Luck of the draw?

In one of today's friendlies, Italy and Switzerland tied it 1-1. That's good omen, if one believes in such things. A similar pre-Mundial friendly in 1982 also ended 1-1, and one more such friendly before Germany 2006 had the very same score. All three games were played in Geneva, and in '82 and '06 Italy went on to win the World Cup. I don't believe in such mumbo-jumbo, but the reptilian part of my brain does and it was seriously rooting for there not to be any more goals after the first two!

Superstition aside, Italy played a much more aggressive game than against Mexico just two days ago. Of course, it was a different team... literally: Lippi picked 11 different starters each time, so as to give everybody the chance to play and (importantly) himself the chance to experiment two radically different squads and tactics. Azzurri, of course, are still far from top shape and light-years away from 2006 shape, but we all know how pre-WC games don't really say anything if not to the coach and players.

More to say tomorrow on FIFA's referee designation for the first 16 games, even though Drogba's tentative recovery is still (in my opinion) the hottest discussion topic right now. More coming up on that too...