As the build-up to the World Cup continues, my latest item at Goal Post defends Italy and the Italian way of playing football. Some of this, I confess, is based on sentiment. If Scotland cannot prevail – and it seems that some techinicality has made that more than usually impossible this year – then Italy are the european team I tend to support. Perhaps it’s because I spent the first year of my life in Rome that this is the case. No memories of that time, of course, but some bond of sentiment nonetheless.
Anyway, there’s a magnificent austerity to Italian football sometimes and, while one might not want to feat upon it every day, it’s good to have it there nonetheless:
There is, as I say, a minimalist purity to the essence of Italian football. Score once and don’t let the opposition score at all.
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