The Flippant Focus turns to Group F

On the face of it World Champions Italy had a group as easy as Englands for the first stage of the 2010 World Cup. It turned out to be a fairly fickle face as the Azzuri tried to rely on the same team that had taken them to glory in Germany just four years earlier. It’s fair to say they got slapped.

It looked like Paraguay and Slovakia would be fighting out for second place as average teams lacking in stars but with sets of solid qualification results. New Zealand would undoubtedly be the whipping boys of the group and possibly the whole damn show given their lack of World Cup experience, lack of recognisable names and lack of sturdy opposition in qualifying. Then again, perhaps the lack of pressure from a rugby mad public would give the All Whites the freedom they need to play expansive, sexy football and crumble the stubborn defences before them to dust.

Started pretty slowly, like most of the first round of games no one imposed themselves out of fear that defeat would make a journey into the second round trickier. Perhaps someone should have pointed out that a win would have made the potential for progress easier. Both games were 1-1, although both had noteworthy moments. Italy celebrated their equaliser against Paraguay like they’d won the bloody trophy while New Zealand provided a healthy dose of drama by scoring in the 93^rd minute. In the negative column Buffon disappeared with a mysterious injury at half time and from then on the Italian experience would only go downhill.

Within seven minutes of the second game they were a goal down against New Zealand. Sure they offered a bit of pressure but not much end result, bar a dodgy penalty which gave them a point and they almost lost that after a last gasp effort from Chris Wood swished slightly wide. The Kiwis had certainly come to play. Unfortunately the Slovakians hadn’t so the South Americans continued their continents run of good form by cantering to a 2-0 win. Given the amount of chances they had it was only selfishness that didn’t increase the margin. As it stood going into the final round any of the four could go through and any of the four could still go out.

And despite two efficient displays people were still writing New Zealand off, writing that the Paraguayans would easily pick up the required three points to top the group. It actually turned out to be an unspectacular 0-0 so the final points of interest were that the All Whites wore their rugger colleagues all black kit and that just one sneaky goal would have seen them through. Fortunately the other game was a bit feistier, although Italy still took plenty of time to get the motor running. The Slovakians had decided to give it a go from the outset which obviously confused Lippi’s side a little. The game went end to end towards the end with the Eastern Europeans 2-0 up and heading through. Di Natale pulled one back on 81’ before some embarrassing defending from 2006’s best defence restored the two goal lead on 89' before Quagliarella halved the deficit with a delicate strike on 92'. Cracking stuff.

But it wasn’t to be for the previously mighty Italians, bottom of an easy group there would be tears before bedtime and no mistaking. A lot of people said it tainted the memory of their victory in Germany and even sought to question their credentials in winning that tournament. Although the teams were largely the same and Lippi had returned as manager I felt they were two very distinct efforts. Whatever went down between Materazzi and Zidane in Berlin the Azzuri were the best team back then by combining organisation and creativity. This time around they certainly missed Buffon and Pirlo who embodied those qualities respectively. But they were too old and came up against some surprisingly solid teams.

Kudos to Paraguay for showing the tiny bit of invention necessary too finish top and Slovakia for finding some fight in the final game. Much respect to New Zealand for ending up unbeaten. Special mention also to Howard Webb for keeping control of a tense finale to Italy v Solvakia, no doubt there’ll be more mention of that man later on.