GET THE rotten tomatoes ready. Italy’s World Cup squad, eliminated from the first round of the finals after a 3-2 defeat by Slovakia in Johannesburg yesterday, may face a less-than-sympathetic welcome when they return home later this week.
Indeed, there are those churlish folks who suggest the squad would do better not to return home at all but rather go looking for work as part-time car park attendants in Soweto.
The point is that the reigning world champions have just registered one of their worst World Cup performances.
Not since Northern Ireland kept them out of the 1958 finals in Sweden has Italy recorded such a poor result. To have finished last in what was widely perceived as the weakest of all the first-round groups represents an even worse performance than in West Germany in 1974 when, again, the Italians went out in the first round.
“The plane of shame is ready to bring them home,” commented national news agency ANSA last night, adding: “Marcello Lippi’s world champions are leaving South Africa to return home covered in sporting disgrace”.
In the park of Villa Borghese in central Rome, where thousands of fans had gathered to watch the game on giant TV screens, the sense of disappointment was palpable: “They managed to play for only about six minutes in the whole course of three games,” commented one disappointed fan.
Most Italians had long ago decided it would be impossible for the Berlin heroes of four years ago to win back-to-back World Cups.
Yet many hoped this side would at least put on a bella figura and go out in a style befitting champions. Not so.
Even Sky Italia’s passionately patriotic commentator, Fabio Caressa, had to conclude his much movimentato commentary with the observation: “Frankly, for the entire first half, Italy were terrible . . .”
The football website goal.com was equally disappointed, headling its analysis of the game with: “From World Cup Triumph to a Disaster Of Epic Proportions, Italy Are On Their Way Home.”
Needless to say, the most wanted man in Italy right now is coach Marcello Lippi, the hero of four years ago. He stands in the dock, accused of having adopted too conservative a selection policy and in particular of having left Italy’s two most talented enfants terribles, Mario Balotelli and Antonio Cassano, at home in favour of a number of safe but uninspired players.
The result, say his critics, was an all-too-predictable disaster.
Perhaps some good will come of this defeat. Namely, Italian football, for long duped by that 2006 triumph and more recently by that of the very un-Italian Inter Milan in the Champions League, will acknowledge that not everything is rosy in the vineyard. Meanwhile, watch out for the tomatoes.