Doha-Vienna, Orsato safe but the Azzurri a torture
The show, in Doha, is all concentrated before the world championship inaugurated by one of the rare Italians worthy of citation and praise: an obvious reference to Daniele Orsato, the Qatar-Ecuador referee who dominates the event with confidence. The stadium modeled like a Bedouin tent and that suggestive dialogue between Morgan Freeman and the disabled man are the images to be kept instead of the two goals from Valencia that allow the yellows to bend the fragile resistance of the home national team. His coach should be reminded of the secret of one of our managers with proven experience, Pantaleo Corvino, director of Fiorentina and now of Lecce. He often likes to repeat: «You can make a mistake with your wife but not with the team if you choose the goalkeeper and center forward well». The warning concerns Qatar which fields a dancing goalkeeper but perhaps it can also be applied in the evening to Mancini’s national team which closes its horrible year which coincided with its second elimination from the world championship with a heavy defeat. There is a photo that is making the rounds on the web: he portrays the Azzurri lined up in front of a television. It’s our sad fate, almost as if we had to discount the benefits of a year earlier with the European championship won at Wembley. If the Corvino paragraph concerns Qatar, it must also be repeated in the Coverciano area despite the fact that coach Mancini is aware of the limits of blue football. Donnarumma is a boy too soon judged a champion: the second goal conceded yesterday is not the first sensational scribble of his career, redeemed later by a couple of exploits useful for avoiding a less heavy deficit. Mancini has been missing a center forward of great international prominence for some time and Raspadori’s presence is an inevitable stopgap for the many absences that make last night’s friendly a pointless torture. Even Verratti, on the occasion of the first Austrian goal, bends like a bread stick. Arnautovic looks like Van Basten in the way he jumps the blue pins. Excuse my frankness: much better to have stayed at home!