nice docu pics. But Italy won fluky...

Shouldn't have been a penalty!!

A COMPLETE travesty!!! That was the worst call ever. But your pictures are great!

The light that you captured in the restaurant is amazing.

I must say it was not fair. A penalty in the last minute of the extra time of game (95 minutes)?

Catching a bit of soccer are we? Some way to win a game. But whatever works, eh?

The more you use this 10-22 lens the more I get to notice where distortion does sneak in. The top left lamp in the top photo is quite altered, but the faces in the picture seem quite normal. It's certainly quite a lens - which it should be for $1,000.

I love the emotion! It looks like my livingroom when my family and I are watching the games.

The tones you manage in all of your shots are really amazing. I don't know how to put it, they are just liquid.

This is a great series especially the last one, but they wouldn't seem to have as much impact alone as they do together.

Fantastic.

neat pics- sadly it was yet another terrible, terrible call by a world official.

Great series Sam!

I'm not that much into football, but this series is good seeing peoples reactions. Very nice work!

Right on!

That penalty kick was a travesty. Italy didn't deserve to win that game.

Nice pictures as always, though.

Yeah!!
That is an exciting goal!!
Last min's goal!

too bad the penalty was a wrong decision because of italy's legendary will to cheat.. anyway, it's nice to have the world cup here in my country :)

well, italy was the better teams and the red card was certainly too much. but, the penalty shot was unfair. the italian took a nice dive..... and for australia it was a shit way to leave the tournament.
....enough about the soccer gossip. nice shots....

Always a pleasure and an inspiration viewing your images. Do you ever use the 17-40L now? The 10-22 does such a great job with the photos you shoot.

Wow, beautiful way to capture the event - any chance of a wallpaper version of these?

We WON!!!!!! Great shot..and a moment i'll never forget..you should have seen waht happened here in Milan..we're just nuts....;P

outrageous call by the ref! sad that 100m+ people can watch the video replay but not the ref? the ausies where robbed. brilliant pictures thou... bloody ref.

Those who know soccer - and weren't just rooting for the underdog - know that it was a good call simply at an inopportune time for the Aussies. The red card was way more questionable. Grosso's finese drew the foul, and he was lucky enough to have been in the box. If it happened the other way around, the Aussies would've cried fair and the Italians would've cried foul. FORZA AZZURRI!

BTW Sam - nice shots! ;)

I need to get out of this soccer hating place called America...

great photo, colors and lightning, but that emotion is nothing compared to this match this night : France-Spain ; allready would have stand up on the table !!! 3-1 for the old frenchies !!!

I figured these pix will show up sooner or later.
Nice shots. WC is fantastic. I will be up in your
neck of the wood for the weekend of July 13th.
Go Brazil!

Game started at 1AM here so a goal by Italy at almost 3AM did not have us cheering too much. Excellent images here though, at a much more civilized hour.

Modernmod said:A COMPLETE travesty!!! That was the worst call ever. But your pictures are great!

I agree!! :)

I really like the sequence here. I feel like I'm watching the same play happen with them. Nice shots!

Love the photos, i can see that you like angles a lot, almost all you photos show some sort of perspective, I think you use the elements in the photo to help you establish these angles as if some architect has just drawn the photo for you, and you colored it :)

truth is? football will always be football, unpredictable, surprising and unfair sometimes! The red card wasn't fair at all, the penalty was a rip off, but if they extended to extra time, Italy would have won, because they played better with ten playes...

man this is called the World Cup heat, when everybody comments on the game instead of the photo :) Love football!

Nice shots. Kinda sad that Australia was out of the tournament because of a penalty that should not have been given. SImilary it is sad that out of it's three goals, Brazin scored two of them with players in off-side position...thinking again, may be it is not as bad as the famous "hand of god" goal by Maradona against England.

Good shots!
About the match, in Italy we usually say "che culo!" (I let you search a translation... :-) ).
A your affectionate reader from Italy.

And yes, penalty was not so.

We were robbed - Lucas Neil was a brilliant player all through.

Thanks to the POM for the Ref comment

they (ozzies) wuz robbed, and that IS a comment on the photos, they awaken all the passion all over again. only place in the world doesn't even know what football is, calls it something else, how appropriate to all that is going on, to be sooo out of touch... VAMOS ARGENTINA TODAVIA!!!!

Great shots!

football fever in US! something well covered by CNN i must say! u shud check the football fever across the atlantic!

Nice set of pictures, not so happy in our house with my Aussie wife. She was gutted.

I visit your site every so often because I love our city (Toronto) and you capture it so well...

And now, reading all these comments, I can see that you are quite popular all over the world...

But the bizarre thing for me is, that I was there at this restaurant watching this game, noticing someone taking a few photos and NOT realizing it was you, Sam!!!

As always, great emotion and great pics!

hehe... world cup = global fever :)

I Love Your Lomo
and I
Also Love Italia
ps:Football
:)