fifa World Cup 2010: Italian fans want Italy to win against Slovakia or pay the price
The world champions, the Italian team, find themselves in a position that not many would’ve expected out of them heading into this World Cup tournament. The formula is simple for the Azzurri. Win and advance, tie and hope for help, or lose and go home. Slovakia, on the other hand, has only one choice and that is to win.
After two games played by each team, Paraguay is on top of Group F with four points, Italy is tied with New Zealand at two and Slovakia has only one point.
Italian manager Marcello Lippi, who orchestrated the World Cup result in 2006, has faced a lot of criticism for bringing an aged squad into the tournament and leaving several young talents home. Lippi opted to go with experience into South Africa. However, after two draws, including a minor surprise against Paraguay and a shocking one against New Zealand, many are wondering if Italy’s just too old to be in this tournament.
One key ingredient that has been missing from an Azzurri attack, which has been uncreative and stagnant thus far, is their best setup man Andrea Pirlo. Pirlo has been out of the tournament so far with a calf injury, but he is hoping to play against Slovakia. He may be the spark the Azzurri need for their offence to come alive.
Unfortunately for Italy, superstar goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon is still out with a herniated disc.
Slovakia is coming off a 2-0 loss to Paraguay and their chances to advance are very slim. To advance, they will need to pull off a huge upset and beat the defending champions and then hope that Paraguay beats New Zealand. The former act will be very difficult to achieve, even against an Italian squad that is off to a slow start.
The loss to Paraguay saw Slovakian coach Vladimir Weiss very disappointed with his team’s effort against the South Americans: “We made two mistakes and conceded two goals," he said. "There was always punishment for our mistakes."
Italy is coming off a very disappointing draw with New Zealand. While many saw this as a big victory for the Kiwis, many saw it as bad as a defeat for the Azzurri. Coach Lippi was pleased with his team’s effort, but not the result. On the surface, Italy dominated New Zealand. They out-chanced them and had possession for an impressive 79% of the match. However, there was creativity missing and many squandered opportunities to blow out New Zealand.
"We're just sorry we didn't win a match we could have," Lippi said. "If we didn't win against New Zealand it's our fault. Once again, the opponent scored on their first chance. We were able to control the game after that, but this was a match we should have won."
While it is important to applaud the effort of New Zealand, they had no business tying that game and Italy definitely let an opportunity at three points slip away. They gave up an early goal, which appeared to be offside, but nonetheless the Kiwis took the early lead before Italy answered with a penalty kick from Vincenzo Iaquinta.
Italy now heads into their matchup with Slovakia, where once again, they should win but nothing has come easy in this World Cup. Italian supporters are questioning whether Italy’s problem is that they just haven’t played their best game yet or if the team just doesn’t have enough talent and youth to compete at the level necessary to succeed. Lippi is still confident in his roster though: “We can still do important things in this World Cup,'' he said."It's within our possibilities. We can do so much better than what we have done so far."
Now, it’s down to one game and it’s either off to the knockout stage where Italy would remain a dangerous team, or make a horrifying early exit out of the World Cup. If Italy goes out the fans will not let it go easily and the players will not be welcomed with open arms.
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