Third game redemption... mostly Italy’s second game syndrome has brought about an all too familiar scenario, but Richard Thomas says history offers encouragement for the Azzurri. A quick look at the front pages of Saturday morning’s sports dailies would have told you all you needed to know about how Italy’s shock 1-0 World Cup loss to Costa Rica was received back home. ‘How pathetic!’ screamed Tuttosport’s main headline before laying the blame for the Azzurri’s defeat squarely at the feet of Coach Cesare Prandelli. ‘Boiled and eaten up’ was Gazzetta dello Sport’s harrowing take on events in Recife, while Corriere dello Sport described the Group D encounter as ‘a resounding defeat’ which puts Italy’s World Cup survival ‘at risk.’ What a difference a few days can make in football. Just this time last week, the Azzurri had emerged victorious from a closely fought contest against England in their tournament opener in Manaus. When coupled with Uruguay’s surprise defeat to Costa Rica earlier that same evening, Prandelli’s team appeared to have taken a stranglehold on one of the World Cup’s more difficult looking groups. After Friday’s tame loss to the Central Americans, however, the reality is that Italy’s continued participation in world football’s most prestigious tournament is on a knife edge. It could of course be much worse – just ask any England fan – but the Azzurri now know that another defeat against a Luis Suarez inspired Uruguay on Tuesday will send them the same way as the Three Lions. It is just as well then that they are accustomed to such situations. A direct consequence of the Azzurri’s seemingly chronic ‘second game syndrome’ at international tournaments, which struck once again against the Ticos, has time and again been the scenario of a do-or-die third group encounter. Only twice in the last six World Cups, this one included, have Italy tasted victory in their second match, while the last time they secured qualification prior to the final round of group fixtures was way back in 1990. In each of the five tournaments between then and now, the Azzurri arrived at the decisive matchday in the knowledge that defeat would, at best, leave their fate depending on other results, while at worst it would guarantee an early flight home. 1994 saw Arrigo Sacchi’s charges scrape a 1-1 draw with Mexico on the day of reckoning, a result which saw them through on goals scored in a remarkably tight group. The Azzurri, of course, then went on to reach the final. Four years later, goals by Christian Vieri and Roberto Baggio earned Cesare Maldini’s men a 2-1 win over Austria and progression to the Last 16. They were later eliminated in the quarter-finals, losing on penalties to eventual winners France. In 2002, a late equaliser by Alessandro Del Piero secured another decisive point against the Mexicans under the stewardship of Giovanni Trapattoni, while it seems unthinkable to contemplate that even Marcello Lippi’s world champions of 2006 would have gone out in the Group Stage had they lost to rather than beaten the Czech Republic in their third match. Only four years ago in 2010, in what was a thoroughly miserable defence of their title, did the Azzurri fail to produce the goods when it mattered at this stage of the competition. The infamous 3-2 defeat to World Cup debutants Slovakia, which signalled group elimination for the first time since 1974, will live long in the memory of tifosi and is a painful reminder to Prandelli’s men of what is at stake on Tuesday. Yet, if history counts for anything, it tells us that there is still every reason for the Azzurri to feel positive as they approach their date with destiny in Natal. On the whole, Italy have found a way to deliver when the going has got tough. “Maybe psychologically we need this feeling of insecurity and criticism,” Prandelli said prior to the start of the tournament. They certainly have it now, and the hope is that they can thrive under it in the same way as their predecessors. Well, most of them anyway.
Posted on: Mon, 23 Jun 2014 09:37:18 +0000
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