Australia 3 – 1 Japan
USA 0 – 3 Czech Republic
Italy 2 – 0 Ghana
Can Italy still be considered one of the Big Teams? Taking into account the full history of international football, they certainly can… they’re members of that exclusive band of multiple World Cup winners. However, since Marco Tardelli’s iconic goal celebration in the 1982 final, Italy’s form has been more a case of spectacular underachievement. They now have more in common with countries such as Sweden, Holland, the Czech Republic and of course England… their high-profile players look great in the right context, but lack the consistency (and luck) to go all the way.
For some pundits, this World Cup will see Italy’s return to the top. I’m not going to argue either way… I mean, how can you tell? A good half of the first-choice players were there in 2002 and 2004, while the talented new kids have replaced equally talented veterans. It’s difficult to stop the rot when the underachievement is so ingrained, especially when your record at top-level penalty shoot-outs is even worse than England’s!
As it turned out, Italy certainly weren’t the most convincing team playing yesterday, making hard work of their win against Ghana. Like Costa Rica and Angola before them, Ghana never really looked like they were going to win, lacking the killer scoring instinct to accompany their assured passing ability.
No, the team of Day 4 was clearly the Czech Republic, back in the sort of form they showed before their surprising semi-final exit at Euro 2004. This may be the finest USA team of all time, but they were given a lesson in total football by the Czechs. The serious injury to Jan Koller will deprive them of a guaranteed goal source, but Rosicky is good enough to be among the tournament’s top scorers and combined well with the substitute Lokvenc.
As an Englishman, I’m probably expected to wish a thousand 2005 Ashes defeats on Australia, right? No way! Any team that plays full-blooded, football with proper old-fashioned tackles is fine by me. They fully deserved their victory against a rather uninspired Japan, whose illegitimate goal seemed to shatter the Aussies’ confidence until that spectacular goal rush in the last ten minutes. Spiggin’ awesome!