WORLD CUP SOCCER 2010: Will Italy win in South Africa?
The Italians have arrived in grand fashion with the media in their earnest to surround the tarmac when their plane landed. The team having to defend their title this time over landed in South Africa last Wednesday.
Their main rivalry will up against the Spanish team who showed their level clearly in their last warm-up match in which they scored 6 goals. With such a performance, they have brought it into the middle of the table coaxing the idea that they are not an entity to mess with.
The Azzurri’s Coach Marcello Lippi has chosen a squad quite in resemblance to the one that brought back home glory in 2006 from Germany. The team includes nine players from the tournaments last occurrence four years back. It seemed that the Italian coach had made it sure to the African government how valuable his players were when dozens of police batches came for assistance and safety at the Johannesburg airport.
From there, the team immediately left for the Leriba Golf Lodge in the outskirts Pretoria to prep up for their World Cup opener in Group F facing in Cape Town on Monday.
The Italian team has had a torrid campaign since their triumph against the French in Berlin 2006, still Giancarlo Abete has hope. The head of football federation of Italy explained that any team who took Italy lightly in were in for big trouble.
Talking to media on the plane he commented, “Italy are world champions, that should not be forgotten but you cannot deny that other teams have done better than us in the last few years. For everyone the favourites are Brazil, Spain, Argentina and England, but we've got great belief. For Italy we're talking about tradition and in big competitions our strengths show through".
Well that does not help the Azzurri with their current luck. They first had a low scoring qualification curse. In which they drew with mediocre teams and scored low with rookies. Then came the injure as Lippi lost Andrea Pirlo to a calf strain his comeback in the group stages in full form might still be doubtful. It might be worth knowing that no team has ever won back to back World Cups since Brazil in 1962.
La Furia have better luck than the rest of the teams in tournament when it comes to injuries. Fernando Torres one of their main strikers happens to be the only one that faced threat of missing the Cup due to a knee injury but he has nearly gained full form and will be ready to play in the coming matches.
An excited Torres told after scoring a goal against Poland’s thrashing, “It's almost two months since I played so I am happy to have scored”.
The Spanish Coach Vicente Del Bosque told that the stars comeback was a most welcoming option. He told that he was eagerly waiting for the stars return, the one who scored the goal that made Spain the winners of Euro 2008 final against Germany. Bosque said, “We have finished our preparations and we can go to South Africa in good spirits".
Midfielder Andres Iniesta’s leg is the only other problem but it seems that it will be out of trouble and he will be able to shine.
Portugal were counting the cost after in-form Manchester United winger Nani was ruled out of the entire tournament after injuring his collarbone in training, dealing a blow to his country's chances.
The Portugal team has not been so lucky with their last minute injury of striker Nani who is in pretty good form in recent times. Portugal coach Carlos Queiroz claimed that he was very ‘sad’ because of Nani’s exclusion from the Cup due to the injury and admitted that he could have brought quite a change in the team still advising to be on the bright side he stated, “But the most important thing is the cohesion of the team and that we all play together to get over it”.
All teams are focusing on making their players survive till the end of the tournament now. Lippi will have double the task ahead of him as some of his players were already ruled out and some were excluded. What are left are aging and already dealing with issues. If the Azzurri’s want to win they will have to make pragmatic plays and avoid as less risks as possible in the early stages.
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