While most of the Italian sporting press are somewhat sympathetic to last nights 1-0 friendly lose to the Ivory Coast, the English press, as usual, seem to want to sweep the facts under the carpet and concentrate on player bashing. And I have an idea why. They weren't even watching the game and couldn't possibly be able to write an in depth analysis of it.
Having been at the game, I was lucky/unlucky enough to be sitting by the press box and could witness the ineptitude of the press in action. Most were not even watching the game. They were too busy talking to each other or buried in their Blackberrys. The questions I heard them asking each other were incredible. At one point, and this is no joke, one of them turned to the other and asked...'i thought Ericsson was still the manager of the Ivory Coast'...I also heard stuff like, who's number 6...10...22? Who does Amauri play for? Unbelievable.
20 minutes from the end there was a mass exodus as most of them got up in formation and made for the exit. I suspect one of those journalists was Ivan Speck who wrote the Daily Mail article above. Where were they all going 20mins from the end? Probably to find the nearest computer so that they could read the live text-commentary feeds on which to base their articles. Or in the case of Mr Speck just make up some bullshit about Balotelli and add who the goalscorer was, that is what makes for a match day report these days.
By the way. If you're interested. Italy played like a young team that had, in the majority, never played together and had only had two days tactical training. The Ivory Coast played like they had been playing together for some time. And it showed. A draw would have been the fairer result but a 1-0 lose for Italy was by no means a disaster. This Azzurri team has potential. Come September, once the fitness and form of the players is back, this team could become something very special.
