++ [ originally posted by denco ] ++
Whom would we have blamed for Italy's failure to win the wc 98, 2002, the European championship in 96 2000 and 2004?
Whose fault would it have been when Juve failed to win the Cl from 96 onwards?
Umm, as an outsider, I'll content myself with commenting on those two lines.
I don't blame DP for the Euro 1996 Waterloo. In fact I blame Sacchi for not letting him play one minute in that tournament!
I don't blame him for WC 98 either. That was by far his best season and only a blind man could not have appreciated his class back then. I really just felt sorry for the guy because after such a phenomenal year he couldn't meet the very high expectations that were resting on him and express himself on his true level only because of a stupid injury. In fact, despite the injury I always wanted to see him play ahead of Baggio regardless, which says enough about the admiration I had for him at the time.
I definitely blame him for Euro 2000. He had two clear chances to finish the French and he missed them. No excuse.
WC 2002 : well, without his goal vs Mexico we wouldn't even had the chance to play South Korea in the second round. Umm, maybe I should blame him for that coz frankly I could have done without that travesty:groan:.
I don't blame him for Euro 2004. He wasn't great but no one else was. He almost scored the goal of the tournament against Sweden also.
The CL finals. If I were a juventino, I wouldn't blame him for any of the lost finals.
Again, I'd blame Lippi for not starting him against Dortmund in 97. Sacrificing his unpredictability in favour of Vieri/Boksic's muscles was one of the main causes of your loss that night. In fact he gave you a short glimmer of hope for a few minutes when he finally entered and scored.
I wouldn't blame him for the 98 final against Madrid. Yes he was the man you had entrusted with the mission of winning the game and he got injured at the decisive moment. But without him you would not even have reached the final in the first place, as his CL campaign that year was impressive to say te least.
2003 : you were facing Milan. What were you hoping anyway
