The Boot’s Boot

Group F Recap

The champs have been eliminated.  Italy finished at the bottom of their group.  This will be the first World Cup in which neither of the last tournament’s finalists will make it out of group play.  In fact, both Italy and France finished dead last in their groups.

Italy, had a lot of factors that can be pinpointed as the reason they will be returning home.

• Age.  Italy is the fourth oldest team in the tournament.  They were definitely playing like it.  The question is, “Is age bad?”  If you look at the last World Cup, the two oldest teams, France and Italy, were playing in the finals.  Italy, the oldest team in the tournament, won it all.  It seems that in Germany, their age provided experience and composure.  This year, in South Africa, the team played with careless decisions and not marking on defense.  A ranking of all 32 team’s average age can be found here: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/403524-2010-world-cup-rosters-ranked-by-age#page/1
• Gianluigi Buffon.  Arguably the world’s best goalkeeper, Buffon only played in one half of one game during this year’s group stages.  After having a problem with his sciatic nerve in the first half of the matchup against Paraguay, he did not play the rest of the tournament.  Italy ended up letting in the most goals in the group (tied with Paraguay at five).
• Opportunities.  It seemed that one of the biggest points that Italian supporters will notice is Italy’s inability to capitalize on opportunities.  Italy led the group with total shot with 49 – compared to Paraguay’s 36, Slovakia’s 29, and New Zealand’s 15.  They peppered New Zealand in their second game with 23 shots alone, only scoring on a penalty kick.

Italy must be kicking themselves after being kicked out of the World Cup during group stages

Paraguay ended up winning the group.  They didn’t lose a game.  They let up only one goal, shutting out two opponents.  They will be making their third trip to the round of 16 out of the past four tournaments. 

Joining them in the knockout round will be Slovakia.  The Fighting Jondas will be joining Korea Republic as the only team thus far to advance to the round of 16 will a negative goals against average.  This is the first World Cup for Slovakia, since they became recognized by FIFA as an independent nation in 1993.