We should have won in 2002, we had 5 goals robbed from us, and we if the 4 goals were counted in the group stages, we wouldn't have even met with south korea.
I blame the world cup loss on Prandelli, he totally ruined it. If we had Coach Antonio Conte back then we would have gotten to the semifinals (quarterfinals at the least). The Mexican Referee also robbed us a bit against Uruguay, but Prandelli is the one to blame mostly.
prandelli screwed up after beating Germany in euro 2012 i think his head hit something cuz he lost all his mojo and it was downhill after that. This past WC, i feel like him and the team put all the pressure on the first game against England and after beating them they thought they were through to the next stage cuz costa rica also beat uruguay. they forgot that u cant do that in futbol today, no matter how weak the other team is, you still have 90 min. to play and you must score goals and not concede. There is no such a thing as an automatic win.
Well Dai, some argue that Montolivo and Balotelli won that game vs Germany in spite of Prandelli. So who's to say that Montolivo couldn't have done it again at the World Cup? Personally I don't think he could, but I know some of his believers think he could have.
people are stupid and only look at 2 seconds of a game. so that one pass from montolivo to balotelli on the last goal was all that game was about? thats horse shit cuz italy dominated that game, pirlo, chiellini, marchisio, cassano and everyone had a great game. that 1st goal was pure gold all the way from defense to pirlo to cassano to set up the header. there were also chances to score more but they failed to finish.
I can't argue with you there! That's the problem when one rates Montolivo as world class, and doesn't really watch Serie A weekly. It may have been a big event, but one excellent play can't really define a career, can it?
There's a debate to be had about how weak/strong the midfield was b/w 90-2006. Certainly the attack/defence/goalkeeping was at or near the best in the world over that same period. Does the midfield suffer mainly because it is being held up to these high standards? And to what extent were tactics to blame for poor performances. For instance Zoff did better in 2000 with a weaker team against tougher opposition than Trap in 2002.
It's hard to completely blame tactics. It was so frustrating watching our world class attackers generally struggle over that period... why? Because at their clubs, they were used to having a WC midfield. But at national level, the drop-off in quality between mid and def/attack was huge. I'm not trying to put down mids like Di Biaggio, Conte, Dino, Pessotto.... but it was always hard work.
Although mostly if not all the Italian mids at that time were playing for top clubs and were playing deep into Champs League. But I agree with you to the extent that the issue was one of balance with too many defensive midfielders and not enough creative/attacking/passing/ball retention midfielders in the 11s. Is that because of poor team selection? Poor tactics? Lack of available talent? I'm not sure.
Prandelli was always a horrible coach. Its true we got to the final in Euro 2012, but it was all luck. Just think that we really only won 2 games to get to the final. We drew all the rest of the teams. We drew to Spain, we drew to croatia, we beat Ireland, we drew to England (won on penalties), we beat germany, and we got smashed by Spain. We really only won 2 games and we just drew our way through. We got lucky against Germany, and I must admit the referee favored us against Ireland a bit. So we really only had one good game and that wasn't even a comfortable win. I really hate to say this, but I think Germany deserved to be in the final more than us, but I am glad we beat Germany and made it to the final, but I was not happy when Spain pretty much dominated us. Same with 2013 confederations cup: we only really beat Mexico and Japan, and again those weren't even comfortable wins. We drew are way through. We are really the best team now since at least 4 years ago. I believe in Coach Conte, and I think he's doing a great job. We missed a lot of key players when we played Croatia, and yet we still managed to draw and not to lose, even though Croatia was the better side. We had a great defense. Prandelli was the worst coach we ever had, and I am glad he's gone now. I now have faith in Coach Conte, and believe he can make our team rise again like we were in 2006. I am so thankful that we have Antonio Conte now It might be even better if Marcello Lippi could come back and him and Conte could coach us together.
I think the 2016 euro cup will probably be Buffon's last years, but I hope he stays longer, as I really adore him. But the good news is we have Sirigu who is also a great goal keeper and I think he will also bring joy to Italy. But your right we will miss Buffon when he retires
I also had the impression that Prandelli had an obssession with certain players that weren't necessarily the best ones. You can tell by who he picked in his squad, and how he substituted players. The best attacker we have now is Ciro Immobile in my opinion. He has scored a great goal against the friendly we had with Netherlands. Immobile also scored great goals when he played for Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League. But I must say I highly miss Totti and Toni. They worked well together and I admired both of them a lot.