WTI Magazine #36    2014 June, 25
Author : Simone Callisto Manca      Translation by:

We had the illusion, in truth more because of the strength of our history then for this limp moment of our football, but it ended the only way it could end: with an elimination in the first round, full of recriminations but, all in all, right.

Beyond the very questionable decisions by the referee during the third game, the one against Uruguay, among these the very rigorous expulsion of Claudio Marchisio and the not sanctioned bite of Suarez, the elimination has three names: Federal President Giancarlo Abete, head coach Cesare Prandelli, the supposed star Mario Balotelli.

President Abete failed to awaken the Italian football from the deep crisis in which it has felt years ago. The 2006 World Cup, the 2007 Champions League won by AC Milan and the one won by Inter Milan in 2010 just put the dust under the carpet. But crumbling stadiums, a less competitive league, the dizzying descent in the European ranking, the growing strength of violent fans among the supporters, the "theft" of the organization of Euro 2012 (to the advantage of Poland and Ukraine) and Euro 2016 (to the advantage of France ) are the "broth" in which this failure occurred.

Cesare Prandelli, however, had it all wrong: in Brazil he brought a team without rhyme or reason, stuffed with midfielders, with virtually no first strikers but the absolute newcomer Immobile, top scorer in the Italian league but who never even played a single game of the Champions League. We all saw the results: aside the great victory against England, the team has hardly ever shot once on goal, holding the ball for most of the time but without practically doing anything.

Mario Balotelli failed the graduation exam. He is likely to be the Godot of our football invoked and expected to be the leader of the team, instead he showed the usual assortment of imprecision, sufficiency, arrogance and nervousness that, far from giving the expected value, added what definitively made us sink. Now, it is very likely that the team that will fight to qualify for Euro 2016 will not be built over Balotelli, who will have to struggle hard before returning to the blue dress.

The NBA season that has just ended with the victory of the San Antonio Spurs will be long remembered even by the Italians: for the first time in the history of the most important basketball league in the world, in fact, an Italian plays in the winning team, Marco Belinelli. The guard from San Giovanni in Persiceto, near Bologna, Emilia Romagna, has been playing in the NBA since 2007, when he arrived in the United States aged 21, and gets now a well-deserved reward after a wander lasted seven years between Golden State Warriors, Toronto Raptors, New Orleans Hornets, Chicago Bulls and finally this season San Antonio Spurs.

A season, the 2013-2014, which Belinelli also will remember for having won the three points race at the NBA All Star Weekend: a final consecration for the Italian basketball player, considered in Italy our better player (despite the intermittent results with the national team) but that in the U.S. had never been able to play with the continuity necessary to make him a champion everywhere recognized. Belinelli is not the only Italian to player in the NBA: after seven years at the Toronto Raptors, Andrea Bargnani plays now for the New York Knicks; Danilo Gallinari played fo the Knicks from 2008 to 2011, and then went to the Denver Nuggets; Gigi Datome, landed in the US in 2013, playing for the Detroit Pistons.

Unfortunately we remember of it only once every four years, during the Olympics, but the Italian fencing team is the strongest in the world and it shows it whenever we have the chance. This june, at the European Championships in Strasbourg, the blue team was in fact the very first in the medal count, with 10 medals: 4 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze.

The most sparkling weapon, as always, was the women's foil, where the Italians have made a resounding performance: European gold was won by 2012 London Olympic gold Elisa Di Francisca; silver by young promising Martina Batini (we will surely hear more about her in the 2016 Rio Olympics Games); and bronze (tied with the Russian Biryukova) was won by the eternal veteran Valentina Vezzali, who despite having won any possible title in the last twenty years, attacks the platform with the enthusiasm and hunger of those who have yet to be proven.

In the women's foil Italy has won the team gold, too: the team was composed by Di Francisca, Batini, Vezzali with the addition of Arianna Errico, silver at the 2012 London Olympic Games and gold at 2013 Budapest World Championships. Besides, two gold medals have been won by the men's saber team, with Luigi Samele Diego Occhiuzzi, Luigi Miracco and Enrico Berré, who beat Russia 45 to 44 in a hard-fought final, and in the women's fencing, with Bianca Del Carretto. Silver, instead, for Paolo Pizzo in the men's fencing and for men's foil team (Valerio Aspromonte, Andrea Cassarà, Giorgio Avola, Andrea Baldini). Rossella Gregorio has won the bronze medal in the women's saber and for the women's fencing bronze too was won by Rossella Fiamingo, Bianca Del Carretto, Mara Navarria e Francesca Quondamcarlo. Now the focus moves towards the next World Cup, to be held in Kazan (Russia) next July from 15 to 23: as usual, we will arrive there as the favorite team.