Thursday, June 24, 2010

a boring world cup post

Just watched the Italy game versus Slovakia.

Italy is out and they deserved too. 30 minutes (the last ones) of decent football are not enough to qualify.

I used to dislike football (soccer for the americans), but lately I've been enjoying it a lot. I watched plenty games of both the italian Serie A and the english Premiere Legue last season. Enough to have an opinion about Italy's performance, so here you have it.

IMO the manager Lippi did a really bad job at selecting the players. He left home players like Totti and Cassano who would have done sure better than Montolivo or Pepe or Iaquinta.

He left sitting on the bench two great Napoli players: Quagliarella and Maggio. As soon as those two entered the game (together with another great player Pirlo, who had been injured till then) the difference was clearly noticeable.

But the biggest mistake of all was to replace the injured keeper Buffon with the inexperienced Marchetti who looked and acted quite nervous. Napoli goal keeper De Sanctis (sitting on the bench) would have done a much better job.

Now that the first round is almost over, the tournament will get interesting. I sure don't want to miss Germany vs England, let's hope for a good game.
At the very beginning of the the world cup, England was my favorite. So much talent (despite all the injuries) on the pitch, let's see if Capello finally will let them play they way they know to.

That's all I have to say and to try to avoid to make this the most boring post ever, here's a lil south swell shot.

6 comments:

Lano said...

I am still in shock that Italy are out of the world cup!
I have enjoyed this world cup for the mere fact that some of the lesser teams seem to have caught up, Chile, Paraguay, USA and NZ all performing well on the biggest stage of all.
One thing that has annoyed me is the refereeing! Some deplorable decissions (two involving Australia mind you), surely its time to get the technology involved with the big tournaments.
So who will you be supporting now GP? I am still thinking Spain will step it up.

Anonymous said...

Hai ragione anche sul calcio, non solo sul surf, sup e windsurf.

Olaf said...

Lano,

I don´t thing Paraguay has caught up.. they had always a decent team. In fact, they are one of the 3 best of south america after Argentina and Brazil.
USA were to lucky.... and NZ still have to improve they game.

I totally agree with the refereeing and the need of tech!

GP, how sad, you said it to me before about the situation of Italy.
I asume you´re supporting Diego Armando? jeje.

Let´s see what happen today with Spain and Chile. It will be a fight to death!

Cheers.

cammar said...

Lo so, sono il tuttologo per eccellenza...

Who will I be supporting? Whoever plays good without faking or dramatizing too much.
Usually that's how the players of the Premier Legue play at home, that's why I like watching it. Rooney, Gerrard, Lampard are great players to watch. I'll root for them a bit.

And I'll root for Diego's team too, of course. Messi is the greatest and I would have loved to see him play together with Napoli's Lavezzi. The problem is that with Tevez, Higuain and Milito, there are too many good players already, so he was left home.
Nonetheless, I would have selected him no matter what. That guy can be a genius.

Anonymous said...

Tuttologo....!! Azz...
Comunque da buoni tifosi napoletani, De Sanctis era senza dubbio da preferire... ma qui in Italia nessuno lo ha nemmeno sussurrato, tali e tante erano le altre mancanze, ancor più grandi e palesi...E i 40' di energia e tre gol di Quagliarella ne sono stati la dimostrazione, che secondo me, c'era una volontà perversa e masochistica di fare quella fine.... chissà poi perchè..
Vituzz

cammar said...

Vituzz,
http://www.beppegrillo.it/2010/06/bossi_lha_detto/index.html