June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
April 2009
May 2009
June 2009
July 2009
August 2009
September 2009
October 2009
November 2009
December 2009
January 2010
February 2010
March 2010
April 2010
May 2010
June 2010
July 2010

Forgive me for the amateur illustration. This... is the Italian way of play. And to reiterate, it's not their way of defending. Imagine that! This was what Italy deployed against the Spanish creative forces this morning, and fortunately for Euro 2008 as a tournament and advert for football as the beautiful game, they were knocked out, albeit on superior penalty taking skills of the Spanish.

They play two banks of four, much like Everton when they played for a goalless draw at Anfield a couple seasons ago, with a basic and everyday backline of four defenders. However they had not started Marco Materazzi and continued with full-backs Cristian Panucci and Giorgios Chiellini in their heart of their defence, but to be fair they are decent centre backs. How Italy are dreaming of the days of Fabio Cannavaro, Alessandro Nesta and Paolo Maldini? Anyway, back to this morning, they had Gianluca Zambrotta and Fabio Grosso as their full-backs. This all looks okay, until... They played FOUR, yes 4, central midfielders as their four middlemen. And yes, they used a flat 4-4-2, meaning two of the central midfielders, namely Massimo Ambrosini, played on one side. All this to stifle Spain's creative duo of Xavi and Andrea Iniesta, and deadly trio of Fernando Torres, David Villa and David Silva.

Even when Torres, Villa and Silva got isolated with the full-backs, they managed to draw some pretty clear-cut fouls from them, showing how bad the situation could be had Italy played more positively, leaving a little more space behind. Penalty should have been awarded to David Villa for the clip by one of the Italian midfielders.

Fortunately, Villa managed to convert his spot kick, and substitutes and youngsters Santi Cazorla and Cesc Fabregas really had the balls to take theirs and kudos to them for converting theirs. Dani Guiza missed his, but it didn't matter as Italians Daniel De Rossi and Antonio Di Natale missed theirs.

I was wondering, you know, when you've just lost a shootout, and if you missed yours, which is the crucial one, and you see your team-mates coming to console you, it really means two things, really, is that they know it's your fault that they are out, and the other is that they really feel bad you are sad. Aww...

Darn I can't watch the Spain-Russia rematch/semis... Frickin' Chinese 'O' Level Orals... Argh!!!

Bye~!

Lenny
Joseph
Hua Peng
Sei Yee
Kelvin Kartoyo
Melvin
Seng Yew
Samuel C
Celeste
Mark

Liverpool FC
iMedia
09S23!