A CASA CON VERGOGNA
(AT HOME WITH SHAME)
Marcello Lippi has already copped the blame Rudd style, stating that he had ill prepared the squad. Not even the 2006 glory will save him the wrath of the Italain public, but a considerable amount of blame must be shared by the players themselves. There are many players on stratospheric salaries who still manage to play a vital role in a national game; Holland, Germany,Argentina, Brazil to name a few. Some ciuntrues however find it difficult to integrate and play greater than the sum of their parts. In 2006 Italy managed to do this, but the warnings from previous World Cup and Euro tournaments had not been heeded.
Where the French demise can be mathematically represented by the Domenech Equation:
FAILURE = 1/(P+D) where P=player petulanec, D=Domenech;
the Italian failure is multifaceted, with blame to spare after Lippi and his players accept their share post elimination as a PR necessity. The problem also stems from Serie A, where the high percentage of foreign players still has deep rooted effects on young talented men coming through. Inter faced Bayern Munich with not 1 Italian in the starting XI (Cesar Maicon Samuel Lucio Chivu Zanetti Thiago Sneijder Cambiasso Eto'o Milito). The absence of Andrea Pirlo meant that Lippi's tactical nous got lost. Without him, the groupgames saw lineups with a 4-2-3-1, 4-4-2 and a 4-3-3 formation, with the inconsistency showing in quite frankly insipid and toothless performances.
That Pirlo was so severely missed is a shocking indictment on Italian football, that only a handful of players with Italian heritage can make it to Pirlo's standing as a playmaker at a successful club. The Spanish place high priority on developing their own. For one Pirlo, La Liga has Xavi, Iniesta, Silva etc etc The German league, while rising in the ranks of European leagues as a destination for quality foreign players, still develops its own Ozil, Schweinsteiger and Podolski. They have missed Ballack's all round presence but have still managed to fill the hole and adjust the strengths of the palyers around him. The Dutch have not even missed Robben and look ominous with his return. You get the trend.
Italy has survived with the blessings of Baggio,of Del Piero, of Inzaghi, of Maldini, of Buffon, but now face a barren period where they look to filling the key spinal positions as Euro 2012 qualifiers come around.
Despite this systemic problem, Lippi must be held accountable also for not choosing Cassano and Baiotelli, presumably on account of their individual focus and Lippi's fear for his team's harmony with them in it.
I used to mock the state of Italian national football when a player with so little to offer such as Angelo Di Livio could get a game. Look at it now. It is hopefully the nadir of Italian football in our lifetime.
In true Italian style, the media will mourn the loss gleefully for a week before turning its sights on the transfer market, spouting lies, speculation and heresay that sells papers in the Italian off-season.
Nothing will have been learned.
GP
ITA 2 SVK 3
NZ 0 PAR 0 (first team to be eliminated without losing since Ireland in 1990)
NED 2 CAM 1
JAP 3 DEN 1
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