The director of the Corriere Dello Sport, Paolo De Paola, manifested through his blog that it shouldn't be OK for a country that has won four World Cups to be satisfied by just doing a good job.
Italian football has evolved in the last years, and, due to the economic crisis and also to many bad decisions taken, its overall tendency and performance have strongly decreased. With this, also the standards of the supporters have consistently lowered, in such that it is acceptable for the Nazionale and club teams to lose against the world's best teams.
In a sense, De Paola is right. Certainly, there is some degree of mediocrity in this new approach that has risen in Italy. Essentially, it should not be acceptable to lose a European final by four goals or to be satisfied with a Confederations Cup that left us with two suffered victories over Mexico and Japan (this one, totally undeserved), a regular second half against Brazil and good performance against Spain in semifinals.
If we look into the Nazionale's history as a whole, then certain things are totally not acceptable. Beyond the fact that only Brazil is above us in World Cup titles, the glory of our Calcio is not only limited to the actual four World Cups.
As a matter of fact, our glory is much more than that as our history is characterized by such a great number of legendary players, managers, specific matches, records, and so on. Italy has played many great tournaments that, even though they didn't result in final victory, they wrote the history of world's football history:
- The 4-3 win over Germany in 1970 World Cup semifinal, known as the Game of the Century.
- The historic performance of Franco Baresi in 1994 World Cup final, only three weeks after havign surgery on his knee.
- Paolo Maldini's record of minutes played in World Cups (2216)
- Marco Tardelli's celebration goal in 1982 World Cup final. By far, one of the most remembered celebrations in the world.
These are only four examples. There are many more.
However, if we looked into the Nazionale's history in separate parts, and we take into consideration all the difficulties we've had in the last eight years, then we could start being satisfied with the performances of Euro 2012 and Confederations Cup 2013.
2010 World Cup could easily be remembered as the worst ever played by Italy. It was the sign of how Calcio suffered the consequences of Calciopoli and other scandals. Far beyond the actual results, Marcello Lippi, who gave us the glory in 2006, did many mistakes managing the team in 2010. With this I don't mean to say that he should have called-up Cassano and even Balotelli because, frankly, I think not calling them was a good decision.
However, what I want to say is that Lippi could have managed the situation better. One thing is to not call Cassano, which (again) it is understandable, and another thing is to create this hateful relationship with fans and journalists prior to a major event.
After the disaster of 2010, the role of managing the Nazionale was assigned to a new different character, Cesare Prandelli, the fancy man who successfully took care of renewing the team and give a new face to the Nazionale.
The improvement from 2010 didn't take much time to be noticed. From the beautiful playing to the the new relationship with the fans, we can say that the Nazionale has risen again. Prandelli has made an excellent job with overall young players, who step by step, have been gaining more confidence with the jersey. Plus, if there is someone to thank for Balotelli's ongoing maturity, this someone is only Cesare.
Moreover, only thanks to the performances of the last two years, is that we can some degree of positive expectations for the 2014 World Cup. Prior to last year's Euro-Cup, expectations were very low, honestly.
After three years of Prandelli, we have many positive results:
- The maturity of Balotelli.
- The establishment in the squad of important players for the future, such as Bonucci, Maggio, Montolivo, Giaccherini, De Sciglio, and Rossi, who will come back stronger than before!
- The experience of veterans such as world champions Buffon, Pirlo, Barzagli, and De Rossi, and Italy's best defender Giorgio Chiellini.
At this point, the only thing that is missing to Prandelli's Nazionale is the real winning spirit that has always characterized Italy. Lippi had it, Bearzot had it, Vicini had it, and many more. Prandelli isn't quite there yet.
But, if Cesare finds the way to stamp a winning spirit to his own Nazionale, this team is ready to do great things. If not, this team will always remain in the "almost."
Anyway, always #ForzaItalia!
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