Italy V. Japan: 6 Things We Learned

OK, everyone.  Let's breathe.

Italy and Japan played a thrilling game in Recife on Wednesday night.  Japan was up 2-0 after 33 minutes, but Italy clawed one back on the stroke of halftime and pulled ahead 3-2 within seven minutes of the restart.

Japan tied the game off a free kick with 20 minutes on the clock.  Twelve minutes later they were shockingly denied by the woodwork twice in the span of ten seconds before the much-maligned Sebastian Giovinco finally opened his account for his country in the 86th.

Even then, the Italians needed the assistant's flag to escape Recife with a win and a guarantee of playing their first Confederations Cup semifinal.

What did we learn on the field at Recife?  Let's take a look.

For the second game in a row, Italy was saddled with an absolutely terrible refereeing performance.  Chile's Enrique Osses had a terrible game in Sunday's 2-1 victory against Mexico, but Argentinian arbiter Diego Abal took that performance and cranked the inadequacy up to 11.

The penalty call against Gianluigi Buffon in the 20th minute was one of the worst in recent memory.  Buffon clearly gained the ball when making a sliding challenge against Keisuke Honda following a bad back pass from Mattia De Sciglio, but Abal pointed to the spot and booked the Italy captain to boot on a completely legal play.

It wasn't just the Italians that were victimized by Abal's incompetence.  Makoto Hasebe's sliding block of a shot by Sebastian Giovinco bounced off the bottom of his leg and then hit his outstretched arm as it went by.

Abal heeded Italian appeals and pointed to the spot, and Mario Balotelli—who has never missed a penalty for club or country—gave Italy a 3-2 lead.

It was hard luck for Hasebe, who argued that there was no way he could have gotten his arm out of the way.  His arm was in what could be considered an unnatural position, and the call is arguably a more legitimate one than the one against Buffon, but it was still a weak penalty—almost a makeup call.

Abal and his crew also missed several out-of-bounds calls, with both teams having legitimate appeals for corners waved away when an Andrea Barzagli deflection and an Eiji Kawashima touch both went unnoticed.

Both Abal and Osses are from South America, where referees have a reputation for blowing their whistles a bit quicker than European officials do.  But both of these referees had deeper problems then those differences.  

If either gets another appointment in this tournament FIFA will lose a lot of credibility, even more so if they come anywhere near a World Cup match next season.

One thing is certain: Attention needs to be paid to the officials for the rest of this tournament.

What a difference 38 hours make.

Mattia De Sciglio was one of the best players on the field in Italy's win against Mexico on Sunday.  He was the polar opposite of that performance on Wednesday night.

De Sciglio was directly responsible for two of the three Japanese goals on the night.  His horrible back pass following an intercepted goal kick put Buffon into the one-on-one situation against Honda that produced Japan's 20th minute penalty, however terrible the call might have been.

It was also his foul in the 68th minute that set up Japan's equalizer a minute later.  Shinji Okazaki headed home the ball from the ensuing free kick, beating Daniele De Rossi and Riccardo Montolivo to the mark and knotting the score at 3-3.

It was a day of wayward passing, bad control and cheap fouls for the 20-year-old AC Milan man.  Particularly glaring was a heavy touch in the 56th minute that scuppered a chance for the left-back to break away with support right behind him.  Had Italy added to their 3-2 lead at the time, this game may not have been so hard on the blood pressure.

There is obviously a ton of time for De Sciglio to progress and develop, and he is still Cesare Prandelli's best option on the left side of his back four.  Still, he's not yet the superstar we thought may have arrived against Mexico—not quite yet.

It's possible we've seen a few players take their final actions in an Italy shirt after Wednesday.

Most notably amongst this group is Alberto Aquilani.  The Fiorentina man started in place of Claudio Marchisio, who had been less than impressive against Mexico.  Aquliani, however, scuffed his opportunity badly and was hauled off after only half an hour.

If you're a fan of the US men's national team, you might remember a parallel situation in the 2010 World Cup Round of 16 match against Ghana.  In that game, Bob Bradly hauled Ricardo Clark off the field at around the same point in the match—and Clark never registered on the national team radar again.

Right-back Chrisitan Maggio had a better game than previous efforts in Savoy blue, but it was still surprising to see him getting taken off on the hour for Ignacio Abate.

The tactical benefits of such a switch—which came about six minutes after Italy had taken a 3-2 lead—do exist.  

Italy had just snatched a hard-earned lead and Abate is by far the better defensive player than Maggio, who for the last few years has played as a wing-back in Walter Mazzarri's 3-5-2 at Napoli and isn't the type of full-back to hunker down and defend.

Maggio is also on the wrong side of 30 years old, so it's hard to see him figuring in the national team picture beyond the next 12 to 16 months.

Sebastian Giovinco almost made this list, but after finally cracking his egg and scoring the winner for Italy he gets a pass—for now.  He must build on this major moment in his international career if he wants to guarantee staying in Prandelli's picture—especially with a bumper crop of attacking talent currently playing for Italy at the U-21 level.

This was the first time under Cesare Prandelli that Italy has been let down by their defense to this degree and won.

The only other game in which Italy's defense has failed them to this degree was the final of the European Championship a year ago, when Spain picked apart an exhausted side that was down to 10 men due to injury.  In that game, the Azzurri attack had a few opportunities but none that were clear-cut and—more importantly—none were converted.

The Italians have had some ugly games this year, particularly the February friendly against the Netherlands and this month's World Cup qualifier against the Czech Republic.  

Both of those games were draws, as was a March friendly against Brazil where they had to come from two goals down but still put together a tactical masterclass that forced Brazil to score on the counter.

But Italy has never been faced with that type of adversity under Prandelli and won—until now.  The team played badly, yes, but this victory must be a huge confidence-builder.  

To be able to come back from 2-0 down to 3-2 up and then respond to Japan's equalizer shows the grinta that this team will need against teams like Spain if they want to reclaim their former place atop the soccer world.

Japan was sitting pretty after the first half an hour.  Honda's penalty and Shinji Kagawa's pretty turn to beat Gigi Buffon following a broken defensive play by the Italians had the Blue Samurai two goals to the good.

But after Kagawa's goal they let the Italians back in.  They let in Italy's first goal in the 41st minute and very nearly let in the equalizer on the stroke of halftime but were saved by the post.

They let Italy surge in the second half to gain the lead, then failed to put the Azzurri away after they tied the game at 3-3.  Okazaki and Kagawa's dual miss from point-blank range is the biggest example of not being quite ruthless enough to see out a victory.

Japan are relatively new on the world stage.  They've only ever made it out of the group stage of the World Cup twice—and they were co-hosts of the first of those tournaments.

They have only recently turned into a dominant force in Asia and don't have the winning tradition that teams like Italy have, and they're not entirely secure in seeing out games when they give themselves that kind of advantage.  Given how the first 30 minute of this match turned out, Japan definitely should have won this match.

They're out of this tournament, but this game could be a learning experience for the team heading into next year's World Cup.  Alberto Zaccheroni's side now knows what it takes to win a game like this against a truly elite team—experience that could take them far in a year's time.

Alberto Zaccheroni has managed the likes of AC Milan, Inter and Juventus over the course of his long managerial career, but he was always under appreciated.  He won the title in his first year with Milan, but failed to replicate that success and was sacked.  His trips at Juve and Inter ended similarly.

Japan, however, has so far been an unqualified success.  Japan started his tenure with a historic 1-0 victory against Argentina, then beat Austrialia for the 2011 Asian Cup to qualify for the Confederations Cup.  The team has romped through Asian qualifying and became the first team to qualify for the World Cup this past month.

Zaccheroni has won 58 percent of his games at the helm of the Blue Samurai, and has made significant improvements in the team's fitness and organization.  He now has the next year to further tweak his team before the biggest test of his life.