I know I might sound insane, but just how far-fetched am I really? After EURO 2012, Italy proved to be one of the top 2 or 3 best teams in the world. They may have been "smashed" 4-0 to Spain(who are in my opinion the greatest team ever assembled), but they put up a gallant fight. The scoreline may not have shown that, but Italy actually played very well in that game and it was only a matter of finishing off chances which they struggled to do all tournament. Otherwise, they could've won all of their games by at least 3 goals. Besides Colombia, Italy probably has the best youth development in the world. It seems like every week we hear about a 16 or 17 year old playing in Serie B or C1 who is being scouted by big clubs. You could make a dictionary of all the players that are 22 or younger who are expected to have a big future in front of them.
Here's a list of some of the most notable ones:
1. Marco Verratti
2. Stephen El Shaarawy
3. Mattia De Sciglio
4. Mattia Perin
5. Mattia Destro
6. Fabio Borini
7. Lorenzo Insigne
8. Andrea Poli
9. Ciro Immobile
10. Angelo Ogbonna
11. Riccardo Saponara
12. Nicola Sansone
13. Davide Santon
14. Mario Balotelli(still "young" in my opinion)
That is 14 names that I believe can already compete, not to mention some of the great veterans Italy has to offer such as Buffon, Pirlo and Totti(who may get called up to the WC). Spain is slowly, but surely finally starting to fall back down to earth. Germany continues to disappoint time and time again in the biggest of matches and the Italians have always had the Germans number. Other than those two teams, there's no one who is as good as Italy, though there are plenty of teams who can take them out. Brazil, Argentina, Portugal, England and even Russia, who I find very underrated, are very capable of knocking Italy out of the World Cup. By 2014, all those players I mentioned will have developed even more and played in more big matches at the club level that they will come into Brazil bursting with confidence and ready to redeem Italy from that atrocious time in South Africa. Before, Italy was known as being a very defensive team, but now with Prandelli as coach and these new kids coming in, Italy looks to be an extremely offensive threat. Alongside Balotelli and SES, we could also have Totti, Cassano and maybe Di Natale(if he didn't retire from international play already). We still have more than a year left to go, but it will be very interesting to see how this squad develops.
Forza Azzurri!
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