What Did I Miss? Italy 1 - USA 0, Italia ‘90
So where was I? Oh right, watching the US get blown off the pitch in their first World Cup in 2 generations. Things certainly weren’t going to get any easier after the 5-1 thumping at the hands of Czechoslovakia, as in their second game the US traveled to Rome to face the hosting Italians at the Stadio Olimpico in front of a raucous crowd of 75,000 (mostly) Azzurri fans. Things went better (I guess), as the Americans clearly had gotten past the shellshock of simply being in the World Cup. But a must-not-lose game against the host nation in the capital is a bit of a tall order for a team with this little experience.
Here’s how that went…. (you can watch the game here: https://footballia.net/matches/italy-united-states-world-cup)
Pregame
Lineup changes for the US
OUT: Trittschuh, Stollmeyer, Wynalda (you may remember he got sent off last game)
IN: Doyle, Banks, Balboa
Ah, well unlike last game where our Canadian friends to the north gave me an English broadcast to watch this appears to be the feed from Italian television.
Better quality video of this game but those white uniforms are still awful
1st Half (numbers correspond to minute of video)
Italian announcer pronounces Doyle “doy-lay” lol
**spoiler, but if you watch the game you quickly realize listening to this guy say names is probably the most exciting part of the 90 minutes**
Maldini is wearing number 7 playing at left back, but that’s probably more reflective of his influence (and the Italians don’t have the same numbering system than England so maybe it’s not that weird, but he mostly wore 3 for Milan so *shrug*)
8. Ramos having to go right up to Meola in order to talk to him tells you just how crazy loud it is (even though on TV it doesn’t sound that bad)
9. They’re still sitting back, but once Italy have the ball in the US’s half the Americans are being much less passive than last game; actually going in for tackles, don’t look scared
11. That is some BAD marking by Armstrong, really lucky that header goes right at Meola
13. Italy being left to have the ball in their own half, but not wasting any time trying to get forward
13. No help for John Harkes, that’s kind of the problem when you’re basically playing 6-2-2
SPEAKING of which, tactics time. With the benefit of having figured out the lineup in the first game, this one is a bit more straight forward. It’s a 5-3-2 with Marcelo Balboa playing as a very DEFENSIVE defensive mid (see above 6-2-2 comment). See diagram:
14. GOAL, Giannini. That felt inevitable.
Windischmann just gets totally played
LOTS of ball watching by basically everybody
HOW does this game finish 1-0? (stay tuned to find out)
17. Uh….dive?
21. Caligiuri is not getting forward like he did last game, much more focused on keeping defensive shape than getting forward to try and counter
21. Vermes and Murray have barely touched the ball to this point
22. So that challenge looked really bad
So I think that’s a penalty, the Italian player is leveled and by then the ball is gone
Windischmann is out of control there, feels like the US got lucky
So nobody is really complaining? I guess maybe for the time that wasn’t considered over the line, but in today’s game that’s a no-doubt penalty
27. Hey, John Harkes getting forward. Took forever but that’s the first real chance the US have had.
31. The US appears to have discovered the attacking third and that they’re allowed to have the ball there
34. Aaaand now Italy get their PK
35. PING. Meola totally left for dead and he still missed
38. Carlsburg being advertised in Rome just feels wrong
44. Bad tape….wait, is this the second half now???
2nd Half
47. “Fun” is not a word I’d use for this Italy team ZZZZZZZZZ
48. Harkes again getting in with the header, he at least seems to realize the US need a goal
50. Backpass Rule! (rule was introduced in 1992, so this was still legal; honestly a smart play)
51. Could we not find Tony Meola some real shorts? What’s with the biker shorts?
58. Beautiful passing by Italy leads to….nothing
62. So that’s the first time I can remember Maldini having a real chance, which is something right?
65. The US look to have been reminded that they are losing this game and that if they lose they’re out of the tournament
67. A few “U-S-A” chants in the background there
68. Holy shit we almost scored! Good free-kick by Caligiuri but I feel like Peter Vermes has to score there (good save)
73. There are 15-ish minutes to go and the US is still just sitting back defensively… (to be fair, they know that if they go 2 down it is super over)
79. Nice save by Meola, this game is starting to get a little stretched
83. OK, big late chance here on this free kick…….really? THAT’s what we came up with???
85. Italy have been incredibly wasteful the last ~20 minutes. They should have been out of sight by now
86. Meh, nice try Marcelo
89. Seriously how did we not get absolutely crushed in this game?
General synopsis: the US was very bad at trying to pass the ball through Italy but pretty good at not getting carved apart on the defensive end. This is a little easier when you park the bus and also happen to be physically larger than the other team.
The bottom line is this team was playing for a draw (with the idea you could win the last group game and hope it’s enough) and once Italy got a goal there wasn’t really a plan B. Harkes and Ramos had absolutely no space to operate in midfield and couldn’t find Vermes or Murray. Seriously, I don’t think Murray had 10 touches in this game. The Italians basically invented modern defending so with this strategy you were gonna have to hold them scoreless, which was never realistic.
Bad coaching and players who just don’t quite have the ability. It really sucks that you didn’t have someone like Wynalda as one of the two up top to offer a bit more explosiveness, but red cards have consequences. It’s no wonder we don’t hear from many of these guys after this tournament.
Yes, I am going to watch the third group game, but given that at this point the US have nothing to play for I’m not surprised it ends up going the way it does...