The World Cup is just about over. Come Sunday, we’ll have seen the last game of the 2010 tournament, one that was pretty forgettable for azzurri fans.

As a summary, here’s 10 things to take away from our world cup experience- some humorous, most serious, but all at least somewhat factually valid:

1. Never return once you walk away. Marcello Lippi was an absolute god in July of 2006. He quit at the top of his game, and it looks like his reputation was forever cemented amongst the greats. By returning to gli azzurri, he took a gamble: try and repeat or risk failure and embarrassment. The odds were stacked against him from the start: our players aren’t on the same plane as they were in 06, even taking new players into account, and at best Lippi would only be able to match what he did. Instead, we hit the worst case scenario: 0 wins, bottom of our group, and embarrassment. Lesson here? Once you’re gone, stay gone.

2. To win the World Cup, you need your best players. Hindsight may be 20/20, but from the start it seems that Iaquinta, Zambrotta, Cannavaro, to name but a few, were all mistakes waiting to happen. Age catches up with everyone, and a country needs its best players to win. Leaving out Rossi, Miccoli and Cassano was baffling.

3. Players only work if they’re used properly. Debate about who should’ve gone and should not have gone aside, the players that go to any tournament need to be used properly. Ie: Marchisio not on the wing/trequartista. Iaquinta actually used as a striker. It’s bad enough bringing the wrong players, but to bring the wrong ones and then play them out of position is borderline ridiculous.

4. You need luck. Period. I firmly believe that you don’t win a damn thing in any sport without at least a little luck. Gli Azzurri had none, which combined with numbers 2 and 3 above to really screw us over. 6 shots on goals led to 5 goals conceded. Buffon and Pirlo were both out before a single full match was played, and Quagliarella, for all of his trying, just couldn’t get that third goal we needed in the last group stage game. No matter how good you are, Lady Luck needs to be on your side. She deserted us.

5. Chiellini deserves a medal. Let’s recap who he’s been playing with for the past year or so: Grosso, Cannavaro, Zambrotta and Grygera. Not a single one is anything remotely world class anymore, which means that both the azzurri and Juve have been relying hugely on GC alone to really be a star performer. Luckily, he’ll be playing alongside Bonucci next season- who looks like a star on the rise- so his days of playing with shit players may be over. But if he had walked out on us after the first game, you could hardly blame him.

6. Youth without experience wins you nought. Youth seems to be absolutely dominating this world cup (ie most of Germany and Spain), but you can’t just throw on young guys with no experience and expect them to win the damn thing. If Criscito was going to be our leftback for this, why did he barely feature in qualifying? Why would you throw on Pazzini to get a decisive goal after showing almost no trust in him beforehand? Youth players have to be properly groomed, not thrown into the deep end.

7. Seriously, I can’t get over this luck thing. 5 out of 6 shots on target went in? Is that a record for crappiness?

8. Cigars: don’t discount them. Maybe we were terrible because Marcello wasn’t sporting his trademark cigarette.

9. It really was the end of an era. Marcello, Cannavaro, Zambrotta, Gattuso, Grosso, Iaquinta, Toni and Totti are now, in all likelihood, gone from gli azzurri forever. Prandelli’s new meritocracy (and how sad is it that this is a “new” idea for us?) could see some of these guys feature, but youth is clearly the way that football is headed. Those 8 were so integral to us just four short years ago, and now we’re in the hunt for their successors. We can’t ever forget what they did- and we won’t, given that our jerseys are just a tiny bit heavier from that fourth star they earned- but that leads me to my final point.

10. With every ending comes a beginning. Yes we sucked, yes we were garbage, and yes we were bottom of the group. But that’s history now, and our focus has to be the future- the new Prandelli era. We have new players and a new coach to dissect, analyze, and adore. Besides, we all know that we were just saving ourselves to sucker punch the Brazilians on home soil in four years, no?

And I really don’t want to talk about this world cup anymore, but I’ll leave you with a tweet from OPTA sports: “20% – Federico Marchetti of Italy has the worst shot-stopping % of any ‘keeper who has played more than 2 games in#WorldCup history”

Remember that bit about luck?

———–

The brackets are just about over. The link is here for anyone who wants to check. Thanks to everyone for playing, and huge props to those of you at the top. I had a relatively strong start and picked up a lot of points in the round of 16, but picking Italy to win the whole thing really shot me in the foot.

But someone had to believe, right?

—–

Grazie Quags e Pirlo for a little bit of faith, a little bit of skill, a little bit of hope. But overall we deserved to go out. And out we go, with a heavy heart and in shame.

The game has just ended and I’m writing this in the emotional aftermath. The final 15 minutes were the best display of Azzurri emotion, pride, and drive throughout the whole tournament. It was way too little, too late, and had we played that way for all 3 games there’s no doubt in my mind that we would be through.

But it wasn’t meant to be.

——

Best of luck to Cesare Prandelli. He has quite a task on his hands.

Full review up tomorrow.

Over the next week and a half, here at the Juventus Offside we will be profiling Juventini, their characteristics, and what role they play for their national team. It might not be the most useful for regular readers or general Juventus fans, but I think we Juventini are most apt, perhaps, to describe the quality of these players as we watch them week-in, week-out. We’ve done Italy players Gianluigi Buffon, Claudio Marchisio, and Vincenzo Iaquinta. Brazil enigma Felipe Melo, Martin Caceres of Uruguay, Hans Christian Anderson Christian Poulsen of Denmark, today we profile future Juventus and Italy captain and defensive stalwart, Giorgio Chiellini.

Birthplace: Pisa, Italy (yes, the Pisa) though he grew up playing for Pisa’s local rivals, Livorno.

Nickname: Keyser Giorgio (coined by Marco P.), Giorgio of the Jungle (coined by Nnahoj), Tarzan, Chiello, the Schnoz

National Team: Italy, where over at the World Cup Blog, Julian and Paul keep you up-to-date on Azzurri news. (Sister site to The Offside for national teams)

Personality: Chiellini is not exactly your typical young superstar calciatore. Thanks to a Twitter Chat he conducted (translated on the Juve Offside here), we learned quite a bit about him. First, neat that he is so willing to chat with his fans. Despite being a millionaire athlete, he still attends school and is currently about finished with his equivalent of a US Bachelors, and then plans to work on his Masters. His girlfriend is a childhood friend of his from Livorno, and he doesn’t really go out clubbing or anything, just downtown for some dinner. This is pretty apparent in his off-field personality, he’s a pretty quiet intelligent player.

On the field, however, he is a warrior, and a true leader. He’s not afraid of conflict, battles hard, and doesn’t shy from tough tackles or provocations. Chiellini has gained quite a reputation of a hardman, which is kind of funny that off the field he is such a quiet person. A very hard-working player, not a prima donna, and one who battles for his team.

Present and future captain of Juventus (Giorgio will be captain after Gianluigi Buffon)

Estimated Market Value: €25 million.

Preferred Foot: Left.

Media Status: Famous. Giorgio’s rise to fame really came in 2007-2008, the year Juventus returned from Serie B when he was shifted to a center-back having previously been a left-back. He was a colossus, winning the 2007-2008 Serie A Defender of the Year award, as well as winning it the next year in 2008-2009. His first major tournament with Italy was Euro 2008, which began poorly as he accidentally knocked Fabio Cannavaro out of the tournament. After the disaster that was the 3-0 drubbing to the Netherlands at the hands of Barzagli-Materazzi, Italy coach Roberto Donadoni opted for Panucci-Chiellini in the center, and they would concede 1 goal in 3 games against Romania, France, and Spain. (The one goal was a horrific backpass from Zambrotta) Against Spain, Giorgio was a one-man tackling machine and won Man-of-the-Match awards. This was followed by an excellent season the next year, including powerhouse displays against Real Madrid in the Champion’s League. He’s now widely regarded as one of the top 3 defenders in Italy, and probably one of the top 3 in Europe and the world.

Silverware:
With Juventus: Serie B 2006-2007

Strengths: Giorgio Chiellini is a prototype Italian hardman center-back. Unbeatable in the air, fast on the ground, and brilliant in his slide-tackling, Chiellini is very well rounded. He’s very different than Fabio Cannavaro, who largely plays off of an excellent reading of the game. Chiellini is a much taller traditional center-back, an excellent man-marker, and as mentioned, is no slouch when it comes to pace. In the build-up to the 2009 Confederation’s Cup, it was found in the Italy squad that Chiellini was the fastest sprinter. He’s well known for his excellent slide tackles that often level an opponent, playing tough is part of Giorgio’s game. Yet this doesn’t really weigh on him physically- Chiellini has one of the best injury records at Juventus, which is no small thing. His most serious injury the last 2 years or so has kept him out a maximum of 3 weeks or so.

Weaknesses: Chiellini is one of the best defenders in Italy, Europe, and the world right now, so he doesn’t have a whole lot of weaknesses. He does enjoy going forward and joining the attack, he is an excellent goal threat primarily in the air. Generally, he is not caught out of position on this, though it of course does occasionally happen. One thing that could improve is Chiellini’s distribution, he is certainly no defender who builds up play, but that’s not really his job. He’s not quite as good as Cannavaro in reading the game, but he makes up for it with excellent last-ditch tackling. Occasionally, he does make a rash challenge, but that’s to be expected for a player who is so prolific with the slide tackle.

After scoring in the local derby against Torino in the 82nd minute, the game finished 1-0.

Status on Club Team: Building block for the future. Along with Gianluigi Buffon and Claudio Marchisio, Giorgio Chiellini has been one of the most reliable and consistent performers for Juventus the last few seasons, and it’s no surprise that the three have been named as the backbone on which Juventus will rebuild.

2009-2010 Club Season: Juventus were dreadful this season, but Chiellini wasn’t. Abandoned all too often by consistently dreadful wingbacks and an indifferent Fabio Cannavaro, Chiellini is one of the main reasons the season wasn’t any worse. Our defense leaked an unprecedented (for Juventus) amount of goals, but I can’t really think of one that Chiellini was directly responsible for.
Status in National Team: Starter, and probably future captain. Chiellini got first call-up to the national team in 2004 at age 20 (throwaway game against Finland) but didn’t really get regular call-ups until 2007-2008, he was never really in consideration for the 2006 World Cup. I called that Chiellini should be a starter at Euro2008, but it took a 3-0 humiliation for Donadoni to draft him in. Ever since, he has been an undisputed starter and star for the national team, and it’s not an exaggeration to say he very likely could be starting in the next two World Cups as well.

An unlikely duo in 2007-2008 considering Chiellini was a raw left-back and Legrottaglie was on his way to Turkey, but ended up being the best partnership in Serie A from 2007-2009, until Cannavaro came along and ruined it. As Chiellini said, “He [Legrottaglie] helped me a lot, to teach me specific movements when I started as a center-back, we can play now with eyes closed.” (except Ferrara was choosing Cannavaro over Legrottaglie)

Expected Performance for National Team: Hero. Italy’s defense can be a bit on the slow side, with Zambrotta and Cannavaro still starting, but Chiellini is fast. A lot of question marks have been made about these defenders, so expect Chiellini to be bailing them out and in crucial games, have a brilliant performance. He’s never disappointed for the Azzurri thus far. Euro 2008 was sort of his “coming out on the European scene” party, this World Cup could be the time when the whole world sees him as one of the best.
Random Fact: Giorgio Chiellini’s best friend at Juventus is fellow quiet left-back Paolo De Ceglie, who is his roommate on away trips. (Find more interesting facts about Chiellini at his Twitter Chat)

Another random fact is that Chiellini scored 4 goals this season, 1 less than our wasteful Brazilian forward Amauri.

In one word: Colossus.

Send ‘em flying, Giorgio!

YouTube Comp with Questionable Music:

YouTube Comp of Chiellini’s first huge game, Juventus-Inter, November 2007)

Marked the shit out of Ibrahimovic.

YouTube Comp Without Terribly Questionable Music:

World Cup Player Profiles and Other Links:
#1- Gianluigi Buffon
#2- Claudio Marchisio
#3- Felipe Melo
#4- Martin Caceres
#5- Fabio Cannavaro
#6- Vincenzo Iaquinta
#7- Mauro Camoranesi
#8- Christian Poulsen
#9- Giorgio Chiellini

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I know this is the Juventus Offside and not the Italy WCB, but I’ll probably be venting my ramblings here anyways during most of the World Cup. Overall, I was pretty pleased with the game. Paraguay is a tough opponent, they play physical, defensive, very Italian-style tactics which saw them defeat Brazil and Argentina in qualifying. Without a doubt, the best team in our group and we probably deserved to win by a bit. We just need to take it to Slovakia and New Zealand. Full thoughts after the jump.

Italy started out with a 4-2-3-1 that worked well enough in the beginning portion of the match, but after 40 minutes or so, Paraguay had figured it out, and the next 20 minutes or so saw the match drift into Paraguay’s hands. Marcello Lippi made timely and smart subs- the Marchisio substitution which many groaned at wasn’t sacrificing Marchisio for Camo, it was a direct shift to a 4-4-2. It worked well for much of the match, and I think Lippi might give up the 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 experiments and go back to something Italy knows.

Some interesting stats from ESPN.

• Neither team was crisp passing the ball, as the 67.0% combined passing accuracy was the lowest total in the past two World Cups by more than 5% (second-lowest was 72.1% in the England-United States match on Saturday). Italy’s 69.9% passing accuracy was its second-lowest since 1966 and its lowest in 40 years. Paraguay’s 63.2% passing accuracy was the 10th-worst mark ever over that time period.

• Paraguay is just the 18th team to create two or fewer scoring chances (when a pass from a teammate leads to a shot) since 1966 and one of just five to do so and score a goal.

• Italy is 5-0-3 in its last eight World Cup games and are on a 10-game unbeaten streak against South American sides.

• Eight of Italy’s last 13 goals in the World Cup have come from set pieces.

De Rossi- “STOP SAYING ROMA LADRONA!”

Personally, I was impressed by Montolivo and Pepe today. Pepe worked hard and put in some good crosses, sometimes his final ball was (exceptionally) poor, but still was a protagonist. Montolivo, who there have been rumors Juve is interested in, was class in midfield, winning balls back and putting some excellent passes in, although his shooting is Candreva-ish. (weak) Criscito didn’t have a stellar game, but he looked good enough at left-back and moved forward well. I’ve never had a high opinion of Pepe, but there’s no doubt he at least merits a loan, his price only rose today and we’ve already got him. Criscito should be a priority to play left-back next season for Juventus.

The 4-4-2 had more stability and most importantly, players playing in their right position. Gila failed miserably as a target-man in a 4-2-3-1, while there wasn’t much service it’s implied that he’s supposed to be a point of reference for the attack, knocking down headers and winning balls and dishing them to his teammates. This is something Amauri does very well, but of course being a forward is much more than that. Iaquinta and Marchisio were both also fielded out of position in the attacking trident, and it was very noticeable. They played opposite of where they need, Vincenzo can play up top or in a 4-3-3, but not withdrawn. He can’t cut into the middle, which the explosion of inverted wingers has shown the importance of, and he’s just not effective there. Marchisio showed that trequartista is probably not the right position for him, or at least not in a game where the opponents are happy to sit without possession and make Italy come at them. It might work in a more possession-balanced game, but he still should be playing deeper as a central midfielder.

Everyone recognize our ole buddy on the left?

The 4-4-2 worked alright, but I’d go for a 4-4-1-1 (or 4-5-1, depending on how you look at it) as follows:

Buffon
Zambrotta Chiellini Cannavaro Criscito
Camo/Maggio Marchisio De Rossi Pepe
Montolivo
Pazzini

Pazzini is one who thrives on service, and I believe with the amount of crossing and throughballs this formation provides, the best defenders in South Africa this summer would have trouble keeping him off the scoresheet. Montolivo would be given a position more like Diego/Sneidjer and less like a classical trequartista, he would have tactical freedom to drop back to play more of a regista. He looked good today roaming around.

The solution to the Azzurri’s attack?

Ultimately, I’m satisfied with the performance. Italy looked far better than against either Switzerland or Mexico, and against a better, very tactical opponent. The lack of creativity up top is worrying, and that was my primary concern in the build up to the World Cup, but I think a 4-4-1-1 would solve much of it. The defense looked shaky at times, but not bad for a first game out, and honestly, Paraguay very rarely tested either of the keepers, indeed they had a grand total of one attempt on goal (which scored) and hadn’t looked like scoring before that. Italy had 57% possession, had 10 shots and 5 on target. If we perform similarly against Slovakia or New Zealand, we should certainly win.

LE PAGELLE:

Buffon: s.v.- Really had nothing to do aside from pick the ball out of the net. Worrying that his back injury is flairing up, Marchetti is good, but do you expect him to make saves like this?

Zambrotta: 6- Impressive, considering his Milan form. Defended well enough and got up on occasion, not 2006 form, but good enough to keep in the XI for me.
Cannavaro: 5.5- Started out very strongly, reading the game brilliantly and outjumping players he had no right to, characteristics I described in his World Cup Profile. Bad mistake for Paraguay’s goal, and after about the 65th minute he started to look more and more shaky. Not a horrible outing, but not too confidence-inspiring either.
Chiellini: 6.5- Nothing outstanding, but looks assured in the back for almost the whole game.
Criscito: 5.5- Looked nervy on a few occasions, but it’s this kids first game in an international tournament. Benching him would be as stupid as sending him to Genoa after he gets beaten in his 4th Serie A game ever. Which we did. I hope Lippi doesn’t make the same mistake. Not sure why he’s receiving so much criticism, he more or less held his own defensively, moved up supporting the attack, and wasn’t ever really horribly caught out of position. I still want him back at Juventus.

Referee wasn’t that great today. Called for a lot of fouls when the player got the ball. The free kick Paraguay scored off of was not only not a foul, but a Paraguayan handball.

De Rossi: 6.5- Re-energized after his goal and the switch to the 4-4-2. Didn’t look comfortable in the first half, but played excellent in the second.
Montolivo: 6.5- His shot is weak like Candreva’s, but I liked Montolivo’s performance a lot today. He’s had a reputation like Aquilani of a player who never grew up, one who goes missing for long stretches of time, but Montolivo was omnipresent. Good passing, fought well enough to get the ball back, it was a very solid display from the Fiorentina vice-captain. Didn’t exactly have this kind of finish on his breakaway, though.

Pepe: 6.5- Worked hard, put in some excellent crosses, and looked like he gave a damn all match. Some poor decision making in the box, but it’s the World Cup and it’s his international tournament debut as well, understandable. I liked that he was equally competent as a left or right winger, that is a very important versatility.
Marchisio: 5.5- As I said, he doesn’t really work as a trequartista against a team that defends deep. Sacrificial lamb to switch to a 4-4-2, I think had Lippi chosen to take De Rossi off and drop Marchisio back, he’d have had a much better game too.
Iaquinta: 5- Played too deep in the 4-2-3-1, improved a bit when he moved up to striker, but not that great of a game. Still, I’d rather him play than Gilardino.

Gilardino: 5- Static off-the-ball movement, didn’t really get into great position. Starved of service, but didn’t really play the target man role.

Lippi: 6.5- The team started well, then Paraguay figured the formation out. Lippi showed something we’ve been lacking at Juventus for a while- substitutions and tactical changes that reversed the flow of the game. It started drifting out of the Azzurri’s hands after a bright start, but his switch to a 4-4-2 and substitutions put it back in the Azzurri’s hands. He still needs to sort out the offense.

Grazie, Daniele

FORZA AZZURRI

From Football-Italia:
Marcello Lippi admits “there is great regret, as this is the kind of match we have got to win” after the draw with Paraguay.

“He had a back problem. Will he be fit for the next game? The medical staff have to tell me that.”