SI:AM | Heartbreak for Italy as World Cup Spots Finalized

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. Keep your head on a swivel on April Fool’s Day, especially in the age of AI.

In today’s SI:AM:
⚽ Last World Cup spots secured
🏟️ Home sweet dome
🏀 Fixing the NBA lottery

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Ciao, Italy

Italy won’t be going to the men’s World Cup. Again.

The team’s loss to Bosnia and Herzegovina on Tuesday in the qualification playoffs ensured what Italians had long feared: they’ll miss the World Cup for the third straight time. Italy hasn’t played in a men’s World Cup since 2014, the same summer LeBron James announced his return to Cleveland.

Italy struck first on Tuesday with Moise Kean’s goal in the 15th minute after a careless turnover by the Bosnian goalkeeper. But the game was turned on its head in the 41st minute when Italy’s Alessandro Bastoni was shown a straight red card for a dangerous sliding tackle, forcing his team to play more than half the game with 10 men. Italian goalie Gianluigi Donnarumma made several impressive saves to maintain the lead for his shorthanded squad, but Bosnia’s Haris Tabaković finally scored the equalizer on a header in the 79th minute. Bosnia went on to win in a penalty shootout. It’s Bosnia’s second World Cup appearance as an independent nation and first since 2014.

“We still don’t believe it—that we’re out and that it happened in this manner,” Italy’s Leonardo Spinazzola said. “It’s upsetting for everyone. For us, for our families, and for all the kids who have never seen Italy at a World Cup.”

Italy’s failure to qualify for the World Cup is even more stunning when you consider that the tournament was expanded from 32 teams to 48 for this edition. UEFA, the European confederation, was awarded 16 spots in the tournament, and Italy still couldn’t make it.

So what happened? It all started with Italy’s two losses to Norway in the first round of qualifying. Italy was drawn into a qualifying group with Norway, Israel, Moldova and Estonia. Norway dominated the group and outscored its opponents 37–5, which included wins of 3–0 and 4–1 over Italy. As the runner-up in the group, Italy was one of 16 teams sent to the playoff round. It beat Northern Ireland last week, 2–0, to advance to Tuesday’s win-and-in game against Bosnia.

It’s been a rough decade for Italy on the world stage. After winning the 2006 World Cup, Italy failed to advance out of the group stage at either of the subsequent two tournaments. Its only World Cup win since lifting the trophy is a 2–1 victory over England in 2014. Confusingly, Italy has actually performed very well in European competition during that period, though. It finished second at the 2012 European Championships and won the 2020 Euros (played in the summer of 2021), which makes the World Cup failures all the more baffling.

Elsewhere in qualifying action, Czechia beat Denmark to reach its second World Cup since the breakup of Czechoslovakia and first since 2006. That game was a wild one that featured two goals scored in extra time and had to be decided by a shootout. Sweden is also back in the World Cup after missing the 2022 tournament, thanks to Viktor Gyökeres’s late winner against Poland. Türkiye beat Kosovo, 1–0, to earn the final spot in the United States’ group. The U.S. will also play Paraguay and Australia.

Two inter-confederation qualifying matches saw teams snap long World Cup droughts as well. The Democratic Republic of the Congo beat Jamaica, 1–0, and Iraq beat Bolivia, 2–1. It’s DR Congo’s first World Cup appearance since 1974, when it was known as Zaire. Iraq last qualified in ’86.

The U.S. men’s national team was also in action on Tuesday in a friendly against Portugal, and they didn’t exactly inspire confidence in their ability to make noise at this summer’s tournament. The U.S. was bossed around in a 2–0 loss in which the Portuguese dominated possession (61.6%). The listless performance came on the heels of a 5–2 loss to Belgium on Saturday. The USMNT only has two more games before the World Cup begins: May 31 against Senegal and June 6 against Germany.

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The top five…

… things I saw last night:
5. The bizarre sequence in the Red Sox-Astros game where everyone on the field seemingly forgot what the count was. Cam Smith swung and missed on an 0–2 pitch but wasn’t sent to the dugout.
4. Alex Ovechkin’s 30th goal of the season. He now has 20 seasons with at least 30 goals. The only time he failed to score 30 goals in a season was 2020–21, when injuries limited him to just 45 games.
3. An emphatic block by LeBron James just seconds after the opening tip.
2. Cal Raleigh’s perfect throw to catch Cody Bellinger attempting to steal second. (Bellinger had a great reaction, too.)
1. The goalie fight between the Rangers’ Igor Shesterkin and Devils’ Jacob Markstrom.