Hasan Saiyid pays tribute to World Cup winning coach Marcello Lippi.

While the likes of Gianluigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro and Andrea Pirlo may have provided the more iconic visuals of Italy’s World Cup triumph, coach Marcello Lippi’s demeanour — ruffled only by vehement Gennaro Gattuso embraces and Italy’s goals in the latter stages of the tournament — was the calm in the storm, which raged with a match-fixing scandal back home.

Many coaches at the World Cup talked a great game, extolling the supposed qualities of their teams. Some of the coach talk was pugnacious, some defiant but most of it was misguided.

From Sven-Goran Eriksson’s grossly inflated view of England’s ability to Guus Hiddink’s spurious self-deprecation, the World Cup press conferences were replete with comedy, tragedy and delusions of grandeur.

Lippi took part in none of it. Preparing a team in the backdrop of a match-fixing scandal was hard enough; to take them to triumph required an iron will. And who better to forge that will than Lippi, who should now surely be considered the best coach of all time.

Hyperbole you say? Well, how many coaches in the world have won the Champions League, Scudetto and the World Cup? Brian Clough, Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho have written their names in history, but Lippi has penned his with the glow of the World Cup.

Born in 1948 in Viareggio (Tuscany), Lippi has coached provincial sides like Cesena and more glamourous ones like Inter and Juventus.

Perhaps it is this broad familiarity with Italian football that urged Lippi to select players for the World Cup from less fashionable teams such as Palermo and Udinese.

The coach built his team around a collective ethic rather than the brilliance of one or two players, something which Italian coaches have a tendency to do. Lippi’s ideology was evident throughout Italy’s march to the World Cup win. The fact that he used all of his outfield players at the World Cup served two very important purposes. Firstly, it proved to the players that his promise of “everyone will play a part” was not hollow. Secondly, it kept the entire squad on its toes. There was no room for complacency to set in.

Striker Alberto Gilardino captured the sentiment well: “He keeps us on tenterhooks. No one is sure of their place until their name has been announced
the day of the game.”

Perhaps Gilardino exaggerated a bit. After all, Buffon, Cannavaro, Zambrotta and Pirlo must have been players that Lippi considered irreplaceable
but it was so on the balance of their performances rather than their reputations.

Contrast that practical attitude with the indulgence of Eriksson or Brazil’s Carlos Alberto Parreira. The former persisted with Frank Lampard despite
the midfielder’s dismal form and the latter refused to shuffle despite an out of sorts Roberto Carlos and a quiet Ronaldinho.

It takes a brave man to make prickly decisions and Lippi did it with an authority that his players respected. Even the normally petulant Francesco Totti accepted the coach’s decisions professionally.

Of course, the media’s queries regarding the scandal made Lippi’s job at the same time harder and easier. Harder because with all brewing Lippi had to keep his team’s minds on the task at hand. Easier because with the media’s asinine questioning came player rage and Lippi used that to build a siege like mentality around his team.

There was also an audacity about Lippi. He jilted the dull, defensive tag for a much bolder approach, plainly apparent in Italy’s terrific 2-0 win over
hosts Germany in the semi-finals. With time winding down, Lippi played with four strikers in that game.

“There was no midfield and both teams were going for it,” said Lippi.

“So I decided to opt for four strikers who could make the difference.”

They indeed made the difference as Italy recorded a late, epic win.

There was then no Giovanni Trapattoni blunders as seen in the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004, when the tactician took off strikers while 1-0 up in key games.

While they withered under Trapattoni, Italy blossomed under Lippi’s guidance. The coach perhaps has not received as much credit as he should have, especially in English print. In Italian media, the eulogies will surely multiply.

So, then, spare a thought with me for Lippi, who after coaches Vittorio Pozzo and Enzo Bearzot, steered Italy to a fourth World Cup triumph. The likes of Buffon and Cannavaro could only oblige to do his bidding.

-Hasan Saiyid
For more insight, opinion and anything to do with Italy check out Hasan Saiyid’s Italia focus section on his site: http://www.totalsoccer.ca