Defending champions Italy will naturally be one of the leading contenders to emerge triumphant at the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ South Africa. The only country along with Brazil to have won the tournament twice in succession, Marcello Lippi's men will be vying to match the performance of their pioneering predecessors in 1934 and 1938.
The road to South Africa
The Azzurri topped Group 8 thanks to their traditional efficiency and pragmatism, even if they failed to set the continent alight along the way. In total, they recorded seven wins and three draws, firing 18 goals and conceding seven.
Italy set the pace in their section right from the off with an opening-day 2-1 victory over Cyprus, and after that result took them to the summit they remained there. It nonetheless took them until their penultimate encounter to seal their passage. Intriguingly, the generations that claimed the world title in 1982 and 2006 also booked their tickets with one match to spare.
Alberto Gilardino finished top scorer for Lippi's team with four strikes to his name, including a stunning hat-trick in less than 15 minutes to down Cyprus 3-2 in their final outing.
The star players
Billed for a number of years now as one of the finest goalkeepers on the planet, at 31 Gianluigi Buffon remains one of the two pillars of the Italian defence. His spectacular reflexes to keep out a Zinedine Zidane header in extra time during the 2006 Final illustrated just why he has an undisputed claim on the gloves.
The other leader at the back is none other than evergreen captain Fabio Cannavaro. Now 36, the 2006 FIFA World Player of the Year continues to contribute his superb positioning sense and the vast experience of his 130 caps.
In midfield, tireless tackler Gennaro Gattuso no longer needs any introduction. The 31-year-old is still the motor, battler and all-round talent at the heart of the Azzurri line-up, the man who never admits defeat and whose hunger for victory inspires all those around him.
The coach
A veritable monarch in the field of coaching, 61-year-old Marcello Lippi is an expert at making changes that yield results, with no fewer than five of the 12 goals Italy registered at the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany coming from substitutes. The man with more than an air of Paul Newman has won everything in his career, which is precisely why he called time on his first stint as Italy trainer on 12 July 2006, having clinched the global crown. After the Azzurri floundered at UEFA EURO 2008, however, he did not need much persuasion to return to the role, and he immediately set about rebuilding the defence, remodelling the midfield and trying out a fresh crop of forwards. He puts little stock in his landmark 31 consecutive international matches without defeat, preferring to amass titles than statistics, and his natural feel for the game means his tactical decisions are never called into doubt. For the qualifiers, he called up a total of 36 players, with Cannavaro and full-back Gianluca Zambrotta the players most used (810 minutes each).
Previous FIFA World Cups
Italy have qualified for 16 of the 18 FIFA World Cup finals, failing to book themselves a place in 1958 and having not opted to take part in the first edition in 1930. They have won the competition on four occasions, in 1934, 1938, 1982 and four years ago in 2006. They also finished runners-up in 1970 and 1994 and claimed third place on home soil in 1990.
Honours
- 4 FIFA World Cups (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006)
- 1 UEFA European Championship (1968)
- 1 Olympic Football Tournament (1936)
What they said
"No team is superior to Italy. I don't want to say that we're better than everyone, but you might say that we're not inferior to any other team," Marcello Lippi, coach.
- Source: Fifa.com
About the National Flag of Italy
Colors of the FlagThere is not an undoubted answer regarding the meaning of the colors of the Italian flag . However the most valid hypothesis is the one made by V. Fiorini, the colors came from the colors of the uniforms of the Civic militia of Milan. These were green and white (so people called them "remolazzitt" (small radish)) and some red parts were added on 19 August 1796 when the Militia become the National Guard.
In October of the same year the Lombard Legion was constituted, and it adopted an uniform of the same colors and in orders issued the day 9 October (art. IX), it was stated that "each Cohort will have its National tricolored Lombard standard, differentiated by number, and ornate with the emblems of Liberty". Napoleon himself described the colors : "... the national colors to adopt are the green, the white and the red" (On the message to the Direttorio of 11 October 1796 for the constitution of the Lombard Legion) These standards had the colors vertically displayed with the green at the hoist and they were the very first model of the Tricolore, but only as a military flag.
The first true national flag that used the colors horizontally displayed is the Cispadana Republic flag. This flag was adopted on 7 January 1797 and had the red at the top, the white in the middle, charged with the coat of arms, and the green at the bottom.
On 17 July 1797 the Cispadana and the Transpadana republics were united as the Cisalpine republic which, on 11 May 1798, officially adopted the Tricolore which is today Italian flag (the flag was already in use at least since January 1798).
We can so say that the model of the Italian flag came from the French Tricolore, while its colors came from the uniforms, like those of many german States.
In 1802 the Cisalpine republic was transformed into the Italian republic and on 20 August a new flag was adopted. The new design was of the kind of the Napoleonic military flags: on a red field a white lozenge over which a green rectangle. On March 1805 the republic changed to kingdom
and a golden Napoleonic eagle was added on the green field of the flag.
The Tricolore, charged with the Savoia shield in the center, became in 1848 the national flag of the Kingdom of Sardinia and, in 1861 of the Kingdom of Italy. The State flag and the war ensign included the Savoia crown over the shield. Finally, on 19 June 1946, the plain Tricolore became the flag of the Italian republic. With decree of 9 November 1947, In order to avoid confusion with the Mexican flag at sea, two different coat of arms were added to the civil and war ensigns.
Mario Fabretto , 3 October 1997
I found in a Napoleonian Web page the following explanations by Pr. F. Frasca (Universita La Sapienza, Roma):
"Albert Pingaud, in his book 'Bonaparte president de la Republique Italienne', proposed three hypotheses for the choice of the green colour:
- Bonaparte himself advised or imposed the green colour as the Corsican colour. Later, he used green for his House.
- Green was, before the Revolution, the base of the uniforms of the City militia in Milano.
- Green was considered as the Italian colour. This appears in an official note, dated 1805, written for the creation of the Order of the Iron Crown.
- Green might represent the idea that the vegetation growth is more profuse in Italy than in the Northern countries." (my own translation from French text).
Ivan Sache, 21 July 1997
I don't think that there is any official prescription for the colors of the flag. The French Naval flagbook [pay00] include their approximation that is usually reliable enough: green Pantone 340c, red Pantone 485c.
Željko Heimer, 15 June 2001
Translated from the Italian Constitution:
"Article 12 - The flag of the Republic is the tricolor Italian: green, white and red, a tri band vertically in equal dimension."
Zach Harden, 27 Febuary 2002
Popular Use of the FlagIn Italy the national flag is rarely used too, but not for "sacredness" of it. We Italian are not much patriotic, consequently we do not use the flag or its colors in everyday's life.
The only occasions you can see the green-white-red flag appended outside the not-official buildings are the victories of Italian soccer team !Giuseppe Bottasini
Location of Italy on the World Map
World Cup 2010 Games where you can see the Italian Team in action:
| Match 11 | 14/06/2010 20:30 | Cape Town Stadium | Italy vs | Paraguay
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| Match 28 | 20/06/2010 16:00 | Nelspruit Stadium | Italy vs | New Zealand
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| Match 41 | 24/06/2010 16:00 | Johannesburg JEP Stadium | Italy vs | Slovakia |
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