da doce： In 2006, Italy won the World Cup in Germany by beating France 5-4 on penalties in what was a magnificent feat for the country. However four years on Italy will have no chance of retaining the title in South Africa.
da esoccer bet： According to many people Italy’s World Cup win was very unexpected and some others have even gone on to call Italy’s victory lucky. However contrary to many beliefs Italy were the best team at the World Cup and had they faced anybody they would have emerged victorious. They had the best blend of tactics and players out of anybody at the tournament and every nation had a fault about them aside from the Italians. Out of the big hitters, Brazil did not have the discipline and were very unconvincing; Argentina didn’t have a good enough manager and the same can be said for France and England. Germany didn’t have good enough players and neither did Portugal and Spain. This left Italy as the only logical winners and when Fabio Grosso’s final spot kick hit the back of the net in Berlin, Italy were crowned fully deserved and worthy winners of the competition.
Now gearing up for their opening game against Paraguay on the 14th June, Italy have many weaknesses about them. Firstly the mastermind behind Italy’s World Cup victory Marcello Lippi shouldn’t have returned to the dugout. After winning the greatest prize in world football he set the benchmark to a ridiculously high standard and the only way he can possibly justify his return is by retaining the trophy. What makes this even more strange is that the Italian FA have already announced that Fiorentina manager Cesare Prandelli will take over from Lippi after the tournament. So that means that Lippi was brought back only for two years for the sole purpose of trying to lead Italy to glory in the World Cup again.
Italy’s second problem is the players that Lippi has picked and who he has decided to ignore. Again Italy have one of the oldest squads in the tournament, and whilst last time that wasn’t so much of a problem because the older players’ inclusion could be justified by their club form. This time around you can’t help but feel a lot of the players are being picked because of their name. The best example of this is Fabio Cannavaro, the Italy captain, now 36 was arguably the best player of the tournament four years ago. However this year he has been in torrid form for Juventus but is still going to the World Cup and will be Italy’s first choice centreback alongside Giorgio Chiellini. Cannavaro isn’t the only aging star being picked by name either, Gianluca Zambrotta, Gennaro Gattuso, Andrea Pirlo and Mauro Camoranesi have all done nothing this season to warrant going to South Africa. In fact the only older players that deserve to be on the plane are legendary goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and Udinese’s Antonio Di Natale who finished the season as the top scorer in Serie A with 29 goals.
Lippi also decided to leave at home Antonio Cassano and Giuseppe Rossi, granted Cassano is a volatile character to say the least and Rossi didn’t have the greatest of seasons for Villarreal, but Italy could have done with impact player like these two. Cassano has never featured for Italy under Lippi, but Rossi has fairly prominently and was the one shining light in Italy’s disastrous Confederations Cup last year.
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Overall the squad lacks any real overall quality, upfront the first choice pairing looks to be Alberto Gilardino and Vincenzo Iaquinta who managed to score just 21 goals between them in Serie A. Compared to what the other nation’s can boast, such as David Villa and Fernando Torres, Luis Fabiano and Robinho, Diego Milito and Lionel Messi, then Italy’s first choice pairing is truly laughable. No defenders of any of the top teams are going to be scared of that combination, and considering at the last World Cup Italy had Luca Toni upfront who had just finished the season scoring a remarkable 31 goals for Fiorentina then this really pails in comparison.
In midfield the majority of the players are either not good enough or past it with the only players of real class being Roma’s Daniele De Rossi and Juventus’ Claudio Marchisio. In defence it looks as though Chiellini may have may have to step up to the plate once again and shoulder the majority of Italy’s responsibilities at the back. In Euro 2008 in their quarter-final game against Spain, he single handedly marked both David Villa and Torres out of the game so he could be one of Italy’s key performers at the tournament. The only area where Italy has no problems is in goal where they have the undisputed world number one, Gianluigi Buffon.
Whilst this isn’t a great Italy squad they are more than good enough of reaching the quarter-finals at least. However their likely opponents should they get this far look to be Spain and like in Euro 2008 you would fancy them to beat the Italians once again. Also a big side seems to go out in the group stages every year, and whilst Portugal are probably the side that looks most at threat, it wouldn’t be unthinkable that it could happen to Italy.
How far do you think Italy will get in the World Cup?
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