[CUG]

i agree with gaga. without totti, we actually resembled a team. nothing against totti, i guess its just traps tactics when he is on the field.

but we cant forget that a player is always used as a scapegoat. Going back to 94, it was baggio's fault, then zola's for missing that penalty in 96, del piero in 98, del piero in 2000, 2002...well, vieri copped it for missing a few chances against korea.....so what makes it different this time around? I suppose Traps and the media have Totti lined up already if italy fails to make it past group stages.


All these players get criticised, but never our coach. we have gone through many coaches over the past decade, but how many of them really got most of the blame?

Anyway, i just hope that if we go out early, traps' will get the blame, because he deserves it.

 

[CUG]

in regards to vieri, he is a player who is either hot or cold. If he doesnt score in a game, he basically is useless. just like trezeguet and many others. The first game, he had no chance of playing well with those tactics and last game, he failed to finish off a few, as did del piero. He has not been in form this season, patchy performances etc...and we all knew this before but we just assumed he would score like he has done previously for italy.

i think in the next game, if vieri hasnt shown much in the first half, we should bring on Di Vaio. Im a critic of Di Vaio, but what he does add is pace and he'll do more than just wait for the ball.

considering that italy has to win no matter what, having an attacking team like the one Catenaccio posted is a good idea, but at the same time, we are going to suffer in defence a little as well.

the biggest positive is that del piero looked like he wanted to play last game, cassano did a great job for his first real game and the team looked like a unit. So im expecting a good result. i just pray that sweden and denmark play a game to benefit us.

 

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Thank you of wolf and man and great outdoors. polaris, surely you know that strikers can still give something to the team even if they dont score.

 

[CUG]

i dont know, i think the likes of gattuso, pirlo, fiore and totti can hold their own and be compared to the likes of gerrard, lampard, becks and scholes. I think both midfields are quality, except that Sven plays his best in midfield whereas Traps never did.

as for the game, i heard that materazzi may actually start ahead of ferrari. :yuck:

 

[CUG]

i actually missed the game, and it sounds like its a good thing.

not really surprised, i knew we wouldnt advance, but i suppose i didnt predict a last minute goal by sweden to take us out.


in the end, we were cursed from the start of this tournament. dodgy selections, pathetic play in our first game, was this not going to happen?

We can blame the players, but i think the coach needs to stand up and admit that he was the main contributor to what was only maybe 70 minutes of good football all tournament.

I admit that many players underperformed, from what i saw, and from reading mtah creports and posts, it sounds like these players didnt perform well in this game either.

As for the future, I think Lippi should coach the team. He does have his positives and negatives. I think Italy need to start thinking about the future, which means the likes of Vieri, Panucci and others who wont be around for the WC shouldnt be there anymore.

Well, forza czech rep now.

 

[CUG]

yes off course, FROM a JUVENTINO....
coaching lippi, of course yes,
vieri & panucci can go, you say... but of course Del piero can stay....
you really don't do much trouble to hide your true colors, don't you.

actually, if you read other posts that i have just posted, you may realise that del piero is on my list to not play anymore as i believed before this tournament, and after it now, that cassano should have been there from the start. so just keep it on you jocks and find out some facts before open that hole in your face!

 

[CUG]

facts are facts when concerning players, most of them are to blame. realistically thinking, only buffon, cassano and a few others played well enough in this tournament. del piero underperformed, as did vieri and many others. Traps underperformed as a coach as well. I dont think anyone should be singled out at this tournament. We can look at every player and find plenty of faults. I mean, we lossed one of our key players due to him spitting on another, it was obviously never going to be a clean cut tournament for the team.

we have to stop blaming the players, and of course, we have to stop talking about the sweden and denmark game as well, what happened was sus, no doubt about it, however, we shouldnt have been in that position from the start of this game.

until italy gets serious about finding a coach who does what is right, prepares the players mentally, and decides to actually play modern football instead of thinking tv is black and white still, then italy will keep on doing what they are doing now.

stop using del piero as a scapegoat, he doesnt deserve it in this tournament. vieri didnt exactly get great service in the 3 games. at the end of the day, the mentality of traps and his gameplan was never going to benefit our forward structure. And the fact that Cassano did score and play so well just shows that he has the potential to be one of the greats, because as we all know Traps could make Maradona in his prime look average if he was coaching him.

so lets drop the bullshit of blaming players.