Come the day, you see the sun

The Good, The Bad and The Queen – History Song

Monday mornings and the unique yet recurrent feeling of waking up a week after having fallen asleep amidst empty packs of cigarette, empty bottles and empty souls. What happened this weekend? Did Chelsea win? Did Inter win? Did Messi score? Did I score? Leaving a day of rest between the day of the games and their report is not the best method: the distance has time to settle in and you lose all the fervour that got you writing in the first place.

The English Premier League has reached another end of season. Manchester United awaited a miracle from Wigan (like the one they pulled against Arsenal) to beat Chelsea. Hope again. Chelsea went about its Sunday promenade like no other, with an 8-0 final scoreline. Drogba got the chance to put in the three extra goals to surpass Rooney, Ashley Cole scored upon his return from injury, Ancelotti wins the title within his first year on the bench, Lampard took the first penalty, Ballack’s probable last game, blablablabla. On a quicker note, Chelsea’s ability to maitain a stable group amidst the coaching turmoil has brought about its fruits. United takes the second spot, Arsenal the third and Tottenham the fourth. That’s how much we’ll remember from this World Cup year. Forget the Rooney dependence, Arsenal’s tiny bench, Tottenham’s fight with Manchester City and Liverpool’s disaster, see you in September. Everywhere else where the title wasn’t already discerned (Germany, France), the stalemate continues before next week’s last games. Inter and Roma on the Italian side, Barcelona and Real Madrid on the Spanish one, all win their weekend match-up with more difficulty, Palermo and Sampdoria draw, Sevilla and Mallorca both lost. All in all we’ll wait a week for the surprise to come, if any do come.

So what am I really going to feed you this Monday? Well, let me explain. A couple of weeks back I applied for this internship position for an online sports site (thanks Starchild) to write about and during the World Cup. After passing the first screening, the “position-proposers” asked me to produce a preview about the Italian National Team, following a specific template and format. Since the piece is apparently not good enough for them, I offer it to you, hoping that, you too, notice the difference between The Fourth Official’s usual writing style and the one asked of me. I'll let you choose which one is best, as I have already made mind up...

“2010 WORLD CUP PREVIEW: ITALY

After a slowly but surely acquired qualifications, Italy will travel to South Africa to defend their World Champion title and maybe accomplish a historical back-to-back success, last realized by Brazil over fifty years ago.

In a qualification group with a strong Eastern flair – Ireland, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Montenegro and Georgia, Italy, as usual, did the job with little panache and a lot of experience to validate their ticket to South Africa.

SCHEDULE
Paraguay: June 14
New Zealand: June 20
Slovakia: June 24

Along with France, Italy was given an easy group, with Paraguay replacing the usual South American big muscle. With Slovakia and New Zealand completing the group, presence in the last 16 seems promised, if not mandatory for the Azzuri.

Italy will dive straight into the thick of the competition, with a first match against Paraguay, most probably for the lead of the group. Italy will then play New Zealand before finishing the group stages against Slovakia.

Italy will see a lot of the countryside, their first game being in the Western port of Le Cap, some 1747km away from their second fixture in Nelspruit. Their last game will be a mere 350km away, in Johannesburg.

Italy can easily aim for the full nine points against opponents deemed inferior. Although the game against Paraguay might be deceptive seeing their astonishing qualification run, three points are undoubtedly required against New Zealand and Slovakia, a team whose many players evolve in Italy.

KEY PLAYERS

With Marcello Lippi’s return to the head of the national team after a two year hiatus, confidence is given to the previous world cup champions from Buffon in the goal, to Pirlo and De Rossi at the midfield, passing through Cannavaro in defence.

With Italian clubs struggling in European competitions, with the exception of Inter, who, unsurprisingly contains few Italians, let alone Italian international, Lippi’s key players have had a rough season, with only De Rossi living up to his standards.

All throughout the rest of the team, the quality is otherwise evident as well, with strong young players like Chiellini, Marchisio and even Aquilani guaranteeing a smooth transition from one generation to the other.

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

Italy’s weakness and strength are a very thin line apart from each other.

On the one side, Lippi’s past experience as head coach and his constant reliance on favoured players can assure him experience, coherence and a lot of craft within the team. Italians are known to rise to the occasion, the whole team acting as one unit, with secure elements.

On the other hand, many have precisely pointed to the homogeneity of Lippi’s team as its drawback, especially with ageing players, most of them over thirty, none of them being absolute best in their position, like Messi is for Argentina for example. Furthermore, his stubbornness to ignore extraordinary and flamboyant talents such as Cassano, Miccoli and even Balotelli, for the benefit of the group might deprive Italy of the necessary fantasy and pace that might be needed in dire situations.

IT WOULD BE A GREAT WORLD CUP IF...

As with any International tournaments, Italy is amongst the favourites to lift the golden trophy the 11^th of July. If Italy were to recreate their epic course of four years ago and win the World title, the whole world would have to kneel.

IT WOULD BE A DISASTER IF…

Although it seems unlikely, if Italy do not make it to the eighth, life would stop for a week or so in Italy. That being said, stopping at the door of quarterfinals would seem unworthy of a defending champion.

MY PREDICTION

I believe Italy remains, as always, a guarantee, especially with a coach like Lippi, so familiar with the highest competition. Players have already seen the top of the world and, allied with the right youth, the quarterfinals seem more than in reach.

It will be with a confrontation against another soccer giant that Italy’s real worth will come out.

Then again, they always say the competition starts anew after the eighth of finals… remember France 2006."

TFO