Football News - Korea 2 Italy 1

The azure blue water evaporated in the red hot bowl at Daejon on 18th June 2002 as Italy were exposed for the weak-kneed, lily-livered bunch that they are.

'Guus Hiddink for President' said a huge banner; and the Dutch genius would surely beat any South Korean politician in a race to the highest office in the land were he eligible to stand. However, this is not only a story of intelligent planning and leadership (though this constitutes a large part of Korea's victory) but also an indication of the weakness running through Italian football, which is at an historical low point.

What happened? Well Italy didn't look convincing in their earlier matches with the exception of their win over Ecuador, who didn't really produce. Why are they unconvincing? Well, Buffon is ok in goal, though some would prefer Toldo; but in front of him things don't look so good. Panucci is a whinger (you read it right): 'the Inzaghi of the defence' and not that good. Here are some more who are of either pedestrian ability and/or overrated: Vieri, another moaner who usually berates his own fans for not cheering loudly enough and has never been known to pass the ball to another human, alive or dead; Totti - what is all the fuss about this guy? - if he's not elbowing someone in the face, he's either diving in the penalty area or giving his teammates passes the direction of which a child of two could predict; he didn't play today, but Inzaghi is 'the Panucci of the attack' and looks incredibly hurt when he scores and just as bad when he doesn't; Coco the clown; ZZZZZZZZambrotta and ZZZZZZZZanetti are soporific; and Di Livio must be about 100 years old.

Who was ok? Tommasi put in effort, as did Gattuso. But these are not midfielders you would mention in the same breath as Rivera, Mazzola or.. Roberto Baggio. The exclusion of Baggio as well as that of Serie A leading goalscorer Hübner is now revealed to be the huge blunder it always was. With no-one to spring a surprise on an opposing defence, the Italians lacked the confidence to search for more goals after Vieri powered his way through a South Korean defender to take the lead. They were sure they'd win the match one-nil against the oriental upstarts. Wrong.

As for the oriental upstarts themselves, Hiddink has produced a team not of stars, such as the Italians are supposed to be, but a unit which has self-belief. And not only have they knocked out one of football's superpowers, they have also superseded arch-rivals Japan, who were themselves eliminated from the World Cup earlier in the day by Turkey. Would could have predicted all this? Well, we're currently beating the bookies..

by Peter Rodd ©Soccerphile Ltd

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