Can someone explain what happened at the 25:58 mark of the Italy- Costa Rico game earlier.
Bump for any of the soccer experts.

free kick?
Are you asking what led to the free kick, or do you have the time wrong?
It appeared that the ref awarded them the ball but that it wasn't really a free kick. As soon as he approached the ball the opposing player ran within a few yards of him.
Well, two things happened - first there was a foul, but the referee let the play develop before calling the foul - looking to see if Italy had the advantage by playing on.
Then when he decided to call the foul, a defensive player will usually encroach - the kicking team can wait to get their 10 yards, or they can take a quick kick - which is what Pirlo did here.
Ironically, a very similar situation happened later in the game, but Pirlo took the free kick into the player who was encroaching, and the player was given a yellow card, for interfering with the free kick.