CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
The epicentre of Italian-Australian culture on Australia’s Eastern Seaboard looks like a country town this World Cup, especially compared to 2006, when they were flipping cars and letting off flares.
Italy, as four-time world cup winners, did not record the results necessary during qualification to advance to the final field of 32. They scuffed their way to a second-place finish in their qualifying group, before getting knocked out by Sweden.
Our reporters have been able to identify a sharp increase in residents saying that the standard of soccer at the 2018 World Cup has been very low quality this time around, particularly in Italian-Australian hubs like Lygon Street (Melbourne), Norton Street (Sydney), Merthyr Road (Brisbane) and Sir Joh Boulevard (Betoota).
This comes days after a prominent Italian-Australian from West Betoota told our reporters that he hasn’t really been watching much of the soccer, because it’s been really shit.
Local boutique stone and tile retailer, Marco Bianchi (32) says it’s pretty weird that so many shit teams got in, and the bits and pieces he has seen on TV has been extremely underwhelming.
“Yeah, not that into it this year hey” says Marco.
“Socceroos lost to France. That was to be expected, but even that was a shit match”
“Like, most of the teams in it are shit this year. Belgium is probably gonna win the whole thing, and that’s just sad”
Like many Italian-Australians, Marco is actually quite interested in soccer all-year-round, and not just during the World Cup. And like many Italian-Australians he is secretly heartbroken that a soccer illiterate nation like Australia could garner a spot over his family’s home country.
