Stay on Topic Please

We are not debating whether Neill should or should not have gone down and slid.
We are not debating whether Grosso should or should not have gone around him.
We are not debating what the players could or could not have done, what they were or were not thinking...we are asking "WTF was the referee thinking?!".

We are debating the fact that the Italian player INITIATES contact, trips over a body that happened to be there (no or minimal prior contact) in his way due to a slide and attempted block, takes a dive (and not even a good one! - for good dives, see "Portugal"), and sells a PK that the referee clearly screwed up in calling. On Soccerblog, Shourin details the quote that comes out "...I had no option but to go down...". THAT does not warrant a PK. That warrants a "thank you" from Thew to his lovely wife (no salacious comments about blowing the whistle!). I agree with Shourin, that indicates that he had a conscious choice of actions, and he chose to try and dive to draw a penalty.

And I'm sorry, big guy, but the REALITY is that you NEVER call a foul like that in a game like that at a time like that...