lo zio
International
- 24 October 2005
- Team
- Palermo
Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season
however world cup has nothing to do with having the best team of the lot, and "experience" is sure a factor but not a really important one.
we had the best team (along with argentina) in 2006....but then again, we had the very best team of the lot also in 2002 and yet that wasn't a success at all.
in 2006 argentina had a much better team than germany yet they couldn't make it..... and germany, whose team was not on the same level of italy (in terms of quality), not only beated argentina, but played "on par" with italy aswell.
just 2 months before the 2006 world cup, we dismatled germany... i don't remember if it was a 4-0 or a 4-1.... however we simply tore them apart.... now i'm not saying the gap between italy and germany was actually so wide to justify such a result (afterall single matches aren't reliable), but yet, that match made pretty clear that germany was far from italy's standards.
2 months after we faced a completely different germany..... did the quality of the team improved? no. it was the context that was different.
that's what makes the difference in a world cup: the context. germany was on fire those days... they were confident, after such a succesful result against argentina; they were motivated, as they were playing a world cup semi final at home, with an entire stadium supporting them and an entire nation, just outside that stadium, rooting for them.... and finally they had many key players in great form.
that allowed them to play way beyond their real potential.... to play on par with italy (at least till the 90th minute).
so the world cup it's not about having a great team... u obviously need some good players, but that alone means nothing, as many other teams will have great players.... and in such a short competition, in such a particular period of the season, there are other factors wich can easily nullify the gap between team filled with great players and a team filled with good players.
those factors are form, team spirit and motivation....i referred to them with a single world (context), as they are deeply related to each others.
in june most of the players will have +50 matches on their legs....and that's a lot. so how u get there is pretty important...it doesn't matter if u're world class... if u've been playing all season long, if u didn't face a single injury during the season (wich means that u never had a break during the season), u might be very tired in june....and if u're not so young anymore, u might aswell be completely worn out (given how bad cannavaro is playing right now, i can't even imagine how poor he'll be in south africa)..... so form\fitness is just as important as skill, as a factor.
and anyhow, even the players who are in a better shape, they still won't ever be as fresh and fit as they were during the season of course. they will all be tired to an extent. and there's just one thing that can nullify the effects of fatigue: motivations. a world cup is like the last 3 miles of a marathon. to make that last effort and beat your opponents u got to want that cup more than anything else.... because when u're playing the extra-time of, say, a world cup semi final.... after playing football for 9 months, after an entire season and a hugely stressing last month (with 6 matches in 3 weeks)... there will be more lactic acid than blood in your veins... and the only thing that will keep u running will be your determination, your motivation, your will.
now i'm not saying that our players won't have that motivation, of course.... but it's pretty obvious that other players, from other teams, who have never won the cup will be much more motivated than the likes of cannavaro, zambrotta and grosso.
and finally the last factor, team spirit. playing a world cup implies a particular challenge from a sociologic point of view.... u have to live with your teammates for an entire month.. u'll have no contacts with the rest of the world, and will have to share the same rooms with guys that aren't even your teammates in your club. so, in order to turn that individual motivation into a winning team mentality, u need theese guys to get along, to gel, to "click" instantly.
coz even the most insignificant issue, in such a stressing situation (stressing because of the people expectations, because of the fact u can't be close to your family, because, like it or not, u have to share the same hotel and the same bedroon with your teammates for an entire month), can break the dressing room chemistry.
theese 3 factors (form, motivation and team spirit) are much more important than the actual quality of the team in such a competition.... this is not a season-long league, it's a 1 month long cup.
however i don't even really care about this, as i'm not really eager to win another world cup..... to be honest, i couldn't care less.... the 2006 experience was so overwhelming, so deep and involving, that, even after 4 years i still feel that (silly) sense of satisfaction and pride.
i don't want us to win the world cup... i just want us to display our best team and play our best football..... and if that's not enough to give us a spot in the final, so be it, i'll be rooting for the team that will beat us. the point is this team is not the best team italy has to offer.... at all...and that's something that really annoys me.
right now we should be in the middle of a very long "transition period", and yet we didn't even start this transition phase, coz our coach has not the balls (anymore) to drop some big names and call those who actually represent the best italy has to offer right now.
man, describing "the 2006 grosso" as a "not too shabby player" is an enourmous undestatement.... and that "probably" about zambrotta is definitely out of place.abou said:
however world cup has nothing to do with having the best team of the lot, and "experience" is sure a factor but not a really important one.
we had the best team (along with argentina) in 2006....but then again, we had the very best team of the lot also in 2002 and yet that wasn't a success at all.
in 2006 argentina had a much better team than germany yet they couldn't make it..... and germany, whose team was not on the same level of italy (in terms of quality), not only beated argentina, but played "on par" with italy aswell.
just 2 months before the 2006 world cup, we dismatled germany... i don't remember if it was a 4-0 or a 4-1.... however we simply tore them apart.... now i'm not saying the gap between italy and germany was actually so wide to justify such a result (afterall single matches aren't reliable), but yet, that match made pretty clear that germany was far from italy's standards.
2 months after we faced a completely different germany..... did the quality of the team improved? no. it was the context that was different.
that's what makes the difference in a world cup: the context. germany was on fire those days... they were confident, after such a succesful result against argentina; they were motivated, as they were playing a world cup semi final at home, with an entire stadium supporting them and an entire nation, just outside that stadium, rooting for them.... and finally they had many key players in great form.
that allowed them to play way beyond their real potential.... to play on par with italy (at least till the 90th minute).
so the world cup it's not about having a great team... u obviously need some good players, but that alone means nothing, as many other teams will have great players.... and in such a short competition, in such a particular period of the season, there are other factors wich can easily nullify the gap between team filled with great players and a team filled with good players.
those factors are form, team spirit and motivation....i referred to them with a single world (context), as they are deeply related to each others.
in june most of the players will have +50 matches on their legs....and that's a lot. so how u get there is pretty important...it doesn't matter if u're world class... if u've been playing all season long, if u didn't face a single injury during the season (wich means that u never had a break during the season), u might be very tired in june....and if u're not so young anymore, u might aswell be completely worn out (given how bad cannavaro is playing right now, i can't even imagine how poor he'll be in south africa)..... so form\fitness is just as important as skill, as a factor.
and anyhow, even the players who are in a better shape, they still won't ever be as fresh and fit as they were during the season of course. they will all be tired to an extent. and there's just one thing that can nullify the effects of fatigue: motivations. a world cup is like the last 3 miles of a marathon. to make that last effort and beat your opponents u got to want that cup more than anything else.... because when u're playing the extra-time of, say, a world cup semi final.... after playing football for 9 months, after an entire season and a hugely stressing last month (with 6 matches in 3 weeks)... there will be more lactic acid than blood in your veins... and the only thing that will keep u running will be your determination, your motivation, your will.
now i'm not saying that our players won't have that motivation, of course.... but it's pretty obvious that other players, from other teams, who have never won the cup will be much more motivated than the likes of cannavaro, zambrotta and grosso.
and finally the last factor, team spirit. playing a world cup implies a particular challenge from a sociologic point of view.... u have to live with your teammates for an entire month.. u'll have no contacts with the rest of the world, and will have to share the same rooms with guys that aren't even your teammates in your club. so, in order to turn that individual motivation into a winning team mentality, u need theese guys to get along, to gel, to "click" instantly.
coz even the most insignificant issue, in such a stressing situation (stressing because of the people expectations, because of the fact u can't be close to your family, because, like it or not, u have to share the same hotel and the same bedroon with your teammates for an entire month), can break the dressing room chemistry.
theese 3 factors (form, motivation and team spirit) are much more important than the actual quality of the team in such a competition.... this is not a season-long league, it's a 1 month long cup.
however i don't even really care about this, as i'm not really eager to win another world cup..... to be honest, i couldn't care less.... the 2006 experience was so overwhelming, so deep and involving, that, even after 4 years i still feel that (silly) sense of satisfaction and pride.
i don't want us to win the world cup... i just want us to display our best team and play our best football..... and if that's not enough to give us a spot in the final, so be it, i'll be rooting for the team that will beat us. the point is this team is not the best team italy has to offer.... at all...and that's something that really annoys me.
right now we should be in the middle of a very long "transition period", and yet we didn't even start this transition phase, coz our coach has not the balls (anymore) to drop some big names and call those who actually represent the best italy has to offer right now.
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