Destiny: The difference between France and Italy in Euro 2008
Before the start of Euro 2008, the Guardian predicted that Italy will lead the group with France in the second, Romania in third position and Holland will end up in misery with fourth position. But, the performance changed the position up side down and the predicted winners and runners are struggling to keep a foot on next round against predicted 3 positioned Romania.
In my last blog, I was discussing about Donadoni’s role in Italian team. After that blog, I saw his team losing to Holland and compromised with a draw against Romania. Interestingly, the group of death, for the time being, is an enigma. Very few predicted that Holland will end up as winners of the group. But they did it in a grand way. At present, all three teams in the death group still have a chance to make it to next round. I am not bothered about who will make it or not. But, interested to observe closely what happened to the World Cup winners and runners.
Donadoni achieved everything in the club level with AC Milan but never touched his peak in the international forums. He was a wonderful player in the midfield with never say die attitude, but luck was never on his side. In 2008 edition of Euro, Italy was under pressure of expectation but managed to reach convincingly in the final 16. But their first game against Holland was a disaster. They lost out to the Orange in all segments. Italian media started to call for the head of manager Donadoni. For me, it was the fate of Italian team, what ever they achieved was good and if they can manage little further, will be great.
If Italy’s failure on the pitch was fate, to France, it was height of stupidity. Both are in same boat and facing each other in the deciding day. Raymond Domenech is the same coach/manager who took the same team in the final of world cup against Italy in 2002. Apart from Zinedine Zidane, he had all other players who played in the world cup final were available to his disposal. Meanwhile, Donadoni, who was appointed as the manager after the world cup final, inherited an experienced and talented but aging team for Euro. His grave mistake was not finding new blood to refresh the team between the two year time and he paid heavy in the first game in Euro, where he used nine players who played in the world cup final.
Italy failed to find replacement for the aging team and they are reaping the result now. Italian football league is considered as one of the best in the world but for last few years, they failed to produce subsequent talent to replace the old players. Those players who won the world up started their career in mid 1990s and flourished and primed by 2006. But, between 2000 and 2008, one can see the talent pool is drying up very fast. We haven’t heard any promising Italian name like Christiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Fabregas, or a Fernando Torres. Instead of this, Italy produced Antonio Cassano, an only promising talent but ended up as the most misguided youth They failed to find a proper replacement for playmaker Francisco Totti and defending ace Alexandero Nesta. Donadoni cannot run away from this blame because he had two year to pick up alternatives and experiment them in the qualifying round and make them fit for the new challenge. His conservative approach doesn’t allowed him to do that and struck with the same team minus Totti, Nesta and Cannavaro. Yes, Cannavaro’s absence was accidental and it is difficult to prevent injury in football, but a manager’s ability is to foresee it and take precaution by keeping an alternative for him. Donadoni failed to find young strikers become crucial error for the team. Their dependence on ageing strikers Luca Toni and Alexander Del Piro proved that the team is not good enough to compete against young teams like Portugal and Dutch.
But, France –it was a real blend of stupidity and arrogance of Raymond Domenech. He was in charge of French team for more than 4 years and he managed to take them to the final of World cup against Italy. He managed to bring back the old glorified days of les blues in the world football in 2006. He had experienced players from the world cup winning team of 1998 and Euro winners of 2000 under his disposal and France produced a good number of talented players successfully playing in best clubs in Europe. Domenech had complete control over the team selection and he successfully managed to show his power to the players who challenged his credentials –Robert Pires etc. His major contribution –under question –is to reproduce the creativity with elegance of Zidane during the World Cup campaign. Apart from the performance of Zidane and Ribery, French team was absolute mediocre and they got a straight line of luck in the knock outs to reach final. They made proper blend of youthful players like Frank Ribery, Florent Maluda, Eric Abidal and M. Diarra with the experience of Henry, David Trezegue, Vierra, Turam etc of their world cup winning squad. But the brilliance of Zidane stood out in the world cup campaign and his contributions –experience and talent- took them to the final. Though, France introduced young blood in the campaign, they still relied more on the experience of players like Zidane, Henry, Vierra, Gallas, Turam and Makelele than the youngsters. But, the performance of Ribery and Maluda were outstanding and that helped them to create better chances reach in the final.
Domenech saw the ability and limitation of French team in World Cup campaign. He got another two years to prepare for the Euro 2008 and meanwhile, not like Italy, France turned out as a production house of more promising and outstanding young players. He could have used them in the qualifying rounds and make them sharp and effective for the finals of Euro. Instead of going for that, he struck with his stupid conservatism and used the ageing players in the key match against Romania and Holland. Against the young blood of Holland and Romania, the performance of the old legs of France was abysmal. Dutch were best know for their attacking flair but have a very bad reputation on defense settings. France had quick wingers and fast strikers in Ben Arfa and Karim Benzema respectively who enjoyed a successful season in French league. Apart from Arfa and Benzema, France witnessed the emergence of talents in all segments with players like Samir Nasri, Partic Evra, Matheu Flamini, Lessana Diarra, Bacary Sagna, Jermey Toulalan, Philip Mexes, and Bafe Gomis. Instead of using them effectively against Romanian and Dutch defence, he decided to stick with the old squad which peaked in the world cup 2006. Interestingly, during the league season, everyone saw that the players like Florent Malouda and Eric Abidal started fading from their self and proved players like Vierra and Maklele were much far from their best. Instead of using fast and strong defenders to stop young attackers of Dutch and Romanians, he used Lilian Turam, the World cup winning hero of 1998 who is 36 now. Anelka, the Chelsea striker used in the first match was completely faded in the second half of the season and Henry, the most talented striker was struggling with injuries for last two years. Abundance of talent in the striking segment forced Domench not to select David Trezeguet, Djibril Cisse, Matheu Flamini and Gael Clichy in the last 23. There is no more explanation required for the failure of France. It is much larger than Italy. France had everything under their disposal but also had the stupidity and arrogance of Domenech.
France didn’t learn anything from their first match against Romania. They failed to create better scoring openings and their defense struggled to cope up against the fast Romanian strikers. If they changed the squad formation in the second match by using more young players in attack, of course –by removing ineffective players –they could have produced a better fight against Holland. France had everything to win the group but failed to utilize their own properties.
Still one among the three has equal chance to reach in the quarter finals and can’t predict who will be there. Nobody will write off Romania because they are enjoying a better position in the present table. If they manage a victory against Dutch –who will field a weakened side- can reach in the next 8 for quarter finals. I feel sorry for Italy but never feel sorry for France because it was stupidity and arrogance than ability of the team.
In my last blog, I was discussing about Donadoni’s role in Italian team. After that blog, I saw his team losing to Holland and compromised with a draw against Romania. Interestingly, the group of death, for the time being, is an enigma. Very few predicted that Holland will end up as winners of the group. But they did it in a grand way. At present, all three teams in the death group still have a chance to make it to next round. I am not bothered about who will make it or not. But, interested to observe closely what happened to the World Cup winners and runners.
Donadoni achieved everything in the club level with AC Milan but never touched his peak in the international forums. He was a wonderful player in the midfield with never say die attitude, but luck was never on his side. In 2008 edition of Euro, Italy was under pressure of expectation but managed to reach convincingly in the final 16. But their first game against Holland was a disaster. They lost out to the Orange in all segments. Italian media started to call for the head of manager Donadoni. For me, it was the fate of Italian team, what ever they achieved was good and if they can manage little further, will be great.
If Italy’s failure on the pitch was fate, to France, it was height of stupidity. Both are in same boat and facing each other in the deciding day. Raymond Domenech is the same coach/manager who took the same team in the final of world cup against Italy in 2002. Apart from Zinedine Zidane, he had all other players who played in the world cup final were available to his disposal. Meanwhile, Donadoni, who was appointed as the manager after the world cup final, inherited an experienced and talented but aging team for Euro. His grave mistake was not finding new blood to refresh the team between the two year time and he paid heavy in the first game in Euro, where he used nine players who played in the world cup final.
Italy failed to find replacement for the aging team and they are reaping the result now. Italian football league is considered as one of the best in the world but for last few years, they failed to produce subsequent talent to replace the old players. Those players who won the world up started their career in mid 1990s and flourished and primed by 2006. But, between 2000 and 2008, one can see the talent pool is drying up very fast. We haven’t heard any promising Italian name like Christiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Fabregas, or a Fernando Torres. Instead of this, Italy produced Antonio Cassano, an only promising talent but ended up as the most misguided youth They failed to find a proper replacement for playmaker Francisco Totti and defending ace Alexandero Nesta. Donadoni cannot run away from this blame because he had two year to pick up alternatives and experiment them in the qualifying round and make them fit for the new challenge. His conservative approach doesn’t allowed him to do that and struck with the same team minus Totti, Nesta and Cannavaro. Yes, Cannavaro’s absence was accidental and it is difficult to prevent injury in football, but a manager’s ability is to foresee it and take precaution by keeping an alternative for him. Donadoni failed to find young strikers become crucial error for the team. Their dependence on ageing strikers Luca Toni and Alexander Del Piro proved that the team is not good enough to compete against young teams like Portugal and Dutch.
But, France –it was a real blend of stupidity and arrogance of Raymond Domenech. He was in charge of French team for more than 4 years and he managed to take them to the final of World cup against Italy. He managed to bring back the old glorified days of les blues in the world football in 2006. He had experienced players from the world cup winning team of 1998 and Euro winners of 2000 under his disposal and France produced a good number of talented players successfully playing in best clubs in Europe. Domenech had complete control over the team selection and he successfully managed to show his power to the players who challenged his credentials –Robert Pires etc. His major contribution –under question –is to reproduce the creativity with elegance of Zidane during the World Cup campaign. Apart from the performance of Zidane and Ribery, French team was absolute mediocre and they got a straight line of luck in the knock outs to reach final. They made proper blend of youthful players like Frank Ribery, Florent Maluda, Eric Abidal and M. Diarra with the experience of Henry, David Trezegue, Vierra, Turam etc of their world cup winning squad. But the brilliance of Zidane stood out in the world cup campaign and his contributions –experience and talent- took them to the final. Though, France introduced young blood in the campaign, they still relied more on the experience of players like Zidane, Henry, Vierra, Gallas, Turam and Makelele than the youngsters. But, the performance of Ribery and Maluda were outstanding and that helped them to create better chances reach in the final.
Domenech saw the ability and limitation of French team in World Cup campaign. He got another two years to prepare for the Euro 2008 and meanwhile, not like Italy, France turned out as a production house of more promising and outstanding young players. He could have used them in the qualifying rounds and make them sharp and effective for the finals of Euro. Instead of going for that, he struck with his stupid conservatism and used the ageing players in the key match against Romania and Holland. Against the young blood of Holland and Romania, the performance of the old legs of France was abysmal. Dutch were best know for their attacking flair but have a very bad reputation on defense settings. France had quick wingers and fast strikers in Ben Arfa and Karim Benzema respectively who enjoyed a successful season in French league. Apart from Arfa and Benzema, France witnessed the emergence of talents in all segments with players like Samir Nasri, Partic Evra, Matheu Flamini, Lessana Diarra, Bacary Sagna, Jermey Toulalan, Philip Mexes, and Bafe Gomis. Instead of using them effectively against Romanian and Dutch defence, he decided to stick with the old squad which peaked in the world cup 2006. Interestingly, during the league season, everyone saw that the players like Florent Malouda and Eric Abidal started fading from their self and proved players like Vierra and Maklele were much far from their best. Instead of using fast and strong defenders to stop young attackers of Dutch and Romanians, he used Lilian Turam, the World cup winning hero of 1998 who is 36 now. Anelka, the Chelsea striker used in the first match was completely faded in the second half of the season and Henry, the most talented striker was struggling with injuries for last two years. Abundance of talent in the striking segment forced Domench not to select David Trezeguet, Djibril Cisse, Matheu Flamini and Gael Clichy in the last 23. There is no more explanation required for the failure of France. It is much larger than Italy. France had everything under their disposal but also had the stupidity and arrogance of Domenech.
France didn’t learn anything from their first match against Romania. They failed to create better scoring openings and their defense struggled to cope up against the fast Romanian strikers. If they changed the squad formation in the second match by using more young players in attack, of course –by removing ineffective players –they could have produced a better fight against Holland. France had everything to win the group but failed to utilize their own properties.
Still one among the three has equal chance to reach in the quarter finals and can’t predict who will be there. Nobody will write off Romania because they are enjoying a better position in the present table. If they manage a victory against Dutch –who will field a weakened side- can reach in the next 8 for quarter finals. I feel sorry for Italy but never feel sorry for France because it was stupidity and arrogance than ability of the team.
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