A Few Thoughts on the Faroe Islands

September 8th, 2010 | by: Julian |

To start off this post, as you guys know, I didn’t have a chance to see this game. My personal life was really busy early this week, so unfortunately I wasn’t able to watch us get our best result in years. I can’t really comment on how we played, then, though based on the comments it seems like we were quite spectacular. I just want to make a few general points.

One, I am absolutely thrilled we finally played well. By all accounts, Cassano was a livewire and is becoming a true talisman for the team. Prandelli says he wants to build the team around him and Balotelli, which seems fantastic to me. Cassano is a lot more mature and can clearly lead the team well enough. He can show Mario how to behave and serve as a role model for him, given how Balotelli’s petulance is similar to how Cassano was when he was younger. Come 4 years, the team should transition smoothly from Cassano to Balotelli/Giovinco.

Look at that. A long term plan.

Second, the score is awesome. 5 goals in qualifying? It’s been years since we even scored 4, and I don’t know when the last time we scored five was. Props to Cesare.

However, I do want to keep this all in perspective. For one, this was a qualifying game. It’s early in the campaign and teams that struggle now (or do well now) aren’t necessarily going to be that way later on. We had a really hard time in the beginning of the last qualification campaign, only to end up top of the group. I don’t want the opposite to ring true here, so the boys have to stay motivated.

Two, it was the Faroe Islands. The fact that we’re all hyped up about the score is simply because we haven’t seen it in so long. It’s not the Azzurri way. Never was and likely won’t be for a while. We never dominate teams by a high scoreline. It is great to see us playing attractive and winning football, but it may be too early to start claiming that the slump is over. This is a good first step to ending the slump, but not the end in and of itself. We didn’t exactly dominate against a decent team in a tournament game. If anything, what we should be taking from this is that it showed we have the potential to be great- that’s the exciting part. We’re not great because we thumped the Faroe Islands. But perhaps Prandelli is showing us that greatness has the humblest of origins, starting with one of the worst teams in FIFA.

And that’s all I can really say about the game. Please feel free to go into a lot more detail in the comments below so that readers can get a good sense of how it went, and I’ll try not to miss any more games in the future.

In short: 6 points from 2 games is not a bad start. But it is merely a start.

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rdj8

woww..I just found out.. GERMANY VS ITALY in february and ARGENTINA VS ITALY on the 1st of june..
MM9

Agreed — you can't get too hyped by beating up on the Faroe Islands.

But, I will say this — good teams are supposed to beat bad teams (like the Faroe Islands) with conviction and do so in a dominating fashion.

If I'm Prandelli, I look at this with tempered enthusiasm. We executed our game plan, and beat them exactly the way we should have.

No need to extrapolate at this point — it is what it is — and we looked great beating this team the way we should have. Exactly the progress I was hoping to see…
Angel

All in all, and considering the opponent, the team did well.

Cassano should be a lock for the next 2-3 years (just great flair and magical work!!!). Welcome back Pirlo (3 assista, and 1 goal in 2 games). Montolivo seemed to get lost in Lalaland at times but was much improved from the Estonia match. De Rossi doesn’t seem to have the fire he had in ’06 but think he should feature in the first team (maybe on a more defensive support role?). Midfield seemed to start to gel and had better passing and communication. Still not convinced on the defense; it still looks to be vulnerable against better opposition. For all the praise placed on Chiellini, to me, he doesn’t look like a lock down defender (ie, Nesta, Maldini, Cannavaro, Gentile, etc). Except for the game against Spain in Euro ’08, he has looked so-so IMHO. Some more tweaking in this area is needed. Not much to say about Viviano, as he pretty much had a vacation for 90 min. However, what about taking another look at Storari and De Sanctis, or even Curci?

Great to see the team on a winning streak (regardless of opposition), and hope for continued improvement.
Paoloitalia

On the Totti issue. I don't think there's that much talent up front where we couldn't use him on the bench, especially if Cassano gets tired or if we need a goal. Having him at the euro's would be awesome provided he has 2 great seasons. With Balo, Cassano, Giovinco, Pazzini, rossi it wouldn't hurt to have a supersub to go along with them. Doubt it will happen though. There's a lot of players who will get called up in the next 2 years and its way to early to judge anything. Great to see Italy smack down a team finally. Also changed my name from Paolo to Paoloitalia because there are too many Paolos lol.
FrancescoItalyOffside

I know the opponent was the Faroe Islands, but I like the sense of enthusiasm this new side has. Everyone looks to get along and really seem motivated to put the Nazionale Italiana back on the map. I like that Prandelli is using a midfield with all skillful players, and if he can get his points across to the squad this Italian team should be one of the more fun to watch in recent years. And as much as everyone is kissing Cassano's ass now, it's deserved. He is our talisman for the next couple of years. I've followed Cassano since he debuted in 1999 and I've never seen him play like this. He's actually running, tracking back, putting pressure on the opposing defense, making runs into space. I tihnk he finally understands what he has to do to be at his best. He looks like he wants to really make up for lost time with the Nazionale. If Prandelli can figure out how to play with Cassano and Balotelli together in a 4-3-3, this Nazionale could be a real joy to watch. The only shaky thing is the defense, but I'm confident Prandelli can work on that too.
jem

Montolivo on Prandelli's instructions:

“The Coach told us to rotate the triangle in midfield, so we rotate positions and who goes forward, who stays back. It needs to be worked on, obviously, but we are on the right track,” he said of the new 4-3-3 system.
masonio

I think this will be the key in future matches. With Pirlo and Montolivo generally being the laid back playmaking/non-tackling midfielders, it's too much to ask only De Rossi to charge into the box as well as track back to tackle.

Also, I hope I'm not the only one who's seen De Rossi improve over the last two games. He was mediocre against Estonia but still managed to make decent passes. He seemed to have more chemistry with Pirlo this past match and his passing was even better than before. Hopefully he can keep improving and people will start to like him lol. Otherwise we should look to replace him, but I'm not sure who would be better right now.
Driftwood, Otis B.

A three man midfield should have three different types of midfielder: the creator (obviously Pirlo), the destroyer (de Rossi or Palombo), and the passer who keeps the ball moving around in possession. That's Monty. He's not a box to box type and he's definitely not a holding midfielder, although he'll do both, albeit poorly, if asked. In a few more matches, he should get more comfortable with Pirlo and de Rossi, and that midfield should be money. Against really good attacking teams, though, swapping Palombo for Montolivo might be a good idea, and it would free up de Rossi to have more of a box to box role, especially on counterattacks.

To continue on a Fiorentina note, what did everyone think of de Silvestri? For la Viola, he's a good runner and excellent on the attack, but often lacking defensively. Given, the Faroe Islands probably aren't the best place to rate his defense, but anyone have a take? I won't even bother asking about Gilardino, since I know that he's the worst striker ever in the history of the Azzuri and that he sucks and all that.
Tony

Where can I download or watch the full Italy/Faroe Islands game? Anyone?
Marco

no playing games eh? have they released the venues for any of these matches?
Gio

even though i myself am guilty of having said earlier that the Faroes are not much of a team, you have to realise that it is 118th out of about 210 teams.

do not fool yourselves that this is one of the worst teams in FIFA.

understand that there are other teams who get to play the likes of San Marino (a “country with the population of the town in which i grew up …. 30,000), Andorra, Malta, etc. – i.e. teams that are made up of the local butcher, a school teacher a couple of fry-boys and a priest.

the Faroes are better ranked than half of Africa, most of the Caribbean and pretty much all of central Asia … that is, pretty much everything between Iran and China.

so, even though it is not like beating Spain, it is more of a test than Sweden or Holland thrashing San Marino, or like Russia playing Andorra.

of course, a truer test will be Serbia … even Slovenia did better than we did at the WC.
Gio

and i cannot wait till Portugal drops to 26th place where it belongs.

so happy CRon and those douches got schooled by Cyprus and Norway.
masonio

I posted the link but it seems to need verification from a moderator. I missed the game myself so I downloaded it from:

www fbtz com/forum/showthread php?t=161149

Put dots where there are spaces (3, after www, fbtz and showthread). I believe you have to register but imo it is totally worth it.
masonio

Actually, if you don't want to register just use these direct download links:

1st half
www fileserve com/file/2Srhxr4
www fileserve com/file/QHYJQd7
www fileserve com/file/f8NM37Q

2nd half
www fileserve com/file/NRAWjeR
www fileserve com/file/3wZYm9R
www fileserve com/file/ShYCFnc

Again, spaces are where you should but dots.
rdj8

dont think so
Ducati5758

when is the next qualifier?