The incident could further injure the already damaged image of Italian soccer amid a widespread corruption scandal.

"It was a serious incident, but it's not an episode that can represent all of Italian soccer," Abete said. "We have other problems and we will confront them in entirety. Obviously it was a negative incident, but it should be kept in context."

Abete also pointed out that Italy wasn't the only team that played dirty, since two Americans were also ejected. And Lippi criticized the U.S. team for how it continued playing after midfielder Simone Perrotta was injured, scoring a goal that was annulled for offside.

"They went on playing when one of our players was down," Lippi said. "But all anyone talks about is what we did.