Juventus Has a Knack For Coming Out On Top
Posted: Tuesday February 29, 2000 10:18 AM
by Gabriele Marcotti
There is a scene in an old Richard Pryor movie called "The Toy" where the zillionaire father explains to his son that "the Truth" and "Reality" are to distinct, separate concepts.
The Truth is the way things should be, according to logic and common sense.
Reality is the way things actually are.
By the same token, there are great teams and then there are winners.
Johan Cruyff's Holland was a great team.
Brazil in 1982, the virtual dream team [Socrates, Zico, Falcao, Junior, etc.], was a great team, arguably the best ever, even though it had a mannequin of a center forward [Serginho] and a goalkeeper with Jell-O hands and molasses reflexes [Valdir Peres].
Problem is, both came up losers.
This is because there's a difference between being great and winning.
Winning is about mental toughness, consistency and hunger. Being great involves being more attractive and more talented than your opponents.
Some clubs can combine the two, like the great Real Madrid teams of the 1950s, or Arrigo Sacchi's AC Milan in the late 1980s.
But more often than not, the two are unrelated.
The intangible quality of knowing how to win is the magic ingredient everyone strives for, but there is one club which, year after year, seems to have it tattooed on to its soul: Juventus.
Taken individually, there are a number of Italian clubs who are superior to Juve -- Inter Milan, AC Milan, Lazio, and possibly Roma and Parma.
Around the world, you could make a similar argument for Real Madrid, Manchester United, Vasco Da Gama, Barcelona, etc.
Yet none of these teams can match Juventus' knack for winning, despite the fact that most of them are, in fact, "better".
Last season the club was a black and white mess, a rudderless freighter which lost its guiding light in November [when Del Piero tore his cruciate ligament] and its skipper in February [when Lippi submitted his resignation].
It would finish the league a whole 16 points behind the champion, Milan.
Yet in spite of all this, it reached the semifinals of the Champions League and it took a bizarre collective suicide against Manchester United [witnessing Juventus surrender a two-goal lead at home is once-in-a-lifetime stuff] to bounce them out.
It has been more of the same this season, except that the club is doing even better, nursing a four point lead at the top of the Serie A table.
Last Sunday's win over Roma epitomized just why Juventus is a natural born winner.
The rest of the league was eagerly awaiting an upset and, for 90 minutes, they all turned into Roma fans.
Fabio Capello's team stormed forward from the opening minute. They screamed for a penalty when Edgar Davids appeared to chop down the lanky Marco Delvecchio in the box. They gasped in horror when the very same Davids, just a handful of seconds later, dumped a vicious volley into the back of the net, giving Juventus a 1-0 lead.
It was vintage Juve: a dubious decision on one end, a wonder goal against the run of play at the other, all in less time than it takes to visit the cash machine.
Yet towards the end of the second half, the gods seemed to smile on Roma once again. Delvecchio guided Vincenzo Montella's delightful chip past Juventus goalkeeper Edwin Van der Sar and, just three minutes later, Paulo Montero [who else?] received his marching orders after intentionally handling the ball.
Juventus down to ten men with more than half the match still to come, Roma pushing forward, it looked like it was time to stick a fork in Juve's butt: they were done.
Or were they?
Less than a minute after re-start, Juventus took the lead through Pippo Inzaghi, who tucked in a deflected cross from Alessandro Birindelli.
The rest of the evening consisted of a furious Roma siege, with Juventus hanging on for dear life. Predictably [at that point], it finished 2-1.
Manager Carlo Ancelotti's team gave a clinic on how to win games, something they've been doing all season.
It's hard to understand how they can be so good.
It's not the players.
Van der Sar is a fine goalkeeper who has bounced back after a lackluster season, but he's hardly a brick wall. The backline is competent, but unspectacular when compared to Parma's or Bayern Munich's.
Davids, of course, is a rare all-around talent, but his fellow midfielders [guys like Gianluca Zambrotta and Alessio Tacchinardi] are little more than hard-working blue-chippers.
The front three has a stellar pedigree, but each is having a humdrum season. Zinedine Zidane has been a part-time player this year, alternating flashes of brilliance with long spells of utter darkness. Inzaghi, once dubbed SuperPippo, seems to have lost most of his magical powers, except the ability to fall over and win penalties. And the guy wearing Alex Del Piero's jersey is a pale imitation of the superstar we admired just two seasons ago [surely it can't be the real Del Piero?]
Ancelotti isn't the answer either. He is a bright, young manager, but he is hardly a tactical savant. In fact, as a coach, he has won as many trophies as Paddington Bear [whom he vaguely resembles], i.e., zero.
And yet, they continue to win.
Few teams are more cohesive as a unit. Fewer still defend better and none can beat you in so many different ways.
There's a growing belief among the perennial losers of Italian soccer [Fiorentina, Lazio, Roma, Inter] that Juventus also benefits from favorable refereeing.
I don't know if it's true, after all, refereeing bias is always a convenient refuge for coming up short. And I refuse to believe that there is some kind of malevolent pro-Juve conspiracy.
But it's difficult to deny that Juventus hasn't exactly been hurt by referees over the past few years either.
Still, the club's ability to overcome adversity and the lackluster play of its star performers is probably second to none.
These guys may not be the best, but they are winners through and through.
You can buy the most talented players in the world. You can hire the best managers and coaches, and turn them into the fittest, most cohesive unit around.
What you can't buy is that intangible winning spirit.
And Juventus has plenty.
