Best you have seen Italy play aswell as your most memorable?

Totti and ADP never really worked. It's more important to have a system that works well rather than just trying to fit all your best players in the team.

 

1934 was the most crooked World Cup ever. It shouldn't be counted as it devalues both the World Cup and football. Mussolini's corrupt practices were outrageous.

 

We have Cassano.

 

This is true, though it wasn't a serious injury, it was just a minor muscle strain he picked up in the CL final. It did seem to affect his form though (as you said), he was particularly poor in the game against Norway.

 

Yea, but we don't have three Cassanos. And, IMO, I'd take a young ADP, Baggio and Zola over three Cassanos any day. Now, we have an unchosen Cassano, Di Natale and young Rossi in comparison. Like has been mentioned previously, what a low talented group compared to previous decades. And, that's just on the offensive side of the ball, don't even get me started on comparing our prior defensive lines to the current one.

 

I saw movies and read Vittorio Pozzo's book and although you may have a point, I don't think the games were thrown......then again you can say this about any one of the cups....They say in 1978 Argentina had to beat Peru by four clear goals to go through to the final. Argentina beat Peru suspiciously and easily. Peru trailed 2-0 at half-time and then somehow fell apart in the second half. Argentina eventually won 6-0. Rumours suggested that Peru might have been bribed to lose the game because the Peruvian gk, Ramón Quiroga, was born in Argentina but nothing could be proved.

Sorry...you are right.....

 

Dont forget 4th in 1978 WC

 

Yeah well I didn't list 4th places......

 

How about 2nd in 1970???

 

Already ruled on that counselor!

 

Under Dunga, no doubt; however, there is no denying that flair is the Brazilian MO throughout history. And as much as I would like to argue otherwise, they have been more successful than we have.

 

arguably! They have 5 wc titles, we have 4. They beat us on PKs in 94 which as we all know could go either way so we could easily be the ones with the 5 * rather than them based on that 94 loss.

 

Yea, but that's a poor way to look at it. You could also say, well we won in 2006 on PKs so we all know that could've gone either way. So, just as likely we could only have 3 WCs and France with 2. As much as I hate Brazil, I have the utmost respect for Brazilian NT football.

 

ya unfortunately i like to argue italy is better than brazil, i just hate brazil but we cant deny their greatness

i think what italian football lacks compared to brazil is mentallity. Italians just like us iranians are emotional and in a 90min match you need strong mentallity. Strong mentallity brings consistency. Especially in the past few years the azzuri defense has been shaky. You can sense the nervousness sometimes during the game, while brazilians stay calm and try to come back.

What messed it up for italy was the confed cup, and the 2-0 friendly loss few months before it. Before that, everything was tied up in all time record. 5 wins, 5 lossses

 

I don't think Italy lacks mentality at all. On the contrary, it is one of our strengths.

We are not England or Holland.

 

not since after world cup...thats how all those losses came about....there was no reason for brazil to score 3 goals in 8 minutes...especially the last one a crappy own goal...or even the 3-0 loss to holland....

 

Yes Thanks to Marcello Lippi we got this honor as well as the first loss to an African Team Egypt...his stubbornness will surely humilate us furthermore this WC, if anyone was needed to mesmerize Brazil it was Cassano, but he still hates the guy and will not even include him in a friendly, he is our best creative player, and surely he would have played with any other NT except Lippi's...

 

oh god yea dont even remind me of the egypt loss....i had to hear it from my friends saying oh ur team lost to a-rabs??

but u know as much as we complain about lippi he's MUCH better than that disaster Donadoni.....it was actually him who started this downhill slump after the world cup

 

Not really, they are more or less the same players. It's just that the players have regressed rather than them lacking mentality.

 

Italy has always been a bit of a moody team, But when the games matter 90% of the time Italy comes through. A lot of my English friends always tell me that Historicly England has a better record against Italy in Head to head match's. But when you look at games were they actually mattered Italy has a way better record.

 

Actually Italy is one of the few sides that England don't have a better record against in head to heads.

 

interesting link on top 10 world cup teams of all time

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/fifaworldcup/features/story/2009/11/21/spf-top10-teams.html

italy is in 2 of them

 

The best I saw Italy play was in the EC1996 . Strange enough they got kicked out in the first round.
One of the reasons was the very tough group where they got in ,the other the last game against future-EC Germany where the Belgian referee make the mistake not to sent the GK off the field with a red card but only give a penalty which was sadly missed by Gianfranco Zola.
Not sending of the GK was a huge factor in not winning this decisive match
Another good performance was the EC 2004 where again they exit in the first round,they created good goalchances but failed to score them...
Vieri was not at his best. His WC & EC goes from up to down. very good in 98, good in 2002 to 'reasonable' in 2004...

 

I think Vieri was awesome in both the WCs he played and was pretty bad in Euro 2004.

Would've loved to have seen him at Euro 2000.

 

And after the EC2004 it goes more downhill with him...
At EC2000 he was injuried I believe,if he was fit that time it could be the a different story,knowing that they reached the finals...