I remember Totti and Cannavaro on their yachts in Costa Smeralda a few days after being eliminated in 02...clearly they should still have been sleeping all day/night fighting their disappointment from being eliminated.
Most Italians barely care for the NT let alone any of the U teams. Growing up Milan was drilled in my head, Milan everything, Milan clothes, shoes, flags, lunch box, birthday cakes, soccer balls and club specific bars where family would take me. The only time my town went nuts was 1) when Cagliari made it to Serie A (1990?) and 2) WC 1990, i was like 5 years old then and i remember all the parades and parties. In 1994 there wasn't too much going on even when we made it to the finals. I had a Baggio jersey that my mom bought me (she didn't care for the clubs but loved the NT) and i had a bunch of relatives pissed off at me "hE pLAyS fOr JuVe!!". I think it was around that time when my focus shifted from club to NT, don't get me wrong i'm Milanista per sempre but i'd be lying if i said i didn't love the NT more. Anyway, during the summer it's all about the beach and soccer only if the we make it to the quarterfinals then all the fans come out of the woodwork.
My cousins from Milan were a big influence for me while I lived there I was always a Milan fan since Sacchi and Capello eras but they definitely made sure I was dedicated. That my cousins had some connections to club (marketing at the time) got me to more games, was simply a bonus. It's true that club over country is the norm for most. That's also true in Europe in general, even on these boards really. The only time I remember most everyone excited was after Germany in 06, but you find hard core fans everywhere in more limited numbers.
So the clear solution is for Italy to boycott all theze useless youth comps and forget about the experience in age relevant competition that they would get, and just spend more time at the beach and getting drunk.
I was surprised how long the excitement lasted in Italy after 06, i was there in mid 2007 (Naples, Rome) and they were still selling WC stuff, beers still had "Campioni Del Mondo" printed on them, banners and other stuff everywhere.
Italy beat Spain, Spain annihilated Poland, Poland beat Italy. Italy were eliminated. The rules don 't care about your feelings.
He already did. You're late to the party that you were never invited to in the first place And when you ask yourself a question, shouldn't you at least be doing that with one of your sock puppets?
Italy were eliminated They also outplayed Spain One wasn't dependent on the other. You often confuse cause and correlative variables. Math and logic are not for you. Stick to guess work and trolling.
They do that anyway! But no one showed up in Livorno a month later in August 2006 when they lost to Croatia 0-2.... I believe Aldo Spinelli presented Roberto Donadoni an award as the new CT of Italia even though he fired or forced him to quit six months before...
You mean after winning the world cup, when Donadoni took over and called these guys Christian Terlizzi Cristian Zenoni Giancarlo Falcone Fabio Liverani Massimo Ambrosini Gennaro Delvecchio Cristiano Lucarelli Tommaso Rocchi Mauro Esposito During Ferragosto? Including @Falc 's other long lost live child, with some height to him?
Only returning player was Amelia and much younger Chiellini who wasn't on the 06 WC team…. There were a lot of people in the curva…..
Maybe another Serie D carpenter that played A for a season or ten... You old guys remember "Geppetto" ya?
Moreno Torricelli! I use to see him jogging on his own at the Parco delle Cascine in Florence while Fiorentina got relegated to the C2 and he was looking for another club.
I think we all understand that the team with most goals wins. That said, it doesn't mean the most deserving side won as evidenced by the statistics which I cited which you don't seem to grasp.
I'm in Italia this week...people did care about the U21s especially since we hosted. Now they could care less. BTW..most Italians I speak with completely think Italia was the best team at the tourney but that they had a donkey as a CT. They are right.
Torricelli reminds me a lot of my teams new coach , il laziale , Matías Almeyda. I think El Pelado was better though... They are the types of hard nosed old school defensive mids who are usually done at 31 years of age...