Complimenti Per la Vita da Campione...

I haven't posted in a while, the World Cup is quite time consuming! Of course Italy has been the team I care most about and I've been out there every match with my face painted, jersey on and flag around my neck. Why? I really have no idea. It isn't like they have been playing well or even showing to me they are deserving of any support, but for some reason called loyalty I haven't been able to help myself. I've found myself sitting at a table in a cafe in Little Italy praying for a goal, for a win, for anything really. As I write this, I am staring at the photos on my wall from 2006 and wonder what in hell has gone wrong.

This World Cup has seemed a little off to me from the beginning. After all, it is the first World Cup I've ever watched without Del Piero, Nesta, Totti, so naturally its a bit strange. My childhood heroes are no longer of the importance they used to be to the Azzurri according to Lippimerda. Of course, I beg to differ, why? Have you watched Italy play? If you have, you will understand. If you haven't, well then your lucky you haven't lost 4 hours of your life that you will never get back.

Against Paraguay, which was to be our toughest group match, we tied 1-1. Paraguay scored first leaving the Italians to play catch up. That is pathetic. When I said this would be our toughest match, I meant it would be a little difficult, we may have a few goal scares, but all in all we should come out on top. WTF  HAPPENED?! Ohhh that's right! I forgot that Lippi doesn't know who he picked for the squad! For some reason, now get this, he thinks, don't laugh! He thinks, that Marchisio is a winger! Okay you can laugh now! I mean what a friggin' joke! I think it is pretty clear based on his Juve performances the kid is a central midfielder and not a winger OR a trequartista. If you wanted one of those you should've called up an actual trequartista moron! Needless to say it was a painful match to watch and I'm glad its over.

Next up New Zealand. This was supposed to be one of the easier matches in the group stage, but it turned out to be a lot more stressful than it really needed to be. NZ scored first on a Cannavaro error, and God knows where the hell Marchetti was. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, Buffon or San Gigi as I like to call him, was injured in the Paraguay match. As if we really needed our best player injured right? Whatever. Anyways, Italy got a penalty shot after De Rossi was pulled down in the NZ box. It seemed a bit of a soft penalty to be honest, but I really didn't care at that point! Iaquinta scored it and the boys celebrated all adorable and shit. All seemed to be looking up and the first game against Paraguay would be forgotten.

 Sadly, the happiness ended there because the match ended in another 1-1 draw.  It was pathetic, the squad looked slow and lacked any and all creativity. Lippi again decided not to listen to the rest of the world and played many players out of position and NZ, I'm sure, are very happy about this. 

I really though after the Paraguay match, it couldn't get worse, then it did and now I'm worried. We play Slovakia next who only have 1 point. Let's hope this will be our first win in this World Cup. There are only a few ways left in which Italy can qualify and they look something like this:

1. They beat Slovakia. 

2. Italy ties Slovakia and Paraguay beats New Zealand. 

3. Italy ties Slovakia and Paraguay and New Zealand tie with fewer goals than the Italy result.

4. If both games end in a draw and New Zealand and Italy end up with the same number of points and goals for and against, there will be either a random draw or a coin toss to determine who goes through.

So basically option 4 better not happen because Italy has terrible luck this year and most definitely won't win the coin toss. I'm really not sure what to say. I said from the day the squad list was revealed that we would be lucky to get through the group stage matches and everyone yelled at me and called me crazy. Look who isn't so crazy now...I hate to say I told you so, and I won't until after Thursday's match, but this really isn't looking good. As much as I hate this team, I WANT so badly to be wrong about them. I want them to prove to me that they deserve my respect because right now they don't. I'm sure there could have been some very big breakouts from some of our new kids if Lippi played them in their proper positions. Its a shame that players like Marchisio now appear untalented to someone who has never seen him play before. After the match I didn't even want to walk in the subway station with the flag on my face because I was so ashamed of our performance. Its disgusting, I should be proud of my country, but how can I be? We are the defending champions, but they don't even look like they give a damn about defending that title! They better come out ready to go on Thursday and bang in the goals because right now, this 1 goal catch up game we're playing really isn't working for me. Our strikers need to step it up. Either play Gila where he should be played or don't play him at all! It was nice to see Pazzini out there for a bit though! I'm not surprised like most people are right now, I'm disappointed. I hope Lippi is proud of himself, I hope he is impressed with what he's done.

I swear, Borriello's mom put some kinda curse on Italy! Don't mess with a women from Napoli!! ;)