and say frings has hit him hard.
this photo:
http://www.bild.t-online.de/BTO/sport/wm2006/aktuell/07/03/deutschland-frings-ermittlungen/hg-frings-gross.html
proves nothing. it shows theres an arm... im not even sure if its the arm of frings and what exactly that arm did.

its just a decision made by fifa after the italian media came up with that crap.

It's a decision made by FIFA and we have to respect it (no matter who started the investigation)!

We have enough players in the squad and surely there will be one who can replace Frings.

Exactly.

sure... decisions made by fifa have to be respected. but that doesnt mean i cant think different
whatever... germany has to play with borowski or kehl instead of frings and will be ok anyways.

CLAP CLAP CLAP

exellent..also i want to know why figo was not banned when he punches with his head to a holland player..

bierhoff you will die for bad person

funny how the argies think about that.
They finally started this whole mess and most of ur balless players are being accused.

But let us think it would have been the other way round and Germany would insist that for example Pirlo or Luca Toni should be banned. Nobody would cry and whine louder than italy!!!

Double standard at its best dont you think?!?!?!?

Italians and Argentines are bad people they cheet
they are dirty too

the rest of the world are just inocent bambies.

I want Italia to win this world cup badly and see the reactions of the world...
well I`m also half italian too and proud to be ..

so
Vamos Italia!!!

Italia 1 0 with a Camoranesi goal!!!!

we haven't need FiFa
we are italians not danish
and than....who is Frings !!!!!
germany good plays but remerber .....italian's do it better
good luck

my favourite's team is juventus(fanculo la triade) and when i think about english football
i see this:http://www.contrast.org/hillsborough/history/heysel.shtm
shame on you and remember!!!!

Always a shame when a team can't be at it's full strenght in such an important match!

I didn't see the images of Frings in the end of the match, but maybe, just because it was by the end of the match he could take a couple of months suspension in the next European qualifying or something...and then Italy could say they are a better team then Germany, as Germany played with their best players....and the same goes for all teams

Neither does Ricardo Carvalho anymore

Neither does Ricardo Carvalho anymore

apart from this trash and sorry point of view acusing now Italy with this nonesense thing...

German players are not at the level of the instance.. they deserv to stop NOW!.

Sorry for any German fan, but one thing is to win and me congratulating you after winning as the situation and manners should be... and another different thing is to deserve it playing on the field the way it should.

That was clear like water... a weak team affraid and playing home that centered a ball backwards and headed desperately and found another head in a desperate move with a goal whitin 10 minutes in a game where they never knew what to play to... (apart from Argentina responsability of not making the best substitutions and loosing one of the bests goalies of the torunament that his specialty is saving penalties.... even whitin that scene... Germans should not pass the quarter finals instance against us... they are enjoying it now even more due to this fact cos it is as true as it sounds and was felt be any football lover) so far... they were not going to make any other Nation cheer for you with that ki9nd of show... even more if there was not a neutral ref and for even worst if you got out the Team that showed the most solid idea and gave the most concrete show of strenght in the most difficult goup of the WC.

So...


GO ITALY GO!

When I first saw the video of the incident I knew Frings would be banned. It doesn't matter if Cruz felt something/anything or not. FiFa has a zero tolerance policy in those matters and rightfully so.
I believe Cruz only claimed that he wasn't hit because he knew he had also swung at someone.
I believe it was a refelx on Frings part, which still has got to be punished, and the rather mild sentence of just 1 game shows that FIFA recognizes the minor nature of it.

I don't blame the Italian press for anything and I firmly believe that our press would have done the same. It's part of professional journalism.

Bad luck for us, but now someone else has to step up and show us that he is a good player.

RobertG:

You are complete right. Argentinia played beautiful football. Your players are highly skilled, physically strong and tactically very well trained. And they are at home right now. Your supposedly superior players just couldn't cut it when it really mattered. You don't like our way of playing football - fair enough. 120 min of football showed that both teams were equal in everything that truely matters in football. Therefore we had a penalty shootout and in this contest of skill, nerves and guts, Germany won.
Granted once FiFa awards extra goals for beautifully passing the football around in midfield Argentinia will be the undefeated champions.

I am sorry to be so blunt, but I have had it with all that whining. If we lose to Italy tonight I will congratulate my Italian friends and hope for a worthy final and deserving new World Champion.

OK, i understand why Argentinians are in a bad mood ... cause WE KICKED YOU OUT!!! No need to say anything more.
It is a pity what happened to Frings, not because we can't play without him, but because he is a nice guy and a good player.
What *beeps* me off the most is, that These bad losers from Argentina start kicking and hitting our players and when they start to defend themselves, they get banned. I have no words for that. Unbelievable. And by the way, what did Bierhoff do, that he deserves to die? Did you cry your brain out after the elimination?
It is not Italy's fault and not the team's fault, but the atmosphere is gonna be really extreme tonight. Thanks to italian media and FIFA.
If it was a violent punch Frings must have been banned for 6 games. (FIFA laws) So why 1+1 ... because it was nothing, but they felt like they had to react somehow, for what reason ever.
Ridiculous!!

RobertG you are bugging me more than any other person here! Beautiful football? Argentina? Pah!
Stop denigrating Germany and their football team! They deserve to be where they are right now - anything else would have been a shame! A team that was nothing before the world cup started is doing great now! You guys don't know what team spirit is, eh? This is all that matters - not the single action of single cocky Argentinian or Brazilian players...!

And remember: You're the one who blamed the ref and everybody else for losing the game instead of being honest and concede that Argentina just lost it due to a lack of fighting spirit.

German football has become much better and to me, is definitely not ugly. Nevertheless, there's no rule that says that football has to be played "beautiful". See, this is why you'll never achieve anything great in football - playing around like little kids in the street and thinking it has to look "beautiful" is not the point of the game!

GO GERMANY, GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kick these italian asses! Now more than ever!

And by the way: Frings gave a punch after he got punched from Cruz...He didn't start it! And no punishment for Cruz? Argentinas behaviour after the match was a shame! They should be banned from any further tournaments! I'd rather have Greece back! Anyway, if I had a persecution complex, I'd say: Argentina, nice arrangement for Italy! How much did they pay? Thank godness I don't have suffer from it

Iirc, Argentina drew against the Netherlands and against Mexico, closing the door for Mechico due to an outstanding and somewhat lucky goal from Rodriguez in extra time.
Argentina was a great team, but not THAT great, imho.

In the end its just football - lets enjoy the sports and the world cup atmosphere.

Guys, Frings did not respect an existing rule and therefore is banned now.
hard for him because he was probably only defending himself. But life is hard sometimes.

the really strange thing is that all this stiuff arised because some players from argentinia
were not able to loose in a way men should be able. However, hot blood, the hard game,
we should really forget all this ugly stuff and keep on watching football the last 4 games.

If we want to beat italy - we now must be able to do this without him.
So what ? the more problems - the more glory ^^

btw

Argentinia plays the more beautyful football, right. But they were not able to
be a real danger for the german goalie more than 2-3 times in this 2 hour game.
So in my opinion there was no effective superiority. Playing football without scoring
- or without even be dangerous - well, that looks nice sometimes but this is not
how we germans understand football.

My son (8 y.o.) is playing football. I often watch the boys, funny thing.
The chief of all these boys is the one that scores. No matter what the other
boys do, tricks, nice playing, nices passes. They are good but they are not hero.
The hero is the one that scores. If one of the boys keeps the ball for a long time,
even if he does good - the other ones shout: hey, go ahead ! Playing slow is the
worst thing one can do. The boys want speed, attacks and goals.

This is the way we think and play football.
All the other stuff is nice & pretty show around. Not necessary. Not efficient.

Rudi

I'm from germany and I have seen the video showing what happened. To me it showed that Frings indeed hit Cruz lightly with his fist and therefore the FIFA was right to ban him.... even if it hurts. It doesn't matter who starts it. Hitting another player must be punished even if you were provoked. And I don't think that you can blame italy for a newspaper and a tv-channel showing these pictures. This is what journalists should do: Show us what happened.

Argentinian players did not show us "beautyfull football" but "ugly wrestling". But things like this happen. This is not excuse for Frings. After all we did win the game against argentinia and we deserved to win as much as argentinia did. I hope there will be no more bad feelings regarding this match.

This being said: I wish Italy all the best when they play for the 3rd place. After all Italy and Argentinia can say that they only lost against the world champion

i do not understand why italy should be blamed for a fight between german and argentinien ?
do we know what is happening to the argentine player who did hit some german player ?
It is normal to suspend Frings but what for those who attacked German players ?
I think germany should call for the TAS to investigate this suspension as well.

Yes why isnt Cruz punished? He hit Frings first. Oh wait, Argentina is out so no need to do something about it. But Germany is still in and Italy was whining about it so they had to punish Frings so the Italians would be quiet.

indeed...i don't see why argentina was all that good....they played one outstanding match....but Servia was no oposition at all in that game. They draw against the Netherlands and if someone was superior, it was clearly the Netherlands. Agains Mexico, some luck...a terrible decision keeping Heinze on the field and then a superb goal by Maxi....but it was with his left foot....he could try all night to repeat it and wouldn't do it....
So...let me remind you Portugal beat Mexico without most of their Starting lineup players and beat Netherlands playing most of the game in numeric inferiority....what makes Argentina the best team in this world cup? one game won't win you any world cup.....you need to win 5 or 6 and specially, you can't loose in the knockout....Riquelme isn't all that you paint, he is way to slow, stops every counter attack, i didn't see much from Messi in this world cup, and you defense still needs lots of improvement

Lol RobertG.
You already disqualified urself in many threads here.
Man how did Italy play to get to the semi finals? I mean i dont think i gotta say much about Australia or the USA.
And u say they deserved it more than germany who played really good?

In first half of extra time, i never saw a team having its hands so close to argies throat in the last 2 years than than the german.

Not granting ur opponent a victory in a close match where both sides played well is just really bad sportsmanship.

But u guys already showed, u have none, and if all argies r like u, i wont whine any tear for them being gone from here.

I totally agree that ANYONE actively involved in infringing any logical rules on conduct be prosecuted in some way.

The thing is, I think figo wasn't punished severly enough, but he WAS booked by the ref. That technically means he was already "judged" for his misconduct. You can't take a person to court twice for the same thing. If Frings had been booked by the ref, then FIFA wouldn't have done anything after the match.

The real problem is that FIFA don't deal with TV images on a logical basis. I mean, if Figo should've been given a red card, then FIFA should give him one, even if he was booked. The same goes for Materazzi - his foul should have been only a yellow (and noone has disagreed with that on any forum), but FIFA STILL disqualified him. THat just doesn't seem right, does it?

I, too, agree that the Italian press isn't to blame. They've hardly been talking about it to avoid these accusations (I think).

I didn't notice the brawl at the end of the match initially, but when I went on internet (various videosharing sites) I found various videos on the brawl already highlighting the punch. None of these sites were of Italian origin OR language.