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| Friday 20 June, 2008 |
| Blog: It’s Toni time |
| If Italy are to have any chance of beating Spain, Antonio Labbate feels that they’ll need Luca Toni to rediscover his goal touch |
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Luca Toni, your country needs you. The real you. Not just the man, but the machine, the striker who has struck on 122 times in the League over the past five years. Against Spain on Sunday night, you’ll lead the line yet again for a side who have never craved a goal from your head, boot, shin, off your whatever, as much as they do now. Come on Luca, segna per noi – score for us.
It’s not been the greatest of championships so far for the man mountain. Expected to be Roberto Donadoni’s most potent attacking threat, the former Fiorentina hitman has fired blank after blank. Quiet against the Dutch, unfortunate versus the Romanians and wasteful when taking on the French, Toni is starting to split public opinion.
Earlier this week, one of you out there emailed Football Italia, demanding that we all “wake up” and “call for the dropping of Toni” on the grounds that he had no goals to his name and no class to his game. Valid reasons one can argue, but doing without Toni is not an option that Donadoni should, or would for that matter, consider.
Toni, who also only scored twice at Germany 2006, is an irreplaceable figure in this Italian side. There are too many unknowns against bench warmer Marco Borriello and we have to face the reality that Brazilian Amauri would have been called into the clan had his Italian passport arrived in time.
We’ve seen enough of Luca in this tournament to – optimistically or not – believe that his maiden Euro 2008 goal is just around the corner. After all, he had a perfectly valid header against Romania scrubbed off by an unnecessary offside flag and was a real handful against France, where he won the decisive penalty which came with the added bonus of a dismissal.
But, just as Coaches are judged by results, strikers will be remembered by their goals when it matters. And that time is truly now. Italy, along with Poland, are the only side at this tournament who haven’t had an attacker in their ranks score for them. In fact, all three of Italy’s goals have come from set-pieces so far – a corner, a penalty and a free-kick.
Paolo Rossi in ’82 and Roberto Baggio in ’94 both ended major international competitions as Italy’s top scorers after failing to find the net in three initial group games. Can Toni do the same?
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Why all the hate for Toni? Yes he’s been a little wasteful, yes unlucky, but so what? No one else has scored either. Against Romania he set up four or five potential goals, yet they were all wasted by others. I mean, you all called for Del Piero to be named in the team and he has failed with Italy for over 10 years now! Toni is a maniac and everyone knows how dangerous he is – even without scoring he has proved to be the world’s best striker. I do think he will break his duck against the Spanish.
Frank
Toni certainly does lack the technique, speed and class of some of the other strikers, so when he doesn't score or he is out of position he looks ordinary. His record though speaks for itself and to my mind he has been extremely unlucky in major competitions. Who remembers the shot he cracked off the crossbar against Ghana at the World Cup? I can't help but wonder what he might have achieved if that chance had gone in. He also scored a great header in the Final that was disallowed. And again he was denied against Romania. For me, Toni is doing all the right things and I can't help feeling that if he scores once he will score a handful for Italy. Let us hope he starts that trend on Sunday…
Gerard
Two years ago he didn’t score in the first three games either, but then scored twice in the fourth. And yes, you could say it is very similar to Rossi in ‘82 when he shot blanks, but became top scorer with six in the last three games of the tournament. Give him a break, he’s a marked man, and he has done ok so far. He’ll soon get the goals.
Gino
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