lucas neil vs fabio grosso- tell me if there was contact?

[EKBATAN]

The Malouda play did have contact. Clipped the back leg. He exaggerated!!! !!!

It seeeems like he did but he was already diving into the ground cuz he saw materazzi coming his way. Even if the back leg barely got touched, he was on his way down like an oscar winning actor.
But whatever, the point is giving a crappy penalty at the very beginning of a world cup final f-cks everything up. France messed up the pace of the final from the very beginning with henry diving and taking 10 min. to recover and then 5th minute diving penalty.

[Hello]

I personally don't think it was a penalty, just as I don't think Matterazi should've been sent off, but I do agree that it was a difficult decision for the referee to make though I do think he made it very quickly, although there is no video ref so in football the referee usually makes his mind up quickly. I was surprised Italy were given the penalty but I suppose that's football and it happens, and the rest of the Azzuri had nothing to do with it, if it was a dive, it was Grosso and Grosso alone, and yes, all teams have players that dive, it's unfortunate but it's true. I guess there's nothing we can do about this decision now, all I can say is, "Shit happens". Well done Italy for winning the performance and I was proud of the Socceroos performance against what is, no doubt a very good team ,especially in defence, it's like a frickin' brick wall! Italy only conceded two goals in the whole tournament, one of which was an own goal and the other was a penalty, a very cool penalty, just bouced over the line of the top post.