The
smart money, most would say, is on Spain and has been, with the exception of
Germany, from the outset of the tournament. Should the Spanish go on to win
this evening, they will make history. Spain will become the first team ever to
win three major international tournaments back to back, a remarkable
achievement if it were to come to pass. Along with the team achieving that
collective milestone, should La Roja win, Spanish coach Vicente del Bosque will
become the first manager in the history of the game to have won the World Cup,
European Championships and the Champions’ League in his career. Not bad eh?
Spain
and del Bosque will not, however, be able to have it all their own way in Kiev,
Italy will have more than a little to say about that. Whereas Spain were
pre-tournament favourites, expected to go all the way, at least to the final,
Italy were less of a known quantity coming into the tournament. Whilst their
presence in this evening’s show-piece final cannot be described as a shock, it
is certainly slightly surprising. However, in the past, Italy have arrived at
two tournaments emerging from domestic match fixing scandals, 1982 and 2006,
they went on to win them both so write them off at your peril.
Italy’s
tournament began as mentioned above with a credible 1-1 draw against Spain. To
use the word credible, is actually doing Prandelli’s Italy a dis-service. The
Italians were good in that opening game, playing with three at the back, they
were a lot more fluid and carried a much greater attacking threat than the
Spanish had anticipated. In the first-half, certainly, they outplayed the
Spanish, with Cassano running the show at times and, despite Fabregas’s
equaliser, it was only in the last twenty minutes, when del Bosque introduced
Torres and Jesus Navas that the Spaniards began to cause real problems.
The game against Spain was notable for a reason
other than the performance and the result. That reason being that Cesare
Prandelli named Mario Balotelli in his starting eleven to take on the current
World and defending European Champions. With the outcome of tonight's game
being too difficult to predict, one thing we can predict is that his
performance this evening could be all important.
It
was a big day for Balotelli, a player who polarises opinion all over the
footballing world, nowhere more so than in his homeland. Plagued by
disciplinary problems throughout his young career, some questioned his
suitability and big-match temperament and many, especially in the press,
sharpened their knives with anticipatory glee at his predicted upcoming
failure.
Balotelli
didn’t have the best of games against Spain, he had a couple of chances which he could have done
better with certainly and, when he burst clear early in the second half and,
with the goal at his mercy, dithered, held onto the ball for too long and was,
ultimately, tackled before even getting his shot away, the doubters seemed to
have had their day. Soon afterwards Balotelli was replaced by di Natale and the
latter duly scored.
Prandelli
persisted, picking Balotelli for Italy’s second game against Croatia. Again,
however, the striker had a couple of chances which he failed to convert and
was, to a certain extent, ineffectual. Dropped or rested against the Republic
of Ireland, whichever way you interpret it, Mario was brought on late in the
second-half. Never one to take things lying down, Balotelli scored a
spectacular overhead kick in the dying minutes, putting Italy 2-0 up and
securing for his country a first place finish in Group C. Turning angrily towards
the bench, Balotelli attempted to voice his frustration at not having been
picked to start but was quickly hushed up by his team-mates, luckily for him
perhaps.
The
goal was enough to cement Mario’s position on that team-sheet for Italy’s
quarter final against England. Much has already been written about this
particular game, with most attention rightly focused on England’s inability to
keep the ball, Hodgson’s inability to adapt his system to deal with Pirlo and,
of course, the majestic performance put in by the midfield maestro himself.
Watching that match though, missed chances not-withstanding, it occurred to me
and latterly became clear to me that Mario Balotelli was, after Pirlo, Italy’s
most dangerous weapon and, in terms of a goal-scoring threat, Italy’s only
legitimate one.
Balotelli
received lots of abuse for missing a couple of chances against England, notably from his own press, La Gazetta dello
Sport depicting him as King Kong after the match, for example. However, most of
this criticism was unjustified as he was a recurrent threat during the two
hours, stretching the English back-line to breaking point at times. On top of
his all-round performance, he had the nerve to go head to head with, club
colleague, Joe Hart from the penalty spot and beat him confidently in the
shoot-out.
Victory
over England clearly filled Prandelli’s Italy with a renewed confidence and
when they took to the field against the, heavily fancied, Germans, many
peoples’ tip to be tournament winners, that confidence was there for all to
see. Mario Balotelli personified this new belief. His first goal was simply a
case of good movement and timing to get away from his marker and direct the
header beyond Neuer, his second was altogether more exhilarating. Finding
himself in almost the position he’d been in against Spain, when he dithered,
and against England when an extra touch allowed John Terry to make a last ditch
block, Balotelli smashed home a first time finish, on the volley, from the edge
of the box, giving Neuer no chance whatsoever. This was the real Super Mario.
The
“Super Mario” tag is one that is naturally applied to a successful footballer
with that first name. In Britain, it is used about Balotelli, in Germany it is
used to refer to Gomez and, at Euro 2012, we have heard it also applied to
Mandzukic of Croatia. All three have had eye-catching tournaments, all three
are strikers and all have scored three times for their respective nations in
Poland and Ukraine, making them joint top scorers with a couple of others. Only
Balotelli remains, however, and, if he can score tonight, help Italy claim what
will be their first European Championship win in forty four years and, at the
same time, claim the Golden Boot, the “Super Mario” moniker will surely belong
only to him.
Racism
and the struggle to stop it has been an underlying theme of the 2011/12 season,
certainly in the Premier League, and Euro2012 has been no exception. Forgetting
the scare stories and sensationalism promoted by the BBCs Panorama programme in
the run up to the tournament, which have proved to be just that, there have
been fairly common incidents involving racist chanting from fans during
matches. The Spanish, Russian and
Croatian F.A.s have all been fined by UEFA because sections of their support
have participated in racist chanting and with making racist gestures. This is a
problem that goes deeper than football and is obviously a societal/cultural
issue but it is something that must be kept out of football stadia and educated
out of society in a broader context.
I
bring up this problem only because it has a direct link to the story I’m
writing, it directly concerns Mario Balotelli. Both the Spanish fans and the
Croatian fans in question were directing their Neanderthal hatred at Balotelli
himself and only Balotelli. Mario is no stranger to racists, in his time at
Inter there were incidents of bananas being thrown and, as the first black
player to regularly represent Italy, he has had to cope with abuse from all
sides, including from the mainstream Italian press as we alluded to earlier.
Balotelli riles people up with his abrasive attitude, however, there is more
than a hint of racism involved, latent, subconscious or otherwise, with the
abuse that he gets from many, both on the “terraces” and from other sources, at
home and abroad.
Balotelli
spoke of walking off the pitch if he heard racist abuse directed at him. In
another interview he said “I will go to prison because I will kill them”. These
comments and the issue obviously provoked debate but, for me, no stranger to
receiving racist abuse in the past myself, the best way to shut these people up
is to show them that you are better than they are and that is exactly what
Balotelli is doing.
Sometimes in life, things work out in a strange way and
this may just be one of those instances. Just as Jesse Owens smashed the Nazi’s
ideas on racial superiority in 1936, by showing that he was the best athlete in
the world, so too can Mario Balotelli make a mockery of all those individuals
who treat him as less than human by proving that he’s the best striker in
Europe. Sad that after sixty six years we still have the same problem, but
Balotelli’s actions can serve as an important reminder to those that need one.
We are all one nation. There can be only one Super Mario!
By Neil Patterson
Email: neil.b.patterson@gmail.com
Facebook: http://goo.gl/MJce0
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Neil1980
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