October 15, 2000
Italy 3 France 1
Rome, Italy

Mario Rimati

Match report

Signora Morace led her troops to a 3-1 victory over Madame Loisel's France in a friendly match in Rome's Flaminio stadium. The match took place in front of a measly crowd of not more than 500 people. The stadium's capacity is about 35-40,000 and is Rome's 2nd most important stadium after the Olympic stadium (capacity: 85,000). The poor turnout was primarily due to the F.A. and Female Division's usual disorganization: 5,000 people could have possibly turned up for the game for the simple reason that at the exact same time as the women's match (3 pm.), the men's Serie A game between Romaand Perugia was taking place at the nearby Olympic stadium (walking distance: about 15 minutes). Approximately 41,000 people turned out for themen's game. Had the F.A. and Division got its act together, the women's match could have kicked-off at 6 pm. An announcement could have therefore been made towards the end of the men's match informing the public that just nearby Morace's Italy would be facing France. Unfortunately, another excellent opportunity to present the women's game to a much larger audience was again missed. Carolina certainly wields more power than her predecessors, but not enough yet to shake the F.A. to its foundations.

On with the match. The first half saw the Italians come out rather aggressively against their French "cousins". Italy was missing Patrizia Panico as she has been disqualified for the upcoming Euro qualifier in Palermo on Oct. 18 against Portugal. Morace therefore took advantage of testing other players on the forward line. Lazio's Tatiana Zorri donned the "Scorpion's" No. 9 jersey and joined Rita Guarino as Italy's two sole forwards (Morace chose a 4-4-2 against Loisel's 3-4-3). Morace's move was right as the two players complimented each other rather well. Longtime national team player Manuela Tesse was back in action with the team after a lengthy absence under former head coach Ettore Reccagni. Aggressive as always, Tesse played an outstanding match for someone who at the moment is still not in top playing form. Federica D'Astolfo was also back in the line-up in midfield in front of Italy's new captain, veteran goalkeeper Giorgia Brenzan.

Italy went ahead after 10 minutes into the match with a header from Daniela Tavalazzi off of a beautiful cross from Zorri. Seven minutes later Guarino
took advantage of a botched-up defensive move by France's goalkeeper to put Italy ahead 2-0. With three minutes remaining in the 1st half Guarino was fed a precise pass from Pellizzer to out maneuver the goalkeeper with her 2nd goal of the match. Italy maintained the lead pretty well until the end of the first half when Provost took a shot from far away to catch Brenzan off guard (her only major mistake of the match). Considering that it was a friendly match, Morace had asked if the French agreed to make unlimited substitutions during the game. They refused so she went ahead in the 2nd half by changing only five players. Out came Brenzan for Fabiana Comin. Guarino was also substituted after a convincing 1st half. The French appeared to be more motivated and aggressive than the Italians in the remaining 45 minutes. Tempers flared somewhat as the tackles got slightly nastier. A total of 4 players got yellow-carded, including Zorri who was eventually switched from the left flank to the right one (Carolina sensed that Zorri was heading towards a red card so she moved Tesse in her place). The 2nd half was certainly not as entertaining as the first one, rather dull in fact. Poor passing on both sides still typified most of the match. France's weakness was primarily in its goalkeeping.

At the end of the match Morace appeared rather satisfied with her players' performance and said that she was rather serene going into Wednesday's all-important match against Portugal on the 18th. In that match, Italy will be wearing the new uniforms which have been especially designed by Kappa.

ITALY:

Brenzan (Comin 2nd half)

Deiana

Tesse

Perelli

Tavalazzi

Masia (Caprini 2nd half)

Pellizzer (Tagliacarne 2nd half)

Duo' (Maglio 2nd half)

D'Astolfo (Ceroni 2nd half)

Zorri, Guarino (Marsico 2nd half).

Head Coach: Morace

----------------------------

FRANCE:

Marty

Diacre

Riera

Bompastor

Brandy (M'Barek 2nd half)

Soubeyrand

Bloiun (Jesequel 2nd half)

Mugneret, Lattaf (Le Denmat 2ndhalf)

Herbert (Zenoni 2nd half)

Provost

Head Coach: Loisel