GROUP F: ITALY v PARAGUAY (Green Point Stadium, Cape Town, 7.30pm, RTÉ Two, BBC 1):WHEN FIFA asked Patrick Vieira to hand over the World Cup trophy to Danny Jordaan, the head of the local organising committee, at last Thursday's pre-tournament concert in Soweto, it seemed like a nice enough feature of a star-studded event.
Africa is not blessed with an abundance of football world champions and the invitation to Vieira, the Senegal-born France midfielder who helped win the trophy in 1998, struck a symbolic chord.
Not in Italy nor, more specifically, at the Azzurri’s training base in Centurion near Pretoria. Within the ranks of the world champions there was surprise and indignation at a perceived slight. Why was a member of their victorious team from 2006 not chosen for the honour? “Vieira didn’t win that cup, Italy did,” said Giancarlo Abete, the president of the Italian Football Federation. “It was a gaffe by Fifa and they must offer an explanation. We received no formal invitation. If we had been asked to send an official delegation, I would have had no problem in responding positively.”
Fifa did ask Andrea Pirlo to attend but the Italy playmaker was receiving treatment for the calf injury that has plunged his World Cup into jeopardy. Italy hope he can return for the final Group F fixture against Slovakia. Abete and his fellow directors were astonished that Fifa did not extend an alternative invite.
The diplomatic incident was the latest illustration of the Italians’ feeling that the world is against them. Some might call it paranoia but Marcello Lippi and his players have felt compelled to batten down the hatches in the face of criticism and scepticism, particularly from their countrymen.
The Italian media gives them little chance of retaining the World Cup and ringing up a record-equalling fifth triumph – the squad is too old and key players are past their best, is the view. The Azzurri, however, revel in a siege mentality and if the grounds for the current one pale when compared to the calciopoli scandal that prompted their ranks to be closed at the 2006 World Cup, the result is the same. Italy intend to use the slings and arrows as motivational therapy.
“Whenever a World Cup comes around,” Lippi said, “everyone wants to get in their say. Last time, everyone joined in as we moved along but this time, we’re not going to allow anyone to jump on the bandwagon.”
Lippi said that he did not understand the scepticism surrounding his team, which is rooted largely in there being a handful of veterans from the 2006 campaign who can see their best days in the rear-view mirror, namely the captain Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluca Zambrotta, Mauro Camoranesi and Gennaro Gattuso, who has announced that he will retire after the finals.
“If I had to play a competition that lasted for a year, then I would probably make other choices,” Lippi said. “But, since the World Cup finals last one month, there is no problem about being too old.”
Lippi hopes that he has the blend of youth and experience; the midfielders Riccardo Montolivo of Fiorentina and Juventus’ Claudio Marchisio are tipped to make an impression at the finals. Montolivo, 25, is competing with Gattuso to deputise for Pirlo while Marchisio, 24, is expected to start in the creative role behind Alberto Gilardino, the lone striker.
“The reason why I came back to the job is because I wanted to work with extraordinary players again and I wanted to feel those thrills again,” Lippi said. “Now we are at the World Cup, I am feeling it again. I want us to be born as a team against Paraguay and then grow. That’s what great teams do as they go along in tournaments.”
Guardian Service
