Italy Will Not Be in World Cup 2018!!
No, that is not a misprint!
The Italian national team, one of the most successful professional sports teams in history, have been eliminated from the World Cup before they ever got there!
That's right. The team that has been, arguably, the most successful European national team, and certainly one of the top three national teams in history, has failed to even qualify for the World Cup tournament in Russia next month!
Italy has won four World Cup titles overall, tied with Germany for the second most overall, and one shy of Brazil's record of five world championships.
But there will be absolutely no chance that they add to that elite hardware in next year's tournament, because the unthinkable happened, and Italy failed to qualify. That was because they were held to a scoreless tie in the San Siro stadium against Sweden, who had beaten the Italians, 1-0, in Sweden. Thus, Sweden moves on, at the expense of Italy.
This marks the first time in sixty years that the Italian national team failed to even qualify for the World Cup tournament.
This marks the first time in sixty years that the Italian national team failed to even qualify for the World Cup tournament.
As a result of this truly stunning failure, Italy now joins a growing list of surprising teams to have failed to qualify. Some of the other big names include the Netherlands - another traditional European powerhouse - and the United States. I have to say that seeing the United States fail to qualify was surprising, but not as surprising as seeing the Netherlands fail to qualify. But both of those pale by comparison to the shock value of seeing Italy fail to qualify!
Of course, football/soccer is like a religion in Italy, so you can only imagine the strong reactions to this, which is being viewed as a national humiliation and an outrage!
Just how badly are they taking it in Italy right now?
Take a look at this article:
‘This is the apocalypse’: Italian press mourns nation’s World Cup exit by Guardian Sports, 14 Novembre, 2017:
Carolina Panthers Crush Miami Dolphins on Monday Night Football
This was yet another game that pretty much went the way most of us pictured it.
The Panthers, a 6-3 team entering this game, fighting to stay l n the heels of the red hot New Orleans Saints in the NFC South division, hosted the 4-4 Miami Dolphins, a team that had lost a couple in a row, and seemed to be teetering on the edge of complete irrelevance.
And Carolina was able to get the early edge. I tuned in just before the half, as the Panthers capitalized on a turnover and managed to get a touchdown, to turn a tight 10-7 game into a decisive 17-7 halftime lead.
Things just got worse for the Dolphins from there, as the Panthers completely dominated the Finns the rest of the way. It was a blowout, and had to be demoralizing to the quickly fading Dolphins, as the Panthers went on to score a huge 45-21 win! Carolina remains one of the elite teams in the NFC, while the Dolphins continue the trend of seeming AFC East contenders challenging the Patriots early in the season, only to fade later on. This season, it seems that each of these other AFC East franchises - the Bills, the Jets, and yes, the Dolphins - are fading fast, at precisely the time that New England seems to be finding themselves.
Some things never seem to change.
Not that it's likely to make fans of the "Azzurri" feel any better, but they're certainly not the first major team to fail to qualify for a World Cup. In addition to the Dutch, who as you acknowledged also failed to qualify, England missed the 1994 tournament, and France has missed a number of World Cups, including three in my lifetime: 1974, 1990 and 1994. The latter of course was the most demoralizing and humiliating for Les Bleus, since it was a truly epic failure, and arguably the lowest moment in the history of French sports. But yeah, this is relatively unchartered territory for Italy. Perhaps they can follow in the footsteps of their "voisin transalpin" by following their own low point with triumph: French players hoisted the Jules RImet trophy less than half a decade after their failure to qualify for the '94 Cup. Stay tuned...
ReplyDeleteHopefully not. How you feel about the German national team is kind of how I feel about Italy. I remember them winning in 1982, and I remember hearing about how one Italian national team in the 1930's did the fascist straight-armed salute after winning the tournament. And then, of course, they defeated France in 2006. I just got a bit tired of them almost instantly, and so I am personally looking forward to a World Cup without them.
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't know that the fascist salute thing can really be held against the current Italian squad. I don't need to tell you that the thirties and forties comprise a very dark chapter in European history, France obviously included. But yeah, it gets more than a little tiresome when the same handful of teams win the lion's share of the championships. Only eight countries – Uruguay, Italy, Germany, Brazil, England, Argentina, France and Spain – have won World Cups. Brazil, Germany and Italy combined have won thirteen of twenty. Needless to say, as much as I would love to see Les Bleus win another one, it would also be great to see the number of countries who've won it reach double digits. Who knows – maybe the 2018 World Cup will bring us a step closer to that.
ReplyDelete