The inquest is by now underway, the nation of 60 million
coaches trying to comprehend and explain what went wrong, but the fact is that
Italy have been eliminated for the second consecutive time from the group stage
at the World Cup. And just like in 2010, no one can deny it wasn’t
merited.
As expected Cesare Prandelli was severely criticized in the
wake of the defeat to Uruguay, even more so than the defeat to Costa Rica five
days prior. Ever the classy man, he resigned as boss of the Azzurri a short time
after, citing ‘’ this was
my technical project, and not a winning one’’, he said, dignified to the end. How
can this have happened? And can we really put all of the blame on Prandelli?
Prandelli
unquestionably deserves criticism for his selection choices in the remaining
two group stage games, playing a 4-1-4-1 system against Costa Rica was his
first major error of the tournament, yes it made sense to stick with the same
tactics and same players that beat England in the opening game, but Costa Rica
were never going to open themselves up and play into Italy’s hands like England
in Manuas.
