Marcello Lippi has taken all the blame. The Italy manager, deeply penitent after the Slovakian shambles, insists that he alone is culpable for the disaster of the Azzurri: “If a team plays like we did in the first half [on Thursday] it means the manager has not prepared them psychologically, technically and tactically.”
He should have heeded the warnings of a year ago in the Confederations Cup when Italy lost to modest Egypt and were then thrashed by Brazil.
It is surely beyond doubt that he should have noted that 36-year-old Fabio Cannavaro was no longer fit for service in defence. This was confirmed when, before his season with Juventus ended — Real Madrid having already discarded him — he had already decided to leave for the elephants’ graveyard of Dubai.
He lacked pace and, it seemed, tactical awareness after he wandered out of position before Slovakia scored their second goal. He also committed two first-half fouls that should have resulted in a red card, showing he had become not a bulwark but a hazard.
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Somewhat ironic was his attempt, immediately after the game ended, to comfort the tearful Fabio Quagliarella, arguably the only Azzurro to emerge from this disastrous game with credit.
The defeat is all ours and that of Italian football, which was shown to be in crisis Another error by Lippi was putting Quagliarella on for the first time in the tournament only after the interval.
He had one effort narrowly, perhaps debatably, scraped off the line — and lobbed what could have been the crucial goal.
Quagliarella, 27, had already played 18 times for Italy before this World Cup, one of those intriguing players who bobbed about from modest club to modest club before finally establishing himself last season with Napoli. Nobly, he is no Nicolas Anelka — Quagliarella refused to complain at being overlooked.
“I had great attackers ahead of me,” he said. “I made myself available, and when it came to me, I did my utmost. It wasn’t enough. I offer my apologies to Italy.” They were surely superfluous.
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Clearly he had nothing to be forgiven for and the same might be said of Andrea Pirlo, the only real playmaker in the squad, who was kept off the field until the 56th minute of the Slovakian game by injury. It quickly became clear that Pirlo, even if not fully fit, made a constructive difference.
It was not Lippi’s fault that the experienced keeper, Gigi Buffon, had to drop out after the opening game, giving way to the relatively inexperienced and hardly reassuring Federico Marchetti.
The team missed the presence of a ball-player like Alessandro del Piero, and still more perhaps a leader such as Francesco Totti, finally overtaken by the passing years yet in his day the complete attacker. He had his explosive moments, such as when, after a doubtful sending-off against South Korea in the 2002 World Cup, he proceeded to smash up the Italian dressing room. Yet there was no doubt of his great influence on the field.
How badly Italy lacked a fantasista, a player able to change a game with a supreme piece of trickery, an inspired pass, a telling shot. Could Mario Balotelli, 19, have been that player, or Antonio Cassano?
Balotelli, the forward of Ghanaian parentage, was too hot at Inter even for Jose Mourinho and never got off the bench in the Champions League final. But for all his sporadic defiance, and the indiscipline of Cassano, who came out of the slums of Bari to excel, these are two players who can spring surprises beyond those who failed in South Africa.
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Overall, however, the heroes of 2006 were plainly tired. “The ball doesn’t lie,” proclaimed Buffon after Thursday’s debacle.
“The defeat is all ours and that of Italian football, which was shown to be in crisis. The problem by comparison with 2006 is that today, there aren’t many like Totti and Del Piero . . . something was lacking in the creative area, but there was nobody who could give us something extra.”
Antonio di Natale, an ineffectual striker, exonerates Lippi. “The blame is all ours, he has given everything. It was we who weren’t good enough, and if things went like this, it means we’ve done little.”
There seems little doubt that Lippi, like Cannavaro, had passed his sell-by date. Now Cesare Prandelli must try to pick up the pieces.
As for France, why it took so long to appoint Laurent Blanc, after his success at Bordeaux and the huge unpopularity of Raymond Domenech, only the French Federation can say.
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Domenech somehow got them to the final of the last World Cup, after coming close to dropping Zinedine Zidane. But at Euro 2008 France fell apart, tactically and technically.
In South Africa, Domenech seemed wholly to have lost the respect of his players. He was abused by Florent Malouda, dropped him, only to reinstate him as a substitute.
He was crudely insulted by Anelka, a largely marginal figure, initially cut him from the squad, then said he would forgive him if he apologised, only for Anelka to be packed off home by the team’s officialdom.
Where Franck Ribery had a splendid 2006 World Cup, now he was largely ineffectual. Tactics chopped and changed. None of them worked, though even Domenech could hardly budget for the shocking blunder against Mexico by his goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.
And at least Lippi was not insulted by his own players.