http://www.goal.com/en-US/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=746359 Not exactly a sparkling op-ed, but interesting spin on things... and before people get too angry, the author is poking far more fun at Spaniards than Italians. Please try to see the humor in this.
Culturally speaking the Spaniards are our closest brothers and I love them! This is purely a soccer matter.
I just heard on the Rai how they are trying to compare Spain's economic situation to that of the Italy's and trying to tie it to the soccer world. Its so ridiculous its not even funny. They are saying that Spain is a country which bases their country's leaders on the younger people under 40 and they are saying thhe same thing about their soccer as opposed to Italy. This is utterly incredible! What does the economy have to do with a successful soccer team? Maybe indirectly I can see some similarities in the Serie A and the national team hanging onto their veterans but strictly in soccer terms, I'm sure we have a young crop of players who could just have easily stepped in and played for Italy and probably done well at that. The main story here is we haven't been giving others a chance to develop. Everyone is blaming Donadoni and they all have a point however, everyone criticzed him when he first changed the lineup back in Livorno in August 2006. Maybe he should have used some other younger players but I think he kind of didn't really have a choice from the outset.
But wait, the Italian economy is far ahead of the Spanish one. The only reason the Spanish economy has been growing as fast as it has is because it is the net largest receiver of funds from the EU, while Italy is one of the largest net contributer... Makes a significant difference. Plus, Italy is just in a small hole... Wait until 2013 and see how the economy will fly.
The economic pendulum takes place in every country in every part of the world. History proves that what goes up must come down and back up again. Still regardless of Spain's and Italy's economic situation, speaking strictly in terms of soccer, they still have a long way to go to catch Italy. They didn't beat them on the field although they kept pressing. Italy will be back they just need to regroup, get some newer , maybe younger players and start over again. I can't see how yesterday's pk loss is the end of Italian soccer. It makes no sense. Also, everyone seems to forget, Italy just doesn't play well in the Euro Cup. They never have.
Roberto Baggio, Francesco Totti, Alessandro Del Piero, Mauro Camoranesi, Antonio Cassano = "cynical and defensive"!
Yeah but even then they were the home team and there weren't any pk's back then. If I'm not mistaken they replayed the final.
We didnt get help from the marshall plan you did.We are now contributing not receiving. Your clothes is more popular but we are catching up,your food is more popular but our food(try mediterranean paella) is underrated because we dont know how to promote ourselves.As for football our league is better and as far as football clubs go Real madrid has won more cups than Milan but Italy has won 4 WCs n us nada. And yes Spaniards n Italians are "cousins" i know we like each other. We are the real Latinos(someone tell this to the "smart" americans) not the pocahontas from southamerica(mind u i know there are whites in southamerica)
They didn't get help from the Marshall plan becuase their country wasn't in WW2...I know that civil war was not good for the country but that was 75 years ago...the same can be said for Italy.... The only real way Italy's economy will thrive once again is when America gets going...Italy lives off its tourism and when Americans start spending money over there, I'm sure Italy's ecomony will bounce back also...
all you have is paella, Italy has a cuisine you may have a few brands, Italy has Fashion And as far as your league goes. Real Madrid may have more cups than milan but the Spanish League and Italian League are level at 11 champions league titles won. if anything the Italian League has been more successful in Europe based upon the number of runner up titles in the champions league. We have 14 runner up titles and the Spanish have 9. don't believe me look it up Italian League 11 Champ League ( ac milan 7, Juve 2, Inter 2) with 14 runner up titles Spanish League 11 ( Real Madrid 9, Barcelona 2 ) with 9 runner up titles
I always wanted to ask.....coming from California all we have is Mexican food.........are there tacos , quesadillas and nachos in Spain?