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A Quick Look Back… Part Uno

July 9th, 2008 | By: Julian | 29 Comments »

Hey guys. My name’s Julian and I’ll be blogging here on the Italy WCB from now on. I’m super pumped to be here and I hope you guys are too. A little bit of backround info about me- I’m American, the son of 2 full-Italian parents and I love the Azzurri. So let’s get this out of the way right now- I support Italy 100%. I won’t be afraid to call out the team or players when I have to, but I’m rooting for them.

That being said, for my first few entries I thought we could take a quick look back at the Euros
I know some of this has been beaten to death but bear with me. We will eventually look ahead to WC 2010 and some things that we have to do in order to defend our title.

But before then, there seems to be some misconceptions about how Italy did at Euro. Some people even branded Italy as a “failure”. Those people? Ignorant. Sure, there was a lot of stuff that didn’t work out for the best, yeah, but a lot of stuff that did.

Italy crashed out of Euro 2008 in usual Azzurri fashion: controversially. We could go over the long list of things that proved decisive in the tourney (starting with Mr. Van-Nistel-I’m-Offside-Rooy) but we should look at some of the positives:

We learned that the Azzurri are multifaceted. In the past, the old cliche of catenaccio usually held true. Even Lippi’s squad, united and winning as it was, was primarily defensive. But in this tourney, we saw glimpses of a new Azzurri. An arguably better Azzurri: one that constantly attacked. The biggest glimpse of this came in the Romania game (Unsuccessful as we were at scoring there. Thanks Toni). Donadoni isn’t the smartest or brightest coach in football- far from it. Hell, he’s not even amongst the best Italian coaches (Spalletti and Prandelli might have something to say about that), but he did add a new attacking dimension to the team.
Class
Second, we learned that Georgio Chiellini is an absolute monster at defense. I know I just said that one of the positives of the tourney is that Italy attacked more than ever, but defense still wins championships (as the old saying goes). Yeah, Italy struggled at first without Canna, but what team wouldn’t after having him at the back for so long? It took a horrible experiment in the Netherlands game- and by “experiment,” I mean, “Let’s see if Materazzi is still as bad now as he was for Inter all year”- the team was able to reshuffle. And hell, for 3 games in row starting with Romania, Buffon and co. only let in a single goal. By the last game against Spain, the defense was a rock. There’s no denying who the young star of the tourney was for Italy (De Rossi doesn’t count cause he was introduced in WC 06, but more on him in a bit). GC had some brilliant tackles and his position was usually stellar. Even when he was caught off, he had the speed to make up for it. Ladies and gentlemen, I think Italy has found a new centerback for the next decade.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at the one other superstar of the tournament for Italy, and look ahead at how the team can transition for WC 2010. After that, expect regular updates about all things Azzurri.

Welcome aboard!

Tags: Donadoni, Euro 2008, Giorgio Chiellini, Italy, Lippi, Roberto Donadoni

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 29 comments.

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By Jeff | July 9th, 2008 at 5:48 pm

First off excellent job on your first post. It sounds like you know what your talking about, know a lot of soccer history and are very knowledgeable about past Italian teams as well. Great job and I look forward to reading more from you on the Italian team as they head into the olympics and wc qualifiers.

By Julian | July 9th, 2008 at 5:54 pm

Thanks for all the positive comments guys . I’m happy to be here gianfranco.

I’ll try to post here daily so you guys can expect that at the least

By gianfranco | July 9th, 2008 at 8:56 pm

I am just happy to have a fresh prespective! I have to ask though, who is your club of choice?

Posted from United States

By Duffy | July 9th, 2008 at 9:04 pm

Nice Julian, I can’t wait to hear your perspective

Posted from United States

By Julian | July 9th, 2008 at 9:53 pm

I’m a huge Roma fan . Sorry gianfranco- I know you cover Milan:P.

If it’s any consolation, I do read most of the blogs over at theoffside pretty often- even the Juve and Milan ones

By mike de robbio | July 9th, 2008 at 10:03 pm

Hey Julian. Good job. Thank god we’ve got some new articles to read and discuss. We’ve got the olympics coming up next month. You gonna write a bit about that too?

Posted from Australia

By Julian | July 9th, 2008 at 10:05 pm

Yup, of course. . I’ll try to cover any and everything Azzurri related, from the Olympics to qualifiers to news about players. Soccer is my passion and being Italian, the Azzurri is the team I live and breathe for.

By Mike | July 9th, 2008 at 10:12 pm

It was a good read!!!

By alessio | July 9th, 2008 at 10:18 pm

Haha good lord do we really need another Romanista Italy blogger?

Just kidding man, good to have you on-board.

Posted from United States

By Vincent | July 9th, 2008 at 10:18 pm

Also a huge Roma fan here as well. But Gli Azzurri always come first in my book. Chiellini was awesome in the tourney. I had faith if we could get by Spain, we would win the tourney. So close….

BTW, I am so tired and frustrated of losing PK’s. Yes we won a big one, against France for all the marbles, but that was one of a whole 2 that we have won.

By Mike | July 9th, 2008 at 10:24 pm

I now know more about the national team, thanks for the post julian!

By Julian | July 9th, 2008 at 10:35 pm

alessio- how many of us are there? I think Chris might have a soft spot for the giallorossi and I’m a huge fan, but is anyone else?
Plus, any self respecting fan of football would love Roma. At least more than Old Ladies . Just kidding

And Vincent, I agree. We lose on penalties way too much, and for a national team that has such good goalies and kickers (Pirlo, DDR, Grosso) you’d think we’d be able to knock a few in

By Porchetta | July 10th, 2008 at 5:58 am

well, it was very interesting to see Lippi´s comments ysterday. Reading and judging from his words, he looks allset to introduce many youngsters into the squad. Definately, with the exception of Buffon, Pirlo and maybe Grosso and Camoronesi, i wont be surprised too Lippi drop all other veterans..I have a feeling that in the upcoming friendly against Austria, Lippi will start feilding a new team.He obviously thinks the new breed of Italian talent can summon the spirit of 2006 and restore the Azzurri to the summit of international football.The 60-year-old has the daunting task of rebuilding the side ahead of World Cup 2010, but he is confident that he has the necessary talent pool.

“I won’t name particular players, but I am optimistic,” Lippi told Stadio News.

“We have such a great Under-21 side – it’s one of the best in world football.

“I have seen these talented youngsters progressing recently and they will be our key men in the future.

By gianfranco | July 10th, 2008 at 8:43 am

It seems that all the Azzurri have been tinted a bit of Maroon, but as long as you keep the DDR love train to a minimum we should all be able to coexist.

Posted from United States

By white is right | July 10th, 2008 at 9:39 am

wow porchetta two paragraphs without a curse!! good for you! keep it up. What did you have for breakfast?

Posted from Spain

By white is right | July 10th, 2008 at 9:48 am

by the way, Porchetta, spain is miles ahead of Italy in all aspects TODAY and the future looks very bleak for the Azzurri. Italy will not qualify for the 2010 world cup as i dont see ready made replacements for the veterans..Spain will win the 2010 world cup easily as they are the best overall in the world today

By alessio | July 10th, 2008 at 9:50 am

On a side note, today is the 2-year anniversary of the Coppa.

Forza Italia.

Posted from United States

By Muddia Dome | July 10th, 2008 at 10:29 am

White, you are correct. Spain will be the World Cup monster that Greece was after the ‘04 EC.

Julian, nice post. Looking forward to you future Azzurri postings.

Posted from United States

By white is right | July 10th, 2008 at 11:08 am

ok…so it seems somebody is using my name to state more compromised statements, i never said spain will win the WC and italy wont qualify…wtf?

Posted from Spain

By white is right | July 10th, 2008 at 11:58 am

yea, i never said spain will win the WC and italy wont qualify..but then it does not need to be advertised!!Spain has a very young, talentd squad, even our defenders are miles ahead of the Italians defenders who are all of a sudden looking very vulnerable. It is all clear when you have a 37 year old veteran Pannucci as a central defender. Carlos Puyol and Marchena pairing is light years ahead technically and defensively of the Italian central defenders. Alo, Sergio Ramos is the best right back in the world, Grosso is finished , he is 31 and is a diver. Capdevilla is technically and defensively miles ahead of the 32 year old finsihed Barcelona flop Zambrotta. It is ironic considering that the strength of Italy namely its defense is on demise. The spanish midfield and forwards are in a different league, player to player and as a team , Spain is light years ahead of italy. I see this Spain winning the 2009 confeds cup, 2010 world cup and the 2012 Euro cup with virtually the same squad. Italy will find it vry difficult to even get a draw against the likes of Berbetev, Petrov, Duff, Keane who are miles ahead in skills and technical abilities than the Italian players. Also, Vucunic´s Montenegro might fancy getting points against poor italy.

Posted from Spain

By white is right | July 10th, 2008 at 12:00 pm

And Cannavaro is finished. he was a collosal flop for Real madrid over two seasons, also he is 38??i see bad times for italy.
in its world cup group, italy to finish below ireland, bulgaria and will have to sweat it out for a 3rd place finish with Montenegro and Georgia. if Cyprus take a result against Italy in the opener, anything can happen, italy might even have to fight for the wooden spoon with Cyprus..
Cheers

Posted from Spain

By lamagica | July 10th, 2008 at 1:36 pm

oh my god! whitey, is there any fucking post on italy that you havent contaminated with your spanish-centric shite? jeezus f-ing christ, save you crap for the spanish blog dumpster where they can collectively stroke your scrotum!

anyway, julian, very good job on your first post. good to see another romanista around!

choooo, choooo, all aboard the ddr train…..

Posted from Canada

By Domeneco Pautusso | July 11th, 2008 at 7:34 am

Iam from Bergamo8Lombardia) and iam a Milanista for life but still iam a die hard DDR fan, not only because he is a blonde like me, he has blue eyes like me, but because he is our future, he is the future of Azzurri..i can visualise him lifting the 2010 world cup and the 2012 Euro cup

By white is right | July 12th, 2008 at 10:58 am

i already said it, someone is using the same username and spewing mud, i tend to produce explanations to my criticisms and im not zealous italy persecutor, sometimes the fans will feel their pride insulted rather than thinking about the topic.

Posted from Spain

By Jess | July 14th, 2008 at 9:23 am

Really?? Are you really still blaming Van Nistelrooij being “off side” as being a decisive factor? Wow

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