Celebrating Mediocrity

September 3rd, 2010 | by: Julian |

It seemed like a typical Azzurri 2010 game. In fact, it could’ve been scripted. Italians starting off rather well? Check. Decent amount of possession? Check. Conceding a goal from the opponent’s first shot on target? Check and mate. It would almost seem humorous if it wasn’t so embarrassing and disheartening. It really did seem like the calcio gods conspired against Italy, once again. A change in coach, outfield players, tactics, formation- heck, even goalie- couldn’t prevent everything from going as it did all year. Today against Estonia, Italy looked like their winless rut would continue for another weekend. Until the 60th minute.

Estonia Italy Euro 2012 Soccer

Until Antonio Cassano exploited the space created by Leonardo Bonucci on a beauty of a corner from Andrea Pirlo, most Italy fans were pretty disappointed. As one fan put it in the livechat, this had happened so many times that emotions were bordering on apathetic. Gli azzurri started out rather well. They kept the ball in Estonia’s half and had decent possession, though the final ball was often rather poor. Estonia seemed happy to allow Italy possession, and then try to score on quick counter attacks. They went close once before snatching the goal off a free kick. Sirigu dove to save it, but the rebound fell right to an Estonia player who put it away.

Typical Italy. Give away a free kick and concede from the ensuing play.

From then on, the match seemed rather hopeless. Pirlo shone in his regista role- a few misplaced passes did occur, but without him the rest of the midfield just seems lost. Pazzini always looked dangerous once the ball reached him but it rarely did. Pepe simply isn’t up to par at this level and it’s likely that he’s played his last game for Italy. He runs and runs but his crosses are terrible and he contributes little offensively. Rossi surely would’ve been a better prospect, but the Villareal man didn’t even make the bench. The rest of the team was largely invisible, except for the one man from Bari who tried to make a difference.

And what a difference he can make. His first goal was out of the blue, from nowhere when all hope seemed lost. Surprisingly, the five foot nine inch playmaker was able to head the ball in off of a corner. Perhaps not surprising was that the goal occurred right after Pepe was subbed off. His replacement Quagliarella did little on the night, but it seemed fitting that the azzurri were finally able to score once Pepe left. Cassano’s second contribution was simply magical. Off another corner, he backheeled the ball right into the path of Bonucci, who was able to slam it over the line. The rest of the game was more of a hold-onto-the-lead-and-pray-they-don’t-score approach, but for once this year, Italy left the field with three points.

Make no mistake- this is truly a mediocre result. A once powerhouse barely squeaking by a tiny nation is really nothing to write home about. Germany or Spain would be embarrassed by the result. But such has been the year for Italy, that even the tiniest of victories allows for a collective sigh of relief. It’s really been that long for Italy: so long that even a 2-1 result, even in a game where arguably the better team lost, feels welcome.

Surely a result that any Italy fan will take, even if it is just Estonia.

———

Tops and Flops

Tops

Cassano. Truly the only player that deserved it. When everyone else seemed to be incapable of doing anything effective, Fantantonio kept ticking away. His passes were always trying to stretch Estonia, and it was magic on his part that got us the second goal. At 28, questions remain over whether he can lead us come next World Cup given that he’ll be 32 at the time. For the upcoming Euros, though, he deserves to have the team built around him. After that, we can see how Giovinco’s doing and maybe he can slot in for him as the central playmaker. For the immediate future, the Azzurri owes itself to Cassano. Honorable mention to Pirlo.

Flops

The game itself. For the most part, it was a dull game of football. Italy isn’t exactly free scoring Spain even at it’s best, and Estonia looked content to play on the counter. Terrible and boring for large parts it was, though the result is terribly welcome.

Pepe. If Prandelli means what he says about a meritocracy, this was almost definitely Pepe’s last game in azzurro. He contributes almost nothing to the squad and clearly doesn’t have the talent at this level. His crosses, passes, and dribbles were all poor and more often than not, he put the ball in the path of an Estonian.

De Rossi. He needs to step up his game. For someone who won the World Cup at such a young age, Daniele is becoming less effective. Clearly the azzurri doesn’t mean as much to him as Roma does, but if he doesn’t start showing up than he should be benched.

Estonia’s goalie. I’ve never seen such an unsure goalie. It was almost comical at times to watch him deal with crosses.

Odds and Ends

There were a few interesting occurrences throughout the match. One was that play was often built up through the left hand side of the field, where Molinaro patrolled. It seemed really frustrating, considering that Cassani was on the right flank and surely much better of crossing and dribbling than the former Juve man. Upon further inspection, though, this happened because Cassano was playing on the left side of the attack trident in Prandelli’s 4-3-3. The team clearly wanted play to go through Cassano, which had the unfortunate side effect of also going through Molinaro. One possibility for Prandelli is to start Fantantonio in the center, in a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-1-2. This would allow him the freedom to orchestrate from the center and also not involved Molinaro as much. Of course, Prandelli could simply drop Molinaro but Cassano seems better suited to the center of the pitch.

At any rate, the win should help with this.

Pazzini seems like the real deal. He didn’t score, but he wasn’t afraid to take shots and it’s only a matter of time before one of those lands in the net.

Bonucci: 4 games, 2 goals. If he was a striker that’d be a great record. For a defender, it’s phenomenal.

Molinaro showed a lot of heart out there. For a mediocre player, he makes up for it with his work-rate (Pepe, take notes). He saved us from one sure goal by running back and dispossessing a player who probably had Chiellini beat. The camera showed his knees at one point and he was bleeding. From both. He doesn’t deserve to start but as a 75th minute sub if we’re ever up 4 or 5 nil, there’s probably no one who deserves it more.

Balotelli’s return is more than welcome. As for Bonucci, I still have faith in him. He’ll be playing alongside Chiellini all year at Juve. Come the end of the season, they should have quite the partnership. Even more exciting is that Ranocchia seems ready for a callup, and he’s arguable the most talented defender we’ve got. Three good-to-great centerbacks fighting for a spot? Maybe this is the beginning of the end of our defensive worries.

Note to the RAI cameraman- stop showing Gila every few minutes. He’s on the sidelines for a reason.

Highlights:

Italy World Cup Blog RSS Feed

Sampath

haha Pepe wat a joke, terrible player for Juventus and terrible for Italy. How does this guy constantly get a call up?
Sampath

also starts every bloody game
jem

rossi deserves a chance for sure. he looked very lively in the last friendly and pepe has surely had more than enough chances to prove his worth.
Marco

Re: Pepe: Here's the thing, normally I'd say, we're shit out of luck, Pepe will be back. But after today I'm not too sure. Prandelli seemed to have subbed him off in haste – roughly 10 minutes into the second half. Furthermore, and most importantly, it became very obvious that the team had 0 faith in Pepe's ability. If you notice, rather than opening up the play or making logical passes to pepe, teammates, esp. Cassani, Cassano, Monto, and Pazzini, stopped giving the ball to him. This was the most ominous sign in my opinion that Pepe may be gone. Hopefully my hypothesis is correct, it's quite obvious he lacks any quality, skill or tact required of the national team.

Moving along I'd say my 'tops' go to:
Cassano
Cassani
Pirlo
Molinaro (he played very well)

Let's not forget one thing when dealing with DeRossi. He was at fault (along with Cannavaro) for most of the goals in the world cup. He's been utterly poor, and is no Rino Gattuso when it comes to breaking up the opponent's midfield. We should start looking for someone else, I for one am not opposed to the following people getting shots at the azzurri in the next batch of quali matches:
D'Agostino
Nocerino
of course
Giovinco

Pirlo seemed a little quicker today too! Looks like he has some of his wind back!
http://italy.worldcupblog.org Julian

Really good point about Pepe. If the team stops trusting him Prandelli will have no choice but to stop playing him (hopefully), and as you rightly pointed out, it looks like that's starting to happen.

As for DDR and the World Cup, no one really walked away from that with their head held high. DDR led to 2 of the goals directly but scored 1, which is more than most of our strikers scored. The way I see it, the World Cup was terrible for everyone and I don't really give it much weight to the current situation.

That being said, based on current form DDR needs to be dropped for at least a game.
http://italy.worldcupblog.org Julian

I can't believe he didn't even make the bench. I was shocked when I saw that.
http://italy.worldcupblog.org Julian

The only reason I can think of is that Prandelli thinks he can be our Dirk Kuyt- the guy who runs his ass off. Which is great and all, except Kuyt can actually pass and score an occasional goal. Pepe runs and runs but to no benefit of the team.
ROD

shaky start but as the season progresses there is room for improvement its just that they are still suffering from the world cup and the club season just started. If only cassano could have been picked we would have made the round of 16 damn you Lippi! 4-3-3 is great but the way forward is 4-2-3-1,and 4-3-1-2
http://france.worldcupblog.org/ Jean-François Racinet

At least you guys won. My team just lost to BELARUS.
http://italy.worldcupblog.org Julian

We should start a new club: Formerly Great Teams Currently Sucking It Up Huge. It'd be a hit on Facebook.
mikederob

poor performance. too many horrible long balls for my liking. we need to fix the midfield, formation wise. i believe in the 4-4-2 diamond shape, with an attacking mid, a defensive mid and two side mids/wingers.
the 4-3-3 wasn’t successful. we weren’t able to get the ball to the strikers and had to rely on set pieces again!
i really hope prandelli learns from this. Let’s see if there are changes for tuesday night.
rossonero

agree with all of this, apart from the free scoring spain thing

the free scoring spainish scored 4 goals less in 7 games than anti-football italy, and scored the least amount of goals ever for a world cup winner (ie the 4 times we won the wc, we always scored more than that, funny for a side known for catenaccio isn't it)
Giuseppe Rosa Nero

What do you mean by “still suffering from the World Cup”? Only 3 of the guys actually played and that shouldn't be an excuse in the least. If you're lookin at the physical aspect that's utter bullshit because we were knocked out over two months ago. The mental aspect? We have professional players and a new coach and if you're trying to get at them still being emotionally “tired” that's a whole Fucking crock of shit. And stop with the “Should have picked Cassano” bullshit. If we really wanted to put all our faith in one player we mind as well just say that we're Portugal with Ronaldo.
Gigi

“Note to the RAI cameraman- stop showing Gila every few minutes. He’s on the sidelines for a reason.”

Haha right on and he shouldnt even make the bench. At international level he is trash. Pepe is a joke .. always has been .. he offers nothing .. i haven o idea how he continually makes the squad. Juve did the smart thing only getting him on loan coz if they pay that 10 million fee they are the biggest morons on the planet. Molinaro did well but he played against estonia .. a better atacking team would tear him apart and catch him out of position when he goes of one of his wonderous runs into nowhere.

De rossi should be straight up dropped .. nothing else .. he needs a kick up the ass ..its not acceptable to sit in the midfield and be consumed by apathy like he is.

Prandelli still has to make some tweaks .. but balotelli coming back into that team makes me a whole lot happier.

Quagliarella, Pepe, De rossi shouldnt even get a minute in the next game.
http://italy.worldcupblog.org Julian

Very true but I merely used Spain as an example of a team that can be free scoring. I can't remember the last time Italy scored 4 in a qualifying game… or any game for that matter.
Nnahoj

4-3 against New Zealand before the 09 Confed Cup.

In qualifying, we beat Belarus 4-1 in WC06 qualifying (Toni with 3, Camo with 1). We had also beaten Belarus 4-3 in the first match in the WC06 qualifying group (Gila with 2, De Rossi with 1 and I believe Totti had the other).
kurdt

It's time to drop Pepe and bring Giovinco.
Gio

true enough, though i think, much like Pepe, Kuyt is Holland's weakest link.
Gio

definitely. good to see Pazzini out there and Cassano working hard. Quagliarella didn't show so much of his ability as a scorer, but ran off the ball as much as Pepe and really forced some of the defenders and the keeper to give the ball away several times. i was really impressed by his energy and dedication. with Rossi plus Balotelli and DiNatale we have a good group of forewards.

hopefully there will be no need for Gilardino to show up on the sidelines again.
Gio

the plus side of this is that Menez and Mexes looked pretty good … at least as a Roma fan it looks good.

the best thing is, of course, no more Domenech.

plus, at least some of Blanc's selections are starting to look better than the astrologer's.

the Diabys, Saha, Sagna, Malouda, M'Vila and Remy all need to go.

you could really feel the lack of Galllas. Flamini and Gourcouff would have also helped a lot.
Gio

i never really thought France had a great team.
Gio

or how about Italy 3 – 0 Northern Ireland

with Foggia, Pazzini, Pellissier and Rossi.

we looked phenomenal.

and even N.Irelands second string team is 20x better than Lichtenstein.
Gio

i disagree completely.

1. after we settled for a 2-1 scoreline, Quagliarella did more than anyone else on the team, besides Cassini, to run at the opposition. off the ball he was a monster. he chased down passes, ran at defenders and the keeper, forced several balls to be given away.

besides that, he is the most versatile striker in Italy. he can score goals where other players can't even imagine putting shit in the net. he has aerial ability, he can poach, shoot from distance, with his back to the goal, has an incredible instinct and sense of positioning.

i could keep going.

the fact that DiNatale scores so many goals with a mid table team is also worth noting. if he just had a better formation behind him on the national, he would be 100x better.

No doubt Pepe needs to go.

i do agree about your assessment of Molinaro. he played ok last night, but he would get roasted against teams with more tactical positioning and speed. besides, not only was his pushing forward week compared to Cassani, he was responsible for a number of gaffs where Estonia sneaked through and found chances to score. i could not be sure who was marking Kenjov, but my opinion is that he should have been there to stop the rebound Estonia put in.
Gio

i am not a huge Cassano fan, but he looked solid and driven last night.

i do not see Giovinco in there unless there is no Cassano nor G. Rossi.

when these guys go, perhaps he will be their heir.
rdj8

is balotelli gonna be there on tuesday?
Italia2006

Rossi sprained his left ankle (reports say it’s a light sprian) in Training vs. De Silvestri today (Saturday) @ Coverciano .

More examinations to take place Sunday to see if can recover by Tuesday.

He was liklet to start instead of Pepe, but now look slike it will be Quags
Richie Maggio

Exactly. Pepe seesm to be the spitting image of that imbacile player/winger from AS ROMA, Rodrigo Taddei.

All of them, a waste of space and unworthy of being starters!
Richie Maggio

I disagree with you on the negative sentiments about this win.

Yes, things aren't what they used to be, and La Nazionale isn't the powerhouse and threat it used to be, mainly, due to the recent spell from motherf****ing Lippi!

Against what you describe, this team showed something more against Estonia. Small elements of great passing, chemestry, and ball control. Let these players gel a bit more and lets see Rosi and Ballotelli in the line-up and it will be a totally better team.
Driftwood, Otis B.

Kuyt is a good player, I think. He assisted on four or five goals for Holland this past cup, his defense and tireless running always keep opposing fullbacks pinned and unable to join the attack, and he rarely makes stupid passes. Holland has all sorts of bigger problems than Kuyt. While the Pepe comparison fits in the running, our version of the spudheaded winger doesn't fit because Kuyt makes smart simple passes and crosses the ball well. Pepe, as maybe one or two of you mentioned, doesn't.
rdj8

Its true that this year..lippi was terrible, but dont forget that he made us win the world cup 4 years ago…
Giro

This title is so fitting for you Julian
Rinaldo2882

Quagliarella – Cassano – Giovinco
——————Pazzini

Can't wait to see this attack (in a 4-2-3-1, of course).
Rinaldo2882

What do you mean by “still suffering from the World Cup”? Only 3 of the guys actually played and that shouldn't be an excuse in the least.
Italy is currently playing with a brand new team. Many of these players have never played with their current teammates in the same team. It will take time to gel. The reason Italy's playing with a brand new team is because of the horrid WC. It's not an excuse, it's a valid reason.

And stop with the “Should have picked Cassano” bullshit. If we really wanted to put all our faith in one player
Huge difference between “putting all our faith in one player” and “choosing the best players”. Italy has much better players than Portugal individually, and yet Lippi did not choose/start many of them. Lippi really should have picked Cassano, and you really cannot deny that.
Vincent

C'mon now, even a good Italy team only won 2-0 the last time we played in Estonia. It's Prandelli's second game, gelling a brand new team, we haven't won in 9 months, NOW we get a win on the road and still bitching???

No, we didn't play that great, but Cassano showed his class to get us a win which is what we needed for the last 2 years, some creativity. Bonucci and Chiellini were pretty decent, Pirlo was back to being his older self.

Sure, not all roses and stuff, but 3 points is 3 points. I am glad to see new faces, and have confidence we will still be seeing more with others being dropped. {Pepe, Molinaro}
Vincent

Replying to myself, if Ranocchia keeps up with the improvement, I see Chiellini moving to left back to imrpve that position as a possibilty. Cassani, Bonucci, Ranocchia, Chielllini

Any thoughts?
Rufus T. Firefly

France = Turmoil. Ouch.

I don't know why people are on Quagliarella and Di Natale. It's odd really to claim they're not nazionale material. They are in my book.
antonio

I love the look of that!
antonio

I also think that diSilvestre desrves a look before we do that. I think Bonucci and chiellini are very similar players and that Ranocchia with either is a better look than GC and LB
doctor

dont be an asshole
Giuseppe Rosa Nero

You can't both be serious about moving Chiellini to FullBack? Just don't post if you don't know what you're talking about. To say Bonnucci is a better CB than Chiellini? Honestly?
Tottigol

Lippi was terrible all throughout his 08-10 run. The only two matches that the Azzurri shone in, under Lippi's 2nd reign were the 3-0 victory against N.Ireland in an 09 friendly and the 2-0 against Bulgaria in WCQs. Other than that it's been a crapfest under Lippi.
Rinaldo2882

Agree 100% with your initial post. Italy's first win in 2010 is no moment to be bitching. Prandelli is actually choosing, what he perceives to be, the best Italian players. With time, this team will gel and will turn into real quality. I'm sure Pepe and Molinaro will eventually be dropped, with Giovinco and Criscito selected.

Chiellini-Bonucci-Ranocchia-Cassani would be a solid back 4, and given the current lack of LB talent, it would be worth trying out. However, it would not be ideal, since it would be a waste to have one of the best CBs in the world at LB. I'd rather have Bonucci on the bench, and play with a LB-Chiellini-Ranocchia-Cassani. Since Cassani can also play LB, I'd love to see a Cassani-Chiellini-Bonucci-Maggio back 4.
Rinaldo2882

I'm almost starting to enjoy your “angry troll” posts.
antonio

I don't think Bonucci is better than chiellini but I do think that a back line of cassani-bonucci-Ranocchia-chiellini is better than anything other look we could ever come up with.
http://tegarmaji.com/ Tegar M.Aji

Giuseppe Rossi & Quagliarella should have more chance, Pazzini would be best as supersub
antonio

No one said that Bonucci is better than Chiellini. I think that they are similar in style and that either of them paired with Ranocchia is better than the current duo in that their styles of play are more complementary. I think our best two central defenders are chiellini/ranocchia but a backline of cassani/bonucci/ranocchia/chielini is our best possible look.
Mikederob

nonsense. pazzini is a better centre forward than both. rossi is better as a support striker anyway
Mikederob

some changes taking place for the game against the faroes….from football italia:

Prandelli is expected to make changes to his side for Tuesday’s second Euro 2012 qualifier.

Fabio Quagliarella replaces the disappointing Simone Pepe in the trident attack, as Giuseppe Rossi is not 100 per cent fit after picking up a knock in training.

Goalkeeper Emiliano Viviano could make his senior international debut, while full-backs Luca Antonelli and Lorenzo De Silvestri step in for Cristian Molinaro and Mattia Cassani.
rossonero

yeah they breeze through the qualifying, but so do england for that matter. in the highest stage they were no less anti-football than us, in fact ours was beautiful to watch while theirs was systematically boring the team to death with pointless passes and no incision, asides from the fact that if that had been italy diving like that we would have been crucified for years, we're still getting grief over grosso while spain in the final alone dove more than italy in the last few years
Giuseppe Rosa Nero

Now, my dearest, I will come out and say that you have made an intelligent statement that is very much worthy of a decent response. I, however, would much rather prefer Federico Balzaretti as our LB. I think that a Balza-Chiellini-Rannochia-Cassani back line would be superb. If, when he's healthy, Santon could also be worked in, in the place of Balza.
Giuseppe Rosa Nero

Do you think that Cassani would be taken out completely or just to see other options? Molinaro is just a sack of shit so he could be taken out for anybody that can kick a soccer ball.
Mikederob

Probably to see options against a weak side. De silvestri is both very good and young. Hopefully he can impress.
Gio

finally, someone throws Maggio in there.

that would be the best possible back line – if we are to stick with the 2CB and 2 wing formation.

not only is Maggio far better than any other Italian as RB, but he is a versitile choice for the formation as he can also come in off the bench and play either as a full back or as an outside mid.
donadinghi

they are all good and i would be happy to see any of them start, especially at the expense of seeing the likes of Gilardino, Pepe, Amauri or Iaquinta there.

and i agree with Firefly that DiNatale should be in there.

what do we have Gilardino even on the bench for?
donadinghi

I like Sirigu as well, but he did have a couple of shaky moments.

We have better keepers than Viviano though.

Curci, Sorrentino, Anotnioni actually impressed me from Cesena and even Pelizzoli nows that he is back.