The Finals (Italy's Side)

The Italians bent, but they never broke.

Thoroughly exhausted for the latter stages of the second half and throughout the overtime sessions, the Italians did well to keep their shape and weather the French attack. Fabio Cannavaro (who is to my mind the obvious pick as the tournament's best player) kept the Italian defense in position all game. Cannavaro has no equal when it comes to reading the play, anticipating where the ball will be played and winning the ball. He stood his ground in one-on-one situations all night and made acrobatic clearances to keep the score level when the Italians couldn't muster any sort of attack. And despite being 5'9" he won head balls over taller opponents because his timing is impeccable. You really can't say enough about his performance, both in the final and throughout the tournament.

Now to the Italian attack, such as it was. I wrote after their semifinal against Germany that the Italians had paced themselves brilliantly for a 120 minute game. Today, the Italians paced themselves in a more cautious way as, apparently, their extra day of rest wasn't enough to counteract the fatigue caused by playing into overtime against Germany. With little in the tank, the Italians didn't send numbers forward for the majority of the second half, with Grosso and Camoranesi assuming more defensive roles on the wings. The Italians paced themselves to a greater degree than they did in the semis, never revving their engine back up to the high gear it reached in the second overtime against Germany.


The strategy was overly-defensive, yes, but it was also the right move. Consider that the other team's goalie was Fabien Barthez. With his shaky performance this month, it is hard to argue that the Italians had the advantage in a shootout. Also consider that the Italians were dead, I repeat, dead tired. (After halftime, I found myself yelling at Pirlo to play the ball simply and find feet but, upon closer inspection, there were no feet to find. No one had the energy to move off the ball.)

It's dangerous to play for a shootout, but in this case it was the right and, perhaps, the only, move for the Italians. Plus, with Cannavaro and Buffon back there (his save on Zidane's header was top-notch), the Italians could survive without giving much thought to creating an attack. It wasn't pretty, but it was certainly effective. Congrats to a team that had the horses and rode them intelligently.