FIFA World Cup 2010: Crisis of Italian National Football As World Champs Fail

Italy, the world champions four years ago, has officially been ousted from the world's biggest sports event.

The national team should be ashamed. They are the defending champions and they couldn't even make it out of the group stage. The fears that Italian fans had going into the World Cup ended up coming true.

They had claimed that this was the weakest roster Italy has had to defend the World Cup title with — a roster full of older veterans and players whose best years were behind them.

Still, at the start we all thought they would somehow find a way to pass through the group stage through slow and tactical football. They would eventually pick up the tempo, fight back, and shut up the critics.

In the 1982 World Cup, the Italians played all of their group matches to draws but overcame the problems with the lead of Paolo Rossi on offense and Dino Zoff on defense to win it all. At the age of 40, Zoff became the oldest player to win the championship.

But 2010 was so different from 1982. They were No. 1 in the last tournament in Germany four years ago. Not this time.

Reasons for the Loss

No. 1

The slow and tactical defensive playing style that has made Italy one of the greatest and most successful powerhouses in professional soccer in the biggest events didn't work this time.

No. 2

The defense was weak. I don't remember the last time this team had given up three goals in a match.

No. 3

Injuries to the best Italian football players — Andrea Pirlo, Gianluigi Buffon, and Mauro Camoranesi. These players are crucial to the team at midfield, forward and goalkeeper.

Pirlo connects everything with his passes — free kicks, penalties, and corners while helping out the defense with his presence. But, when he was injured all this was missing, and without a star playmaker, everything went downhill.

Buffon is superb keeper — still one of the top five or possibly top three at his position. He stops shots, is great in one-on-ones, has nice reflexes, and outstanding positioning. In other words, he knows how to be the perfect goalie, and his injury wasn't welcomed.

Camoranesi's absence was felt as well. Thanks to his speed, dribbling, and crosses from the right and left side, he can deliver the ball inside for the strikers. He can also score and lead fast breaks

This was the whole key.

No. 4

Since all three of these players were injured there simply wasn't someone else to plug in who could lead, motivate, inspire, etc.

Italian football hasn't been this weak in a long time — it's in a crisis. It's time to start thinking about the younger players and put them in the team's plans.

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