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Sicilian Culture: News & Views

Sven-Goran Eriksson Extols Italian Values
By Henry Winter, The London Daily Telegraph

March 26, 2002 - - SVEN-GORAN ERIKSSON, the serene professor, continued to expand the minds and vocabulary of his England pupils yesterday when he educated them in the art of "furbo", an Italian expression encapsulating that country's cunning on the field of play.

If England are to prosper at the World Cup they will have to live with such sophisticated sides as Italy, whom they face in a friendly at Elland Road on Wednesday night, and such tactics as "furbo"...

Loosely translated as savvy or street-smart, "furbo" reflects the Italian style of smothering defence and clinical finishing.

"Furbo means shrewd," said Eriksson, "it's about meaning you can play poorly but all the time waiting for one opportunity to score. The strengths of Italian football are in defending very well and then, when the chance comes, boom, the ball is in the net."

... Fabio Cannavaro and Alessandro Nesta are mobile, clever centre-halves who invariably stay on their feet in the tackle and will certainly stretch the capacities of Liverpool's finest.

"Italian defenders get very tight and are very difficult to break down," observed David Platt, the Under-21s coach who has played and coached in Serie A. Their marking at set-pieces, the tricks ranging from subtle nudges, tugs and blocks, can also frustrate opponents...

Italy also possess classy strikers in the all-action Francesco Totti and the rangy Marco Delvecchio (a probable replacement for the doubtful Christian Vieri) who can pounce like panthers on any frailty. In the absence of England's leading centre-half, Rio Ferdinand, Eriksson said it was a "good idea" to look at the Sol Campbell-Gareth Southgate axis and both will need to be at their most alert to combat Totti and Delvecchio. Again, the experience can only improve them.

Eriksson admitted his "surprise" that Italy's erudite coach, Giovanni Trapattoni, had switched from 3-5-2 to 4-4-2. Yet a team understandably rated by Eriksson as "one of the favourites for the World Cup" will be only four players short of full strength, lacking Paolo Maldini, Demetrio Albertini, Alessandro Del Piero and Francesco Coco...

Eriksson extols Italian values: sport.telegraph.co.uk

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Late Slip By James Spoils Fowler's Good Work
By Henry Winter, at Elland Road

Italy 2 England 1

ENGLAND were taught a real lesson in the need to concentrate properly by the past masters of the art last night. Italy seized on two mistakes by Sven-Goran Eriksson's men, by Joe Cole and David James, allowing Vincenzo Montella to score twice and give the Italians' a flattering victory and only Eriksson's second defeat as England coach.

It was a game of two teams for England with Eriksson replacing nine men at half-time, including Michael Owen and Emile Heskey, who had laboured fruitlessly against one of the most accomplished defences on the planet....

Fabio Cannavaro, Nesta, Marco Materazzi and Christian Panucci are no mere practitioners of negative deeds. Their ability to squeeze the oxygen around opponents was fascinating to watch....

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