The Football Tragic

Although the 1978 World Cup ended in disappointment for Enzo Bearzot and his Italian team, performances at the event had been encouraging enough for Bearzot to keep faith with most of the players who had come so close to a place in the final. However, at the 1980 Nations Cup, which they hosted, Italy failed to impress. The unwelcome distraction of the Totonero scandal, which broke in the months leading up to the event, not only demoralised the Italian game as a whole but robbed the national side of perhaps its most important figure by that stage, Paolo Rossi. 

Rossi's partnership with Roberto Bettega in Argentina had been one of the great successes of the tournament from an Italian perspective. At the subsequent Euros, without Rossi's speed and enterprise, the attack was much diminished: Bettega was paired instead with the tall Francesco Graziani, a striker in the mould of Luigi Riva: powerful, hard-working and excellent in the air, but hardly nimble. The result, as in Mexico in 1970, was a lone goal in Italy's three opening games. And this time, due to the structure of the event, it was not enough to "keep them alive" in the tournament. Ultimately, as in 1978, they finished fourth.

That single goal was scored by Marco Tardelli in a match against a blunt, unimaginative England side far too reliant on Kevin Keegan. It was a tedious game, but it did at least show that Italy had maintained their defensive virtues, whatever their defects in attack. The man-to-man marking was as fierce and effective as ever; Tardelli nullified Keegan, while the aggressive Claudio Gentile did his usual job on the agile Tony Woodcock, and the recent European Cup winner Gary Birtles was completely played out of the game by an important newcomer to the team, the AC Milan stopper Fulvio Collovati.

At the 1982 World Cup in Spain, it was Bettega who was absent, with a knee ligament injury. Rossi, his Totonero ban conveniently reduced, had returned to the game and to the national side but was out of practice, and in the opening few games, it showed. Italy began with a dull 0-0 draw against Poland; Rossi, according to one journalist present, was "a shadow of the exciting player who delighted crowds in Argentina". 

Italy's next match was against unfancied Peru, and although it is generally forgotten these days, I believe that the lessons drawn from it played a crucial role in Italy's eventual, and widely unexpected, triumph.

Peru's side, with the evergreen Teofilo Cubillas still patrolling the midfield, had barely changed their overall strategy since 1970: short one-twos through the centre, minimal use of the wings, and shots generally coming from either just within the box or just outside it. They were not expected to mount much of a challenge in Spain, with most of their starting side the wrong side of 30 (fittingly, they also had the oldest coach at the event in the Brazilian Tim, a veteran of the 1938 (!) World Cup).

To be sure, Italy dominated the early stages of the game and went ahead with a fine goal from the winger Bruno Conti. Keeping a hand on the tiller for the rest of the half, but hardly exerting themselves, they went in at half-time looking almost certain winners.

But the cult of 1-0 still lived. And Bearzot, as in Buenos Aires against the Dutch, fell victim to it. He took Rossi off at the interval.

In retrospect, it seems extraordinary that Paolo Rossi was voluntarily withdrawn at half-time in a game from the 1982 World Cup. But Bearzot could have justified the decision based on Rossi's performance in the first half: again, he had looked uneasy and ineffective. Perhaps the most significant factor, however, was that Rossi was not replaced by another attacker. Instead, somewhat ironically, it was Franco Causio who took his place.

But this was not the Causio of 1978. A veteran by now, the Baron was no longer able to link up with the forwards as often as in the past, and the result was that Graziani was hopelessly isolated in the second period - shades of Riva in 1970. A further predictable result was that Italy now fell back into their crouch, relying on ferocious man-marking and giving Peru the run of the midfield. 

Unfortunately for the Azzurri, this proved to be a risky strategy, especially with the still dangerous Cubillas facing them. Straight after the restart, the veteran nearly scored with an extraordinary outside-of-the-foot free kick, and the momentum was with Peru from that moment. This time, the referee was less than indulgent with Italy's close marking, and plenty of free kicks for the Peruvians ensued; they might have had a penalty, too, when Gentile upended another veteran, Juan Oblitas, in the box.

The chances began to come. Dino Zoff saved superbly from Ruben Diaz's free kick, after which the substitute Guillermo La Rosa connected with a corner to shoot just over the bar. Soon afterwards, he missed a sitter from six yards. "This second half is neverending," was the comment from the dean of Italian football commentators, Nando Martellini.

Finally, seven minutes from the end, an equaliser for Peru: another free kick was touched off to Diaz, and his shot deflected off Collovati and skidded past Zoff. It was far too late for Italy to reverse the momentum, and the game ended 1-1.

Significantly, it was the last time at the event that Bearzot would go back on the defensive after going 1-0 ahead. 

Italy scraped into the second round after a draw against Cameroon; progressing "without glory", as Martellini stressed. But in the games that followed, Italy went ahead against Argentina, Brazil, Poland and West Germany. In each case, the personnel remained the same, and the attitude remained the same. The lesson had finally sunk in.

And in the final, another significant moment: the Rossi-Graziani partnership, which had blossomed as the tournament had progressed, was broken when the hard-working Graziani succumbed to an injury early in the final. It must have been tempting for Bearzot to reinforce the midfield and leave Rossi on his own up front to hunt for scraps, as had been the Italian custom so often in the past.

Not this time. Graziani was replaced by another striker in Alessandro Altobelli: the Azzurri would not go into their erstwhile crouch because of such a setback. Especially when the Germans possessed a number of players capable of posing a threat with...shots from distance.

Fittingly, Rossi and Altobelli both scored in the final, either side of Marco Tardelli's legendary goal, during which the defenders Gaetano Scirea and Antonio Cabrini played key roles in the build-up, deep inside the opposition half. No defensive crouch.

In a last, exquisite irony, Bearzot did withdraw a striker for a midfielder as the game was drawing to a close. But this was no panicky defensive move, this was a sentimental moment in which Bearzot felt he owed some game time to a player who had been there throughout Italy's zigzagging path to World Cup nirvana.

That player was Franco Causio.

# posted by Mike Salter @ 9:27 PM