A B C D
E F G H
Maldini promises changes before World Cup
NAPLES, Italy (AP) -- What a relief.That's how Italy felt after its beloved soccer team qualified for the World Cup by beating Russia 1-0 in a playoff Saturday night.
Now coach Cesare Maldini must make his players do the work to become a title contender. Italians, after all, expect their beloved Azzurri to win the World Cup each and every time. Just reaching the tournament is considered a birthright.
"Italy sneaked through the smallest door, but it is going to the World Cup," Mario Sconcerti wrote Sunday in Corriere dello Sport. "It was the game one thought it would be: ugly, complex, slippery. ... This was not a game, though, that had to be picture perfect. It was just a game that had to be won. Maldini was able to do that. Long live Maldini."
He added: "Now it is finally time to relax a little and reflect."
A headline atop the page noted, "The nightmare ends."
The sentiment was echoed by Candido Cannavo in Gazzetta dello Sport, who wrote: "We're in France, thank heavens. ... But as far as the World Cup goes, the needs will be different. We can't go there with a cheap soccer that's mentally limited."
Less than 24 hours after Pierluigi Casiraghi's second-half goal and a characteristically tight defense helped him retain his job, Maldini acknowledged his team will need to be fine-tuned in the coming months.
"The World Cup requires something more. Certainly we need to improve a lot," the coach said Sunday. "In a competition like that you have to be right on the mark for those 15-to-20 days. And I'm not just talking about the preparation. Even luck plays an important role: If you happen to have too many injuries, goodbye."
Maldini said he'll schedule at least two exhibition matches in the interim, with the first likely in January. "Already in the first friendly I'll try something new, both in tems of tactics and players," he said.
Most glaringly, the listless attack has to be reworked.
Italy has allowed one goal in the eight official games since Maldini replaced Arrigo Sacchi last December. But the Azzurri has scored just nine -- and six came in a pair of 3-0 home wins over lowly Poland and Moldova.
And the goals the team does manage to score invariably come on counterattacks, like Casiraghi's Saturday.
The sort of creative player that could lend flexibility and versatility to the offense certainly could be added to the roster.
While veterans Roberto Mancini and 1994 World Cup star Roberto Baggio may be past their primes, Gianfranco Zola and Alessandro Del Piero are in theirs.
But Del Piero saw just 15 minutes of action off the bench Saturday, and Zola never took off his warmup suit for either of playoff games against Russia.
Without the occasional stroke of brilliance -- like Demetrio Albertini's through-ball from his own territory that set up Casiraghi's winner -- the attack struggles.
NEXT ROUNDS: Round of 16 || Quarter-finals || Semi-finals
GROUP A: Brazil, Morocco, Norway, Scotland
GROUP B: Austria, Cameroon, Chile, Italy
GROUP C: Denmark, France, Saudi Arabia, South Africa
GROUP D: Bulgaria, Nigeria, Paraguay, Spain
GROUP E: Belgium, Holland, Mexico, South Korea
GROUP F: Germany, Iran, United States, Yugoslavia
GROUP G: Colombia, England, Romania, Tunisia
GROUP H: Argentina, Croatia, Jamaica, Japan