Italy: A Comprehensive Follow-Up Since Euro 2008 — Part 1

July 28, 2008

Sorry fans for the lack of coverage as of recent involving our favorite blue squad. The national squad has had several developments since their quarter-final exit at Euro 2008, and here is a brief recap of all the events since the tournament.

Italy was defeated by Spain after a lengthy 120 minute game in the ‘lottery’ of penalty kicks. Buffon made a stellar save in the fourth round to give Antonio Di Natale a chance to bring the kicks level, but his shot was not up to par leaving the door open for young prodigy Cesc Fabregas to finish the job for La Selección, which he happily did. Many fans and media writers have been strongly critical of an Italy deemed “too old”, though I strongly feel that the negative media attention was unfair for the Azzurri (despite their shortcomings).

If there were a year for Spain to succeed, it was this year. The perennial “underachievers” played good football for months well before the Euro competition began, and their young, talented players were brimming with confidence which was furthered by an easy first round as they punished the much weaker sides of Greece, Sweden, and Russia. As well, with the departure of long time coach Luis Aragonés imminent with his likely (and now confirmed) departure to the Turkish club Fenerbahce, it is clear that the Spanish players wanted to give the ultimate farewell to a coach who has put in much hard work and dedication to his country’s football. The Spanish triumph in Austria was less of a surprise than a lot of the media has made it out to be, in this writer’s opinion.

Following that, it should be considered that the toughest opposition Spain faced during the competition was in fact from a very battered Azzurri side. Although in fairness the Spanish were certainly the better side on the day, they faced an Italy side missing key players in Andrea Pirlo, Gennaro Gattuso, and Fabio Cannavaro. Italy was also having to make due with a makeshift backline featuring the relatively unexperienced Giorgio Chiellini and the older Christian Panucci, who was pushed into a centreback role from his usual sideback position. Adding to Italy’s problems, main target man Luca Toni seemed to be unconfident after a lack of scoring in the opening rounds, and once again seemed to be completely out of luck despite his best efforts to find the net throughout the game.

Expecting great things from Italy in every tournament is not unreasonable. They are a proven soccer powerhouse in the world, and Europe’s most successful team on the international scene. Although hopes were high following a convincing World Cup 2006 victory, it should not be a shock that they failed to win Euro 2008. The loss of Il Capitano was a major blow for Italy, as they lost their most capable centreback and a man who can lead the team both off the pitch and on. All of this being said however, Italy still came up short to what should have been reasonably expected.

The Italians did not play terribly, but they were certainly very lacklustre and a far cry from their World Cup 2006 form. In this writer’s opinion, the blame for Italy’s lack of form and poor placing (although not entirely a bad spot considering) falls on Italian manager Roberto Donadoni. I realize that too often in sports, the manager is the first person to take blame for a team despite players not performing well or overly optomistic expectations from the public and/or higher-ups. However, having been such a die hard Azzurri fan for so long, and having watched Donadoni’s work as he put together the team and managed them through Euro, I feel the fairly inexperienced coach was not the right man to be expected to take Italy to European glory. The FIGC made a rushed decision in his selection, and it showed.

Part 2 will follow shortly with a discussion of post Euro events and some additional analysis on where Donadoni might have gone wrong.

Justin Barrie

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