As many of you know, Italy lost 3-2 to Slovakia and crashed out of the World Cup in the group stage today. I covered many of the reasons why Italy was in trouble the other day and while those certainly played a role here, they are not the reason Italy is going home right now and Slovakia advancing.
Today, Italy played with no urgency or intensity until it was too late. At the end of the game trailing by two goals, Italy looked dangerous and managed to score twice while giving up a goal, looking truly dangerous offensively for the first time in the tournament.
Where was that Italy early in this game when they trailied by one knowing they needed at least a tie? Where was that Italy in the game against Paraguay when they pressed forward but didn't really look dangerous and needed a goalkeeping blunder to tie? Where was that Italy while holding the ball 72% of the time against New Zealand?
The answer to all of those is the offense had no real heart. The Italians seemed to think they were the defending champions in an easy group and could just coast through. They played as though all others were beneath them and that might have worked had the team been at usual Italian standrads, but as I wrote the other day, this team was not. It was old and creaky on defense and lacked target forwards in the event it fell behind leaving Italy with grave problems when a lack of effort and focus is added to the mix.
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