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"the sin of the squad" - arriverdeci lisbon!
My two cents
saying i was not the best company this past few days was to put it mildly. i was such a bear whenever somebody mentioned italy. yeah! friends and foes were having the time of their life needling me as much as they could. siottt!
strangely enough, i didnt shed a single tear when italy made their exit after failing to qualify for the quarter final. i'm very disappointed yes and resigned to the fact that the azzurri was no longer one of the best teams in the world/ in any major tournament.
i am not going to analyze the azzurri's final match simply because they sucks big time. apart from cassano and zambrotta, the rest of the team looked bloody rusty.
this time the dramatic exit from the euro 2004 was nobody's fault but their own. the whole squad to be specific. i could never believe that the "squaddra italia" had reached a point where they were forced to put their fate at the mercy of other teams.
in this context, yes the coach trapattoni was the main man to be blamed. the fact that he practised favouritism in the team had so much destroyed the camaraderie between players. the choice of players in his squad was basically based on who he favoured than who was the best.
the azzurri has no one to blame but themselves. they should have won against denmark and sweden. their below par performance against bulgaria proved how low their morale was compared to euro 2000, during the semi-final against holland where zambrotta received a red card. you could see how the ten-men italians regrouped and co-operated with each other to defeat holland.
yes, i confessed, my blind loyalty to players such as del piero, nesta and cannavaro made me fail to see their shortcomings. as for del piero, the whole azzurri fans had been waiting for him to perform a magical skill that could help italy win in any tournament much like roberto baggio. unfortunately, it didnt materialise. his misses were too many to be ignored even by his loyal fans. for all his skills, he was a failure with the national team.
the dynamic duo was no more. the partnership of nesta and cannavaro in the centre of italian’s defense was also failed to impress. i had just suddenly realised that it was maldini who kept the back four strong and sturdy. not just skill but his commanding presence.
nesta for all his elegant defense skill could not do it alone. as the italian team is famously known for their tight defense, what is left for them to be proud of with the lack of great defensive players after nesta and cannavaro? when did they stop producing great defenders?
at a time like this, i had to swallow my word where matterazzi was concerned. i forgot that he was such a menace, a stupid one at that. i forgot his penchant for shirt tugging and rough tackles. he had once kicked shevchenko’s stomach and everywhere he could reach during one of the milan derbies.
apart from pirlo, the azzurri has no other great midfielders. zanetti, camoranesi, perotta and fiore are just fillers. they are good but not exceptional. gattuso at least made up for his lack of skill by chasing the ball tirelessly on the field from one end to the other. he is definitely a ball-winner.
totti, hah! what a disgrace! i didnt even want to mention his name.
again, i wonder whether the feud between inzaghi and his former best friend, vieri was the reason he was dropped from the squad in the first place. it's more weird than the stupid conspiracy theories. i mean inzaghi scored four goals in a single match during the qualification round. inzaghi had also almost single-handedly helped the italian team qualify for the final euro, wherelse vieri's was dip in form almost the whole season.
trap gave all of us a lame reason about inzaghi not being able to recover from his ankle injury when inzaghi himself said he was fully recovered right before the euro started. trap had even promised inzaghi that he would bring the striker to lisbon.
imagined if totti wasnt banned. cassano would probably spend the whole tournament on the bench waiting for a 10-minute chance to play before the final whistle. he's a revelation really. so different from the young cassano when he first made his debut with the romans. he had finally grown up but fate decided to play a cruel game with him.
alberto gilardino - the 24-year-old parma striker is the second highest scorer in the serie a last season. he is in top form, young and very-very fast but trapattoni didnt want to bring him. bloody coach! when every other coach couldnt wait to show off their young skillful players in this tournament, trap left the best young player he ever had at home.
conspiracy theories about game fixing between the all scandinavian teams as accused by the italians camp just made me ashamed for being their fan. god! why did they have to do that? dont be such sore losers.
accept the defeat with open heart and maybe it's time for the italian football federation to examine where did the italian team go wrong? and please dont give such stupid excuses, this time.
And what’s this I heard about trappattoni’s refusing to resign. He is an ass. Have some dignity and get the hell out of the figc lah. I don’t want to see you near the squaddra italia. Do a harakiri or something.
Yes, I will continue watching the euro until the finale. But being a neutral isn’t much fun. Well good luck to the remaining teams. If I were given a choice to choose the winner, I hope the czech republic will win.
As for the azzurri, I will wait for the olympic games to be able to watch the azzurri under-21 or the azzurrini play. Maybe, apart from gilardino, I will be able to scout some new talents. Hopefully, they will fare better than their seniors.
n/b: dania, it's been a long time since we did a live telecast like that. sms-ing each other like crazy. but it was fun though. it reminded me of nesta's lazio days. 
photo courtesy of zefiro
last modified Jul 4, 2004 at 21:42
so SN, kao masih nak maintain ke nama Nesta tuh?
i have to admit, i actually supported italy to lose before euro started, that is also because seeing what trap had done for 4 years is a known fact that he had ruined the team's morale. So I wished it to end and that I prayed Lippi will take the role.
And that came true. We might not know what Lippi is capable of ;good or bad, but I know for sure Trap has done more damages by being a stubborn head tactical. Even so, I was mad because the team was atrocious. Hope good changes will come. Czech took at least 8 years to where they are, italia has gone through 4 years. We'll see August later in WC QF vs Norway.
Hmm, people think I've lost hope for lazio and moved on with valencia when I'm not at all. Sheesh saddens me.
Yeap its been really long since we had a thorough talk haven't we? Still remember those hours of talking. Hahah. Ah well here's for the future. Hey we should meet up again one day tho.
mensh: sure mensh. i have no problem with it. thanks for reading my weblog though. hehehe...
pires: forza azzurri per sempre. (uhuks!). that's all i can right now.
hey...the boots, the weather, the other teams...they all hated us...they wanted us to go back...they don't want us here...don't worry we'll be back
they say
we have the best defenders...may be until the next few years...we don't want to think about the future...we don't want to think at all
they say
i am the best coach...look at all the trophies i won...i will also coach on my deathbed
he say
it's really hard when dignity is not one of the vocabulary
Sorry to hear about your favourite team disqualified to quarter final. I've been following your weblog for quite some time and this is first time I post a comment here. I write an entry in my journal and make your weblog as my reference and I hope you'll be okay with it. Otherwise I will edit my entry. Thanks!
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