Saturday, June 30, 2012

Hot! Mario Balotelli

Early storylines going into the Italy-Spain Euro 2012 final on Sunday:

1. Three is the magic number.Spain has already equaled the achievement of West Germany, which was the 1972 and 1974 European and world champions before falling just short in the 1976 European Championship, losing on penalties to Czech Republic in the final (that was the shootout in which Antonin Panenka gave his name to the chipped penalty that has been a feature of the two shootouts in Euro 2012).

Now its motivation on Sunday is to become the first nation to win three major tournaments in a row (and no, I'm not counting Uruguay winning the 1924 and 1928 Olympics and 1930 World Cup).

"If they won three tournaments in a row, something no other team has done, you would put them up there among the all-time greatest," former England forward Gary Lineker said before the tournament. "What you need to have to be in that company is that degree of longevity."

Italy, meanwhile, will be playing its third European Championship final, after winning in 1968 and losing in 2000. The surprise finalist has also not lost to Spain in normal time in its last three matches: a Euro 2008 quarterfinal (0-0, Spain won on penalties), a 2-1 friendly win in August 2011 and its Group C opener earlier this month, which ended 1-1. Of the teams in the second semifinal, Spain would probably have rather faced Germany: despite the 2008 success, it hasn't beaten Italy in 90 minutes in more than 60 years.

2. Battle of the coaches.Vicente del Bosque has been criticized heavily in Spain for his selections, but all of them, bar one, have paid off handsomely. In game one, Del Bosque picked Cesc Fabregas as the false No. 9, and he scored the equalizer against Italy; game two, Fernando Torres started and scored twice against Ireland; game three, it was the substitutes who created the winner over Croatia, as Fabregas released Andr s Iniesta who crossed for Jesus Navas to score.

Del Bosque's brilliance from the bench helped clinch the win over France, as Santi Cazorla set up Pedro Rodriguez to earn a late penalty for the second goal. The failure? Alvaro Negredo starting the quarterfinal against Portugal: despite an international record of six goals in 11 matches, all in victories, the curveball selection of Negredo didn't work, and Spain only looked a threat going forward when all three subs Fabregas, Pedro and Navas combined.

Prandelli has pulled off an even more impressive feat: while Germany has taken 12 years to introduce a new attractive playing style and a new generation of players, in Italy the change has taken only two years. When he took over after the 2010 World Cup, Italy had finished bottom of a group that contained Paraguay, Slovakia and New Zealand. With largely the same group of players, Prandelli has advocated an attacking philosophy, and the team has responded.

"I want our matches to be open and spectacular," he told L'Equipe before the tournament. "We want to improve by combining our results-oriented culture with an ambitious and attacking game."

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