It is said that unless Italy can get enough goal difference against Mexico, they will probably become the second team in the history of the World Cup that failed to win the defending champion from the group stage.
Therefore, although leading Italy to a clean victory over Ecuador saved Zoff a lot of face and reduced the criticism from fans, this does not mean that Zoff can rest easy. After all, Italy still has a lot of qualifying pressure. If it is too early to be happy, it will not repeat the mistakes of Brazilians. Moreover, although the team won the game against Ecuador, it does not mean that Zoff’s tactical play is perfect and lacking in reality. Now there are still many shortcomings in Italy that need to be compensated and strengthened by Zoff.
After all, through these two group matches, Italy’s advantages and disadvantages have been clearly seen by most coaches and experts. They realize that the talent of this Italian coach is absolutely focused on defense, and they really don’t know anything about the offensive end. They know that players can rely on their personal ability to attack each other’s defense lines or facilitate the tacit understanding and inspiration of players to complete some offensive cooperation.
It is foreseeable that it is definitely not easy for Zoff to reach the height of his former Paolo Maldini in this national team coach career, unless he can find a way to optimize Italy’s current offensive body, it will not be a problem to rely on vieri to slam so hard in the knockout stage. After all, those strong defense teams are not for nothing. vieri is strong in personal ability, but he can pick a group without being present. Otherwise, Inter Milan will not be struggling to win the multiyear league championship in previous lives.
Having said that about Italy, now let’s look at the situation of other groups.
Compared with the constant upset in the first round of the group stage, the strong teams in the group stage seem to have found the feeling of winning after taking a blow in the next round. Spain and Brazil both got the qualification before the two defeats in their respective groups. England defeated Argentina with a penalty kick by David Beckham in the Great BritainArab War, and David Beckham successfully avenged the World Cup in France four years ago. In the first round, Portugal lost to the United States, and also won the game. They beat Poland cleanly by three goals in the heavy rain, which proved the quality of the golden generation to people.
However, in this round of group stage, not all the strong teams have won the first game, so Argentina won’t say that Beckham’s penalty made this favorite to win the championship have to face the reality of the final round and the Swedes. In the first game, Germany beat Saudi Arabia and suffered a draw. In one game, Klose shone brilliantly. Although he scored his fourth goal in the World Cup, he still managed to change the result of the draw between the team and the Irish. Russia once dominated for a while, not to mention the collapse of the former Soviet Union. The polar bear lost to the host Japanese team Tsar mostovoi’s first veteran team in the round competition, which showed people that the last batch of former Soviet era legacies in the Russian team were about to bid farewell to this stage.
The most unfortunate thing is that after the French team was defeated by Segal in the first round, they drew with Uruguay in the second group match品茶. It is said that Trezeguet, Cisse or Henry could not bring a goal to the French team. In the end, the team that won the second place in the European Cup two years ago could accept the embarrassing reality that it was on the verge of being eliminated without scoring a goal in two games.
It’s time to wait for no one behind the scenes of the second round of the group stage, and then to participate in the final round of the World Cup. The final round of the group stage has come to a close. All the teams have not yet ensured their qualification, and there is still a glimmer of hope for promotion. All the teams are gearing up to prepare a place in the top 16 for a final fight!
All teams are striving to qualify, and Italy is no exception. This is not far from playing Mexico. Three days later, Zoff took Maldini to his room to prepare for a detailed discussion with the team captain on the tactics the team took over.
Paul will play Mexico next. I want to hear your opinion. Zoff asked Maldini kindly after the two sides were seated. He will still give some preferential treatment to the captain of the national team who has participated in four World Cups. Of course, if you don’t know how to start, let me give you an example first. For example, do you have any good suggestions for the team’s starting lineup?
I decided to ask Maldini about it because Inzov thought that one more person would give me more strength. Moreover, Mark has been following many tactical masters such as Old Maldini, Sacchi and Capello for many years品茶. He must have seen that the team is now there but he didn’t see some problems himself. Therefore, if the starting lineup is adjusted according to his suggestion, these problems may be solved.
Chapter 11 Unpopular World Cup (6)
Well, please let me think about it first … Hearing Zoff’s question, Maldini didn’t answer at the first time, but chose to keep silent品茶. He needed to think about it when he needed it.
After all, it shows that Zoff attaches different importance to himself than others in the national team, which makes Maldini feel very happy that the influence of Florence gang has always threatened his words in the national team.
In return for Zoff’s letter, Maldini didn’t take the opportunity to take advantage of Juventus, the ally of AC Milan where he played, but chose to tell the truth. After all, if he talks nonsense or is selfish, it will be more than just Zoff to take the blame if Italy is eliminated …
From the performance of the team in these two group matches, I personally think that everyone has done quite well. The team configuration is quite perfect now. What is lacking is just the tacit understanding and tactical routines. It took a long time to sort out the thoughts. Paolo Maldini said, Our defense and forward line configurations are the best in the world. Naturally, we don’t need to make any more adjustments. Even if you agree that it will become a weak midfielder Francesco Totti, Demi (albertini) and Andrea (Pirlo) are capable enough for us to control the midfield situation, and although Demi and Andrea are not good at confronting their opponents headon in defense, they are good at covering the whole midfield, but their ability of coordination and prediction can make up for this. I think the fulltime defensive midfielder needs to choose one from tommasi and Dibiagio, and there is no need to let them play at the same time, because doing so will reduce our control over the game.
Different from history, with the rise of Florence and the dazzling record of winning various trophies, Italy’s reinforced concrete defensive base quick counterattack tactics have been greatly impacted. On the contrary, Florence’s game of strengthening the ballthrowing ability and accuracy of the players in the middle and back court to ensure the success rate of counterattack has been sought after by many teams. The most typical example is that the Italian national team, which has won the World Cup and the European Cup in the past four years, envied several players and coaches from other countries.
In Florence, the teams that have influenced Serie A have also made changes. They should either ponder over the tactics of restraining Viola or learn from Florence to strengthen the ability of the players in the middle and back court, instead of being cleared by the players in the back court after intercepting the opponent’s attack, and then waiting for the strikers to grab the ball in the front court and fight back.
After all, Italians are quite realistic in football. They will not give up the socalled victory, but will choose what is beneficial to them and absorb it into the existing tactical system, eventually forming a more advanced tactical play.
The most famous Italian chain defense style has been accumulated and precipitated after so many years since this tactic was initiated by herrera, a meritorious coach who created the great international era. The chain defense theory adopted by Italy now has changed a lot compared with that adopted by herrera at the beginning.
It is precisely for this reason that Paolo Maldini values the accuracy of the ball so much and is good at grasping the timing of the ball, instead of the midfielders like Didier Gio and tommasi. After all, there are two successful cases in Florence and Italy, and no one will be stupid enough to put a ball point in the midfield, except for Zoff, a rookie who has been away from the head coach for a long time. Many of his tactical ideas actually remain in the world decade …
Even if Zoff didn’t consult Maldini, I’m afraid someone would be responsible for ordering him aside, otherwise he might make a joke. After all, Zoff’s selfdestruction of martial arts in the opening game has become a talk for many fans after dinner and has made Italy look ashamed.
So what we’re going to do is to get the current array into shape as soon as possible? Heard maldini statement zoff rubbed a face of meditation asked.
That’s right, Maldini nodded firmly. He knew that at this time, he had to let the other side put out these thoughts, which could easily cause confusion to the team. We don’t need to change the starting lineup to make the players form a tacit understanding!
Actually, it’s a pity to hear Maldini say this in Zoff’s heart. An Italian coach prefers to make the No.9 and a half players like pierrot and Totti and the powerful center like vieri take the main firepower of the team instead of the purely opportunistic striker like Inzaghi.
It’s no wonder that, after all, in the era when Zoff played football, all the teams he played for had such a top No.9 and a half player, such as Bettega, paul rossi and Platini, so they naturally had more feelings for No.9 and a half, a position full of strange colors.
(Note: At that time, in Italy, the tactical environment, organizational ability and scoring ability were topnotch, and Platini really played on the 9th and a half. Because the Italian football foundation did not have the concept of front waist, the core players in the frontcourt organization generally had strong scoring ability, such as Rivera in the 1960s, Bettega in mazzola in the 1970s, Roberto Baggio in paul rossi in the 1990s and so on.)
In Zoff’s idea, he prefers to let vieri change his partner, for example, pierrot, the zebra king, who can shoot suddenly, can partner with Montera at worst. What the hell is it that Inzaghi, a striker who can’t even bring the ball except shooting, has to cooperate with him?
Now I see that Maldini also supports vieri and Inzaghi to start together. Zoff is so happy to let pierrot start. This heart obediently listens to his captain’s suggestion and prepares for the last group match honestly without thinking about the change.
Chapter 119 Unpopular World Cup (7)
Three days are fleeting, and it will soon come to June 13th, the match day between Italy and Mexico. The result of this game will directly determine who can laugh last and get a qualification to advance to the top 16 of the World Cup!
Before the match between Italy and Mexico, five teams had finished the match. Now, by the way, I would like to introduce the qualifying situation of these teams.
The first end was the first two battles, one draw and one loss in Group A, and only one point was accumulated品茶. In this match with Denmark, the French team did its best to make a final bid for a place in the top 16 of the World Cup. However, judging from the fact that lemerre arranged for Qi Da, who had not recovered from the injury, to make his debut in this game, the qualifying situation and team atmosphere of the French team were really bad at this time. Otherwise, lemerre would definitely not let the outofcondition lead to injury.
However, in the face of the sinister qualifying situation and the steady beating of the Danes, Zida was also eager to get three points. However, the French team was successfully attacked by opponents twice. After Romedahl and thomason scored goals, Denmark successfully advanced to the top 16 in the laudrup era, which also made the Gaul rooster, who was regarded as the favorite to win the championship before the World Cup, have to swallow the bitter fruit of not scoring a goal in three games in the group stage and getting a point.
The news that the French team went home at the end of the World Cup group stage shocked several fans. They didn’t expect that France, with many stars such as Henry, Trezeguet and Vieira, would behave so badly. Although this was due to the accidental injury of Zida, the team’s soul, even Segal, a new World Cup force, and Uruguay and Denmark, could not help it.