Hopes not high for world champions in South Africa

With less than a week to go before the big event kicks off the World Champions Italy seem less than confident of success. There is a lack of their usual confident swagger in the current squad. Their saving grace this summer is that they have been given a relatively kind draw.

Aging

This Italian squad head to South Africa with a squad full of players who have been described as past their best. A number of the players in the squad were part of the victorious 2006 World Cup side but the last four years haven’t been kind to them.

Veterans Gianluigi Buffon, Gianluca Zambrotta and Fabio Cannavaro have all been plagued by poor form and injury in the last few months and years. In Cannavaro’s case he’s moving to the slightly less challenging Qatari league when the big event is over.

Some of their midfield talent are approaching veteran stages as well. AC Milan schemer Andrea Pirlo looks set to miss the group stage of the World Cup through injury and at 33 Mauro Camoranesi isn’t exactly a spring chicken.

Experience is vital in international football but too many older players can make the team seem stale and slow. In the last few months the team have started to look their age. Even in the Confederations Cup last year the Italians struggled and Brazil ripped them apart.

Loyal

Italy boss Marcello Lippi has remained loyal to his 2006 World Cup winning squad. Italian fans believe he’s been too loyalty to some of the aging contingent. The squad hasn’t evolved much from the previous World Cup and every national team needs to evolve.

Inexperienced

Lippi has drafted in younger players into the squad but there are question marks over their experience because Lippi took so long to call them up. The likes of Leonardo Bonucci, Salvatore Bocchetti and Claudio Marchisio lack the experience for a big tournament. Fortunately for Italy they could prove to be just back-up players. However if called upon they could freeze on the big occasion.

Strikers

The biggest doubt Italian football fans have over their national side is in the striking department. The five forwards selected have hardly been impressive in the international arena. They are pinning their hopes on 32 year-old Udinese striker Antonio Di Natale.

The veteran attacker scored 29 goals last season for his club. For his country he has failed to hit the same heights. Hopes are high in Italy that this could be his time. It’s a similar story for Giampaolo Pazzini who inspired Sampdoria to a Champions League spot in Serie A last season.

He was rated a top prospect a few years ago but never quite lived up to that huge potential. Alberto Gilardino is the top scoring striker in the Italian squad and scored the goal that helped his country qualify for South Africa 2006.

Napoli striker Fabio Quagliarella failed to impress last season in Serie A after a move from Udinese. He was expected to be prolific but hasn’t lived up to his billing. The last striker in the Italy squad is Juventus striker Vincenzo Iaquinta. He hasn’t proved a complete success either but has been played out of position at times. He has recently criticised Lippi for playing players out of position and poor tactics.

Tournament

Although hopes aren’t high in their home country Italy are a true tournament team. In Germany 2006 they were written off and won the competition. I would never rule out the Italians because they are old hands at winning tournaments. However if they are to win this one I suspect they may need a huge slice of luck along the way.