Italians and Danes in a scoreless draw
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-06-15 08:37

Happiness can be a goalless draw, provided that the class is there and that the two teams cancel each other out with relentless skills.

Here on Monday in the birthplace of Portugal, the game between Denmark and Italy resulted precisely in the same scoreline as the Switzerland-Croatia match the previous evening. But that is where the similarity ended.

The hand of Italy's coach Giovanni Trapattoni signals his players as striker Alessandro Del Piero (Rear) walks off the field after being substituted during their Euro 2004 Group C match with Denmark at the Afonso Henriques stadium in Guimaraes June 14, 2004. [Reuters]

The Italians are slow starters, but obdurate stayers, and the Danes are athletes who in 1992 came off the beaches to win the European Championship in Sweden after the former Yugoslavia had been barred because of war. Giovanni Trapattoni, the Italian coach, is a religious man, and he is accustomed to the confessional.

"Finally," he said after the match Monday, "the reality of Euro 2004 has sunk in. We really didn't read the game at all well in the first half and although it improved in the second, we still were too static." "The draw," he added, "was a fair result."

Italy's Francesco Totti (L) is challenged by Denmark's Thomas Helveg (R) during their Euro 2004 Group C soccer match at the Afonso Henriques stadium in Guimaraes June 14, 2004. [Reuters]

Honesty is a virtue, and long ago Alfredo di Stefano, one of soccer's greats, described a game without goals as like a day without the sun. He is not one to be argued with, but the Dom Afonso Henriques stadium at Guimar?es was not only bathed in sunlight on Monday, it was broiling.

Nevertheless, in the stifling heat, the Danes managed to stay bright and athletic, the Italians had a more languid pace, but patiently used their subtle guile as a weapon of surprise. And the fact that there were no goals was no reason to despair or feel deprived. This was the thinking-man's soccer.

Italy's goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon (R) stops a charge from Denmark's Jon Dahl Tomasson during their Euro 2004 Group C soccer match at the Afonso Henriques stadium in Guimaraes June 14, 2004. [Reuters]

Those of us who think Italy has a more than even chance of erasing its poor 2002 World Cup by going all the way to the Euro 2004 final were a tad surprised that its players' early attacks were all built on the obvious: the ball struck early and through the middle for Christian Vieri.

He is the talisman of Italian goal-scoring, but the way his team tried to release him, starting with the first up field kick by Fabio Cannavaro, the captain, held no surprise for the Danes.

The ploy, repeated even by the play-maker Francesco Totti, was intended to usurp the lack of pace in Denmark's central defense, where Rene Henriksen is affectionately known as the Turtle, and his partner at the heart of the back line, Martin Laursen, is no greyhound, either.

But they coped. More than that, they denied Vieri a shot at goal until the 43rd minute, when the goalkeeper, Thomas Sorensen, moved quickly to block the attempt. The silver ball squirmed away from the goalkeeper, straight to Alessandro Del Piero. And when Del Piero volleyed it back, Sorensen, on one knee, rose with breathtaking reflex reaction to palm it away with his right hand.

Throughout the first half, however, the Danes refused to be second best to one of the tournament's favorites.

Boldly, they defended their goal. Swiftly and with practiced short passing, they threatened the goalkeeper, Gigi Buffon, more than Italy bore down on Sorensen. And on the stroke of halftime, it was Buffon who made the finest save of the half, stopping Martin Jorgensen. "Yes, I made some difficult saves," Buffon said. "But I must do something good to deserve the jersey."

But it is not a sin to acknowledge that defenders can be equal to, and even surpass, attackers. Perhaps the finest talent on the field Monday was Alessandro Nesta, a defender who is unafraid to wear the No.13 shirt and who tends to react a second or so sooner and a bit more sharply than his opponents.

Time after time, when the Danes threatened, Nesta glided to snuff out danger in the bud. When it came, it was often shaped often by Jon Dahl Tomasson, whom the Italians know well as a striker with AC Milan, but who for Denmark lurks back, 15 meters behind the workhorse frontman Ebbe Sand.

Yet, even with the crowd predominantly in Danish red and white, one suspected the Italians were waiting and drawing the sting. If so, at halftime Trapattoni changed the tactics, putting Del Piero further up to share the space with Vieri.

It would have been interesting to hear the halftime discussion in their locker room, for in the summer of 2002, when Italy limped tamely home blaming referees for their World Cup elimination at the hands of South Korea, Vieri had talked of Italy's ugly soccer.

He dared to do what few in Italy's squad would ever do: He effectively accused Trapattoni of playing negatively, referring to the coach's decision to leave strikers on the bench while Italy failed to score enough goals. Italy, Vieri had said, should impose its talents like Brazil does.

Trapattoni survived the criticism, and Vieri survived his outspoken words - and, yes, the coach decided this time that more than one striker was a necessity. Almost on the hour, Vieri rose in a crowded penalty box to a cross from Del Piero. Vieri, born in Bologna but raised in Australia, soared up powerfully. But the force on his header could not defeat Sorensen, who arched his back and flicked the ball to safety.

So the stalemate continued, but without anything resembling boredom.

In the final quarter of the match, the teams threw aside their caution and once more, in the cut and thrust of the encounter, Denmark matched Italy's ambition.

With both sides chasing the victory, and with tired limbs now having an effect, the scoring chances came.

Trapattoni's changes introduced the three players over whom controversy rained last week: Gennaro Gattuso replaced Cristiano Zanetti; the young hope Antonio Cassano took the place of Del Piero; and Stefano Fiore came on for the Mauro Camoranesi.

Yet Denmark's coach, Morten Olsen, countered these substitutions by bringing on Kenneth Perez and Claus Jensen.

And it was Jensen who, 10 minutes from the end, broke free with thrilling vigor. His run took him inside Nesta - yes, he beat the unbeatable - and when Jensen passed the ball back to the edge of the box, Tomasson shot down the throat of Buffon.

Buffon is, however, one of the most acrobatic goalkeepers on earth, and he responded by beating the ball out.

Even then, Buffon had work to do after Dennis Rommedahl connected with the rebound. He saved that as well - with his heel. Goalless, yes. Guileless no.