After being totally outclassed by a clearly superior team in the euro 2012 final for the biggest scoreline in a major soccer final, and the embarrassments that were the 2009 Confederations Cup and the 2010 world cups, and losing a spot in the Champions League to Germany, Italian soccer has clearly entered the darkest age it has even been through since Superga. The question is, where do they go from here? Is Italy going to start relying on foreigners to represent them like they have in the past? Is the federation going to continue keeping the most talented players from the national team? Most importantly, can Italy still be considered a world power in soccer? There have been some historic loses recently, including losing to an African team and the United States for the first time and being schooled by the Russians and the Spanish. If you think Italy can still be considered a world power after this fiasco, please explain why? If not, what can they do so that it is not another 40 years before they win something again?
France lost to Senegal 1-0 in 2002.....losing vs an African team is not an embarrassment anymore....the same goes for USA.....they are no pushovers, they beat Spain 2-0 in the Confederations cup SF.
Of course they are.. If they aren't a powerhouse than the only powerhouse in the world is Spain and maybe Germany then..
They are definitely still a power house. Its amazing what they did in the Euros when right on the eve of the Euros players were being linked to the scandal. The only knock you can put on Italy is that they need to get their league together or they do run a risk of maybe dropping off. They need to clean out Seria A through Z . But I think that's the only real knock you can put on them
WTF? I'm no Italy fan, but they just reached the final of the Euros and have one of, if not the, most promising u-21 player in the world! Bizarre post.
how exactly did they get outclassed? before Motta went off injured and they played the rest of the match a man down, it was a very even game
Italy NT is fine. The issue is all the scandals have taken a toll on seria a. Italian teams will be back.
not jumping on board the bash italy brigade, but 2 teams in the cl. that is the mark of a pretty rubbish league. the again, looks like germany dont want their 4th slot after all, unless dynamo kiew choke tonight.
Their NT is fine but their clubs will keep struggling in Europe. Soon they will lose their 4th place in the ranking.
This question can be taken from 2 points if we are talking club teams they have declined a little and that is true, but if we are talking about their national team they are still a world power. This question all depends on which one we are talking about. There is a difference .
Its poor no doubt. But had Udinese went through I don't think they would have accomplished much regardless. Napoli and Roma on the other hand is perhaps another story.
Italy went back to collective bargaining not so long ago, so the top teams get less money but it should help increase the 'pie' in the future. Even in it's nadir it's spending was second only to England this summer and there wasn't the kind of exodus we're seeing in La Liga. Attracting top players from abroad is the real issue in Serie A nowadays.
The league has been struggling a bit, but the NT is fine. We played Spain to a standstill in the group stages at teh Euros (and should have won but for a piss poor finish from Balo on his one on one). The finals were down to going down to 10 men, and horrible knee jerk tactics from the manager. Stick with what worked the first time around. Instead we changed it up and it cost us. World Cup 2010 was an embarasment, but look at the rest of our results, we are doing just fine, and have some good talent coming along as well. That run at the Euros was done without Rossi who would have been a startign forward for us, too.
The league is struggling a lot. There are no more top players in Serie A. There are a few up and coming superstars like Jovetic and Cavani but even those guys will likely go to greener pastures if they can't get regular CL football. The highest paid player in the Italian league is De Rossi at 6m Euro's and even he wasn't far away from a Man City transfer (6 million is peanuts for Citeh, they could have offered him double that). With that said Serie A is becoming a much more balanced league (top teams getting worse while mid-club teams get better) so for the first time in a long while its a pretty wide open league with 4-5 potential winners. (People like to think Juve are shoe-ins but I'm not convinced by their forwards.) However, as far as making a Champions League final appearance is concerned, you're unlikely to see an Italian club in the mix for a looong time. For it to be possible you would need several top European clubs to go bankrupt i.e. ManU and Barca and perhaps a reworking of the tournament itself (different coefficient structure with a harder spending cap etc.) But obviously those things are unlikely to happen. Incidentally the Premiership is so wealthy right now its almost its own "Champions League" in a way.
Apparently, we are looking at both the national team and clubs. Italy continue to perform as well or better than anyone on the international level. They still have arguably the second to fourth best domestic league in the world. So the real question is if Italy isn't a world power in football, who is? What a stupid topic.
Italy have football in their blood. Just like several other powerhouse nations... Italy will always be italy in major tournaments, no matter what.. Their Serie A is on an incredible decline however, so they really need a massive overhaul or they will continue to decline even further in the rankings...