Tag Archives: Italy

Gazza, Golazo and how we fell in love with Football Italia

CAST YOUR MIND BACK TO 1992.

As Brian Deane scored the Premier League’s first goal, our football viewing habits were more likely to include Atalanta than Atletico Madrid.

Flick through the pages of a 1990s football magazine like 90 Minutes or Total Football and you’ll find its pages devoted to Serie A with mere footnotes to La Liga.

In the early 1990s, Italy was the destination of choice for the World’s top footballers. There was simply no greater league in world football than Serie A.

Continue reading Gazza, Golazo and how we fell in love with Football Italia

Best XI: The finest football kits the World Cup has ever seen 

For fans across the globe, the colour, excitement and sheer sensory spectacle of the World Cup was the watershed moment when their youthful interest became a fevered obsession.

Every 4 years our planet comes together to watch 4 weeks of drama played out on grass and we know that come July 15th, history will have been made in Russia as magnificent new memories are burned onto our retinas.

Iconic international football shirts of yesteryear have become part of our sporting culture and Adidas have signalled a return to individual bespoke designs rather than the functional uniformity of recent tournaments with their kits for Russia 2018 holding a decidedly retro feel.

There is of course a link between glory and romance as the colours we remember are often worn by the players like Pele, Cruyff and Maradona who inspired the next generation of World Cup heroes.

So before we take the road to Nizhny Novgorod, here’s a nostalgic run down of the finest 11 sets of kits the World Cup has ever seen.

Continue reading Best XI: The finest football kits the World Cup has ever seen 

The False 9: Explained

The term “false 9” refers to a player playing in a lone-striker position who drops deep to search for the ball. The intention is to draw opposing central defenders with him and create a diversion for team-mates to move into space behind the defensive line and exploit chances to score. Continue reading The False 9: Explained

Catenaccio: Unlocked

A common stereotype in the coverage of Italian football is that it is still bound and shackled in the all-encompassing embrace of Catenaccio, the tactical system which came to prominence during the 1960s with a strong emphasis on defence.

The Azzurri are often described as playing in the “Catenaccio style” and whilst certain characteristics remain, the system itself died many years ago.

Continue reading Catenaccio: Unlocked

It’s just like watching Brazil: Diego Costa and the expat players returning home

The World Cup begins on Thursday evening in São Paulo with hosts and 5 times champions, Brazil, taking on a Croatian side with 2 members of their squad returning to the land of their birth.

Continue reading It’s just like watching Brazil: Diego Costa and the expat players returning home