You still haven't shown me any of this supposed 'English arrogance'?? In fact all I can see on here is Italian arrogance!
Try Google. If by that you mean I think the Italian NT is and has generally always been better than the English NT then I am guilty as charged.
As an Italian apparantly you are able to say what you please, as an Englishman if I say anything positive about my team I am open to ridicule - I don't know why people are so obsessed with the English? Doesn't matter what thread or even what the subject is somebody will always mention the English? It doesn't really matter I suppose, the English themselves don't really give a sh#t what others think but just recently Ive been wondering why??
^^^ It is one thing for a fan of the English NT to be confident in and support the English NT. But the English language press has always been heavily anti-Italian IMO. 'Italy plays boring, unattractive football' (though the last 25 years has seen Baggio and then Totti and now Pirlo) as if kick and run is a much more attractive style of football 'Italy is a team full of cheaters and divers' (have they seen the 2002 game against south Korea) 'they didn't deserve to beat Australia' (though Italy got a red on a BS call early in the second half of that game) 'they didn't deserve to beat France' (as if Zidane was somehow wronged for being sent off for headbutting Matterazzi) 'Italy is a team and a country full of racists' (though racism is a continental wide problem in Europe. Maybe Italy should have gone out and raped a bunch of African countries of their resources and left them in such financial despair that the colonized moved to Italy and the Italian NT winds up full of African immigrants who don't even pretend to care about being Italian unlike Balotelli who always sings the national anthem) These are all complaints and criticisms of the Italian NT that make their way into the English media whenever the Italian team is discussed
You go first. Make an effort to answer your own questions and then I am sure you will get a flood of responses from not just me but others also. But be careful what you wish for b/c you may not like some of the responses.
I don't think this is strictly true, I know that Eastern Europe is pretty racist towards players, anyway I think Italian football is regarded pretty highly in the UK. You complain that the UK has a bad (stereotypical) view of Italian football and then immediately follow it up with ole kick and rush bollox! lol, pot kettle anyone!!!
I think that the difference is Italy has been successful playing the football they play while England hasn't! Again though, it is more so the media. Watching the games I have always been turned off by how the British, because they aren't all English, commentators speak of the Italian team and players. Spain play a 4 - 6 - 0 formation and pass the ball back and forth over and over and over again and they get praised to the high heavens for it. Italy has traditionally produced smart footballers and managers who are sound defensively and they aren't stupid enough to play away from those strengths and people want to claim that they are bad for the game or that they don't win games they just don't lose them. It is annoying after a while and that is even before the stereotypes and prejudices get introduced.
I see too much confidence about Italy - England in this forum. That's a tough opener and could very well end in a draw. England are no pushovers. Assuming Italy beats Costa Rica, that would mean we could head into the third match vs. Uruguay needing a result, and Uruguay won't be easy. I think Group D is the second toughest group at this World Cup, and Italy will need to be very sharp to get through it.
I agree Sempre. I think that Italy are a much more talented side and will dominate that match. However they were a much better side and dominated the match in the last Euro and needed to go to PK's to advance. I'm worried teams will park the bus against us and abuse Mario to try and get him sent off.
This is obviously well out of date and probably PM material, but he was my coach for a short time when I traveled to Europe to play for a team he put together for a tournament. Mind you this was in 1996 and there was no academy level program anywhere, ODP was king and even those teams didn't travel globally outside the youth national team. There wasn't even the U-17 residency program yet - that came a few years later and several of my peers/teammates were selected to go which was awesome for them and kind of got the ball rolling to our current state of development. So, something like this was a really exciting opportunity to see other parts of the globe and be exposed to youth teams on the other side of the world. He was advocating all the "advancements" that we have made in recent years back then, it was just that no one was ready to listen and receive the message correctly. Specifically in MD the stakeholders of youth soccer were more interested in their own self interest, promoting their kids/friends kids and protecting the gold old boys club of coaching that had been established over the years. This was also a few years before Mahmood took over the MD ODP program and attempted to implement needed changes to the selection process, the recruiting methods, and access to players outside the sphere that often became insulated once you were in there - I think he ran afoul of the Baltimore contingent of stakeholders in that world and ended up leaving ODP after a few years when it became obvious that the ship was sinking. At least that was the rumor mill story I heard..... Regardless, he was a fantastic coach - probably the best I ever had on a technical and tactical knowledge level in youth soccer. I stayed at his home for over a month to train for the tournament (he was so far from me that daily travel would have been impossible, especially for two a day sessions) and as a youth player that was the fittest and sharpest I had ever been that point. He jumped in to demo a few things for us at the time and he was obviously a very good player in his day as well. He never did anything to show up the kids, but when you made a mistake he could tell you why, show you why, and then show you exactly how to fix it. He also demanded that players attending the tournament raised/earn the money for their own travel in order to promote accountability - something sadly slipping by the wayside more and more these days with our youth. I recently visited the site of his old store where I spent time helping out between training sessions when I was in that area...it's a hair salon now, but the fond memories flooded back and seeing the OP story was ironic timing. Hopefully he is doing well wherever he is now. In a short time he influenced me significantly and I apply a lot his approaches to youth teams I have coached over the years.