Quote:
Originally Posted by Itse
Bleh 
Roy Hodgson football. I was totally fed up with it when he coached Finland, and I can't wait for England to get trounced in these games just so I'll never have to watch him coach another country again. It's the antithesis of entertainment.
And "hard nosed football", hah. Decade after decade of teams lacking in skill, which is why they're the biggest underachiever of the major footbal countries. They're so far from how the game "should be played" it's not even funny.
I also think many will be pleasantly surprised by Italy. They've come a long way from their anti-football of the nineties. |
Underachievement the last 20 years must befall management (which you also identified). Agreed, that they haven't played the most beautiful football-- yet they had the CM assets with Scholes/Lampard/Gerrard/Beckham in their prime-- their club managers utilized them as they should, yet the Swede & Italian managers couldn't make it work-- Too bad they declined the Portugese one.
Compound with the worlds media focusing on the nation with the most popular domestic league, and one of the most prosperous -- and it gives the others that much more ammo for a David vs Goliath tale.