Euro 2008: Azzurri Fleet of Roberto DonadoniJust before Euro 2008, it is better to go through the profile of the managers than writing about the key players of Italy. Italy doesn’t have anything to prove. They did their best two years ago, won the World Cup in Germany. The team has everything which is required for a winning team. The squad will be almost same and their responsibilities are also…so what difference is there for this time?
It is Roberto Donadoni, the manager of the team. He succeeded Marcello Lippi –one of the most successful coaches of Italian club Juventus and Italy. Donadoni inherited a good squad from Lippi but expectation from the country is much higher than what Lippi had before winning world cup. Before World Cup, Italy was one among the good teams and very few expected that they will lift the cup. Now, they want to repeat what France did after 1998 world cup victory. They want to continue the run of success as long as then can. So, the pressure on Donadoni is also tremendous.
Credentials of Donadoni as a player won’t be challenged. For me, he was the most outstanding Italian player of Italia 90. Remember, that team had very big names like Gian Luka Viali, Franco Barezi, Roberto Bagio, Salvatore Schilachi etc but the best performance come out from Donadoni, who played in the midfield, who controlled the rhythm of the game. The wind of luck was not with Italy that time, and there was another great footballer controlling the crucial game against Italy in the Semi Finals –Diago Maradona. Donadoni hit the post once during normal time and failed to convert the spot kick during the shootout time. Italy lost the cup and Maradona lost his rich football life there…the rest is history. He appeared in 1994 world cup in which Italy finished in second position, but was not the same player of 1990. Donadoni had a luminous and long career with AC Milan and he was the cog in the wheel of Milan midfield which had the most successful period. He left Milan in 1996 and had a small stint with Metro Stars of MLS in US. He returned to Milan in 1997 and helped his club to win Serie A title and ended his career as a player with Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia.
Selecting a manager is not a joke in football. Before appointing a person as the manager of the national team, especially in a football nation like Italy, authorities has to think several times about the credentials of the person. Italy, not like England, produced a handful of successful managers and names like Arigo Saachi, Fabio Capello, Trapatoni etc. are good enough to impress any selection panel. Still the selection of Donadoni as the manager of Italian national team was a big surprise to football world. More surprise was the hesitation of the most successful and experienced managers like Cesare Maldini, Giovani Trapatoni, Carlos Anchalotti, Arrigo Saachi and Fabio Capello to that post. They were not ready to take up the challenge with the same Italian team who won the World Cup. So, Italian Football Federation decided to appoint a fresher who holds enough credentials to continue the achievements. Regarding this appointment, Italian Football Federation's then vice-president Demetrio Albertini commented that "we decided to gamble on a young man who could become truly great." They picked up Donadoni who successfully managed some middle level clubs in Serie A. He helped Livorno to reach in Serie A from lower league and Genoa to reach in upper half of the Serie A in 2003-04 season.
The real litmus test for Donadoni was awaiting and he had a baptism in fire with the first match in the qualifying round of Euro 2008. On 2nd September 2006, Italy faced Lithuania and compromised with a draw in the home match. Next match, just after few days, on 6th September, Italy lost to France in the away leg and score was 3-1. It was a big blow for the world champions and media, fans and football pundits started crying for his removal. But, authorities stood with him at least for the time being and demanded a better performance of the team. Next month, Italy faced Ukraine at home and Georgia in the away match and the World Champions made a wonderful come back by defeating both teams with a comfortable margin. In the qualifying round, they expected tough opposition from former world champions France and Scotland and there was no question of finishing in the third position. Exactly after one year, on 8th September 2007, Donadoni’s Italy faced France in the second leg at Milan, where he enjoyed his best days in career. This was considered as the turning point of Italy’s easy walk to the Euro 2008. They couldn’t defeat France but managed a goalless draw and that was enough to take them to the top spot of the qualifying round. His team won 9 matches out of 12 and compromised with draw in two and lost one. Mean while, France struggled against Scotland and ended up in the second position by 8 win, 2 draw and 2 lost matches.
Achievement in the qualifying round helped Donadoni to keep his critics mouth shut. Euro is a different ball game for any team. In the qualifying round, they had only two tough opponents and other five were comparatively small teams who haven’t proved anything in football map. From frying pan to burning fire –proverb become absolutely right in the case of Donadoni and Italy when they drew with teams like France, Netherlands and Romania in Group C. Pundits consider this group as a death group where three teams were former champions in earlier editions of Euro. Third edition of Euro in 1968, Italy hosted the tournament and ended up as the champions by defeating Yugoslavia in a reply final. Apart from 1968, Italy hosted another Euro in 1980, just before winning World Cup in 1982, but failed to reach in the final two. Italy managed to reach in the finals second time only in the Euro edition of 2000 hosted jointly by Belgium and Holland. There they lost of 1998 World Cup holders France in an extra time golden goal. Within six years from there, Italy achieved the top most position –world champion and looking to repeat the stride of France during 1998-2000.
Along with a heavy burden of expectation, Donadoni also inherited a high potential team from Marcello Lippi, which has a good composition of experience and youthfulness. Retirement of legendry Maldini, who played along with Donadoni in two world cups, and in Milan too, and playmaker Francisco Totti, who retired from international football just after their world cup victory, remains a huge gap in the team. Donadoni is expected to fill that gap with experience of Alessandro Del Piero, Fabio Cannavaro and Gennaro Guttoso. The performance of the team in the qualifying round provides enough to expect in the bigger stage. Performance of one late bloomer, Luca Toni Varchella Della Cave -30 year old striker currently playing for Bayern Munich, lifts confidence of Italian side and he is expected to be playing along with Alessandro Del Piro or Antonio De Natale. Donadoni has showed the public that he is willing to take risk by including Antonio Cassano in the team.
Azzurri was one of the first team reached in the finals of Euro 2008 through qualifying round. Apart from expectation factor, Donadoni require a huge amount of luck to win the tournament. Ability is not a question for Italian team, but getting the best performance out of the team is the key concern for a manager. This is a chance for Donadoni to achieve something with national team in his career. Twice his team became the victim of shootouts, and penalty shootout will be his last option this time. His experience in semifinals of 1990 and finals of 1994 world cup will definitely demand his players not to take the game to shootout and finish it in natural time.
Totti and Maldini were expected absence but injury to Cannavaro in the training session in Switzerland made a big blow to the blue shirts. He was the key player who drilled the Italian defense successfully in the world cup finals. He was the most influential player in the world cup squad and everyone expected same performance from him in Euro 2008. Still, fate is staring, not at Italian team, at Donadoni –the under achiever of Italy. If he can get the team back to the best …without any doubt, he will be the real legendry Azzurri.
It is Roberto Donadoni, the manager of the team. He succeeded Marcello Lippi –one of the most successful coaches of Italian club Juventus and Italy. Donadoni inherited a good squad from Lippi but expectation from the country is much higher than what Lippi had before winning world cup. Before World Cup, Italy was one among the good teams and very few expected that they will lift the cup. Now, they want to repeat what France did after 1998 world cup victory. They want to continue the run of success as long as then can. So, the pressure on Donadoni is also tremendous.
Credentials of Donadoni as a player won’t be challenged. For me, he was the most outstanding Italian player of Italia 90. Remember, that team had very big names like Gian Luka Viali, Franco Barezi, Roberto Bagio, Salvatore Schilachi etc but the best performance come out from Donadoni, who played in the midfield, who controlled the rhythm of the game. The wind of luck was not with Italy that time, and there was another great footballer controlling the crucial game against Italy in the Semi Finals –Diago Maradona. Donadoni hit the post once during normal time and failed to convert the spot kick during the shootout time. Italy lost the cup and Maradona lost his rich football life there…the rest is history. He appeared in 1994 world cup in which Italy finished in second position, but was not the same player of 1990. Donadoni had a luminous and long career with AC Milan and he was the cog in the wheel of Milan midfield which had the most successful period. He left Milan in 1996 and had a small stint with Metro Stars of MLS in US. He returned to Milan in 1997 and helped his club to win Serie A title and ended his career as a player with Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia.
Selecting a manager is not a joke in football. Before appointing a person as the manager of the national team, especially in a football nation like Italy, authorities has to think several times about the credentials of the person. Italy, not like England, produced a handful of successful managers and names like Arigo Saachi, Fabio Capello, Trapatoni etc. are good enough to impress any selection panel. Still the selection of Donadoni as the manager of Italian national team was a big surprise to football world. More surprise was the hesitation of the most successful and experienced managers like Cesare Maldini, Giovani Trapatoni, Carlos Anchalotti, Arrigo Saachi and Fabio Capello to that post. They were not ready to take up the challenge with the same Italian team who won the World Cup. So, Italian Football Federation decided to appoint a fresher who holds enough credentials to continue the achievements. Regarding this appointment, Italian Football Federation's then vice-president Demetrio Albertini commented that "we decided to gamble on a young man who could become truly great." They picked up Donadoni who successfully managed some middle level clubs in Serie A. He helped Livorno to reach in Serie A from lower league and Genoa to reach in upper half of the Serie A in 2003-04 season.
The real litmus test for Donadoni was awaiting and he had a baptism in fire with the first match in the qualifying round of Euro 2008. On 2nd September 2006, Italy faced Lithuania and compromised with a draw in the home match. Next match, just after few days, on 6th September, Italy lost to France in the away leg and score was 3-1. It was a big blow for the world champions and media, fans and football pundits started crying for his removal. But, authorities stood with him at least for the time being and demanded a better performance of the team. Next month, Italy faced Ukraine at home and Georgia in the away match and the World Champions made a wonderful come back by defeating both teams with a comfortable margin. In the qualifying round, they expected tough opposition from former world champions France and Scotland and there was no question of finishing in the third position. Exactly after one year, on 8th September 2007, Donadoni’s Italy faced France in the second leg at Milan, where he enjoyed his best days in career. This was considered as the turning point of Italy’s easy walk to the Euro 2008. They couldn’t defeat France but managed a goalless draw and that was enough to take them to the top spot of the qualifying round. His team won 9 matches out of 12 and compromised with draw in two and lost one. Mean while, France struggled against Scotland and ended up in the second position by 8 win, 2 draw and 2 lost matches.
Achievement in the qualifying round helped Donadoni to keep his critics mouth shut. Euro is a different ball game for any team. In the qualifying round, they had only two tough opponents and other five were comparatively small teams who haven’t proved anything in football map. From frying pan to burning fire –proverb become absolutely right in the case of Donadoni and Italy when they drew with teams like France, Netherlands and Romania in Group C. Pundits consider this group as a death group where three teams were former champions in earlier editions of Euro. Third edition of Euro in 1968, Italy hosted the tournament and ended up as the champions by defeating Yugoslavia in a reply final. Apart from 1968, Italy hosted another Euro in 1980, just before winning World Cup in 1982, but failed to reach in the final two. Italy managed to reach in the finals second time only in the Euro edition of 2000 hosted jointly by Belgium and Holland. There they lost of 1998 World Cup holders France in an extra time golden goal. Within six years from there, Italy achieved the top most position –world champion and looking to repeat the stride of France during 1998-2000.
Along with a heavy burden of expectation, Donadoni also inherited a high potential team from Marcello Lippi, which has a good composition of experience and youthfulness. Retirement of legendry Maldini, who played along with Donadoni in two world cups, and in Milan too, and playmaker Francisco Totti, who retired from international football just after their world cup victory, remains a huge gap in the team. Donadoni is expected to fill that gap with experience of Alessandro Del Piero, Fabio Cannavaro and Gennaro Guttoso. The performance of the team in the qualifying round provides enough to expect in the bigger stage. Performance of one late bloomer, Luca Toni Varchella Della Cave -30 year old striker currently playing for Bayern Munich, lifts confidence of Italian side and he is expected to be playing along with Alessandro Del Piro or Antonio De Natale. Donadoni has showed the public that he is willing to take risk by including Antonio Cassano in the team.
Azzurri was one of the first team reached in the finals of Euro 2008 through qualifying round. Apart from expectation factor, Donadoni require a huge amount of luck to win the tournament. Ability is not a question for Italian team, but getting the best performance out of the team is the key concern for a manager. This is a chance for Donadoni to achieve something with national team in his career. Twice his team became the victim of shootouts, and penalty shootout will be his last option this time. His experience in semifinals of 1990 and finals of 1994 world cup will definitely demand his players not to take the game to shootout and finish it in natural time.
Totti and Maldini were expected absence but injury to Cannavaro in the training session in Switzerland made a big blow to the blue shirts. He was the key player who drilled the Italian defense successfully in the world cup finals. He was the most influential player in the world cup squad and everyone expected same performance from him in Euro 2008. Still, fate is staring, not at Italian team, at Donadoni –the under achiever of Italy. If he can get the team back to the best …without any doubt, he will be the real legendry Azzurri.
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