Nesta and Zambrotta worry Lippi

The great World Cup soccer circus is about to take off in Germany in just three days’ time. Italy, awash with the usual polemics regarding its own soccer scandal (several heads have rolled in the last few weeks, including the president of the Italian FA, Franco Carraro), isn’t going into the event in the most positive way. Some players such as Milan and Juve’s defensemen Nesta and Zambrotta respectively appear to have a physical problem or two. This is rather worrying for head coach (and Paul Newman look alike) Marcello Lippi. On the one hand, it would appear that Zambrotta will miss Italy’s inaugural match against Ghana (which won decidedly the other day in a friendly match, thus worrying the Italians a wee bit. N.B. Ghana’s Muntari plays for Italian club Udinese, not the only Ghanian player by the way in the Italian Serie A). Nesta on the other hand is carrying around a nasty leg injury from the last days of the Italian championship. Both are important stand-ins for the great Paolo Maldini who left a few years ago the national team. In the meantime, Italian journalists have this odd way of analyzing Italy’s participation at World Cup events: they’ll come out and say that when Enzo Bearzot (head coach of the 1982 world champions) lost in a friendly match in 1981 against Chile, Italy then went on to win that World Cup. That way of thinking obviously doesn’t always work though. The ref of Italy’s first match is by the way a Brazilian. Let us hope that he won’t be as nasty as Ecuador’s Byron Moreno who four years ago red-carded Totti in the match against Korea!!