The World Cup embarrassment in Palermo
The heartbreaking fall of Italy
By Tobias Nordman
03/25/2022, 09:46 am
In 2006, Italy won the soccer World Cup. Indeed, it is the Azzurri’s last knockout round match at the Intercontinental Championship – and it remains so. The European champion gambled away his ticket for the World Cup in Qatar against North Macedonia.
North Macedonia. NORTH MACEDONIA. NORTH MACEDONIA! The country that takes pride in taking down football’s legends has struck again. This Thursday evening. In the 92nd minute. In Palermo. A shot from 20 meters breaks Italy’s heart. Aleksandar Trajkovski, who, to make matters worse, was once at Palermo, scored the goal that kept his country in the play-offs for a World Cup ticket to Qatar and sent Italy into another deep football depression. 256 days after the sensational European Championship triumph in London, the Azzurri hit hard after months of weakness. For the second time in a row, a World Cup will take place without Italy. A football apocalypse.
And probably no team in the world celebrates its sporting downfall as heartrending as the team of national coach Roberto Mancini. With every attack, with every shot in this completely one-sided game, the Italians became more and more desperate. They rushed at the guests like crazy, tried 32 times to shoot at goal (North Macedonia tried four times), 16 (to zero) corners sailed into the penalty area. The yield: zero. “Incredibile” (incredible), found the “Corriere dello Sport” and raged: “The national team not at the World Cup, Italian football is at its lowest level ever.”
“Incredibile”, a word that expresses the feeling of a whole nation. The dream of Qatar (if participating in the World Cup in Qatar can be a dream) burst. Against a dwarf! At least that’s how North Macedonia must feel. For Italy, for this football nation, which in the collective perception either can hardly walk with pride or suffers uncontrollably. The “Gazzetta dello Sport” wailed: “Farewell World Cup, farewell EM, farewell everything.”
“Just like the EM was the best experience of my life, this was the biggest disappointment,” Mancini stuttered. “We can’t say anything, that’s football. Sometimes incredible things happen and it happened.” Perhaps a small consolation: Germany, the eternal European rival, was once badly caught by North Macedonia. On the home stretch of his national coaching career, Joachim Löw suffered an embarrassing 2-1 disgrace with the DFB team in Duisburg at the end of March. The difference (I): the debacle had no sporting consequences. The qualification for Qatar went without detours (but only under Löw’s successor Hansi Flick). The difference (II): Germany played really badly back then, Italy not.
No goals, no dreams
But the bitter truth in football is: no goals, no dreams. How dramatic the attempts of the Italians were, who conceded their first defeat (!) in their 60th home game of a World Cup qualifier that evening, can be condensed into one scene. When North Macedonia goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski put the ball straight into Domenico Berardi’s feet after 30 minutes, all the striker had to do was shove the ball into an empty goal, but his shot was so pathetic that Dimitrievski rushed back in the box and prevented the deficit can. “Incredible”. Again and again. At least. “We’re disappointed, broken, devastated,” said veteran Giorgio Chiellini, who seemed strangely indecisive when Trajkovski shot the historic shot.
Where have they been in the past few months, these Italians who played so amazingly, impressively, sometimes magically at the European Championships last year? Who had renounced the catenaccio, the national shrine, turned away from high and pure defensive art and played spectacular football. Fast, creative, mostly straightforward and extremely efficient. Well, Mancini in particular has to answer this question, whose future as national coach seems anything but certain. Such an embarrassing outburst usually calls for serious consequences. Mancini did not want to talk about a possible departure shortly after the game. “We’ll see – the disappointment is too big to talk about the future. It’s hard to think about things like that. It won’t be easy in the next few days.”
Mancini still has a contract until 2026. The head of the association, Gabriele Gravina, spoke out in favor of continuing the cooperation on the night of the disgrace: “I wish that he would stay with us. We have committed ourselves to a project.” Captain Chiellini also said: “We have to stand up now and I hope Mancini stays.” As for his own future, he left it unclear.
Mancini, the battered hero
Mancini, of all people, who had been the central figure of the miraculous resurrection. After a mega experiment with over 70 players, he had formed a collective of defensive giants around the indestructible legends Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini, clever strategists and fast, tricky offensive forces from the land of suffering. And what an inspiring and rousing spirit this team carried! Always close to the edge of emotional escalation. With the anthem, with the slide tackle, with dribbling, with the goal.
And in the final against England, the coach’s “universal idea” turned things around for the better. It was only when Lorenzo Insigne, the 163 centimeter short, fast and unpredictable dribbler, had been sent by Mancini to the center of the attack to shake up the defensive giants Harry Maguire and John Stones, did the Italians step onto the path to the miracle. You have to come up with such a funnel first. The Azzurri were dangerous, England cowed, strangled and sent into ultimate drama on penalties at Wembley.
The European champion can now claim the highest form of suffering 256 days later. EM hero Jorginho, who missed a penalty in each of the two draws against Switzerland in the group stage and thus helped to get into the playoffs, now confessed: “It hurts when I think about it. It will be with me for the rest of my life. Competing twice and not being able to help your team and your country is something I will carry with me forever.” While Italy, who actually played their last knockout game at a World Cup when they defeated France in Germany in the 2006 final, stagger through the emptiness of suffering, North Macedonia head on to Portugal. There the outsider fights against Cristiano Ronaldo and Co. for the World Cup ticket on Tuesday. Ready to take down football’s next legend.