Italy Gets Their Asses Handed to Them by Spain | Print |
Written by Larry Aiello   
Tuesday, 03 July 2012 14:11

Italy versus Spain Rematch

donkey-x300The Italian team just couldn't play on the same field as the Spanish team yesterday.  Spain just won its third consecutive major tournament, something that has never been done before.  That is an amazing accomplishment when you consider all the great German and Brazilian teams to have played the game never accomplished that same feat.  Italy just came up against a team that is probably the best in the history of the sport, despite the fact that there is no real "superstar" on the team per se.

The Spanish defense was very stingy; in fact the only goal they gave up was to Antonio Di Natale in the first meeting between the two squads.  All of the shots, a couple of them hard, by the Italian team were straight at Casillas, the Spanish keeper. He was never out of position. Italy could just not get any good chances to score.

On the bright side, Italy was able to maintain possession better than the first game.  And even though they were down a man for much of the second half, it didn't appear that way at first, as they played with a lot of heart.  But it's virtually impossible to win with a man down, against even lesser opponents.  But then after a while, the fatigue set in and they gave up two additional garbage goals that made it a 4-0 whooping.

On the bright side, Coach Prandelli wanted to make the Italian people fall in love with "Gli Azzurri" again, and he did that.  They may not have made it out of the first round, but they did, and they kept winning as underdogs to teams that were supposed to beat them.  So give credit where it is due.  Mario Balotelli looks like the real deal, and he is only 21.  Hopefully he can keep maturing as an individual, and perhaps become the greatest player in Italian football history.

It'll be interesting to see how the World Cup 2014 shakes out in Brazil.  A European team has never won on South American soil.  So that would definitely favor Brazil and Argentina. Uruguay may be a dark horse in that mix as well.

We still have to be proud of the boys in blue - they gave it their all and came up short against a better team.

We'll wish them luck in Brazil - Forza Italia!