SolitaryWalker
Tenured roisterer
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2007
- Messages
- 3,504
- MBTI Type
- INTP
- Enneagram
- 5w6
- Instinctual Variant
- so/sx
If they had Buffon, the outcome may have turned out differently. Although we can't blame Marchetti for letting those goals in this game, Buffon could have made the saves on those shots, as we've seen him pull off similar tasks in the past. He was capable of stopping virtually all of them, especially the last one, he could have dealt with it just by coming off his line quickly enough and his ability to read the game could have well allowed him to do that.
I remember in 2006 he stopped Zidane' powerful header from the six yard box that was going right under the bar to the left of Buffon, 95% of keepers would not have been able to pull that off. Similarly, in 2008, he stopped a Romanian penalty and Marchetti most likely would not have, had he played in that game which would have led Italy to be eliminated from the EURO cup.
-It has been announced that the coach will be terminated after the end of the world cup which destabilized the team and lowered the morale of the entire squad.
-The player are getting old.
-Poor selections as FDG managed, I suspect that the team selections were in part inspired by a nationalistic bias, only one Italian player plays for a non-Italian club and they don't have a single black player when certainly they'd benefit from the contributions of black Italians. Some of them are enormously qualified, such as Mario Ballotelli.
-Their tactics of inconspicuously injuring opponents and diving are getting old and Howard Webb was astute enough to see right through that sham.
-Lack of outstanding goalkeeping. As you may see, Italians gave up very few scoring opportunities in the tournament, they've only allowed 6 shots on target, 5 of which have went in. One of the reasons they were able to succeed with this level of defensive performance was due to the fact that Buffon was able to make the few remarkable saves that were necessary, yet the replacement keeper was not able to pull it off. Essentially, this is a consequence of playing in a very defensive manner. Virtually any defense will make mistakes here and there and allow an opponent at least a few clear-cut scoring chances, in order to prevent those chances from turning into goals, goaltending brilliance will be necessary and that was lacking in the Italian team.
The only thing that's just as much fun as supporting your own side is hating another, and gli Azzurri just happen to be my object of derision. Ciao 
