CORRECTED:

Italy have drawn their match against the USA 1-1, with three players being sent-off in their World Cup Group E encounter in Kaiserslautern on Saturday.

First-half goals by Gilardino to give the Azzurri the lead and an own goal from Cristian Zaccardo were the only goals in a hugely exciting, but very bitty match, which saw a vast amount of bookings from Uruguayan referee Jorge Larrionda which completely changed the complexion of the game in the second-half.

Italy started the game the stronger team, but it didn’t take long for the Americans, who were desperate to banish the memories of their 3-0 thrashing by the Czech Republic last Monday, to start having some attacks of their own.

A free-kick from Italy saw three players caught offside by the US offside trap, which was working very effectively and restricting the Azzurri attacks.

Reading’s Bobby Convey made an incisive run into the Italian penalty area and was eventually brought-down just outside the area.

The resulting free-kick, taken by Convey was smashed into the wall, and the corner was then wasted but it showed the Americans intent.

Italy were seeing very little of the ball and were missing the defensive capabilities of the half-fit Gattuso, with Bruce Arena’s team having the most dangerous attacking plays.

Pablo Mastroeni put a wonderful threaded pass through the Italian defence to Clint Dempsey, but his shot went across the goal and wide.

Completely against the run-of-play, Italy scored in the 22nd minute from a free-kick taken by Andrea Pirlo, who whipped the ball into the penalty area and Alberto Gilardino beat the US offside trap to dive for a headed goal past US keeper Kasey Keller to make it 1-0 to the Azzurri.

Things started to go horribly wrong for Italy in the 27th minute after Zaccardo scored an own-goal from a dangerous free-kick that he was attempting to clear.

Things got worse when, just two minutes later, Daniel de Rossi was sent off for elbowing Fulham striker Brian McBride in the face. De Rossi proclaimed his innocence but the replays showed that it was a cynical challenge that deserved the card.

Both sides were pushing for a second goal, but with the strength of the US attacks, Azzurri head coach Marcello Lippi decided to take off AS Roma captain Francesco Totti for the defensive clout of AC Milan’s Gennaro Gattusso in the 34th minute.

The energy had been taken out of the game by the sending-off and the Italian’s were in no mood to concede a second goal and were defending in numbers.

Luca Toni and Gianluca Zambrotta were still playing a partnership up-front for the Azzurri, but were consistently being caught out by the US offside trap.

Mastroeni came close to taking the lead in the last minutes, with a terrific long range effort that went inches high of the bar.

The game had a last minute shock during injury-time in the first when Mastroeni was sent-off rather harshly for a tackle on Andrea Pirlo, which the referee deemed to be dangerous and sent him straight-off.

The teams went into half-time with the scores level, but with the USA wondering how they managed to throw their man advantage away.

The second-half started as badly as the first-half ended for the USA, with Eddie Pope being sent-off for a second yellow-card for a challenge on Luca Toni.

Bobby Convey was taken-off for Jimmy Conrad after the second sending-off to compensate for the defence, with the Italians sending-on Alessandro del Piero for Cristian Zaccardo.

Gilardino had a couple of shots that were well off-target, but the Italian’s were really struggling to break the US off-side trap that was excellently marshalled by Arena and by the hour-mark the Italian’s had been ruled offside 8 times, without the US having been caught even once.

The USA then had a goal from DaMarcus Beasley ruled offside, with major appeals from the US bench, but replays showed that there was a player clearly affecting play.

Perotta suffered a thigh injury, which saw the Italian’s, who had already used their three substitutes, and saw their one-man advantage being lessened somewhat.

Not helping the match was the questionable refereeing from Larrionda, who was totally over zealous with his awarding of free-kick's and had no sense of giving the players advantage-of-play which which slowed the game down severely.

Kasey Keller, who was having a monumental match, made an astonishing save halfway through the second-half, when Alessandro del Piero managed to break the offside trap, but his shot was acrobatically saved by the US keeper to keep the scores level.

Italy just couldn’t take advantage of their numerical advantage, and the USA were not going to go down without a fight, and constantly threatened on the counter-attack.

Strangely, Italy were playing their famous ‘Catenaccio’ strategy, which they usually use when defending a slim lead and is a very defensive formation, but that restricted the Azzurri to long-range shots.

As the game came to the closing minutes, Italy finally pushed for a winner and came close when, in the 86th minute, Keller made another extraordinary save from close-range to deny the Italians.

The game finished with the Italian's finally trying to mount a proper attack, but Bruce Arena can be proud of how well his nine-men defended and yet still caused threats.

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