The Nedved Question

Yes, I know its the Italy blog. I’ve figure that out by now, thanks. hah. But I watch Juventus enough to notice some trends…and it seems to me that the once-amazing Pavel Nedved is losing his skills and trying to make up for it by being more aggressive. He’s always been “in the mix” as the saying goes, but he was sent off again today for two yellows, the second of which was pretty stupid. All the beautiful through-balls in the world won’t make up for that. He now has more cards this season than any previous season. He’s 33. He’s never really been a true goal scorer, but even so, he’s got a grand total of four this season for Juve.

My question is this…will he really have an impact in the match-up against Czechoslovakia this summer? Certainly he has the nerve and the experience to cause big problems for more inexperienced sides, but will he ’show up’ against Italy? Because from what I’ve seen lately, he won’t make a big impact. And if he makes no impact, then the Czechs could be in for a long afternoon.

And note to Marcello Lippi: please keep Giorgio Chiellini in mind this summer if you’re in need of some defenders due to injury. This kid keeps getting better and better.