If England think they've faced more than enough criticism over the last few weeks, they need look no further than Group E for a sense of perspective. While Sven's men have come under fire for mediocre wins against weak opposition in their opening two games and a second-half collapse against Sweden, Marcello Lippi's Italy have entered the tournament under the black cloud of Serie A's match-fixing scandal and on the back of a media assault that would make Fleet Street's hardest-nosed hacks blush.
"I hope they go out quickly. They are arrogant, shameful and above all without balls - at least the kind of balls you need to win," screamed a front-page editorial in the rightwing Northern League paper La Padania before Italy's opener against Ghana. "Support the Africans," agreed Communist publication Il Manifesto, while even mainstream broadsheet La Repubblica acknowledged many fans had either turned their backs on the national side or taken to actively supporting the opposition. Italian football's struggles are widely acknowledged - attendances down to 21,700 and violent racism in the stands - and the roots of this disdain for the national side go back further than the current malaise.
Football has formed an integral part of the Italian psyche for decades, and success on the pitch has long been tied to the sense of national identity. Defeats are taken personally and the sense that Italy has been let down by its players has grown out of all proportion in recent years.
Italians demand and expect success of their players in a way that no other country does and this burden has weighed heavily on a generation of footballers who, since the Roberto Baggio-inspired USA 1994 runners-up, simply haven't possessed the requisite talent for a serious World Cup challenge. Indeed, the country has never really recovered from the loss of Baggio himself - first Alessandro Del Piero and now Francesco Totti have been expected to fill his talismanic boots as the country's creator-in-chief, a task they were always destined to fail.
Other figureheads such as full-backs Paolo Maldini and Giuseppe Bergomi were not replaced but simply retained well into their thirties and expected to be world-beaters. This in turn allowed the public to kid themselves that nothing had changed and left them totally unprepared for the exposure of their shortcomings at France 1998 and Japan/South Korea 2002, where the players looked not only short of talent but so afraid of defeat that they failed even to try to play and win. Yet even the cagey nature of these defeats allowed many fans to remain in ignorance, since the losses came against eventual winners France on penalties in 98 and after some dubious refereeing and a golden goal to South Korea in 02.
But the realisation is slowly starting to smack them around the face. Watching their club sides continue to decline, Italian football fans are in a state of disillusionment and apathy. All of which might be the best thing to happen to the national side in many years.
While many speculated that the ongoing scandal would be a weight on them, the lifting of expectation has had quite the opposite effect. With a renovated squad featuring a host of new faces and one of the most attacking starting formations at this year's tournament (effectively a 4-3-1-2 with Totti in behind Luca Toni and Alberto Gilardino), Italy are playing with a freedom of movement rarely seen from an Italian side since 94.
With expectations at an all-time low, the win against Ghana met with surprising celebrations in Italy, and even the draw with USA has been received pragmatically. While they looked far from world-beaters against the States, their struggles revealed the naivety of an inexperienced starting set rather than the tired plodding and lack of ideas that characterised recent failings. There has been no retreat into tiresome catenaccio when defending a lead, and the exuberant celebrations which followed Vincenzo Iaquinta's goal against Ghana evoked memories of past Italian sides filled with the joy of their own creation.
It would be ill-advised to say this Italy team can win the lot after their scrappy display on Saturday, especially when set against the thrilling performances of sides such as Argentina, but it is a refreshing change to see them playing without fear and if they can maintain this pressure-free mindset they are certainly capable of a good showing.
