Monday, June 9, 2008

now that it's here

* pulls on ITALIANS DO IT ON THE COUNTER tee-shirt over habit, sits down, waits to be disappointed by Toto di Natale *

Half time. Poor Toto. It is not his fault. Nothing is his fault. He runs and runs and runs. As Yves Saint-Laurent once said of Tom Ford, "he does what he can."

I am having visions of Marco van Basten hoisting the championship trophy. He will be forced to crack a smile once again. How will he deal?

Oh, and: Dirk Kuyt. Really?

Full-time: * pulls tee-shirt off, crosses ITALIANS off, writes in DUTCH in orange felt-tip *

11 comments:

voellig said...

Good luck?

Anonymous said...

Aishwarya is gleeful about the 2-0 scoreline and reminded me of this blog so I came scurrying over to try and find some comfort in your Italy-loving arms.

I predict that the Dutch and the Romanians will qualify from Group C. *doom and gloom*

roswitha said...

Oh my goodness. That was a work of art. Take that, anyone who thought the only sort of bad football Italy played was catenaccio-driven. World. Of. Bad. Antonio Cabrini, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

Anonymous said...

I never liked the Azzuri's. Agreed, they "had' good players like baggio and sorts and still do have some good ones. For me they played unattractive football, always kept possesion and threaded a long ball to one of their mercurial forwards (inzaghi!) to slot it in. Their style never enamoured me. This time around, they have a very aging team and looked completely out of sorts yesterday. On the contrary, Dutch have lot of fire power in huntelaaaaar,Van Persie and that goat face-Nisterloooyi! And some good creators in Sneijder. Their precise counter attacks helped them in scoring those goals against an aging italian side. My best is still for spain managed by bull crotch - white shite -Aragones; who might not select fabulous Fab. But still they can go all the way to glory, i suppose.

Aishwarya said...

Kav wrongs me. While I could not hide my joy at the Dutch winning stuff, I did try to be tactful. :P

Rahul Batra said...

what a pity. Donadoni - freaking idiot! who the hell whould play ambrosini over de rossi and materazzi over grosso with zam out of position. and then the 4-3-3 formation. since when did ITALY start playing BRAZIL-ian??!! 4-4-2 with zam on rite, grosso on left...de rossi in center...cassano on left midfield and alex behind toni.
Italy sucked. Oranje dazzled. We'll win the next two and then talk in the quarter-finals. Cannavaro...sigh.

ursus arctos said...

Woo hoo.

It will all end in Oranje tears, though, Roswitha. It always does.

roswitha said...

@ Kav: Oh, my dear. I can't even begin to express my horreur and shoque etc. Hold my hand.

@ clash: Thank you. Good to know. Good luck for the rest of the tournament - quite enviable to have a team that can afford to bench Fabregas, of course. We'll all be watching them eagerly.

@ Aisha: Yes, your tactfulness sticks out a mile. *g*

@ rahul: Where to begin. The humiliation of looking at the team at half-hour and actually *wanting* Cassano to be on field. Oh, holy mother. I think the 4-4-3 would have worked with Cassano starting with Camo [I'd love to see Aquilani get a turn further up field, too, but between his glass ribs and general inexperience I think a bit of conservatism on his score would not go amiss. I would love to be wrong, of course]. It was almost touching to see Toni try and be something other than the big target man he is last night. They all ran their socks off. They were like a mediocre English team in a Champions' League semi final.

I refuse to admit Zambrotta had a bad night. The man is incapable of playing bad football at either full-back position [or indeed, at any position]. It was the fault of Matrix & Barzagli. Failing that excuse, it just was NOT Zambrotta. The real Zambrotta is sipping mai tais on a beach in Miami. [I have said this a lot of times about Pirlo at Milan over the last half of the season as well -- but the man did his best last night, and it just was not enough.]

In conclusion, the one thread of hope I am allowing myself to cling to: FREE DANIELE. Please, Donadoni, please.

@ ursus: I can't but be sincere in my congratulations, they were wonderful last night. I'm tempted to say what Alex Ferguson did to Carlo Ancelotti when Milan defeated United at the San Siro last year: "You have to win it now." However, I know better. Would love to see them get out of the group.

roswitha said...

Uh, 4-3-3, I mean, Rahul.

Anonymous said...

After the just-gone-by match, I'm finding it very hard to decide which of the wonderfully-talented-yet-bound-to-choke teams to support. I believe my thoughts on Spain's brilliant performance are summed up by this post from the Guardian:

29 min: Spain are playing beautifully at the moment, which makes their inevitable decline in a week or so's time even more tragic. The signs are there too, their defenders seem determined not to defend.

One hopes that this won't be true but expecting the Spaniards to keep it together for the course of an entire tournament seems like an exercise in masochism.

A. said...

Er...Spain is always playing attractive football.