Del Piero Here, Del Piero There, Del Piero...
27 Aug 2000
Paolo Wilhelm--He has been this summer's best seller, for one reason or
another. This forthcoming season should be, for better or for worse, his
season.
A friendly has now become a source of controversy. On Saturday night(19/8)
Juventus easily beat Rayo Vallecano, a Spanish team that had gone much
further ahead in its preparation compared to the Italians, but that did not
have the technical repertoire of Juventus.
The problem arose when Zinedine Zidane injured himself several days before
the match and Carlo Ancelotti put Del Piero in the Frenchman's position, the
same where Trapattoni wants him to play in the national squad. Alex played
far too well, scoring a goal and setting up one each for Bachini and
Kovacevic.
All this has provoked a major debate: Has Del Piero lost the form he had
before his injury? Then let him play behind the forwards. And Zidane? When
he recovers, what will Ancelotti do? The media has latched on to this
contention, taking of advantage of the situation in order to cover up this
news stricken period before the League begins.
However Carlo Ancelotti, that has recently recovered two very important
players (Davids y O'Neill) has tried to downplay the issue: Let's not start
going on about a rivalry between Del Piero and Zidane, we have to try
several alternatives but there is nothing between Zidane and Del Piero. That
French style Juventus is just another invention since I'll try to line up
the lads as best as I can.
The next season is very special, as the season will only begin in October,
due to the Olympic games: I'm confident this year since I have a very
competitive squad. The fact that the season begins in October doesn't pose
such a serious problem, it won't be long before it starts and anyhow for me
the season has already begun: this Sunday(27/8) we'll play AC Milan for the
Berlusconi Cup and in September we'll have the Champions League.
It seems that Ancelotti is quite calm and even finds time to crack jokes
about those injuries that seem to be affecting Brazilian players: Brighi? He
has to improve but we can trust him. We can also have faith in Maresca and
the other youngsters. Those knee injuries that Brazilians seem to prefer ?.
I also injured my knee, and I have no Brazilian descent.
