Death of the Azzurri

So as the Italian side went crashing out of this year’s World Cup, many of us Azzurri fans are sitting around wondering what went wrong. Well where do we begin? Well the normal person would start from the top with Marcello Lippi. But to me, that isn’t high enough. We have to go to the FIGC and place all the blame on them. And not for what happened this year. This whole mess started four years ago when a man by the name of Roberto Donadoni was named the coach of the Italian squad.

His lack of respect from the players, with the added World Cup hangover put the FIGC is a crunch to find a new coach for the World Cup which would be in two years after Donadoni’s contract was not renewed. This mess forced them to beg Lippi to come back, when one can only guess he had no interest in coaching as he all ready won his World Cup. This lack of interest, lack of desire would then transcend onto the players, the core group of players that Lippi holds so close to the heart. Buffon, Grosso, Camoranesi, Cannavaro all showed signs of this. Only Pirlo and Gattuso in my mind still has that drive, that desire and pride to win for the nation, for the fans. Now given, Gattuso isn’t the player he once was, but in that first half, it showed that he was the only player on the pitch who knew what was at stake. He played with power and determination, but the skill wasn’t there as it once was, which brings me right back to Lippi.

I am a huge Gattuso fan, always have and always will be, but why was he on this squad? And that question could be said for a lot of people. Why was Iaquinta on the squad and not Marco Borriello? And the obvious question everyone was asking, why wasn’t Pirlo in the starting XI if he was fit enough to play the second half? And the same goes for Quagliarella. The only Italian players to show any kind of finesse were either dropped from the team, or sat on the bench every game. Whatever was going on in Lippi’s head when he made the decisions that he did, I believe it was more along the lines of let me not embarrass myself and make it home in one piece. Well I am sorry to say but he did just that. The blame rolls down hill my friends. It must start from the top. And in my next article, the ball keeps rolling!