why are some of the juve fans so harsh on inzaghi? a lot of good things he does go unnoticed. seen those supposed 1-metre misses and i thought those weren't exactly easy chances though it does seem that way. most of those were like pinball situations and he's probably caught by surprise. for example, against turkey, the defender headed off the line onto inzaghi's left knee. considering the unexpectedness and awkwardness of it, it certainly wasn't that kind of tap-in many were screaming about. even if it had gone in, it'll just be dismissed as no big deal, no-glory, lucky freaky goal. its a lose-lose situation for that poor guy really. giving credit where its due, inzaghi does have that uncanny instinct to get into those positions and ironically and unfortunately, it works against him. del piero missed an open one through the gk's legs as well. totti, apart from that goal, wasn't much more useful as made to be either, trying to do too much by himself and making a couple of awful passes that were quite conveniently overlooked. delvecchio was open towards the end and instead of shooting, passed the ball back ... and i read how he's supposedly so much better than inzaghi. c'mon!! when inzaghi earned and scored the winner against turkey, everybody made it sound like its some crime. its ridiculous!! however, i'm glad that all his coaches, from lippi, ancelotti to zoff, saw through all these and appreciated his ability.
if there's anything wrong with italy's attack, it has to be totti playing in the wrong position. he seems uncomfortable playing right up there and that's not doing his ability justice. its true del piero looked like a world-beater when he came on but consider the situations when he did. italy was already winning and the opposition is pretty tired and desperate, leaving much more spaces while he's comparatively fresh. the worst player italy had is albertini.
there's a writeup in the Guardian that sums up our no.9's attitude and i like it ... brilliant!! :
Striker with score to settle
Filippo Inzaghi, stung by his Italian critics, is burning to light the Blue touchpaper in Brussels tonight
Paddy Agnew in Brussels
Wednesday June 14, 2000
At the end of Italy's training session on Monday morning Filippo Inzaghi seemed less than enthusiastic about meeting the media. He had one foot on the team bus when he changed his mind and headed back to the "mixed zone" area to say his piece.
In essence the striker was expressing his frustration at the extent to which television critics back home had spent more time analysing his near misses in Sunday's 2-1 win over Turkey than his brilliantly struck penalty winner.
Just when "Superpippo" might have expected to be lauded as a national hero for the way in which he fired home his penalty in spite of a barrage of cans, bottles, cigarette lighters and whistling from the Turkish fans in front of him, he found the critics being less than generous.
"I'm delighted with my goal and I'm holding on to it," said Inzaghi. "As for the rest, that doesn't matter. I live to knock the ball into the back of the net. It's fine by me, even if I score with my hand. Have I made myself clear?"
The 26-year-old Juventus striker, the man who may represent the biggest threat to Belgium's defence when the sides meet in the King Baudouin stadium in Brussels tonight, has experienced a curious fate on the way to these Euro 2000 finals.
The army of 56m armchair critics back home worked up a furious - and ongoing - debate as to whether Alessandro del Piero or Francesco Totti should play, and the Rome-based media mounted a campaign in favour of the two Roma strikers Vincenzo Montella and Marco Delvecchio. Many ignored the coach Dino Zoff when he said two weeks ago in Florence that "certain track records" do not get overlooked in a hurry.
The track record in question was interpreted as being that of Inzaghi, who played in seven out of eight Euro 2000 qualifiers, scoring three goals in the process. He was Italy's joint top goalscorer with the currently injured Christian Vieri.
Inzaghi may not please all the critics or the fans but he is one of those players consistently used by coaches. Men as varied in their approach as the Juventus coaches past and present Marcello Lippi and Carlo Ancelotti and the Italy coaches past and present Cesare Maldini and Dino Zoff have all trusted Inzaghi's scoring ability.
They have all fastened on to something that has been evident since the early 80s when Inzaghi proved a prolific scorer with his under-11 parish side of San Nicolo, near Piacenza, in northern Italy, namely that if you give the boy the ball in or around the penalty area he will probably go for goal. Often he may miss. Yet often he will score, witness a record that has seen him feature at the top end of the Serie A goal chart for the past five seasons.
Inzaghi, though, has always had his detractors. On that memorable autumn night three seasons ago when Manchester United beat Juventus 3-2 in a Champions League first-phase game at Old Trafford, critics in Italy pointed the finger at both Inzaghi and Lippi. How could a Juventus side who had enjoyed the heavyweight presence of such as Gianluca Vialli, Fabrizio Ravanelli and Vieri in attack now trust this lightweight, they asked.
Wait until the end of the season for the answer, replied a furious Lippi in Inzaghi's defence. By the end of the season, of course, Inzaghi had played a more than full part in a splendidly successful run which saw Juventus win Serie A as well as lose the Champi ons League final against Real Madrid.
Dismissed alternately as a "poacher", "too lightweight" and "no good on the big night", Inzaghi has continued to defy his detractors. When he says he would happily score with his hand, he is not exaggerating. He is the classic self- obsessed, goal-obsessed striker who believes his role on earth is to whack the ball as hard as he can when and if he comes near the opponents' goal.
His Juventus team-mate Del Piero rediscovered this aspect of Inzaghi during a 4-0 Serie A win against Venezia in February. The incident in question came in injury-time, when Juventus were already home and dry, leading 2-0. Having rounded Venezia's goalkeeper, Inzaghi found himself wide, almost on the byline. Rather than pass to the waiting Del Piero in the middle he chose to go on a spectacular run across goal, slicing the ball in from a difficult angle.
The point about the incident was that at the time Del Piero badly needed to score. On the comeback trail last season after a 10-month lay-off, he went through to the penultimate game - a 1-0 win against Parma - before scoring a league goal from open play; the other eight of his nine goals were from penalties.
In the Venezia match, as Inzaghi climbed an advertising hoarding to celebrate his goal, Del Piero stood behind him, arms on his hips, patiently waiting. When Inzaghi finally turned, Del Piero delivered a sharp reprimand. Del Piero afterwards refused to reveal what he had said, admitting only that he had been annoyed and adding: "I'd just say this, though: it was a good job we were already 2-0 up and a good job, too, that he scored."
Inzaghi's misses against Turkey have to be seen in that light. The man lives to shoot. His record on Sunday, too, was not that bad, at least according to official Euro 2000 statistics. He had six shots on goal; three were wide, two on target and one a goal. If he maintains that strike rate, Belgium had better beware - and Inzaghi's critics, too.
Against Belgium he was in offsides 7 times, he missed everything thah a player passed to him. He sux like hell ! I just like him to stay in Juve as long as he wants 
