Brief History - Italy versus Paraguay: Word Cup Soccer 2010
Italy
The Italians are the ones to defend their World Title this time. The current World Cup holders aren’t among the flashy teams that believe in the ideology of conqueror and destroy. Instead they are categorized under the ‘pragmatic play’ department.
They have hardly ever went on to a blistering offence; instead they have worked more on team work, have stopped their opposition with their strong hold of defence and then finished what they started with a brute midfield on push and ending it with a finesse finish.
Their coach Marcelo Lippi and his squad have a something to prove this time. It’s not just about the World Cup anymore. Things have turned personal. The winners of the World Cup in Germany 2006 have often been called as a ‘long in the tooth’ in recent times.
After their spells of bad luck, there was a time when the team became extremely superstitious and went on deep into charms of good luck. This time, they won’t complain about luck or even won’t have the excuse of lack of performance as they are placed in an easy win group which includes Ireland and Bulgaria.
Lippi and the board have stated that they are planning a streak towards Brazil’s five World Cup wins but for that to happen, Lippi world have a task ahead. He’ll have to use veterans like Francesco Totti and Luca Toni along with the new blood Giueseppe Rossi and Sebastian Giovinco.
Still his current line up isn’t bad either. A legendary goalkeeper Gian Luigi Buffon along with great midfielders and sharp offence, Lippi has a well balanced team to conclude. With the hardy teams, Lippi is sure to breakout his game book and formulate some of marvellous plans into play.
The aging factor is one that been around the air sometime. With nine players from the last times’ squad the media has been a pain in the neck for them often putting up questions if his squad is too old for the job.
Their lack lustrous qualifying campaign wasn’t either there to help them with that fact. While they were able win low scoring games against rookie teams they drew unnecessarily with better ones. The Azzurri will have to give something big to get back their shine of glory for the road ahead and the support of fans for the journey.
Paraguay
The La Celeste would be another team that would take World Cup very personally this summer in South Africa. Every fan from the country will have their hearts racing and their eyes glued to the proceedings for today.
But apart from other teams that won’t be just the case with the national team, the hearts of Paraguayan fans at the moment are in sorrow and disappointment for Salvador Cabanas, the star striker from the Americano club who just recently got shot in the head in Mexico and is fighting for his life.
The man with a muscular built and athletic flexibility, popularly known as the ‘burly hit man’ was flawless when compared to Manchester City star Roque Santa Cruz. However the head coach Gerardo Martino will have to make do without him in South Africa.
But there are others in the teams that have the capability to impress. One of those will be the Dortmund midfielder Nelson Valdez that will be the perfect ligature to hold up the team, a team which has now qualified for four World Cups consecutively.
The Paraguayans were quite let down with their first round exclusion in the World Cup of 2006 in Germany but this time over they have had a brilliant qualifying campaign in South America- the La Albirroja were able land up with the third position juts behind Brazil and Chile.
The team overall is quite united and in essence that results in great team work, with that and a touch of aspiration, they can turn up to be one of the next dominators in the World.
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