A Couple Of Azzurri-Tinted Perspectives

By: chris | March 27th, 2008

Instead of a Milan biased recap of the Spain-Azzurri game I thought I would call on the help of my Italy Offside Amici to all give a little recap of the friendly. Check out our thoughts.

Gianfranco-AC Milan

A loss is never a good thing, and I am not the type of guy to brush it off with an n “it’s just a friendly” type comment. The team regardless of the game should always strive to put their best foot forward in any game, and I would have to say that gave quite an attempt to do that yesterday. We all know the potential that the Spanish team has, but we also know that they seem to fizzle in the face of pressure. With that being said the Azzurri, in my opinion did not apply enough pressure in the way of shots and offensive build up. When Camaronesi is your offensive juggernaut on the pitch clearly a few things were out of whack. Kudos to The Don for sticking to his lineup and not playing all the Milan players for extended lengths of time, they need the rest. But I will have to be critical in his play of the “Matrix” who has not played a good game in ages, and may very well be putting on the Azzurri shirts for the last few times leading up to Euro08. A poor effort from Captain Canna also leaves me wondering where has he gone, but another game from Grosso, while DeRossi continues his good form. With the Villa goal being the way it was, the team will definitely recover from this loss but it is important their next game is a win to keep the confidence high and to not create a lull in a form prior to the tournament.

Francesco-Parma

I never expected Spain-Italy to be a great game and I was pretty much right. It was a typical friendly, both sides having their own periods of domination in the match and not really putting in their best efforts. Villa scored a goal that 99 times out of 100 doesn’t go in; it was just a perfect strike. The Starting XI Donadoni put out was pretty much what we expect to see starting against Holland in Euro 2008, but I think Zambrotta would get the nod over one of Grosso or Panucci and Gattuso would be starting in midfield instead of Perrotta or even De Rossi (which is ridiculous because De Rossi has been the best midfielder in Serie A this season). I think the real standouts of this match were Buffon (but that’s expected) and Mr. World Cup hero himself Fabio Grosso. Grosso hasn’t been a favorite of Donadoni, he’s wasn’t even called up for some games, but last night he proved why he should be on the Euro 2008 roster. Even though at times his defense could be a little shaky (what do we expect, he started his career as a fantasista), he held Sergio Ramos off all game and did well going forward. Obviously we will see a more motivated Italy team this summer (we hope), but I’ll repeat what I’ve been saying since Totti left, this team needs a fantasista. Di Natale is a good useful player with excellent technical ability and skill but he has not the game changing player we need. We need a classic Italian #10, the player that change the game at any instant with a flick, pass, assist, goal, anything. And call me crazy but I still think that player is Antonio Cassano (I guess call him crazy too). Right now we are a hardworking team that grinds out results in multiple ways, but Cassano can be that extra something that can win us the whole thing. But first he will have to prove himself when he comes back from suspension, and only then can Donadoni decide to take a gamble or not. My last point regards Donadoni. As we all know he had a shaky start and then led our beloved Azzurri to a great qualification. However I think no matter what results he gets this summer in Austria/Switzerland, whether it be winning the whole thing or losing every game in the group stage, he will be gone this June. He simply does not have a good relationship with FIGC head Abete and Abete’s ritual half-time interview in his annoying nasal voice did not give any positive messages to Donadoni’s future. I’m pretty sure they will let his contract run out (it expires June 30, 2008) and a new Italy manager (or returning Italy manager. Lippi?) will be leading the Azzurri through WC 2010 qualification.