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Group F: Italy 1, New Zealand 1

Italy: Iaquinta (penalty) 29

New Zealand: Smeltz 7

Line-ups:

Italy: (4-4-2)

Federico Marchett;

Domenico Criscito, Giorgio Chiellini, Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluca Zambrotta,

Daniele de Rossi, Claudio Marchisio (Giampaolo Pazzini, 61), Riccardo Montolivo, Simone Pepe (Mauro German Camoranesi, 46),

Vincenzo Iaquinta, Alberto Gilardino (Antonio Di Natale, 46).

New Zealand: (4-5-1)

Mark Paston;

Tony Lochhead, Winston Reid, Ivan Vicelich (Jeremy Christie, 81), Ryan Nelsen, Tommy Smith, Simon Elliott, Leo Bertos, Shane Smeltz, Chris Killen (Andy Barron, 90), Rory Fallon (Chris Wood, 63).

Referee: Carlos Batres (Guatemala).

Venue: Mbombela Stadium, Nelspruit.

I cannot remember any world champions being completely and utterly written off as much as Italy, but even the Azzurri’s most pessimistic supporters expected them to cruise past the Kiwis. If you told even a casual football fan that New Zealand – a team built around unknowns – would hold the defending champions to a draw, he would be laughing at you. No one is kidding here, though: Italy rescued a point against New Zealand in what should go down in the history as one of the most sensational and shocking results in World Cup history

We all knew this Italy team was generally slow, short of creativity and flair in midfield, and, stunningly, fragile in defence, which is so un-Italy-like. Very few of us, however, expected these weaknesses to be exposed against New Zealand, especially as early as the 7th minute. Just like the previous game against Paraguay, Italy conceded from a long free-kick when Captain Fabio Cannavaro, a far cry from the insurmountable defender who inspired Italy to the World Cup title in 2006, couldn’t clear a long Simon Elliott free-kick, allowing Shane Smeltz to poke the ball into the net. The goal had a hint of off-side about it, but Italy can blame none but themselves.

Italy tried to recover from this early shock, but you never had the feeling that they were entirely comfortable, despite dominating possession.  Their only chance before the equaliser was when midfielder Riccardo Montolivo hit the post with a ferocious long range shot. Big teams usually have the luxury of a 50-50 decision going in their favour and this is exactly what happened when Batres awarded Italy a soft penalty after De Rossi had tumbled under a challenge from Tommy Smith. Striker Iaquinta calmly converted the spot-kick.

Italy were expected to steamroll their dodged but unheralded opponents after the tying goal, but they didn’t. They continued to dominate possession but were never capable of breaking down the stout New Zealand defence. Lippi was criticised for not calling up skillful and mercurial midfielders Antonio Cassano, Francesco Totti or Alessandro del Piero, and this criticism seemed to be justified as Italy were desperately lacking creativity and inspiration. Lippi introduced Di Natale and Camoranesi at the start of the second half hoping that these two could provide Italy with some much-needed pace and width, but both were extremely disappointing. Again, it was Montolivo, Italy’s best player in this World Cup so far, who came close to scoring with a powerful 20-yard shot.

For all Italy’s possession and dominance, the Kiwis created one of the most dangerous goal scoring opportunities through teenage substitute Chris Wood. They fought valiantly to earn an historic draw thanks to so some last-ditch interceptions from the rock solid Ryan Nelsen. As coach Ricki Herbert said after the match, “We are still alive and of course we can dare to dream.” Meanwhile, Italy will have to face the fury and the rage of the Italian press for the time being, not exactly the stuff of dreams.

Budour Hassan
DFN Sports Staff Writer