It should be bouquets for the South Koreans and rotten tomatoes for the Italians.
The host country and coach Guus Hiddink, in particular, made the best of the limited talent at its disposal and beat Italy by a golden goal.
Instead of graciously accepting defeat or just disappearing, the Italians found a scapegoat to atone for its sins.
Referee Byron Moreno was viciously attacked by the Italian press yesterday, which blamed the Ecuadorian for its loss by a "golden goal" in extra time to South Korea at Daejeon Stadium on Tuesday.
In various Italian papers the official was called "chubby," or "at least 15kg overweight," "bug-eyed" and "immature."
The Italian press also weighed in on FIFA, suggesting that because South Korea was hosting the tournament, the organizing body was doing everything it could to ensure that it won.
`Shame on you'
La Gazzetta dello Sport said in an editorial, "Italy counts for nothing in those places where they decide the results and put together million-dollar deals."
"Shame on you gentlemen of FIFA and your dirty games."
"THIEVES" thundered Italy's second sports daily Corriere dello Sport, in big letters on its front page.
The Italian team, its manager Giovanni Trapattoni and the media loudly claimed the first penalty decision was a travesty, but replays clearly showed two Italians throwing down two South Koreans in the penalty box.
Marching orders
They said Francesco Totti should not have been sent off, even though he elbowed one player in the face at the start of the game and then did a pike dive in search of a penalty at the end.
The Damiano Tommasi goal that was ruled offside was debatable, but all teams have suffered from bad decisions or bad luck.
France, for instance, was unlucky. But Zinedine Zidane did not say this was the reason the French went out of the World Cup. He said a team made its own luck and he did not blame a neutral party.
The source of Italy's embarrassment is, perhaps, the fact that it was beaten by the Koreans in England at the 1966 World Cup.
The 1-0 result achieved by the North Korean team is still remembered as one of the biggest upsets of all time.
On returning home the Italian players were met by a barrage of tomatoes.
Fruit please
Perhaps fruit would be more appropriate this time round, rather than the lame sore-loser excuses that are currently being given the oxygen of publicity.
But then the Italians would have to accept their team and its players were second class from beginning to end.
It only qualified from Group G by default because Croatia could not finish off tiny Ecuador.
Italy lost to Croatia 1-2 and only just managed a 1-1 draw with Mexico. It looked unconvincing throughout the competition.
A neutral observer would not begrudge South Korea its victory.
Local media in Taiwan have also bought into the "conspiracy" theory for Italy's defeat and have pointed to seven alleged errors on the part of the referee, Moreno.
Three errors -- not the penalty, the sending off, or Ahn Jung-hwan's golden goal -- could, possibly be counted against the Ecuadorian.
But three small mistakes do not constitute a conspiracy.
Local reaction
The local media has inferred South Korea has tried to buy success before now at major competitions that it has held.
This possibly shows jealousy and there are also sore losers in Taiwan, as evidenced by the conversation overhead on the MRT line between Shipai and Shihlin this morning.
RSS