Sport - Football

Italians have to overcome inferiority complex

By Brian Glanville

Luiz Felipe Scolari, the Brazilian coach. — AP

What is it about Italian football? How come that here in the Far East as in United States in 1994 they crept into the second round after a couple of abysmally poor performances? All very well for their fans and some of their players to take refuge in what happened in the past when in 1994 Arrigo Sacchi's team rose from the ashes, from the humiliating experiences at the hands of Ireland, who beat them in the Giants stadium New Jersey, and Mexico, who held them to a draw, outplaying them in the closing stages, reaching a final in Pasadena which they lost only on penalty kicks to a sterile Brazil.

This time Mexico humiliated the azzuri again, their largely supporting cast footballers giving the Italians a terrible chasing. In 1994 it was Roberto Baggio who soared to the rescue of the Italians with his dazzling trickery, his opportunism, even if in the final, when he wasn't truly fit to play, he may have missed one of those penalties. But in Oita, the Mexicans put Italy to shame; a gloriously twisting, headed goal by Jared Borgetti, a magnificent elusive run by Jesus Arellano, which should certainly have brought a second goal. Only very late in the game did Alex Del Piero_ used far too often by Cesare Maldini in '98 instead of Roberto Baggio _ head in a pass by his fellow sub Vincenza Montella; until that point so strangely ignored by coach Gianni Trapattoni despite his explosive late season form for Roma, which included four goals against Lazio in the Roman derby.

Perhaps it would be relevant to say that the Italians have never truly overcome what you might call the catenaccio _ mentality. Itself I still believe rooted in an odd inferiority complex about their own physical means. One of their leading theorists, the late bombastic Gianni Brera would insist that Italians had to employ such tactics because they were not the physical equals of the North Europeans. I never, as one who lived in Italy for several years, thought this anything but nonsense.

But catenaccio, originally evolved in Switzerland by the national team coach, an Australian called Karl Rappan, put an emphasis on the negative. The libero or sweeper lurked behind man marking defenders and unlike Franz Beckenbauer of Germany in the years to come, seldom if ever ventured upfield. Counter attack was the watchword and at Inter of Milan under the flamboyant Helenio Herrera it worked very well for some years. Trapattoni grew up with this system, both as a player and international wing half with Milan and as a famously successful manager, five times winner of the Italian title with Juventus, winning it again with Inter.

`Trap' is an old friend and I admire his achievements but I feel that perhaps he had never quite rid himself of the catenaccio mentality and the excessive caution, which it induces. Indeed in Italy's first two matches here he deployed only big Bobo Vieri up front, with Roma's Francesco Totti operating just behind him. Seeing how Italy struggled, you had to ask yourself whether the lack of success of their clubs in Europe in the season just past was not much more than just a passing phase. Perhaps it is relevant to examine the amazing success of tiny little Chievo, the club from a small Verona suburb, which climbed into Serie last season for the very first time, and at once set about defeating some of the supposedly best teams.

What of Brazil ? I could hardly believe my eyes when I watched their bizarre 5-2 win over Costa Rica who could well have scored even more goals than they did. Such a joyful display in attack, with Ronaldo blessedly at his most skilled if not his most explosive. Such a pitifully inept defence; and this from a team managed by the notoriously tough, abrasive and ruthless Big Phil Scolari who'd encourage his Gremio Club to commit fouls ad lib, provided they were outside the penalty box.

Well, Cafu did stamp upon a grounded opponent, but by and large this was the kind of soccer which Big Phil notoriously deplores. Even just before this game he was saying that he didn't care about elegance, only about winning. In the event, the Brazilian performance was the very opposite of any he could have planned for or expected. Hard to think Big Phil had gone soft.

Perhaps the players themselves just decided they were tired of his bleak approach to the game and wanted to go out to express themselves as Brazilians can. But there hadn't been as poor a Brazilian defence since 1966 in England.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

Chess

• Himanshu, Rohith share lead
  
  Cricket
  
• Butcher completes century
• Ingty stars in NCA's win
  
  Football
  
• Park sends Portugal crashing out
• Japan gains a place in history
• Belgium pips Russia in a thriller
• As fate would have it, U.S. advances despite defeat
• Website is a big hit: FIFA
• Goal scorers
• World cup - Voices
• England faces familiar Danish faces
• Italians have to overcome inferiority complex
  
  Golf
  
• A familiar story of Tiger and the chasers
  
  Tennis
  
• It's Shruti vs Radhika
• Hewitt & Henman in quarterfinals
• Dokic eases into last eight
  
  

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu