Poland 0, Italy 2

November 11th, 2011 | by: elaine | Comments Off

What can I say? Prandelli’s starting bloggers were unavailable for this friendly, so I got called up instead. I’m okay with being third choice, I’ve always liked Sirigu anyway.

First let me say that friendlies are anything but friendly to the fans. Competing with Euro and World Cup qualification matches for TV coverage, not even being the 6th ranked team in the world allows your fans to watch the match in hospitable conditions. Instead, we are all relegated to trolling the internet for streams, which have the visual quality of a blizzard in a hurricane, and stutter and stop more than an old Yugo. So if you are reading this and you managed to see most if not all of the match, congratulate yourself. Today, Azzurri fans worked hard.

Speaking of working hard, the first half it seemed like Poland were the ones working hard. Dominating possession and shots, they rendered our midfield virtually invisible (or maybe our midfield rendered themselves invisible.) De Rossi had a great chance to score in about the 18th minute, but instead tried to cross it. In about the 23rd or so, Balotelli headed it off of a Pirlo corner, but it went over the bar. In the 30th, Balotelli had a great shot from distance to score a sweet goal, Italy were up 1-0.

In between some sketchy stream action, Ranocchia continued to play well, and Buffon apparently had a nice save. In the 40th, a bunch of pixels in the shape of Montolivo fired off a nice shot. The momentum was starting to change, certainly we were maintaining possession better and getting more shots off.

Interestingly enough, Prandelli started off the match with the youngest defense in recent memory for me. It was a 4 man back-line (okay, 3 men and a frog) with an average age of 24.5 yrs. old. And surprisingly, they were the strongest component of our team in the first half, if not throughout the match. The frog did very well again, Criscito wasn’t as stellar as he has been before, but solid, and Chiellini seemed more solid again at the center than he did on the left. The long awaited debut of Abate went quite well, too.

The second half saw Pepe and Motta come on for De Rossi and Pirlo. I am not sure why Gadsby tweeted this to Prandelli at the half, but apparently Prandelli felt compelled to answer. Even fans of these two were probably wondering what was going on, as Pirlo had been playing really well, even if De Rossi was not having the game of his life. But miraculously, the world kept spinning, and they were actually not half bad.

Polanski earned the dubious honor of the first yellow card in the 54th when he had a nasty sliding tackle into our sweet little Criscito. He apparently did not get the memo not to break Criscito, but luckily is one tough little full back. Polanski followed up his reckless foul with a shot that just barely went wide, or maybe Buffon tipped it, either way, it was one of the more dangerous chances.

In the 58th minute, Balotelli had a beautiful free kick that was saved by Szczęsny, and just two minutes later, he crossed it in to Pazzini who tapped it in for Italy’s second on the night, Italy 2-0.

A triple substitution of Aquilani, Matri, and Nocerino coming in for Pazzini, Marchisio, and Montolivo was a bit like bringing the tanks into a hand to hand battle that you were already dominating. Matri had several great runs forward attacking. A Balotelli header from what looked like a Pepe corner was saved. Thiago Motta got his nose bloodied in there somewhere in all of the hugging and kissing in the box.

In the 76th, Criscito went off for Ogbonna, who did surprisingly well, even if he earned himself a yellow card in the final minute of play. Lewandowski was fouled in the box in the 84th by Ranocchia, which the ref awarded a penalty for. So their best chance of the night thus far would be up to our trusted Buffon to save. Which he did! Damn, I love that man.

The final minutes of the game had some great chances for both sides including yet another Lewandowski shot that was blocked by the Gladiator, Chiellini. Also Matri’s shot that ended up in the side netting outside of the goal in the 90th +2. But what started as a not so convincing performance turned into a very convincing one. Poland were dangerous at times, but even with six of our starting eleven having been subbed off, Italy managed to control the match.

If anyone doubted Prandelli’s lineup, the boys proved today that we have nothing to fear. Playing one of the co-hosts for next summer’s tournament is far from playing a favorite, but if you’ll remember, we passed the Spain test, too.

I’m not saying we will waltz into Poland-Ukraine and just walk away with the trophy, but Prandelli has done well to build a team that is full of youth, full of talent, and as today showed, full of depth. Even without the beloved Cassano and Rossi, our attacking options are very deep, so one way or the other, we look to be in good shape. And if we can play well when Uruguay come to town on Tuesday as well, then we’ll know if we have versatility, too. I may have had to watch a very pixellated version of our boys today, but I know a strong team when I see one, at any resolution.