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| May 31, 2002 | Friday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 18,1423 |
Thousands flock to see Italy triumph
SENDAI (Japan), May 30: About 20,000 Japanese fans flocked to Italy’s first open World Cup training session on Thursday, most of them clad in the blue colours of Giovanni Trapattoni’s team.
Italy have kept all their training sessions closed to the public in the nine days since they arrived at their base in Sendai, 400 kilometres north-east of Tokyo, but decided to open the doors for an 80 minute game against local J-League side Vegalta Sendai.
Vegalta fielded their youth team with a handful of first-team players for the unofficial match, which Italy won 4-0 thanks to two goals each by Francesco Totti and Christian Vieri.
The Italians, keen to play down the significance of the game, did not wear numbers on their training sweatshirts and asked one of their coaching staff to act as referee.
But despite the reduced status of the game, locals were queuing up for tickets hours before the kick-off and the stadium was full to capacity.
Trapattoni selected a 4-4-2 line-up with Totti in attack alongside Vieri, Cristiano Doni on the left of midfield and Christian Panucci in defence.
There was no place in the starting line-up for strikers Alessandro Del Piero or Vincenzo Montella, although both appeared after the break.
The line-up seemed to confirm that Trapattoni’s thoughts are moving towards a more defensive formation for Italy’s opening group G game against Ecuador in Sapporo on Monday.
All Italy’s goals came within the opening 20 minutes, Vieri opening the scoring in the fourth minute by heading home Doni’s cross and doubling the advantage five minutes later when he turned in a shot from Gianluca Zambrotta.
Totti then showed his finishing ability with two well-taken goals, but the Italians eased off in a second half littered with substitutions.
Italy’s third-choice goalkeeper Christian Abbiati guested for Vegalta in the second half and made three good saves to stop his team mates from extending their lead.
There is huge support for Italy in Sendai with almost 10,000 people joining a ‘Forza Azzurri’ supporters club, and the match was accompanied by flashing camera lights and screams from female fans when Italian players went to the touchline for corners and throw-ins.
Injured striker Filippo Inzaghi received a particularly warm welcome from the crowd at the end of the game when he put in a light jogging session around the perimeter of the field.
Italy also face Croatia and Mexico in the first phase of the tournament being co-hosted by South Korea and Japan.—Reuters
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