For some reason that is completely beyond me, people generally despise the Italian football (soccer) team. Unless you’re Italian, of course.

Really, I can’t understand why… they’re gorgeous, excellent players and  make any game entertaining to watch. The World Cup is going to be so boring now without my boys.

Of course, I can’t blame you if you want to challenge me when I say they’re “excellent players” given what happened during their short-lived time in South Africa. Actually, I’m not really sure what happened. There were good moments, there were bad ones. Unfortunately, mostly bad, but at least they didn’t go the way of the French (ha!).

As early as they were disqualified, I still got a feel for some of the new players, but am really disappointed to say good-bye to the old ones.

Buffon: Ugh, every time they showed him on the sidelines today I wanted to cry. I’m certain he would’ve made at least a slight difference in the way things went for the Azzurri. Which leads me to his replacement…

Marchetti: In another four years, I think he’ll be up to Buffon’s standards. There’s plenty of potential with him – I call him the Little Flyer because he flies and dodges all over the place to keep the ball out of the net. But he just wasn’t good enough this time around. But I like him. He’s channeling some Buffon in the way he plays and in his appearance as well. That’s always a plus!

Montolivo: A relatively new player who did well. I’m more interested in him though because he reminds me of those heads I remember seeing on old Roman coins. He should’ve prayed more to his Roman ancestors.

Iaquinta: He’s obviously a good player, but I also like him because his eyebrows remind me of David Beckham’s and therefore I laughed every time I saw him.

Pepe: People seem to think he’s an amazing player, and he’s alright, but I wasn’t too impressed. He looks like a real douchebag.

Sadly, this was it for Cannavaro and Gattuso. It explains why Gattuso looked especially depressed and angry when he realized the team was losing today. He looked like he was about ready to slap a bitch. But kudos to Cannavaro for always being classy and cool – and sometimes slightly devilish like when he purposefully stood in place while a Slovakian player was running his way. Ha!

Like I said, the World Cup is rather boring now for me. The only teams I’m remotely interested in are Germany, England, USA and Argentina. Maybe Portugal and Spain, too, but we’ll see. I’ll float around and give my support to the better team.

To close this entry on a lighter now, I leave you with this quote from Stephen Fry’s Twitter: “This World Cup is like WWII: The French surrendered early; the Americans turned up late leaving England to fight the Germans.”

Italy vs Slovakia GALLERY! You’re welcome. (Pics courtesy of PicApp and Getty)

Gigi and Andrea thank you for your time.