The Italy - England game was a huge disappointment. Not the result, because Italy clearly deserved to win, but the English seemed to play the most cynical style of football I've seen in a long time. And, I really hate penalty shootouts. I think after the 30min extra time, the game should go to a Golden Goal.
But what seemed to be really troubling to me was how poor the Azzurri looked in the attack. There were at least five clear scoring chances that weren't converted, and that doesn't even count the two hit crossbars! I lost count of how many times Pirlo or Montolivo made lovely passes in the box that were wasted because of a poorly timed run, or just poor effort. Balotelli particularly seemed to be out of synch with his teammates, often going left when the pass was right, or just stopping a run, or just pouting when he didn't have success. Even worse, there were far too many passes that were too soft, too hard, or just to the wrong place by almost everyone.
But even worse was that there were too many defensive errors that almost cost the game. I had no idea Chiellini was so important to the back four! Gigi made three very critical saves (especially that one in the first 15 minutes) to bail out the team, but if they play that poorly against Germany, players like Ozil, Khedira, and Scweinsteiger are going to carve them to pieces!
Maybe that was just a bad game for Italy. I certainly hope so. In any case, I liked the energy that the Pirlo - Montolivo pairing gave. And bringing Diamante in was a huge shot of energy. They will need that creativity to move on to the final.
