Posts Tagged ‘Being’
Italy And The Pressures Of Being Champion
Posted by Parkzone Corsair in Memory on November 27th, 2010
Italy won the world cup in Germany in the year of 2006 when they in Berlin defeated France on penalties to not only claim the title but the fourth one in their history. All of which making Italy the reigning world champion yet in all this it would be unfair to say that Italy is still the best team as four years have passed since then and many of the players who won are older by the same number of years. This being a long time in the life of an athlete, specially in a sport such as football.
I for my part and being of Italian descent am always hopeful of Italy wining whatever tournament they might enter yet I am also well aware that repeating as champion is very difficult even more so than becoming it. This given the fact that other teams tend to be more motivated to defeat the team that is the champ as they can later take more pride in saying they did so. Another factor that makes life harder for those who are champions is that other teams have more time to study their tactics. This being how world cup winners more than likely will be repeating what they demonstrated four years prior specially if they keep the same trainer and most of the same players.
Naturally one must not forget that if a team was good enough to win a world cup they by all right ought to be a great team which more than likely they are yet this does not make them invincible. This being more so the case since the teams they played four years earlier did have time to improve their game and even get new coaches with diverse tactics which like the game itself never stops advancing in its progressive ways.
Italy undoubtedly however is a great football nation which can always like Brazil, Germany and Argentina produce a team capable of going all the way in any tournament however I ask is this always wise to do so? For is it not sometimes more beneficial in the long run to use a tournament to prepare for another tournament by putting together a team of younger hopefuls in the hope that they might become better as a team for the future even if it be at the expense of more experienced players who are past their prime. With this in mind it is often that great teams will do such for the already mentioned reasons. All of which leading one to ask what exactly does Italian trainer Lippi plan to follow as a strategy?
Lippi of course having many great players at his disposal yet perhaps will opt to like Bearzot (in 86 after having won the world cup 82) to leave out many of the aging stars. This being perhaps the reason why Paolo Rossi, who played brilliantly in 82 was left out of the 86 squad in favor of the younger Altobelli. In fact one could even say that perhaps it was this what Bearzot did in Argentina 78 when his team that combined new players and veterans was the one that became the basis for the one that would go on to win the championship in 82.
Regarding previous champions only Italy (in 34 and 38) and Brazil (in 58 and 62) have repeated as champions with Argentina in 90 and Brazil 98 being able to at least get back in to the final; only to both end up loosing. Italy for its part after having won the world cup in 1938 was not able to defend its title four years later given that a war put a pause to the world cups till 1950. This being 12 years after, making it that most of their players from 38 would be too old to return to the squad; specially since most had already been on the team in 34. Italy however despite the war managed to build up a great team that would have probably been a factor in Brazil 50 had it not been for the fact that most of these players died in a plane crash.
Of course in recalling previous champs we can look at Uruguay who in 34 did not even bother to attend the world cup in protest to Italy; who did not partake in the world cup they organized and won in 1930. Uruguay however would win in 50 and defend their title in 54 where the might Hungarians defeated them after a grand match that extended in to overtime and a score of 4-2. In remembering previous champions perhaps it was France who gave the poorest performance when in 2002 they even failed to score as much as a goal in a performance that saw them obtain only one draw and two defeats. This even in a relatively easy group that contained teams such as Uruguay, Senegal and Denmark. If France however was the worst defending champion then arguably one could
