Italian Football

A good writer can make almost any topic seem interesting, with the right amount literary flair and a little bit of being economical with the truth then even the dullest of topics can for a brief moment seem dazzlingly brilliant. Such is the case with Italian football, i bought FourFourTwo this month and they are doing a guide to Italian Football and it's excellent reading, especially as a football fan myself you very rarely get any coverage of the less well known teams like Venezia, Siena, Lecce and all the rest of the also rans.

There's also information like Juventus the so called biggest club in italy with 10 million fans averaging 26,400 fans per game last season. I know the Stadio delle Alpi isn't the most popular but with those sort of crowds in a season when you win the league how committed are your fans? I didn't know that the 'other' Turin team Torino had an all conquering team in the 40's that were all killed in a plane crash, or that Torino were formed by a former Juventus coach unhappy with the progress of the original Turin club.

Unfortunately for football fans Italian football is possibly some of the dullest football the world has ever seen, and there is really no excuse for it. There is top drawer talent aplenty in the Italian league, there is big money, there are big glamourous clubs yet for those of us that have ever taken the time to watch a few games they play torturously dull football. It's defensive, slow paced and as likely as not to be settled by a single goal. Only a year or two ago the Champions League final was between Juventus and AC Milan, the pinnacle of European club football, it finished 0-0 and had to be settled on penatly kicks which Milan won.

This negative style of play also extends to the national team, they get a goal up and sit back and defend defend defend. I cheered when they were robbed by South Korea in the last World Cup Finals, they didn't deserve better because with the talent they have at their disposal they should have been able to steamroller the Koreans, they didn't so nae luck. I think the only Italian team i enjoyed watchign at all was the 1994 team inspired by Roberto Baggio, by far the greatest Italian footballer of my time. Unfortunatley in the final he was carrying an injury and without him fully fit Italy looked lost for attacking flair. He also missed his penalty in the shootout and a moment was lost for an Italian team playing positively to stamp their mark on the game.