The Italian Football Team Are Coming Home, And Rightly So
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Loading...Quite honestly, overall, they played rubbish.
It all starts with a few problems in the team. Two of the biggest problems are Cannavaro and Pirlo. These two players were the backbone of the 2006 world cup success. The team played well around Pirlo, and defensively, Cannavaro was second to none. However, 4 years on and Cannavaro is not the player he was. Just a yard too slow in every aspect of his game. And Pirlo actually has to be on the park to make a difference. But he also suffered from not being the player he was 4 years ago.
Cannavaro after the Game
And so it went. There were 5 halves of very mediocre football. A bunch of millionaires trotting around waiting for the second round to be gifted to them. Only in the second half of the 3rd game did we see what Italian football could be if they actually try. In those 45 minutes they could have matched Portugal, Spain, Argentina or Brazil. They actually woke up and realised they had to score goals – and they were a joy to watch.
The fact that they also conceded two goals shows the frailties in defence.
For many years I haven’t seen an Italian team to be proud of. Even the team of 2006 was not a great team. But for 45 minutes today, I saw a team that any nation would be proud of. I do hope they come home with their tails between their legs, and face the wrath. And hopefully, a new breed of (younger) more dynamic players will emerge. Not better players – Italy already has some of the best talent in the world – but players who have the desire to win and win big for 90 minutes a game, for every game.
To those who are new to Italian football: What needs to be remembered, as in other countries, the priority is country after club. When Italy won the World Cup in 2006 there was widespread joy around the nation, and a big procession through Rome to a party at Circo Massimo. Probably 150-200,000 people (many put the figure higher, but I saw the crowd and calculated bodies to square metres… 200k tops). After a couple of days it was being spoken about as though it was an historic event.
But when Roma – one of Rome’s two clubs – won the Italian season 2000-01, Rome went mad for a week. Literally! 24 hours a day for 7 days of non stop celebration (I lived in Testaccio at the time, the area of Rome called home by the club Roma).
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A real shame… I like how the NY times puts it:
“Finally, perhaps even mercifully, this rusted hulk of a team was towed away from the World Cup on Thursday, its battery dead, tires flat, windows smashed after a 3-2 loss to Slovakia, which was playing in its first World Cup.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/sports/soccer/25slovakiagame.html?ref=global-home
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Agreed – so poetic… But fine for them – I could be brave (more honest) if I was 3000 kilometres away…. I am sure every part time pundit like myself is going to have their moment of condemnation… The joys of the World Cup!
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