Then, after a gentle session, their first since arriving in the country
Wednesday morning, on to another college, now christened Casa Azzurri,
where the media have set up camp. It is just as well that all South African
schools and universities have taken a holiday for the duration of the
competition, as so many of their premises seem to have been commandeered by
the competing teams.
Marcello Lippi, the winning coach from four years ago, knows better than to
make any rash predictions at this stage. He is aware that only two teams
have ever retained football's greatest prize: Pele's Brazil of 1958 and
1962, and the Italians themselves in 1934 and 1938. Slow starters or not,
they are in a group they should win, even if Paraguay were to force a draw
in the opening game next Monday. A quarterfinal against Spain is on the
cards, although after some disappointing friendly results n Mexico recently
beat them 2-1 n some pessimists believe they would not survive a putative
second-round game against Cameroon.
The urbane Lippi therefore found himself having to defend the squad in his
first press conference of the tournament yesterday. "People always write us
off beforehand," he said. "It's a World Cup and everyone wants to have an
opinion and they're welcome to it but that doesn't impact on us at all.
We'll get it right. Last time we started well against Ghana and played well
from then onwards."
The other criticism before the squad was named was that it would be too old,
which the coach countered by bringing some newcomers to the party along
with nine survivors from 2006, while leaving out other old heroes like
Alessandro Nesta and Francesco Totti. One to look out for is 22-year-old
Leonardo Bonucci, who made an impressive debut only three months ago in the
center of defense and could win a place there alongside Fabio Cannavaro
(now aged 36), with Giorgio Chiellini moving to left-back.
The silver haired Lippi, himself a young 62, insists that age is no barrier
to performance at a World Cup. This is the country, after all, that won the
trophy in 1982 captained by the 40-year old goalkeeper Dino Zoff. Lippi's
argument is that there is a difference between a competition lasting a
month and one taking place over a whole season: "We've got a nice mix of
young players and good quality and I've never seen a team win the World Cup
with 23 new players," Lippi said.
"This is a team built for the World Cup. They were born there four years ago
and self-belief came from that result. No great players have been left
behind in Italy." Totti and Nesta may beg to differ.
Three players did not train Wednesday but only Andrea Pirlo, the deep-lying
midfielder, will miss the Paraguay game against opponents Lippi describes
as "very quick playing at a very high level for two years in the South
American group". Oddly, there are no players among the 23 Azzurri from the
new Italian champions Internazionale. Instead there will be a spine to the
team supplied by Juventus and backed up by Milan, with a crop of forwards
hoping for a second striker's role alongside Fiorentina's Alberto
Gilardino.
Marco Camoranesi and Daniele de Rossi will be familiar names in the midfield
with Gianluca Zambrotta expecting to move closer to the 100 caps that
goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has already accumulated.
It should all add up to a strong challenge, and the combination of Lippi's
know-how and the Italian tradition of over-achieving add weight to it. If a
penalty shoot-out in the 1994 final had not been lost, then as he pointed
out Wednesday, it would be Italy, not Brazil who had won most World Cups.
Yet few are betting on a fifth one here, even at odds of around 14-1.
