What is wrong with Italy?

Italy is the defending World Cup champion. They are one of only two nations to win at least four World Cups (Brazil has five). They rarely play well in the group stage before rounding into form later in the tournament and they are old. Despite the age, they were expected to do well here as the core of the team returns from their Cup triumph in Germany four years ago. Right now, they look terrible, as they have pretty much from the moment they stepped on the field at the Confederations Cup against Egypt after clobbering the United States last year. So what is wrong with the team?

Italy is really old - The Italians look even older than they are. They seem to have no energy early in games and can't get themselves going. They are lucky to be in a weak group where they still have a chance to advance despite lackluster play thus far, but any team with a stable of younger athletes will run circles around these guys on the way to an easy win in the knockout stages. I would pick the US 3-1 against this crew right now.

The defense is not up to Italian standards - Italy was old four years ago and won the tournament, mostly because of a suffocating defense that gave up just two goals in the tournament (and one of those was an own goal against the United States). Now, both Paraguay and New Zealand have scored on free kicks. Giving up set piece goals is a hallmark of average to bad defensive teams. Other deficiencies have yet to surface, but Paraguay without its two best strikers and New Zealand (along with Slovakia in the next game) are hardly the teams to expose those deficiencies.

The offense can't do anything right - The blame here lies with the coach. The old guard was left at home for this World Cup leaving a lack of experienced, respected target man. The young guns were also left at home as they were either not in top form because of injury or lacked the experience necessary. The result is an in between group that has some experience but lacks the necessary talent to do any damage in the attack. In the Paraguay game, the strikers did not register a shot on goal. There is no excuse for that particularly while Paraguay was in a defensive shell for much of the second half. The only saving graces have been a penalty awarded to the Italians (which they didn't screw up) and a goalkeeping howler against Paraguay allowing for draws in both games.

Despite the problems, Italy still has a good chance to advance. All they need is a win over Slovakia. Am I convinced they will get it? No, and even if they do, the Italians aren't going to last long into the knockout stages in this tournament.

Do you think there is anything Italy can do to fix their problems, or is it too late?