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New Zealand Holds Defending Champion Italy to Shocking World Cup Draw

   VOA Sports 20 June 2010
   New  Zealand  head  coach Ricki Herbert celebrates after the World Cup
   group F soccer match between Italy and New Zealand at Mbombela Stadium
   in Nelspruit, South Africa, 20 Jun 2010

Photo: AP

   New  Zealand  head  coach Ricki Herbert celebrates after the World Cup
   group F soccer match between Italy and New Zealand at Mbombela Stadium
   in Nelspruit, South Africa, 20 Jun 2010

   New Zealand has shocked heavily-favored Italy by holding the defending
   World  Cup  champions  to  a 1-1 draw in a Group-F match in Nelspruit,
   South Africa. Paraguay shut out Slovakia, 2-0 in Bloemfontein.

   In  arguably  the  most  surprising  result  at this year's World Cup,
   lowly-regarded New Zealand opened the scoring in the seventh minute of
   Sunday's  match.  Shane  Smeltz  controlled  a rebound off the knee of
   Italy  captain  Fabio Cannavaro and guided it into the net to give the
   Kiwis a 1-0 lead.

   Italy  almost  tied  the  match in the 27th, when Riccardo Montolivo's
   shot  bounced  off  the post. But just two minutes later, Italy pulled
   equal  when  Vincenzo  Iaquinta  converted  a  penalty kick, after New
   Zealand's Tommy Smith was given a yellow card for pulling down Daniele
   De Rossi in the box.

   Earlier, Paraguay defeated Slovakia, 2-0 to move to the top of Group-F
   with  four points after two matches. Enrique Vera and Cristian Riveros
   tallied  in a match dominated by Paraguay . New Zealand and Italy have
   two each, while Slovakia is last with one point.

   In  the  final  match  of  the  day,  Brazil takes on Ivory Coast in a
   Group-G match in Johannesburg.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP.

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