Azzurri Rambles

December 7th, 2011 | by: samcalcio | Comments Off

After Gadsby’s historical piece a few days ago, I come to this little corner of the internet feeling that following a piece as hilarious as that is a daunting task to say the least. Hate him, disagree with him or not, you can’t argue the guy can write great satire(That is of course, dependant on the fact that you noticed he was joking).

Anyway, in the midst of all the anger, we seem to have forgotten the issue at hand. Italy’s group! Spain, Republic of Ireland and Croatia. All great teams in their own right, and present their own, quite difficult challenges. I honestly think the Republic of Ireland will be Italy’s toughest match, as the Azzurri tend to struggle against teams like Trappatoni’s who are very rigid, efficient and dogged from the first whistle to the last.

The man on the left is Criscito’s Dad, while the guy on the right is the man responsible for Vicenzo Iaquinta. Made me chuckle.

The Croatians will present a challenge, but one would expect that Italy can see this one out, having much more quality than the Eastern side, with only Srna and Modric being a genuine threat, I feel.

Which brings us to Spain, the champagne fixture of the group, as our boys face off against the Spanish in what is already billed as a battle for top spot, which it probably will be.  We all know the threat they pose,  the players they possess, and the style they’ll play. I mentioned above that the Irish will be the toughest task, but this will be the most intriguing.  Tournament Spain are much different to Friendly Spain(ask Argentina and Portugal) and will approach the game with an entirely different mental attitude. It’s safe to say they’ll be more focused, and will be much harder to test. It’s Italy’s first game as well, and could well set the tone for the group, and Italy’s whole tournament.

We can come top, I know it, but it’s not going to be easy.

Managed to find these pictures(mcalcio.com) from 2008, I believe. I miss Cassano and Rino..