FanHouse Italy

Bob Bradley and the rest the U.S. national team ought to send a bouquet of flowers to Egyptian coach Hassan Shehata, after his Pharaohs upended Italy 1-0 in the Confederations Cup Group B play.

Even though the U.S. has been outscored 6-1 in two matches, on top of being generally outclassed, amazingly the Americans still have some semblance of a chance to advance ... assuming they can beat Egypt at least 5-0 Sunday and Italy loses to Brazil.*

Piece of cake.

The dream came crashing to an end on Tuesday evening in Toronto when the evil Communists from Venezuela cheated defeated Italy 10-1 and eliminated them from the World Baseball Classic. It was the second time in a matter of days that the Venezuelans bested the Italians (the first game was a 7-0 "victory"), no doubt because Hugo Chavez bribed the umpires with free gasoline.

It's really a shame too, but not just because of the promise shown by Italy when it sent Canada home after only two games on Monday. No, it's a shame because none of this ever had to happen. The Italians could have beaten Venezuela.

All they needed was me.

Roberto Donadoni was doomed from the start. He replaced Marcello Lippi as manager of the Italian national team right after Lippi won the World Cup. Anything short of another appearance in a final at EURO 2008 just wasn't going to be good enough.

That's not the only reason, though, that Italy sacked Donadoni, shown here leaving with an envelope containing his severance package -- which is not actual money, but the advance results sheets for the upcoming Serie A season and a note advising him to keep his bets small so that the authorities don't get suspicious.

No, Donadoni was sacked because the team he put together for EURO 2008 was horrible. Yes, losing Fabio Cannavaro hurt his cause, but aside from the loss to the Netherlands, Italy was not terrible defensively. The problem was that Italy played nothing but defensive. Their entire attack consisted of hoofing it forward and hoping Luca Toni did something with it, which he didn't. Compare that to the creative and relentless attacks shown by the Netherlands, Spain, Russia and Turkey. Italy played for penalties from the first minute in their quarterfinal loss to Spain. The Italians played ugly football that soccer fans couldn't stand to watch, and they deserved an early exit.

Reports are now suggesting that Lippi will take his old job back. After this tournament, many Italy fans probably wish he hadn't left in the first place.