How To Kill A Giant

I've been mostly offline for the weekend, and haven't been watching matches with the sound up very loud as I visit with my family, so I only tangentially know how much bitching and moaning is going on about the level of theatrics from Italy in their historic -- for the wrong reasons, from their point of view -- draw with New Zealand.

All I'll say about that is that the penalty was legit. I've heard it called "soft," and that's a fair claim, in that no one died and no ankles were broken, either of which would make it "hard," presumably.

No, I want to say that New Zealand provided the absolute blueprint of how a team with something like 2000/1 odds to win the World Cup can knock off the defending champions. There are three reasons, two of which others can try to replicate, one of which is a bit trickier.

Intimidate. The foul count was heavily tilted towards New Zealand, and while the Azzurri may have embellished here or there, the Kiwis were still throwing their weight around. And in this position, you have to. If attacking players get a little bit of fear in them, they're going to be less effective, and I think I saw somewhere that Alberto Gilardino hasn't even had a shot in two matches. That's pretty less effective.

Everybody back. Another stat that jumped out at me was the disparity in corner kicks. Some of that goes to individual performances, but it's also a function of packing bodies behind the ball and making it difficult for a team to get a shot off without a very good chance of someone being able to knock it out of danger, at least temporarily.

The hot hand. Tactics alone aren't going to get you all the way there. Somebody still has to step up and get the job done. Goalkeeper Mark Paston and central defender -- and MLS alumnus -- Ryan Nelson both did just that, stonewalling Italy at nearly every turn.

The last point makes it not immediately transferable to every minnow trying to knock off a big fish, but the match in Johannesburg will certainly give underdogs everywhere hope -- and maybe a game plan -- that they can pull off an upset.