June 2012
9 posts
5 tags
Mario Balotelli: how he started to deliver the...
When Mario Balotelli compared himself with the world’s greatest players a lot of people pointed a finger of ridicule. A good footballer, they opined, but not entitled to consider himself among the game’s elite. Yet, on Thursday night, he achieved what Cristiano Ronaldo had singularly failed to do 24 hours earlier and blasted his country into the Final of Euro 2012.
It was a tour de force by the...
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Franco Causio: 100-word hero #36
That man Dave Taylor again with a Juve and Italy legend. He also supplied a stupendous image to go along with the piece.
The consciously-cultivated moustachioed Causio was perhaps Italy’s best right-sided midfielder winning 63 caps while scoring six goals.
Playing in three successive World Cups he eventually won a winners’ medal in 1982.
The Encyclopaedia of Calcio claims he invented the “ala...
3 tags
Rule Italia! Ten famous Italian wins against...
Image via FreeDigitalPhotos.net
I call them the Doomsday games for Scottish Italians, whenever an English opponent comes along. The last time it happened at a major international championships was Italia ‘90 in the third and fourth place play-off. The last time an Italy v England clash really mattered was at the European Nations of 1980.
Now we go into battle once again on Sunday.
I...
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Sergio Porrini: 100-word hero #35
Another guest post and we get a Scottish view this time via Brent MacFarlane (@BrentMacFarlane on Twitter)…
With a pre-match penchant for listening to Iron Maiden and looking like a cross between Romper Stomper and Animal from the Muppets, Sergio Porrini was the only man who could start a game with a clean shave and come off after 90 minutes with a beard.
In a team that featured Zidane,...
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Of satellites and streams: how technology changed...
Image via FreeDigitalPhotos.net
If I could meet the 10-year-old me, the first thing I would do would be to ruffle his hair. Memories of those long-lost follicles would make such a course of action simply irresistible. But after I had got over my nostalgia for a fully-thatched noggin, I would sit him down and tell him about how we experience football 30 years in the future. I can picture his...
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Alessandro Del Piero: 100-word hero #34
Take your hats off to Lars Pedersen (@larsaabjerg on Twitter) as he tries to sum up his hero in 100 words.
Even those loving Juventus long before his arrival in 1993 will agree that Pinturicchio joins – and possibly surpasses – the likes of Boniperti and Scirea in being ‘lo Stile Juve’ incarnate. Already a legend beforehand; his Virgil-esque guidance of his Old Lady from the inferno of...
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How my first European Championships with the...
Image via LastSticker.com
In the end, we went for VHS. Betamax had the better technical reputation but that Ferguson Videostar with buttons that jutted out like stubby little thumbs had won our hearts. Roll on the first major championships where my father and I could both watch AND record the Azzurri’s matches. From memory, it took gargantuan strength just to work that machine for the...
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Pippo Maniero: 100-word hero #33
It is that man again, Marco Rinaldi (@marcoarrinaldi on Twitter) with a view from the lagoons. This time a man so good he could score goals with a flying backheel…
Pippo Maniero was signed on Venezia’s return to Serie A, and initially struggled along with the rest of the team.
When Recoba joined, however, he was transformed, forming a potent partnership with El Chino. His form continued...
