WORLD CUP USA ’94 / THE FIRST ROUND : Little Comes of Italy’s Great Expectations : Group E: As slumber of the traditional power continues, fans and observers anticipate an early departure for the <i> Azurri</i> .
On a hot and anxiety-ridden afternoon, Arrigo Sacchi strode the sideline Tuesday in a lime green sweat suit, the only cool thing about him.
Sacchi yelled. He gestured, he hectored, he pleaded.
But the giant slept.
“We played harder because we had to. They are a better team,” striker Luis Garcia exulted as Mexico celebrated a tie with Italy that gave it an improbable victory in the World Cup’s so-called “group of death.”
When it was over, the blue-shirted players of what--on paper--is one of the best soccer teams in the world limped dispiritedly off the field.
“It was very tough game,” said Sacchi, who has coached Italy more in disappointment than in joy since 1991. “The team did all it could. It is a quality team and it showed it. We had more chances but couldn’t put it in. It was a fair result.”
Not until later would the Azurri or its coach know that Italy was a by-the-fingernails qualifier for the second round.
“This is becoming a Calvary,” muttered Antonio Matarrese, president of the Italian Soccer Federation. “We thought we had a team that would beat them. We could have won. Now, we hope there is somebody up there thinking of us.”
Matarrese was talking about Tuesday’s draw with Mexico, but equally about the first-round performance of a team that began the tournament as one of the favorites, then became a notorious underachiever.
“I found a team that was angry, but not fatalistic,” said commentator Bruno Pizzul, who visited the Italian locker room after the game. “It seems to be our destiny to suffer in this uphill Cup.”
It was a cool night in Rome Tuesday when the game ended, 1-1, and Italians greeted the result with thundering silence: block party canceled by a tying Mexican goal after 10 short-lived minutes of second-half euphoria.
“Italy has good players but they could give more,” former French soccer star Michel Platini said on Italian national television. “It is a good team, but not at the level of winning the World Cup.”
Yes, it was the death group and all four teams ended at 1-1-1. But its other teams, Ireland, Norway and Mexico, are not normally among the powerhouses of the soccer world. Italy is.
Yet Italy lost to Ireland and tied Mexico, wresting only a 1-0 victory over Norway, making its first Cup appearance since 1938.
In three first-round games, three-time Cup winner Italy, home of the world’s best professional soccer league, managed only two goals--one fewer than the United States.
“Italy had great superiority, but it didn’t show,” said Azeglio Vicini, who coached the ’90 team to a third-place Cup finish.
“The team didn’t work,” said Italo Cucei, editor of the newspaper Corriere dello Sport.
Four points in three games is not a result anybody in Italy would have believed a month ago. Third, behind Mexico and Ireland, barely ahead of Norway? Unthinkable. Italy, as usual, came to challenge for gold against Germany, Argentina and Brazil.
On the verge--before Tuesday’s thumping of Cameroon by Russia--of an early flight home with the likes of Greece, Bolivia and Morocco? Impossible.
And yet that is what has happened.
“We played three good teams,” Sacchi said. “Italy played well; held its own. Maybe we had some bad luck, but we deserve to pass into the next round.”
Yet the silence that hung over Italian cities Tuesday night said otherwise. Italy believes that it has been shortchanged.
Casting about for blame, Italian commentators lamented defensive lapses, like the one that allowed Mexico’s comeback goal, a lack of scoring punch--and a coach who cannot awaken his team.
Striker Roberto Baggio, ballyhooed as one of the tournament’s best, has failed to score--and failed to impress. The winning goal against Norway was scored when he was off the field and Italy was playing a man short.
“Baggio is physically tired and mentally tired,” observed Marco Tardelli, who scored in the ’82 final.
Baggio has been troubled with an aching Achilles’ tendon. As he left the stadium Tuesday, he walked gingerly, wearing his shoes as if they were slippers.
It will take a miracle now to save Sacchi’s job. He won with AC Milan, and based the current national team on players he coached there after having tried more than 70.
Sacchi is both a rebel and a pioneer, believing that defensemen should push up and midfielders hunt in packs as catalysts of a fast, aggressive game that has so far failed to materialize.
“We had hoped to win today, but we are not disillusioned,” Sacchi said. “Perhaps there was a little confusion. Perhaps we should have moved around more without the ball.”
Perhaps. And perhaps Sacchi’s plans will not bear fruit in USA ’94. Some of the world’s savviest soccer writers were calling their families back in Italy Tuesday night, saying they expect to be home next week.
