EURO 2000: Secretive Zoff keeps everyone guessing

June 10, 2000
SportServer

By Alan Baldwin

ARNHEM, Netherlands - Italy coach Dino Zoff guarded his secrets like a well-kept goal on Saturday, refusing to give much away before his team's opening Euro 2000 game against Turkey.

With strong evidence pointing to an attacking partnership of Filippo Inzaghi and Francesco Totti for starters, with Alessandro Del Piero left on the bench, Zoff refused to put meat on the bones of speculation.

The former World Cup winning goalkeeper said he would not announce the line-up until Sunday to prevent the media from criticizing his choice ahead of time.

Zoff's wariness comes from an earlier experience as Italian coach when he announced that he was leaving AS Roma's Totti out of the starting lineup and was promptly given a roasting by the Rome newspapers.

However, Saturday's final practice in Arnhem's Gelredome stadium gave plenty of material to the exponents of "Dietrologia" - the subtle Italian science of detecting hidden meanings behind everything.

Del Piero turned out in a luminous yellow bib with Totti and Inzaghi in orange and their side replicating - with the exception of goalkeeper Francesco Toldo - the line-up that started the last friendly against Norway on June 3.

That realization drew groans from Italian reporters, mindful that Italy was beaten 1-0 by Norway and also lost goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon with a broken arm. Toldo replaced him in the second half.

Asked directly, Zoff replied: "I don't think these line-ups are that important for what happens tomorrow."

DEL PIERO SAYS HIS TIME WILL COME

The players confirmed that Zoff had not told even them what he was planning.

Del Piero sounded relaxed and found time to joke about the uncertainty when told that former Galatasaray coach Fatih Terim had said in an interview that the one thing Turkey needed to do was mark him at all times.

"So who's going to mark me on the bench?" he inquired.

Inzaghi said the players were confident and just happy to be about to play after all the training.

"These questions about whether it's one player or another don't change anything," he suggested.

"We'll be playing every three days and so we are going to need everybody. Whoever plays tomorrow may well not get a game on Wednesday. You just can't tell.

"Whoever plays tomorrow will do his best and whoever stays on the bench will be supporting the team and making himself useful if needed."

Italian team officials said indications were that Italian fans would be heavily outnumbered by Turkish supporters in the 30,000 seat stadium.

Zoff agreed his side could not expect the crowd to be behind it but hoped not to need such a boost anyway.
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