Tonight’s big semi-final between the hosts Germany and fellow 3-time winners, Italy, should be a very close game. Italy are without doubt the better side with a glittering array of attacking talent, good midfielders, and in Cannavaro, the tournaments best defender. However, few would argue that the momentum is not with the Germans, who knocked out the promising Argentineans in the quarterfinal. It’s all shaping up to be a tight, and tense affair, but I can’t help but think it’ll be more explosive than history would suggest.
Italy will probably play Gilardino, Totti, and Toni up front, but this trident-attack has failed to really gel and deliver on its immense promise. Toni, who was in astonishing form in this season’s Scudetto, only got his first goals against Ukraine in the last round, and Totti has only hinted at what he is more than capable of doing. It’s not a ‘great’ Italian side, but in Andrea Pirlo, they have a playmaker who could prize open the Germans.
News breaking today that the prosecutor in the Serie A match fixing scandal, has demanded that Milan, Lazio, and Fiorentina be relegated to Serie B, and that la Vecchia Signora - Juventus, be sent to the footballing oubliette that is Serie C, is an interesting sub-plot to tonight’s clash. Quite where this will leave the thirteen Italian players at the World Cup who play for the sullied quartet is unclear (not to mention non-Italians such as Kaka and Patrick Viera). Surely this development will have some impact on the team’s preparations, as this story has utterly engulfed the Italian media over the past few weeks and it’s hard to imagine the players are adequately incubated.
Germany will hope that the form that has carried the team this far will continue. They have excellent players in Klose, Lahm, and Podolski, and in new Chelsea signing Michael Ballack, they have one of the game’s few great players. Germany will be well prepared, full of energy, and determined to get a place in the final, a place that increasingly appears to be in the script.
Prediction: Germany 3 – Italy 2
although let’s be honest, it’s likely to be Germany on penalties…
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In the end penalty count gave, in my opinion undeservedly, the win to Italy. I don’t like the Italian soccer, too foul, too many faults, too much opportunism.
German did a serious game, fate this time leant towards the Italian side, unluckily.