卫冕冠军垫底出局：再见，意大利！

爱思英语编者按：第25分钟，德罗西传球出现失误，维特克乘机低射破门，下半场第73分钟哈姆西克助攻维特克再次破门，随后意大利由迪纳塔莱扳回一分，但替补出场的库普内克再进一球，虽然夸利亚雷拉再得一分，最终意大利2-3不敌斯洛伐克……

北京时间6月24日晚上10点，2010年南非世界杯F组进行了一场焦点比赛，意大利在约翰内斯堡的埃利斯公园球场迎战斯洛伐克。第25分钟，德罗西传球被断，维特克低射破门，下半场第73分钟，维特克梅开二度，第87分钟，迪纳塔莱扳回一分，但89分钟替补出场的库普内克挑射破门。补时阶段，夸利亚雷拉巧妙挑射破门。最终意大利2-3不敌斯洛伐克，3轮只得2分惨遭淘汰，而斯洛伐克以4分力压新西兰顺利晋级。这是意大利自从1974年后，又一次在小组赛就打道回府，也是第4支未能晋级的卫冕冠军。

Slovakia"s Robert Vittek, center, and his teammates Martin Skrtel, left, and Marek Hamsik (17) could not contain their glee after Vittek"s goal gave them a 2-0 lead over Italy in a Group F game in Johannesburg on Thursday.

Not since Pompeii has Italy fallen so low. Not since the World Cup format was expanded to include a group-phase first round have the two finalists from the previous tournament departed the next tournament so quickly, and with so little fight.更多信息请访问：http://www.24en.com/

First France, the beaten finalist of 2006, finished at the bottom of its group. Then Italy, the defending world champion, took the same early route.

Italy"s performances in its three games — ties with Paraguay and, astonishingly, New Zealand, and a 3-2 loss to Slovakia on Thursday — smacked of abdication.

Slovakia goalkeeper Jan Mucha, right, seemed to be getting the worst of an argument with Italy"s Fabio Quagliarella after they collided. But Mucha got the last word when Slovakia won, 3-2, to advance to the knockout round and eliminate Italy, the defending World Cup champion.

Italy"s coach, Marcello Lippi, stuck to the old guard, the very old guard, of 2006, and told anyone who questioned it that these were the best players Italy possessed. In each game, his captain, Fabio Cannavaro, contributed telling errors that led to goals.

Cannavaro is two months short of his 37th birthday. He looks as if his brain knows where he should be, but the legs will no longer take him there at the required speed. And, of course, this great achiever, the player of the tournament four years ago, should not have been asked to go there this time around.

The Italian captain, Fabio Cannavaro, in disbelief after Italy was beaten by Slovakia and sent home.

Lippi, Cannavaro and the broken-down warhorse Gennaro Gattuso retired themselves from national team duty with this wretchedly sorry result. They should have gone sooner. If Lippi is correct, and Italy"s cupboard is so bare that there are no younger men pushing through, then Italy must start the process of a new soccer kindergarten from which to begin the process of resuscitating a sport it has played so well in the past.

"The responsibility is mine," Lippi confessed at his last news conference as coach. "I prepared the team badly."

Even that dodges the issue. He chose the team badly. He clung to the past.

But there is something strange at this World Cup. It is as if the Europeans have no stomach, no desire, no professional pride in staying on a continent new to them. It is almost as if they had the jet engines warming up before they arrived — and England did only marginally better in its group, which also looked, on paper, to be a comfortable warm-up.

Thank God for the South Americans. Thank goodness Lionel Messi is here with appetite aflame for the Cup. Thank all of the teams from the Americas — yes, including the United States, the hardest-working athletes of Round 1.

Because those two continents, North and South America, care about the World Cup, because they seem able to adapt to Africa’s daily surprises, we have a worthwhile tournament.

But the scenes of Italians lying on the turf, sobbing for their lost trophy and for themselves, should fool nobody. Fabio Quagliarella, the substitute who came on, scored one of the consolation goals, brawled with Slovakia’s keeper and then wept so bitterly, might have been an exception.

He cared, perhaps too much.

Slovaks would be entitled to ask: So, Italy lost, but what about us with this historic victory?

Surely they deserved to win. But it took them 20 minutes — 20 tedious, frightened, stupendously boring minutes — to realize that Italy had not come to defend its title with any pride. When the Slovaks took the lead, with the first of two goals by Robert Vittek, it was not so much against the run of play as against the grain of such a timid refusal on either side to dare to threaten the opponent.

What were they waiting for? For belief, perhaps. Belief that they might win, belief that Italy was so poor.

When Vittek"s second goal went in, Italy suddenly came out of its shell and for the final 20 minutes so comprehensively outplayed its opponent that it seemed to compound all the negativity with which it has defended its status as world No. 1.

Strike out that last sentence. Italy did not defend its honor any more than France seemed interested in staying at the ball. Good riddance to them, because if athletes are too rich, too tired or too far outside their precious comfort zone to rise to the World Cup, the sooner they depart, the better.

There will be someone — the Argentines, the Brazilians — who want with a passion to pick up the discarded trophy.

Tears were being wiped away in Rome after the Italians were eliminated by their loss to Slovakia.

There will clearly be more surprises and upsets because there seems to be something unsettling in the South African air to the world"s big-name, big-salary performers.

But as of Thursday only one Italian still seemed interested in the title of world champion. He, Fabio Capello, is England"s coach. We need wonder no longer why Capello chose to coach abroad rather than his own nation.