New FIFA Rankings: Italy Slips further to thirteenth
Only four years ago, Fabio Cannavaro was lifting the coveted World Cup trophy over his head for the world to see. The 18 Carat gold trophy standing at 36.5 centimeters was a deserved reward after what the Azzurri went through during the Calciopoli scandal.
Marcelo Lippi then was successful in gathering such a group of players who supported whatever the coach said and played for the team rather than individual honors. That victory obviously said that Italy tops the FIFA rankings for the year. Fabio Cannavaro
claimed both the European and World Player of the year titles. The achievement was icing on the cake.
But Lippi duly stepped down as a legend later, writing his names among the selected few who have managed to win the World Cup. After him, Roberto Donadoni was appointed the coach, who although was a legendary winger with the great AC Milan team of the 80s
but he was an utter failure when it came to coaching. The Azzurri’s poor show in the Euro 2008 thus came as no surprise. The only positive thing for the Italia was performances put forward by Giorgio Chiellini. The Young Central Defender managed to keep the
striking duo of David Villa and Fernando Torres quite for the entire 120 minutes of the match. Italy eventually bowed down to the champions Spain in the Quarter finals.
The press and fans alike called for his head and the FIGC duly complied. Donadoni was made the scapegoat while Marcelo Lippi was reinstated. The country sang praises for the legendary coach. Detractors had their doubts but did not voice their concerns when
faced by the credential of the Paul Newman lookalike. With the easiest World Cup qualifying group one could ask, Lippi should have integrated young talent with experience. Instead he simply recalled his favorites from the batch of 2006.
The players had lost the pace and simply were no match for the young and emerging talents of Spain, Argentina and Germany. The youth and the talent were left home to watch their team getting embarrassed on TV. The likes of Mario Balotelli and Antonio Cassano
were criminally left home. Still the nation bid their old heroes farewell with crossed fingers, hoping against hope that the team will come home with the trophy well defended. Italy’s performance in the Group stages of the World Cup was dismally pathetic and
embarrassing. Failing to win even a single game against minnows New Zealand, Slovakia and Paraguay, Azzurri returned home.
Lippi took the blame and was shown the door. The Young Tactician, Cesare Prandelli has now been appointed. There are much expectations from him. His tenure began with a friendly loss to Ivory Coast. Not a positive start but he came back with two victories
against lowly Estonia and Faroe Islands. The performance against Estonia was poor yet again. The team however won by a five goal margin in the next fixture.
Meanwhile, there are encouraging signs for Italia fans as Prandelli is good when it comes to working with youth. He has groomed young players like Alberto Gilardino and Adriano in their teen years and made them household names. He has recalled the mercurial
Cassano and talented Mario back to the squad and has made them central pillars around which the team will operate. Cassano has repaid the faith with two ‘man of the match’ performances in two appearances. Scoring twice and adding a hat-trick of assists.
Italy has slipped below even Croatia for now who overtook Italy with a 3 – 0 victory over Lativia in the qualifying section. But the hope is for the betterment. With a talented squad and some prodigious youngsters in likes of Sebestian Giovinco and David
Santon coming up, Italy will surely cement their position in the top five once again in the coming years.
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