Italy 1990 World Cup National Team Game
Has there been a better mascot since?
I stumbled upon a golden website today – a catalog of all filled scanned pages from the 1990 Fifa World Cup Panini album.
This brought back a distinct memory – this was, I believe, the first Panini album I ever collected as a kid. Oh how I remember the days of ending up with 100+ duplicates at the end and only 5-6 stickers missing. We used to write the numbers we were missing on a small piece of paper and went with our duplicates around the neighborhoods trying to find others that had duplicates to trade with. Racing to finish the album before the tournament and beat your friends…ah, those were the days.
Anyhoo, as I was cruising down the World Cup memory lane, I thought I’d create a little game for you guys. Since Italy were the hosts of that tournament, they were right at the beginning of the album after the stadiums and cities, so naturally I picked them for the game.
Here is what you do:
- Click on the image below to zoom in
- Try to guess as many faces as you can from the stickers
- Count the number of people you think you can identify and post it in the comments below.
Some of these faces are priceless!
I will post the actual names on here in a few days to see who got the most correct. Even if you were too young to remember the 1990 World Cup, you will surely recognize some faces that are still active in one way or another in today’s football world.
Alrighty peeps, guess away. Hopefully this is as much fun for you guys as it was for me. If you recognize more than 7 players, you got me beat.
Claudio Ranieri Lays It All Out On The Table
The news of Luigi Del Neri’s dismissal as Juventus’ coach for next season and the appointment of Antonio Conte as his replacement has seen mixed reactions. Impatient Juventus fans are happy that the coach who was supposed to bring the revolution to Juventus is out. On the other hand, the more optimistic Juventini believed that the last 12 months were a necessary season of adaptation before Del Neri could really start working towards higher goals. Whichever the case, Luigi Del Neri is out, Antonio Conte is in.
Recently, I was reminded of Claudio Ranieri – another Juventus coach post-calciopolli who was perhaps mishandled and mistreated for his tenure at the club. Juventus Offside blogger and Juve fanatic Aaron Giambattista (@agiamba) posted a recent interview of Ranieri with Claudio Zuliani on Twitter that really caught my attention. You can hear the whole interview in Italian here.
The conversation is very sincere and revealing of the way things happened behind closed doors during Ranieri’s “relationship” with Blanc and Secco. The ex-Mister also offers a bit of his insight on what may be wrong with the Old Lady as of late (and by late I mean the last 6 years). I decided to practice my Italian a bit and translate the interview. Here it is:
Claudio Zuliani: What do you think is the current problem with Juventus?
Who are these Blanc & Secco characters?
Claudio Ranieri: “I think there are two main problems. One, there needs to be patience. When I arrived I had 5 champions in the squad [Buffon, Camoranesi, Nedved, Del Piero & Trezeguet], while now there are only two. People need to realize that this squad is mostly comprised of young players and you cannot expect everything right away. Time needs to be given to these young players to adopt the Juventus mentality. You cannot just buy a new player and expect him to automatically win and not make any mistakes. Unfortunately in Italy we want everything to happen right away. When I arrived, we had a plan to win the Scudetto in 5 years. We did in fact get off to a good start as we finished 3rd the next season, but when things started going bad everyone kept expecting wins. Well, you cannot win like that since the champions that were there in the past are not there anymore.”
“I remember when Lippi was Juventus’ coach early on. I specifically remember the game against Fiorentina when Juve went down 2-0 and ended up winning 3-2. Naturally, the Juventus fans will remember that game as the one where Del Piero scored one of his most beautiful goals ever, but to me that was when that Juventus team really became Lippi’s Juventus team. Of course, that team too needed time to gel, to enter the winning mentality. When you’re at Juventus, you’re not expected just to win games, but you’re expected to win every single one.”
Z: Claudio, you are one of the seven Juventus coaches in the last five years. Can Juventus really be re-constructed as a team when they’re constantly changing coaches?
CR: “No, no they can’t. However, people need to have faith in this new leadership since it is so different than when I was there. The new guys [Agnelli & Marotta] know calcio, love calcio, and dream calcio. Because of this, they are likely to make less mistakes while leading the club. Of course, we need to give them time as well.”
Z: What do you think of the decision to let go of Del Neri and bring in Conte?
CR: “The one thing I don’t like is that Del Neri worked really hard and worked well and is now out the door. However, Conte is a former Juventus player, knows the mentality and character of Juventus and can explain to the new players what it means to be a true Juventus player.”
Z: Cobolli Gigli came out a few weeks ago saying you and assistant coach Christian Damiano preferred to buy Poulsen over Xabi Alonso. How did that whole thing actually play out?
CR: “That is not true. As you know, we were going to sign Flamini on a free transfer but then Milan swooped him in. Now, there are two things that people easily forget about that summer’s transfer market. First, all the decisions we made were made by the three of us. Blanc, Secco, and myself made all the decisions together. Hence, it is not fair to reward or blame some of those decisions on only one of us. Second, we had a summer transfer budget of only $20 million. We had recently just purchased Amauri and spending all of the rest of our money on one player (Xabi Alonso) did not make sense. Blanc asked me which player I preferred and I told him I like Xabi 20 times more. But we realized that we needed more than just one player so we couldn’t spend $20 million on him. I then told Blanc I l also liked Poulsen since he was more of the type of player like Flamini. It is not true that my assistant coach had anything to do with that decision. The management liked the Poulsen choice better. They were always more inclined to buy defensively solid players over playmakers. You can see that that’s the direction they wanted to go the next year too. They needed to sign a regista but ended up buying a mediano when they purchased Felipe Melo.”
Z: And what about the purchase of Diego?
CR: “When Nedved announced his retirement, I told the management that we needed a player like him that will also fit in our 4-4-2 formation. That was our system and that was what the players know. We needed a left winger. Management wanted Ribery and I agreed that technically he would be a great fit. Then they told me he was too expensive. I said okay, that is no problem for me as I was always honest with them. When Diego entered the conversation I told them immediately – to have Diego on our team we would have to change our formation and system to fit him in. I have nothing against Diego – he is an extraordinary player, a champion. I don’t want to point the finger at him for that season. I always use the “house building” analogy – to build a house, you need the foundation first, and then the architects and designers to make it all pretty. Diego is one of those players that makes the squad pretty & flashy. But Juventus did not even have the foundation in when he arrived.”
All in all a very interesting interview with the ex-mister. While he flat out exposes Blanc and Secco for being clueless in what they were doing, he still maintains a level of class that few managers have.
The irony is that Juventus seems far away from that situation today, yet is facing many of the same problems. We have new guys running the club, have changed a few coaches in the last season and have even improved the squad a bit. However, we are still lacking fundamental players in the most crucial area of the team – the defense. Will the likes of Ziegler and Lichtsteiner fill those gaps? Time will tell. I have always argued that great coaches have the ability of making mediocre players look like superstars. While I do not think Conte has that trait yet, he definitely has the determination to will out all the potential out of our players. As always, I cannot wait for next season to start. Is it August already?
My First Ode To Juventus
Today, February 5, 2011 can potentially become the day that many football fans will remember as the beginning of Matri’s glorious career at Juventus. Or, for the skeptics, it will probably only be the day the EPL went crazy, only as an introduction to El Nino’s debut against ‘Pool in a blue and white kit the next day. Either way, it felt like a day of “firsts” for Juventus as I was watching the Cagliari vs. Juve game. DJ, break it down:
Matri’s first goal for Juventus
What a pure striker’s goal. Didn’t hesitate one bit, took a few tiny steps to prepare and just blasted it towards the near post. A split decision that required no acting, dribbling, primadoning, just instinct. Boom. Just like that, he scores and puts his head down like a kid that just got grounded. Classy, but more than anything, lethal. Sono molto impressionato!
Matri’s first brace for Juventus
Composed, accurate (despite the deflection), at the right place at the right time. I credit our best center back for the left-back assist, but Matri was just feeling it. Especially after a potentially devastating one-on-one miss at the beginning of the match that was a Udinese deja vu. Bedda Matri! Benvenuto a Juventus.
Luca Toni’s first goal for Juventus
I know, I cannot believe it either. His first (allowed) goal for Juve came in his second game, coming on as a sub. In his post-game interview, he was reminded that he didn’t fake a foul today. He vowed to from now on keep his faked-foul-to-game ratio at at least 2:1. All jokes aside tho, that perfectly placed header from the edge of the 16 box was ridiculous. Mozzarella, mortadella, mit nutella, Luca sei per me, numero uno.
Krasic was fouled AND given the benefit of the doubt
One flop against Bologna and all of Italy had labeled him a faker. No referee would ever call a foul against him it was decided, until today of course. A rarity, yes, but today’s list of people shocked when Krasic was given a foul was longer than the list of people shocked by Luca Toni scoring.
Juventus’ first away win of 2011
Individual accolades should never come before team recognitions, but there really isn’t a particular order to my rambling here. For the really dedicated Juventus fans, this win feels like it’s been about 4 years overdue. I have never been one to panic immediately or get caught up in Scudetto talks, but man does this victory feel good. And what’s more encouraging, Juve deserved it. I am not saying that because they suffered bravely through a terrible spell in the last few games, or because they wrapped up a January transfer window with smart stitching patches instead of a new pair of pants. I am saying it because they played like a team today, and won like one.
Juventus attempted and pulled off possession football
How good did it feel to see our Juve keeping posession of the ball during the match and specifically towards the end? Yes, you can easily argue that it doesn’t happen at all the important periods of the game, but it felt good to see someone else chase us around the pitch. I cannot even remember the last time I was so impressed with our composure and stringing of passes like that for a majority of the game…maybe last year against Sampdoria?
Gigi Del Neri first deliberate change of formation
Everyone knows Gigi Del Neri likes his 4-4-2 a lot. So much, in fact, that he rarely switches from it wholesomely. Yes, we do play a 3 defender backline at times during the game, but to do a complete switch to a 4-3-1-2 with Melo, Sissoko, and Aquilani in the middle and ADP behind Toni & Matri up front was revolutionary for GDN. Best part – it worked. And beautifully at that.
Last, and probably the least…
…My first Juventus post on this website!
Hope to keem em coming. I love analyzing the game and discussing it with intelligent, knowledgable individuals. Speaking of which, check out the Juventus Offside blog, Adam’s tumblr corner, and Matt’s Juversation for quality Juventus analysis.
IERI, OGGI, DOMANI…SEMPRE JUVE! FORZA JUVE!
(shamelessly stolen from roberto)Divac & Drazen: Brothers Once, Teammates Forever
I originally launched this website with the intent of staying in touch with friends and family and sharing more details of my life than what I can fit in a Facebook or Twitter post.
I had no idea, however, that this week’s events were going to make me reflect on my childhood in Yugoslavia/Macedonia, and thus turn my blog into a Yugoslavian propaganda message board. For that, I sincerely apologize. I promise this is only temporary. That said, what follows are my thoughts and memories awoken by ESPN’s 30 for 30 “Once Brothers” documentary about the turbulent relationship between two Yugoslavian basketball icons, Vlade Divac & Drazen Petrovic.
I was born in 1987, way too late to really catch the glory days of the golden Yugoslavian basketball generation consisted of Petrovic, Divac, Paspalj, Radja, Kukoc, and others. Everything I know about that legendary Yugoslavian national team (that was European & World Champions at the time) I learned from video footage, magazines, pictures, and most importantly, stories my dad told me.
Now, imagine for a second that you were born the day after a huge asteroid hit the Earth and leveled most of the planet. Then imagine that the only survivors are your parents, their extended family, and their friends. And they have all lived on the old planet Earth their whole lives.
That was the environment that my generation grew up in. We were brought up in a society, in a social setting where everyone else was starting from scratch with preconceived notions of what society should be like. Macedonia had just declared independence from Yugoslavia after a painful break up, and you’d assume everyone would be happy about being “independent”. Actually, you’d be dead wrong. Since the first day I could log events in my memory (nerd alert), stories about how amazing the old planet Earth Yugoslavia was, how beautiful, peaceful, fulfilled life was, how happy it made everyone – it was all I heard, 24/7. It sounded like Yugoslavia had single-handedly discovered fire, water, air, and electricity at its inception and everyone around me had lived in a country that was the most advanced, revolutionizing piece of land on Earth. It must have been the creme de la creme of nations…period.
During my childhood, most people around me breathed and existed in the present, but their minds lived willingly trapped in the past. The glorious Yugoslavia. The promise land that was never to be again. The old, functioning, beautiful planet Earth.
But next to the word youth in the dictionary there is a picture of rebels (at least there is in mine 
). And hence I was such. I was a product of the west, the older generation a product of the east. For every extraordinary fact about Yugoslavia that I would hear, I’d counter with a better (or equally insulting) example of the present. A Stalin to their Tito, a Giggs to their Dzajic, the Boston Celtics to their Cibona, the Chicago Bulls to their Yugoplastika. Most importantly, the NBA stars to their Yugoslavian national team (the “plavi” – the ones in blue).
My parents would often say: “One day kid, one day you will be old enough to understand.” They would get up, crack open a huge grin, and loudly sing the Yugoslavian national anthem whenever it would play in documentaries about the old days. I waved them away, proud to be part of the new world. I knew better than them, I was a capitalist, I discarded the past for what the present and the future held. Little did I know.
Tonight, at 23 years age, I watched the “Once Brothers” documentary and my eyes welled up. I may have finally felt the pain, the sorrow, the tragedy that surrounded the Yugoslavian break up. Or I may have had the feeling since I first stepped foot in the USA, just know realizing. I also felt the joy, the pride, the happiness for the young but bold basketball players of that time. And I realize, it doesn’t even compare to how my folks and their generation feel about all that. They lived through it all. I am catching up through mainstream media.
Drazen Petrovic was heralded by many as the best European player to ever play basketball. He was a legend, a goofy looking kid that was humble, hard-working, passionate, and friendly. Everyone and their mother loved him. You just couldn’t not like the guy (double negatives FTW). He had everything – mad skill, determination, trophies, records, dazzling qualities. Did I mention he was also really good?
He was the Michael Jordan of Europe, of the East. As the documentary correctly points out, he may have been closer in style to Pistol Pete Maravich, but nonetheless he dominated. Drafted by the Portland Trailblazers, he spent 3 years in Europe while Portland had his rights and then made the move over to the West coast. He didn’t get much playing time to show his worth and was later traded to the Nets where he truly shined. As soon as he began reaching the highest point in his NBA career, he died tragically. I will let ESPN’s documentary tell you all about that.
Vlade Divac on
the other hand, has always had a reputation of a “shalabajzer” – a slacker (read shalabeizer). Super laid back, big jokester, he was the typical European center of the nineties. Not too physical, great feet, great court movement and anticipation, excellent passer and stealer. He fit in extremely well with Magic and Worthy as he could get up and down the court, and he was almost as good of a passer as Magic Johnon (I know, even I can’t believe I just wrote that). He then went on to play on a somewhat legendary Sacramento Kings team that played with immense passion. C Webb, Peja, J-Will, & Vlade were great basketball players playing wonderfully together. Too bad they couldn’t close out game 7 against the Lakers in the West Finals, otherwise they would have gone on to win it all.
But as in many other cases on the Balkan peninsula, Drazen’s and Divac’s ethnicity/nationality interfered with their close friendship. I have heard countless stories of people being incredibly close to each other during Yugoslavian times, only to turn around and go to war against each other in the end.
One thing that the American directors and writers could not grasp during the documentary was the magnitude of pressure Vlade and Drazen felt during the war. Pressure to be loyal to their country, to be nationalists first and friends second, to usher their home country in the era of independence with the “right” attitude. As Toni Kukoc puts it – you cannot pick between your family and your friends. You pick your family by default. It’s not even a choice.
So here we are, 20 years later and people still find the Yugoslavian story fascinating. At least those that didn’t have to live through it. The generation that did live through it, remembers both good times and bad, but talks mostly about one thing – the Yugoslavian national basketball team. I never heard stories about how Drazen died or how Vlade snatched the Croatian flag away from a fan after they won the world cup. All that media-caused propaganda was never relevant for those who knew the bone and marrow of the federation. Instead, what I did hear about was the team that was legendary, the bond that these youngins forged and the success they had because they were young, motivated, skillful, and open-minded.
The brother-like relationship between Divac, Drazen, Kukoc, Paspalj, and Radza may had been smeared by the blood shed on the streets, but in the eyes of the ones that will tell the story for generations to come, the story will always be the grandeur of the teammates that were the “plavi”.
Mixing Business & Pleasure: The Serbian Job
Since I am a big Juventus fan and a recent admirer of our newborn star, Milosh Krasic, I was extremely excited to watch the Italy vs. Serbia game that was to take place on Tuesday, October 12 in Genoa.
If you were in a similar mood or if you are a sports fan in general, I am sure you are just as disappointed to witness the craziness that went down at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris.
Namely, a group of Serbian hooligan fans put in motion a plan to prevent the match from taking place, meanwhile destroying everything they stumbled upon on their way to accomplishing that plan – whether it was cars, buses, buildings, the stadium, etc.
I am sure a lot of you are wondering why exactly these ugly scenes happened? Having grown up in Macedonia, just 30 mins away from Serbia’s border and 4 hours away from Belgrade (Serbia’s capitol), I thought I’d tackle that question using some of my somewhat biased knowledge of the history and the area. I apologize in advance if I go off on historical tangents; if you’re interested read on, if not don’t waste your time.
As in Italy, football in Serbia and the Balkans has always been influenced by local politics. That said, to even begin to understand today’s frustration of those “fans”, you need to know that Serbia has two great football clubs – Red Star Belgrade & Partizan Belgrade. They are obviously both based in Belgrade and have massive amounts of following all around the Balkans.
You may have heard of Red Star as a former winner of the Champions League in ’91. Back then it was still called the European Cup. Interestingly enough, the final of that years European cup was played at San Nicola, in Bari, Italy (and yes, the grass pitch was a bit better then). Red Star featured some legendary football players from former Yugoslavia, including Sinisha Mihaljovic (Lazio & Inter star, free kick specialist, current Fiorentina manager), Vladimir Jugovic (played for Inter), Dejan Savicevic (played for AC Milan in the nineties, current president of the Montenegran FA), and most notably, Darko Pancev (Macedonia’s most legendary and successful football player, golden boot winner. Goran Pandev is a close second).
Partizan Belgrade is in this year’s group stage for the Champions League, so you may have heard of it that way. They may have less history, but have had more money lately. Hence their recent success domestically and better recognition internationally.
Anyhoo, these two clubs enjoy notorious support around the Balkans and have fierce supporter groups. Their ultras are absolutely insane (in both dedication and actions). And of course, they ABSOLUTELY HATE EACH OTHER. Whenever they meet in the domestic league for what is known as the Eternal Derby, the choreographing and attention to detail from both supporter groups is ridiculously awesome. Unfortunately though, the home team must also always renovate the stadium cause the away team’s fans destroy it. There are always fights and riots, they just go nuts every time. Like every single time. You think Barca vs. Real Madrid or AC Milan vs. Inter gets intense and hostile? They don’t even compare.
Fast forward to the Italy vs. Serbia match, and you get a chance to witness that violence and hooliganism on an international stage. It is my belief that the fan group that caused the incidents in Genoa were mostly Red Star Belgrade ultras – also known as Delije (read Daeliye). They started by rioting on the streets, then attacked Serbian players in front of their hotel, smashed the Serbian bus and attempted to lynch the Serbian keeper Vladimir Stojkovic (he came up through the ranks of Red Star, was even regarded as an honorary Red Star member, only to switch to Partizan this last year), and then went on to rage at the stadium and force the cancellation of the match.
It would be easy to assume that the rage expressed by the Serbian fans was mostly due to the home loss the team suffered to Estonia recently. It is, after all, (almost) the same Estonia that was destroyed by Bosnia and Herzegovina 7-0 in 2008. The 1-3 battering that Serbia recently suffered was bad, yes, and while it showed Serbia’s lack of form lately, it also brought to light how misguided the decision to fire World Cup coach Radomir Antic was (Antic has coached Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Atletico Madrid among others). But was it just a football-based frustration that caused this rage? Hell no.
Most of Balkan’s ultras are driven by idealistic & nationalistic beliefs that in their minds justify their crazy actions. One of the most notable scenes from the uncontrollable actions in Genoa was the burning of the Albanian flag. Clearly inspired by politics, the burning of the flag is a direct protest against Kosovo and Muslim-Albanians that have taken over that area recently. Kosovo is was a province in Serbia that was the cradle of the Serbian Orthodox Church back in the day. During the Yugoslavian break-up war, a lot of ethnic cleansing happened in that area (mostly Serbian guerrilla groups and army massacring local Muslim residents), but today it is indeed Albanian Muslims that occupy the majority of that region. Interestingly enough, one of the Serbian military groups that did most of the ethnic cleansing was consisted of mostly Red Star Belgrade ultras at the time, led by the infamous gangster Arkan. Arkan was an admirer of Hitler and was rumored to have had a picture of him in his apartment back in day, hence the fascism displayed by many of the Serbian hooligans at the stadium. They don’t really care for Nazism or Hitler, they mostly show their loyalty and admiration to Arkan – a legend among many in the hooligan ranks.
In recent years, with the exclusive support of the US government, Kosovo has become a haven for Albanian thugs and terrorists and is was even allowed to declare independence 2 years ago with the blessing of the US (and without UN approval or Serbian authorization). My family and I drove through Kosovo a few years ago and noticed a huge, building-tall poster of Bill Clinton – the American president in charge at the time the Albanians were given the key to Kosovo.
Here is another funny coincidence – on the day of the Italy vs. Serbia match, Hilary Clinton was making an official visit to Belgrade to preach for equality and unity. Don’t think for a second that the two events were unrelated.
In line with idealistic, homophobic, and nationalistic behavior was the massive violent protest against the first ever gay parade organized in Belgrade on Sunday, October 10. Most of the same people that cause the Genoa incident were very active this Sunday, destroying public property and getting in fights with the police over the gay parade that was supposed to show Serbia’s freedom of speech, expression, and sexual orientation. Go figure: around 1,000 people came out for the gay parade, were protected by more than 5,500 police officers, and were threatened by a 6,500 strong mob of “patriots” that still regard homosexuals as lesser beings. Now that is some freedom!
But you may ask why did the football incident happen in Italy? It is my belief that Italy was mostly out of convenience. I believe this incident was orchestrated and funded by a political group back in Belgrade, while the date of the match was chosen because of the Hilary Clinton visit, the ease of travel to Italy from Serbia, and the timing of the Estonia loss. If you really want to get into the political motives, you can also add that NATO (mostly powered by the USA) used bases in Italy to launch aerial attacks on Serbia in 1999/2000. Italy is also one of the many EU nations that have recognized Kosovo and support its independence. But I personally believe that is a bit far-fetched.
The Balkans is a political and ethnic mess and it has been for the last 20 years. Its problems shouldn’t, however, affect sports and especially shouldn’t interfere with international competitions like the European Championship qualifications. I sincerely hope UEFA will take severe action against the Serbian national team and Serbian Football Federation. Hopefully, that will force the hands of the politicians in charge to put a stop to this madness. Unfortunately, they seem to be the only ones able to do that. To think that Serbian political groups may be adding fuel to this fire is scary. But frankly, it is nothing new in the crazy world of mixing business and pleasure on the good ‘ol Balkan Peninsula.
Welcome to My Website!
It’s been a long time coming, but a dork of my status should really have his own website by now. Lately I’ve also found myself itching to share stuff with friends and family, hence this little thing I like to call IVOlves.com. I think everyone gets the play of words there, so I will spare you the time. In all honesty tho, I really wanted my website to be called IVOlving.com, but that one was taken. IVOlves will do.
I plan on wasting your time with posts about sports (Juventus & the forthcoming NBA season come to mind), events that happen in my life, my brand-spanking-new bike (a Trek 2.1 road bike which I have only had the opportunity to ride a few times due to the wet season that overtakes Washington for 11 months of the year), and anything else I find interesting, funny, or bizarre. You’re welcome.
Alrighty, welcoming post is done and off we go. Thanks for stopping by, please subscribe with your email address (or with your fave RSS reader) so I can spam your inboxes with more email. Seriously tho, every new post I put on here will be conveniently sent to your inbox if you subscribe. The power of the interwebs. And WIRED is calling it dead…crazy shiz.
Welcome!