Chin up guys, I know this is heart breaking but this team went beyond all expectations. Proved all the doubters wrong and made it to the final! Despite the result yesterday, they were the 2nd best team of EUROPE! Thats a huge achievement in it's own. This team had to play 3 tough games; england (120 min.) and germany (arguably best team in the world) and Spain ( the champions of last 4 years) in a span of 7 freaking days!!! reallistically it woulda took a miracle to beat this Spain team. yes prandelli might have made some wrong choices but u never know til its over. I wish for prandelli to stay and take this same team + some new members to WC 2014 They can be successful and have more time to find chemistry. This is the beautiful football i've been wanting to see this team play. And they were successful at it. it just needs some tweeking on defense and add some speed to it.
damn, so no love for your team? u guys are really negative people, always complaining about the bad things, never appreciating the good things
lol most have been positive actually except for a few, they just already mentioned how they feel in the match thread and a number of random new threads.
It was a fantastic month. I'm proud that the players left it on the field and that they wanted to win for the shirt. In the end it didn't work out. But at least we got to see a victory vs. the English and Germans
You're right -- Azzurri fans can be too harsh on the team. I, personally, am proud of this team and think Prandelli did a great job. I'm excited to see how the team develops in WC qualifying, Confederations Cup, and in Brazil two years from now.
One thing for sure Prandelli won't totally botch the Confed Cup like Lippi did. Probably the most frustrating part of Lippi's selections for the WC were that he had an opportunity to see which players were past it at the Confed Cup, like Canna, Zambs, Gattuso, Iaquinta, Gila and Camo but he brought them all back for the WC and started most of them.
yea the final loss was heartbreaking but people gotta realize YOU MADE THE FINAL! that means u were the best 2 teams in europe....and dominated the likes of england and germany i think really the biggest thing for prandelli to fix is to make sure the team can last a whole tournament. These guys were clearly out of it by the final which i expected. yea that was a complete waste....he did have a good chance but he was so stubborn with his selection. Its sad that he won so much respect for 2006 just to throw it all out in 2010 as much as i'd like to forget that, but its always attached to his name
For what they were, being a team mostly lacking in superstars, the Azzurri did great. Having said that, this loss has been extremely painful. Defeat, I can accept, but being embarrassed like that was excruciating. I think Stefano Fiore said it best... http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/3284...but-there-was-no-stopping?source=breakingnews I also hate that people praise Prandelli for bringing youth into the team even though he reserved a spot for Giovinco on the bench and insisted with a half fit Cassano. Smacks of hypocrisy if you ask me.
We're Italy, always picked as the underdogs so i'm very proud of my country even when we don't do too well. Reaching the final was somewhat bittersweet and unfortunately we got dominated because of poor coaching decisions, nothing too harsh against Prandelli and i wouldn't want any other coach at the moment.
Honestly, I'm bummed they are not looking into other options. With the amount of coaches that have been successful in leagues around Europe they choose someone whose trophy case is rather bare. People praise Prandelli b/c he brought in younger players after Lippi's disaster in 2010, but what else was he going to do, have even older players come out of retirement? The next few games will be very telling. If Prandelli insists with Cassano and Pirlo instead of looking for younger options, he will harm his own credibility even further.
having trophies isnt a recipe for guaranteed success. Managing a club is different than a national team where u get to work with them on maybe 5 occassions per year! Prandelli has done great with what he has. Bringing anyone at this point would be a mistake cuz the WC qualifiers are starting and the competition is less than 2 years. You cant bring in a new coach to figure things out now and try new formation and players. Prandelli got the core right, he just needs minor adjustments. He took the team to the final which is something no one expected. YOu need him around and he'll be more successful in 2 years.
I expected them to win. We needed him to be successful now. Instead, we lost a final by a record amount. Very painful indeed for a country that has always prided itself on a strong defense. Lippi had a chance to achieve history and become only the second coach to win back to back world cups but messed it up b/c of pride and senility. Now, despite several terrible performances since winning the cup in '06, we still have a chance to tie the chips leader in world cups in their own yard.. Just seems like a reckless gamble to risk that on a coach with such a light trophy case and who has displayed some questionable tactics in crucial games. Prandelli did a good job covering up the growing pains after rejuvenating the team. Perhaps that was always going to be his biggest strength. However, these Euro's were supposed to be a building block to 2014 so now that it is time to win some gold, perhaps it is time to appoint a coach with some experience of getting the job done. In either case, after seeing how the federation stuck with Prandelli after that bad loss, it made me think that perhaps Donadoni got a raw deal.
^ well thats just unreallistic, hardly anyone thought italy was even gonna make the final, let alone win the whole thing let me ask u something about the coaches who won trophies....did anyone rate them before they won their first? NO did anyone think conte could win serie A in his first season as a top flight coach? NO (undefeated on top of that) then you have coaches who have all the trophies, they come and they dont win anything and get fired.
I was one of the few that thought we were going to win it all. Lippi and Del Bosque prove that is not true. As far as Conte, he did well, but is the exception, not the rule. Have you forgotten how Juve stalled out when Ferrara was coach? Anyways, although I might not feel the same, a lot of people feel that Serie A is no longer of the same quality as a few years ago. Therefore, whatever a coach like Conte does in Serie A is devalued in a lot of people's eyes compared to success in Europe. It is great to find a diamond in the rough and create gold from straw, but in the real world, jobs are given to people with the best qualifications. I think it is time to start treating the national team the same way.
It's reckless of the FIGC to re-sign Prandelli after leading Italy to the Euro 2012 final, all because YOU expected Italy to win? That is preposterous. Why did you expect Italy to win? This Spain won Euro 2008, World Cup 2010, and is probably the most successful national team in history. Meantime Italy were woeful at Confed Cup 2009 and World Cup 2010. On what evidence were they supposed to win Euro 2012 handily? You're deluded.
Yes, I expected them to win.. They made the final did they not? Perhaps I have more insight then most people. Deluded though? Hardly. The deluded people are the ones trying to spin this record 4-0 loss in the final into something good. The deluded people are the ones that praise Prandelli for bringing youth to the team then say nothing when he plays a 30-something year old with a heart condition instead of Giovinco. The deluded people are the ones that praise Prandelli for changing Italian tactics while overlooking that he totally lost the script in the 2nd game against Spain, an important game if I say so. The deluded people are the ones that say, "Let's give this unproven coach the reigns to the national team even though Prandelli has not won anything and their are more qualified coaches out there." The deluded ones are the ones that think opportunites to tie Brasil in World Cups in their own yard and lift ourselves from this current funk happen every year and that if Prandelli messes up, "Oh well, there is always next year." Sorry, but opportunities like this are once in a lifetime and their are more qualified coaches out there... but we should stay with Prandelli, b/c YOU like him? Staying with Prandelli in spite of all the negative is not as reckless as it is uneducated.
What negatives would those be? He was perfect in qualifying and brought Italy to the final of Euro 2012, on the heels of our worst World Cup ever, no less. Once you mentioned Giovinco, I stopped reading. Cassano had a crucial goal and assist for Italy at Euro 2012 and looked bright each time he played. He created as many chances for teammates as any player at the tournament, and is widely regarded as having performed well. The idea that Prandelli should be fired for playing Cassano and not Giovinco will not win you any arguments.
Cassano played good.. scored from a corner but did not have an assist until Balotelli scored against Germany in the Semi-finals. Then, b/c he was not match fit he could not run 90 minutes and his early substitution in the final cost us dearly, contributing to the overall tally as we no longer had and subs left after Motta went down thanks to Cassano being totally gassed after 45. Giovinco might have done all that Cassano achieved plus not hurt us in the final, but we will never know b/c Prandelli prefered an OLDER PLAYER who could not run the whole game. Let us not forget how he also picked Chiellini who had just recovered from an injury over Balzaretti in the final (who saved Buffon's bacon a few times early on against Germany), another costly decision that directly contributed to the first goal. Both of these decisions led to us losing the final by a RECORD amount! And please, stop saying that he saved us after the disasters of the 2009 Confederations and 2010 World Cup. Those miseries were self-inflicted by Lippi and his decision not to take key players in 2010 and the federation's decision to hire Lippi back in the first place after Donadoni honorably led us to penalties against Spain. Then, under the guise of this fake Renaissance, Prandelli leads us through an easy qualifying group, where our most challenging game against Serbia was awarded at the table, to an all-time record defeat in a final against the team whose style he was trying to imitate.
Hahahaha! I can see it now. Italy will win the Confederations Cup and people will point and say that it proves Prandelli is a good coach, even they they scoffed and the competition up until then. A win against Spain in the Confederations will be as meaningless as that friendly we beat them in is now. The only thing that matters is winning it all in the 2014 WC in Brasil!
What does my join date have to do with the accumulated amount of knowledge that I possess about the game? Some people are such forum snobs. And just b/c I don't agree that Prandelli is the best choice, I'm trolling? Hahaha! That is the most consistent instance of forum cantenaccio. When you run out of ideas, call him a troll! Well then.. that must make you people that are defending taking a dangerously under-qualified coach to a once in a lifetime event, terrorists! At least I have pointed out logical reasons why I don't agree with Prandelli.. Why do you guys have this loyalist attitude to the federation and why do you feel the need to bash anyone that doesn't agree with you? If you are incapable of having an educated debate, please, stand aside while the adults discuss things. Otherwise, give me the reasons that you still like Prandelli, despite the record loss in the final.