An uninspiring win for Italy over Georgia
Thursday, September 11th, 2008Italy bagged their second victory in the World Cup qualifiers last night against Georgia. Coach Marcello ‘bello’ Lippi was under no illusions, as he commented to reporters afterwards “in the end we go home with two victories, and that’s what matters”.
Italy fans had hoped to see a major improvement in their side, after the weekend’s near disaster with Cyprus, when the small island managed to hold the World Champions to a 1-1 draw until a last minutes goal from Udinese striker Antonio Di Natale. The improvements were hard to measure, though, given a cautious Georgia that hardly ever troubled the Italian defence - and on the rare occasions that they did, it was their own mistakes that saved Italy from an equaliser.
The eyes of the fans in the stadium at Udine, in Northern Italy, were fixed firmly on Antonio Di Natale - considered a local boy (although he’s actually from Naples) as he plays for local team Udinese - but he failed to shine. The two important goals of the night came, instead, from Roma midfielder Daniele Di Rossi, who showed particular character given that he’s under intense media pressure for non-footballing motives.
A month ago De Rossi’s father-in-law, Massimo Pisnoli, was found murdered outside Rome, and yesterday his suspected killers were arrested. Adding to the media interest is the alleged motive for the murder - Pisnoli’s failure to divide fairly the loot from a bank robbery he was allegedly involved in. If anything, the tension seemed to give De Rossi a bit of clarity as he blasted home a great long range shot midway through the first half. The temperamental race-horse-like strikers on the Italian squad should, perhaps, take note (Gilardino and Toni, for example).
And that remains the problem for Marcello Lippi. Italy has an embarassment of riches in the attacking front, but when they appear in the national strip they become unsure underachievers. Luca Toni, for example, was prolific for Fiorentina and was the top scorer in last season’s Bundesliga. For the national team he’s scored 15 goals in 40 appearances, but only two in the World Cup, and an embarassing zero in the European championships.
Dino Zoff during the week pushed in the press for Lippi to change radically his tactics, and to choose a combination of Juventus’s Amuari (Amauri Carvalho de Oliveira) and Inter’s Mario Balotelli. Amauri is, in theory, entitled to play for either Brazil or Italy, while the youthful Balotelli has made it clear that he wants to play for Italy (he turned down a call-up from the Ghanaian national squad, for which he could play by virtue of his dual nationality). Would they make the difference?
Putting his finger on the pulse was Georgia’s coach Héctor Raúl Cúper (ex Inter and Valencia), who in the run up to last night’s game declared Andrea Pirlo to be Italy’s most important player. When on form, it’s hard to argue with that - but last night showed, without a shadow of a doubt, that he is not in form. The problem lies more in the midfield, paradoxically given De Rossi’s goals.
On the plus side, Fabio Cannavaro is back and Gigi Buffon stayed alert to protect his goal on the very few occasions it was troubled.