By CLEMENTE LISI
With Inter on the verge of winning a third straight Serie A title, the focus of Italian soccer fans after this weekend will be on their beloved national team.
The Azzurri — one of the favorites to win the European Championship next month — may find out the hard way that becoming champions of Europe may be a lot harder than winning the World Cup.
With no soccer scandal back home to motivate them and an unproven coach at the helm, the Italians may find it hard to mount a successful Euro challange. The talent may still be there, but the motivation that drove the Azzurri to the World Cup title two years ago is gone.
With a match-fixing scandal as the backdrop back in 2006, the experienced Marcello Lippi created a tight-knit group who rallied around the notion of proving that the country’s national game wasn’t just about corrupt clubs and crooked referees.
The group — spearheaded by the gritty Gennaro Gattuso, classy Fabio Grosso and hard-nosed Marco Materazzi — turned the Italians into a force to be reckon with. Materazzi, the recipient of Zinedine Zidane’s notorious head-butt against France in the final, became a household name around the planet.
The big difference this time could rest in the ability of the coach to instill enough desire for another title run. Lippi’s replacement, Roberto Donadoni, had an impressive record as a player. Over the course of 12 seasons with AC Milan, he won six Serie A titles, three UEFA Champions League trophies and two World Club Cups. He also had a short stint with the New York/New Jersey MetroStars during the team’s inaugural season.
As a coach, however, Donadaoni has had mixed results. His best result as a Serie A manager was guiding Livorno to a ninth-place finish back in 2005.
At the same time, the Italian federation isn’t wholly convinced that Donadoni is the best man for the job — refusing to extend his contract a few months back unless he guides the team to the final stages of Euro 2008.
The biggest obstacle for Italy at Euro ’08 could be surviving the first round, where they have been paired with Holland, Romania and France.
If Donadoni fails in Austria/Switzerland, look for federation bigwigs to plead with Lippi for him to make a return to the national team bench and build a strong team for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.