Dilema For Italy

[Dipper]

It seems as if Italy need only a draw to guarantee qualification for the WC (assuming Romania win) but do they play for the draw or go for the win?
It's in the Italian footballing phsyche to play for the draw, traditionally they've done this & pulled it off but there are inherent dangers in this as you give the initiative to the opposition & if the game's 0-0 near the end anything can happen.
What will the Azzuri do will they be brave or will they shut up shop?Ooh I'd hate to be in their shoes...decisions...decisions.

If it was England you can guarantee we'd go for the win as we never play for the draw.......except for once I seem to remember we had to play Italy in the last qualification game for the 98 WC & we only needed to draw so we played possession football & got the 0-0 in dare I say it almost Italian fashion.Wright just missed a goal for us near the end & after the game Gazza said to him, I'm glad you missed it will p1ss the Italians off even more that it was 0-0 because that's their result-hehe.
So there you have it play for the draw Italy even the tactically naive English have managed it before.

 

[Chris_23]

Originally posted by DIPPER
It seems as if Italy need only a draw to guarantee qualification for the WC (assuming Romania win) but do they play for the draw or go for the win?
It's in the Italian footballing phsyche to play for the draw, traditionally they've done this & pulled it off but there are inherent dangers in this as you give the initiative to the opposition & if the game's 0-0 near the end anything can happen.
What will the Azzuri do will they be brave or will they shut up shop?Ooh I'd hate to be in their shoes...decisions...decisions.

If it was England you can guarantee we'd go for the win as we never play for the draw.......except for once I seem to remember we had to play Italy in the last qualification game for the 98 WC & we only needed to draw so we played possession football & got the 0-0 in dare I say it almost Italian fashion.Wright just missed a goal for us near the end & after the game Gazza said to him, I'm glad you missed it will p1ss the Italians off even more that it was 0-0 because that's their result-hehe.
So there you have it play for the draw Italy even the tactically naive English have managed it before.

Geez, every post is about Italy mate! It's ok, i'd be worried too if i had to see these guys....

Toldo, Buffon, Cannavaro, Nesta, Maldini, Iuliano, Materazzi, Pancaro, Zambrotta, Pessotto, Fiore, Albertini, Di Biagio, Ambrosini, Gattuso, Vieri, Inzaghi, Totti, Del Piero, Montella, Chiesa
................and thats only some of the talent!

I'm glad things are going well with Sven, but lets not get carried away. Marconi could beat Germany.

 

[wb 4ever]

DIPPER IT’S OKAY, ENGLAND AREN’T THAT BAD

Yes I know how you would dearly love for England to be in positions where a draw is enough, but alas you haven’t seen that to often, and when you are you don't know how to deal with it. Remember Euro 2000, all you needed was draw when you played Romania, so what did the tactically superior England do? They went for the win and fuked up completely.

I really feel sorry for you Dipper, you want to believe that England is up there with the best in the world, but as you know all the facts say that they aren’t. Failure to qualify for USA 94, first round elimination from Euro 2000, and to top it off the people in charge of the English game (FA) don’t even believe that there is a coach born in England with the ability to lead your national team.

How embarrassing for you? You should be proud to say that you come from the country that invented soccer. But that would lead to questions like, how can the country who invented the sport have only won ONE trophy in over 60 years of international competition? And also, how can this country that live for soccer not be able to produce a brain that can lead it into battle?

Well Dipper, do you have an answer for these perfectly legitimate questions?

PS – Oh one more for you Dipper, with the state that German Football is in, is it really any great achievement to be leading your group?

 

[sethlad]

Results on the field are what matters.
Who cares where your manager comes from.
All countries have their ups & downs over time,Uruguay & Hungary were once football powers,look at them now.
Holland are out in the qualification stage this time.
England are unbeaten in competition games since Sven took over.
You can only beat your opposition, its hardly their fault that Italy,France & Brazil arent in their group.
Like it or not, they played Germany off the park,in Germany.
If you are so keen to look at history,show me anyone else who has
done that in the last 50 years.

 

[Dipper]

wb 4ever,
Firstly I would like to say that my post was done with tongue firmly in cheek, although I confess I was hoping that I might be able to 'persuade' you to respond.

Regarding the Romania game you are absolutely correct, we we're a tactically terrible side under Keegan & that game summed it up better than any-along with the Portugal game which we we're leading 2-0 but lost 3-2.

Personally I love to follow the game in other European countires, most notably Italy,France,Holland,Germany,Spain & despite my comments I actually admire Italian football (although I do think there has always been a tendency to be too negative) & for years I feel that our coaches have been cr@p on tactics, there were the years of the long ball etc, so now I'm genuinely happy that we are playing an intelligent brand of football without losing our attacking high tempo approach which is always our best chance of beating the top sides.It's not in our culture to play the slow-slow-quick style of play favoured by the Latin counties(which I'm sure has a lot to do with the hotter weather they have), personally I've always found the Dutch way to be the best for England to follow whilst keeping some of our own style.

I am proud to come from the country that invented football-& also invented cricket,tennis,rugby (league & union),hockey etc but it's because I'm assured of myself as an Englishman that I have no problem with a foreigner coaching the England national team, (it happens at club level)if there isn't a suitable candidate who's English then I'd rather have the best than a 2nd rate candidate.I'm sure if you're truthful you'd admit that Cesare Maldini & Dino Zoff weren't ideal candidates for Italian coach but the best people like Lippi & the guy at Roma (who's name I've forgotten) couldn't be tempted from their clubs.

In regards to our winning of only 1 trophy in 60 years I would agree that it should have been better, I can remember all the 'unlucky' games but you can't hide behind that.Although you have to remember that when Italy won it's first 2 World Cups in 1934 & 1938 it was pretty universally accepted that England was the best side in the world by quite some distance but due to political rangling we didn't compete in any of the early tournaments-that's our fault & we probably regret it now but if you look at the results of friendlies between England & Italy then you'll find we came out on top (as we did with virtually every one).Even in 82 although Italy beat Brazil in a great game they we're still fortunate to win the tournament(remember the early results), but that's what you need a bit of luck I mean in that WC England were eliminated but were the only unbeaten side in the whole competition!

As for Germany well they've certainly been better & in Euro 2000 they managed to look even worse than us which was some achievement-but if you follow their results since they've actually got their act together pretty well.They beat Hungary 5-2 away the other day prior to us beating them.One of the most amazing statistics in world football was that before Saturday's game Germany had lost just one WC qualifying game home or away EVER & that was to Portugal in 85 when Germany had already qualified for the finals.So even if Germany aren't that good it was still pretty impressive to go there & win let alone 5-1.

So in short I don't look down on Italian football it's just different & that's whats good about international football the different styles that you associate with different countires.
Historically England will run all day,tackle hard & never give in,whilst always looking to attack,the Germans are efficient & ruthless,the Italians are tactically strong & their defenders know all the tricks,Holland play beautiful football.

Let's see what happens at the next WC but I wouldn't be scared of playing Italy, we might win, you might win but I tell you we're not as bad as you seem to think.

Also despite winning only 1 trophy internationally you should check out whose won the most European trophies at club level-you'll find it's England.

 

[Chris_23]

I hope you know that my post was also tongue in cheek DIPPER......except for the part about Marconi being capable of beating Germany!

 

[The Hitman]

Doesn't matter, because Australia will win the WC

The Hitman