A Football Report

Mario Balotelli is Italy’s most talented footballer nowadays. Pick anyone in the streets of the Belpaese and eveybody will agree with that.

Problem is that talent is difficult to manage 90% of the time and even more difficult to manage when it is not assisted by the right attitude you expect from a youngster: the will to improve, the will to learn, the will to work hard.

You may say this is something easier to find in less talented players: they have to balance the lack of quality with intensity, pressing, quantity in their plays. True.

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Mario Balotelli is a talented player. Maybe the most talented one Italian football has produced since Totti, or Cassano. The truth is that it seems there is no more room for him in Serie A. The young Inter striker is now facing a crucial point of his career. At the age of 19, he already won 3 Italian titles, 1 Italian Supercup, 1 Italian Cup, and, last but not least, 1 Champions League. Impressive, even more if you consider he had an important role in most of the victories (the most important one in sealing his first Scudetto during Mancini’s last campaing at Inter). Last season he had some tough problems tough with the team by showing a lack of respect for his teammates. When AC Milan came closer to Inter in the table in April, he sang Milan’s song in the dressing room. With the manager, he almost began physcially fighting on the training pitch with José Mourinho. And with the fans, he put on an AC Milan shirt in a TV interview and then threw Inter’s shirt on the ground at the final whistle in the San Siro match against Barcelona. All of this led up to the point in which we now are looking at.

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On July 6th 2010 lots of people on Twitter were discussing about Ricardo Carvalho making the switch between Chelsea and Inter. Many have been suggesting he was in Milano to pass medical tests. Ridiculous.

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By Mirko Corli, writing from Torino

As I told you all during the past few weeks, Italy’s main problem was the coach. Now, thanks to him we are out of the World Cup, but we are relieved thinking that he left the job: no more arrogance on the bench, we can now start thinking about football. So, how to rebuild a national team after what just happened?

The key move is to get in young talented players and leave out the players that already served the nation but now are only chained-balls to the development of the team.

Here’s a possible list with the birth year of the players between parenthesis:

 Keepers: Buffon (78), Sirigu (87), Marchetti (83)

Defenders: Chiellini (84), Bonucci (87), Bocchetti (86), Ranocchia (88), Cassani (83), Maggio (82), Criscito (86), Santon (90)

Midfielders: De rossi (82), Marchisio (86), Montolivo (84), Palombo (81), Poli (88) Strikers: Rossi (87), Pazzini (84), Gilardino (82), Quagliarella (83), Balotelli (90), Cassano (82)

With these players, we will have the ability to play in a few different ways.

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By Mirko Corli, writing from Torino

19 million Italians had been watching Italy’s opening match against Paraguay last night, official TV data say.

Everyone has probably seen his or her own match, but my opinion is that we are making things far too much complicated. At least, more than they really are. And the man in charge of all this complication is Marcello Lippi.

 Italy did play quite well last night, if you consider the impressive lack of quality we have in the pitch: you will never see Italy play good football in this tournament, because the team is not based on this. They are mentally and phisically strong, always deep in the the game, never losing control even while loosing. If you think about yesterday, Paraguay has been dangerous only when they scored (it was a big mistake of Italy’s defense, to be honest), and the Azzurri deserved to draw looking at how they stayed focused throughout the game.

Daniele De Rossi’s equalizer was a good one (big mistake from Paraguay goalie - what is going on with keepers in this tournament?) and was the best player in the pitch in my opinion. Also right-winger Pepe and full-back Domenico Criscito did quite well. Criscito, in particular, was a nice surprise: focused, strong, confident, awesome.

But it was all so difficult to get a result. Why?

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By Mirko Corli, writing from Torino

As usual, there is no public support for the Italian national team. People are arguing about the players that Lippi left home (Cassano, Balotelli, Totti, Del Piero, etc.) and do not feel very confident about the Azzurri’s upcoming performances.

I think Lippi’s picks are not the best he could do. There’s a clear lack of personality and quality in Italy’s football: Cassano, Balotelli and Totti are the dismissed players with those qualities. Lippi’s intention is to build up a strong team full of high-motivated players, everyone with a huge fighting spirit despite of all the critics. Lippi had done this even in Germany four years ago and it was the key to winning the World Cup.

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By Mirko Corli, an ecstatic Inter supporter writing from Italy 

I know, you’re expecting a normal recap of the last Serie A matchday. But I’m sorry, I can’t do it.

I think it’s time to celebrate the best team Italy offered to both Italian and European fans this year: José Mourinho’s Inter.

The last matchday of the season was terrific: for 20 neverending minutes AS Roma was in charge of the Italian title. By scoring in Verona against Chievo, Roma had 80 points in the table, the same amount as Inter, which was getting a draw in Siena. There is no word to describe the feelings that were going through Italian fans at that moment.

Then, Diego Milito came. Twelve minutes into the second half Javier Zanetti, the Captain, stole a ball in the midfield, went forward as he usually does, then flicked a short pass through to Diego Milito who took position in front of the defender and then scored, killing all the ghosts and all the fears; everything was tossed aside.

From that point the only task was controlling the game until the final whistle of the season.

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By Mirko Corli, writing from Torino

Serie A, like other main European leagues, will declare its champion in the very final game of the season.

On Sunday Inter became in charge of the title for at least 60 minutes by getting a huge victory 4-3 at home against Chievo, while Roma was getting a draw and then loosing 1-0 at home against Cagliari. Then, Francesco Totti scored twice (second one from the penalty spot) to secure an important win for the giallorossi.

Now, this is the plot for the final game of the season: Inter will play in Siena (Alberto Malesani’s lads have already been relegated for two weeks) and Roma will play in Verona against Chievo. 

Chievo was not a simple opponent for Inter this week; they actually took the lead in San Siro with an own goal from Thiago Motta and then showed a great attitude to keep the game alive until the end. Maybe they will be able to show the same fighting spirit next week against Roma (considering that both Chievo’s coach and President are Inter fans).

We’ll see what will happen: the only thing we know for sure is that the two teams that are fighting for the title are the best we’ve seen this year in Italy.

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By Mirko Corli

If you don’t know much about Italian football, you may misunderstand something.

Lazio vs Inter was more than a simple game. It was actually Lazio vs Roma, again. Two weeks ago the derby in Rome saw Roma winning it 2-1 after a fantastic comeback (remember Lazio missed a penalty when they were 1-0 up): at the end of the game Roma’s captain Francesco Totti showed both his thumbs down to the tifosi, meaning that Roma’s win maybe was condemning Lazio to relegation.

Of course it wasn’t fair to Lazio’s fans, there has been even a fight in the pitch between the players at the final whistle for that. But this is football in Rome: fans are equally interested both in their team result and in the city rival’s one. And joy comes maybe more from the other team’s defeat than your team’s victory. All this explains Lazio vs Inter.

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By Mirko Corli (a proud Nerazzuri supporter)

David Bowie was right.
Last night was the time to be heroes, and José Mourinho and his lads definitely were.

David Bowie - “Heroes”

It has been a tough match, completely different from the first leg. In the San Siro Inter was powerful, with terrific counter attacking on the pitch, controlling the entire game, apart from the last 15 minutes.

In last night’s game Inter never was in control of the match. From the very beginning even before the sending off of Thiago Motta, the Nerazzurri were keen to play a defensive match. Everybody behind the ball line, and less counter attacking than ever. And that was the masterpiece. 

It was José Mourinho’s masterpiece, it was a masterpiece by every single player. Always in the game with the right focus on the ball, on the opponents, on the stadium.

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By Mirko Corli

Sampdoria’s striker Giampaolo Pazzini (il Pazzo, the Mad, as they call him) did what seemed to be impossible: stopping Roma after 24 positive results in a row. Pazzini scored twice last night at the Olimpico stadium in a fantastic comeback by Sampdoria that puts the team in 4th place, four points above direct rivals Palermo.

But, above all, Pazzini’s double puts Inter back on top of the league. Inter is now first in the table with 73 points, two points above Roma. Three matches to go now: next week Roma will play away against Parma (who lost 2-1 in Bologna this week) and Inter will travel to Rome to face Lazio (2-1 win against Genoa yesterday).

Nothing is done yet in the Scudetto race: Roma will play on Saturday afternoon and if they win, they’ll be back on top of the league, forcing Inter to win against Lazio on Sunday night. Remember that Inter leads by two points, but they have to finish the championship above Roma to win the title. That means they only have one result to pursue until the end, victory. Of course, if Roma lose other points in Parma, everything will most likely be decided. 

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By Mirko Corli

Serie A enters into its final month: four matches to go now & Roma are still leading the table one point above defending champions Inter.

The weekend was tough for both of the two leading teams but they secured two vital wins for the title race. On friday night Inter defeated Juventus 2-0 in San Siro with a stunning goal by Douglas Maicon (probably the best of the entire league so far) and a late goal by Eto’o, putting a huge amount of pressure on Roma.

Ranieri’s lads were in a dramatic situation after one minute of the second half of their Roman clash against Lazio. The Biancocelesti were 1-0 up with Rocchi’s 5th goal in a derby and with a penalty kick in hand. Then Lazio’s Floccari missed the penalty and the game changed. Mirko Vucinic scored a double to put Roma back on top of the league.

To win Serie A you have to be a strong and impressive team, and you also have to be a little lucky. The competition is so intense, so demanding for the players, you definitely need a little bit of lack to be on top at the end of the race. If we look back at the last few matches, Roma’s has luck on their side. The missed penalty by Floccari is just another sign of that, not to mention Inter’s three hit posts in the last three games.

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