Alert: COPA DEL MONDO BRAZIL 2014: GROUP STAGE (2) ITALY VS COSTA RICA, ARENA PERNAMBUCO, RECIFE

Disagree, as you say they play recklessly and that's the perfect game for and style Italy take advantage of. Yes Italy will need to be up for it but if they move the ball well and quickly they can leave the very limited Uruguay midfield struggling. Players like Gargano for Uruguay make Gattuso look like Pirlo on the ball.
Suarez does lift these guys a level or two in all round play and each players game but Italy will not be as naive as England at letting a half fit player rule the game.

 

un pareggio per tutte e due le squadre con un finale drammatico!

 

Their is nothing special about Colombia...a lot of their players are Serie A journeyman. There was nothing special about Costa Rica either. However, what these teams have (including Chile) are quick, fast, and fit players. You can't go to South America...with all of your group games in Northern Brazil....and think that some of your older or fatter (Cassano) players are going to do well.

If some of you don't think a Rossi would have made a difference yesterday, then you don't understand the player. He's smart, knows how to beat the offside trap, is a lethal finisher, and rarely has bad touches. He also scores among the highest on his team at fitness tests. Dumb dumb dumb move bringing Cassano and leaving Rossi home. Toni would have been a disaster here. He runs like he is on quicksand in cold Serie A games. Imagine here.

That said...this is the team we are stuck with so Prandelli needs to be smarter at this point. Move Darmian back to the right, get Balotelli some help, keep Motta off the field...and we have a chance.

 

I said exactly the opposite.

 

BTW...for all the Suarez ass kissing on this thread, I'd much rather be in Italia's position this final game than Uruguay's. We have 2 results out of 3. Let's have some perspective.

 

Wonder if the result would have been different if De Sciglio had been fit and played so that Darmian was available to play on the right. Paletta.......

Pasqual should have been included in the 23.

 

a team that will feel no pressure whatsoever to play recklessy

Your words. Which is true, they play an all or nothing game, its always shit or bust and this suits how Italy play

 

Spot on. The likes of Cassano and Motta shouldn't play another minute for the NT. I would toss Aquaman in there too. Huge mistake leaving Rossi at home. Huge mistake.

 

Giaccherini was Prandelli's biggest mistake, I honestly was surprised for his not included

1. his tireless & speed on the wing was an absolute must
2. his show in the the confed cup and experience in Brazil
3. we almost reached the final


why Prandelli did you ignore him

 

In the end, how many debutantes did Prandelli bring to Brasil? Most coaches use the qualifiers and friendlies to put a core team together. Prandelli practically started from scratch.

 

This is part of the reason why Spain went out. Diego Costa never played one competitive game for them and they decided to throw him right into the fire.

 

Insigne-Immobile-Cerci!!!!

Drop Balotelli, the most overrated piece of shit in the world. He just stand there and expect the midfield to feed him.He don't even bothering running down the channels, forcing the opponents defense to open up.If you look at Immobile at Torino, his off the ball movement is amazing.He always drag the opponents defense,thus creating the space for others to exploit.

 

He scores goals. Who else does that for Italy? I am all for trying something new but Balotelli was not to blame for receiving little service. Immobile would probably not have fared any better the way we played. You simply can not feed your striker very little and expect him to eat a lot.

 

SCHILLACIIIIIIIII

 

Who else has been given a chance to score goals for Italy over the past few years? Balotelli has been the no. 9 in almost every competitive match. It's absurd to complain that Immobile hasn't scored goals for Italy when he has only played 20 minutes (and 20 minutes of Italy playing 10 men behind the ball, at that).

I am not arguing that Immobile is a panacea. He is very good at what he does, but what he does is rather limited. That said, he punishes offside traps like few others. I think that he would definitely have made a difference against CR - it was the perfect match for him.

In general, I have noticed that Italy's B team works harder than the A team in matches we "should" win. I don't think that Insigne-Immobile-Cerci would have been as dead on their feet as Marchisio-Balo-Candreva.

 

On an optimistic note ...

Uruguay can't afford to sit back and play on the counter vs. Italy on Tuesday, because they *need* to win to progress. Italy can draw and progress, or win and progress, but Uruguay have to go all-out.

That is an advantage to us, and means we should see a more open game. Best scenario of all for Italy would be to score early, and then let Uruguay come at us (leaving chances to counter).

Prandelli needs to get the starting XI right. Darmian on the right, De Sciglio left, Verratti next to Pirlo, Balotelli with some support up top.

Crediamoci!

 

Until this year who was Immobile. Some Juve reject. That's who. If he was anything special Juventus would not have sold him for peanuts. And by the way how many goals did he score in last summer's U-21?

 

CRISCITO

 

This was so strange to me too. A lot of his selections came out of nowhere, while throughout all this time, he has been preaching consistency and building a proper program.

Leaving Rossi at home was also very strange.

Bringing Cassano along after ignoring him for two years was another weird decision.

Bringing 7 central midfielders..another one.

Prandelli, for all the respect I have for him and the optimism I've given him throughout his tenure, has made some really strange decisions in the last little while. Not to mention, he preaches positive football and all I see on the pitch is us trying to be a poor man's Spain, circa 2010. Short passes in the midfield going nowhere. We are almost more negative than we've ever been and the kicker? Our defense can't make up for it as we have no elite defenders. All very strange and depressing to be a fan.

This has to change and I'm hoping we pull off a miracle and it starts changing ASAP.

 

A day later, and this loss still stings like a bitch. Can't believe how awful we were

 

Prandelli should revert to catenaccio (as much as i hate to say it) in his game against uruguay and hit on the counter, obviously his open attacking mind with this weak midfield is not working !!

 

Leaving someone like Pasqual at home and picks shit like Aquilani,Motta and Cassano....

 

Uruguay have said they'll be playing the same tactic

 

holy quotes batman.

one thing everyone ignores about insigne including the media who know fcuk all about calcio and are slating insigne on twitter saying he was the worst, well its a load of bollox becuase insigne won the ball back from costa rica near our box a few times and tracked back, something the other subs didnt bother to do

if there is truth to this then its a disgracefull arrogant attitude and its why we were 2nd best in every department, not least because its put us in a worse position as we could have lost to uruguay and still finsih 2nd, now we must avoid defeat, and guess what? these bunch of retards will play for a draw then go a goal down n the last 10 minutes and will have no answer.

now we need to only draw so what do we do? go for a win or play it safe?

you're right cavani wasnt impressive, if you only look at goals or chances.

as i wrote above, insigne tracked back and won tackles, i think he gave a shit, prandelli was the real problem, insigne out wide, cerci out wide, cassano somewhere in the center, one attacker in the box, less men in midfield, cassano was senseless, he should have brought immobile on and stuck him in the box with balo, give costa rica's defenders somehing to do i.e their jobs, we, i mean prandelli made their jobs easy, prandelli was a complete amatuer yesterday going into this game and during it, insigne also knows immobile well, cassano kept ignoring insigne or and made bad choices,

immobile does not have balotelli's talant, immobile works hard at being a good striker and to be better, its a shame balo doesnt have his atitude, but you just cant drop balo, if he's really shit during the game then you can sub him.

you cant just look at stats, immobile sacrificed himself for the team in that tooney and helped others get goals by holding up the ball etc, he hardly had any chances to score, he was unselfish as he was in the italy friendly where he passed to insigne twice when he could have just shot