“For me, the perfect match would finish 0-0. No errors, which means no goals.”
Gianni Brera, the legendary Italian sports journalist, was only partly joking when he defined his ideal of footballing achievement as a scoreless draw. Italy has always had a greater fascination with defending than other countries, and the successful prevention of a goal can be considered just as exciting as the scoring of one. Ask any non-Italian football aficionado what comes to mind when thinking about Italian teams, and the answer will most likely be careful and defensive play, some may even use the dreaded word: catenaccio.
Originally a provincial tactic, the small team’s cynical bid to survive not by winning but by avoiding losing, the catenaccio system would be ennobled in the higher ranks of the sport first in its purest form by the great Nereo Rocco, and eventually revolutionized at the famous Inter of the 1960s by two strange visionaries, Giacinto Facchetti and Helenio Herrera.
Herrera was born in Buenos Aires in 1910, to Spanish immigrant parents who had fled to Argentina during the reign of Franco. During the 1930s and 40s he had a fairly undistinguished playing career as a defender, primarily in France where he became a naturalized citizen. Immediately after retiring as a player he began to coach, and his true calling became apparent. He moved to Spain, managed Real Valladolid and Atletico Madrid, where he won back to back league titles in 1950-51, and also had successful stints at Malaga, Deportivo de la Coruna and Sevilla. He eventually landed at Barcelona, but after strong personality clashes with Barca’s then-star player Ladislao Kubala forced him out, he moved to Italy and accepted the job that would write his name in footballing history: Internazionale Milano.
Early catenaccio, also called verrou (“door bolt”, also the meaning of the Italian term) in an earlier French incarnation, was an alternative development of the archaic 2-5-3/2-3-5 British system, where rather than dropping partway back to stack the midfield, the wingers moved all the way back to create a four-man defensive line. The innovation that made it a distinctive tactic was the introduction of the libero, or sweeper: a “free” defender, roaming in front of the goalkeeper but behind the line of defense, without limits of lateral motion and tasked with cleaning up whatever mess the midfield and defenders managed to let through.
This pure form of catenaccio was originally the small team’s standby, a way of frustrating stronger opponents and preventing them from being able to impose their own style of play. Legend has it that the idea of the libero occurred first to one Gipo Viani, manager of provincial Salernitana, while watching a fisherman use a second net to catch the fish that slipped through the gaps and holes in his first net.
Eventually, thanks in large part to the efforts of Milan manager Nereo Rocco, the catenaccio ethos became more prominent at the highest levels of the game during the 1950s. City rivals Inter adopted the philosophy as well, and proved that the system could not only survive but dominate in the highest echelons. Inter under manager Alfredo Foni won the Scudetto in 1952-53 despite scoring only 46 goals in 34 games, 27 fewer than eventually second-placed Juventus.
In 1960, Herrera arrived at Inter and set about reworking catenaccio into not only an unbreakable defensive wall, but a dangerous counterattacking scheme. Already in Rocco’s and Toni’s interpretations of the method, the attacking wingers were crucial in their capacity to both attack and defend, called ali tornanti for their frequent “returning” deep into midfield. Herrera had the idea to apply that concept to his defenders as well, and a chance scouting of a tall giant of a striker in Treviso would bring life to his plans.
The Trevigliese striker Herrera would happen upon one day was one Giacinto Facchetti, a local boy born in Bergamo in 1942. He was tall and fast, during his childhood and adolescence he had been torn between track-and-field and football. Upon choosing football, he made use of his great speed to be a dangerous striker – and it was this tall, fast, attacking player that Herrera signed for Inter and immediately placed in the defense.
Helenio Herrera’s asymmetrical interpretation of the classic Catenaccio scheme.
Facchetti was deployed as the first modern attacking wing back, balanced on the other side of the park by the Brazilian winger Jair da Costa, a classic ala tornante dropping back from offense to support the midfield and defense. Facchetti was a truly revolutionary player, who created the role of terzino in a modern context: no longer simply a wide-placed defender tasked with shutting down the opposition’s attacking wingers, a terzino of the Facchetti school will use great speed and strength to lead attacking plays from the back, often overlapping with wide midfield players and drawing opposing markers out of position, while often posing a significant scoring threat himself. In the 1965-66 season, Facchetti scored 12 goals in all competitions for Inter.
Facchetti was well recognized and respected during his career as not only an extraordinary player, but a fair and sportsmanlike one. He received only one red card throughout his entire playing career, all of which he spent loyal to his beloved Inter.
Giacinto Facchetti
Herrera, on the other hand, was nicknamed “il Mago” (the wizard) and could well be considered an occasional practicer of the dark arts. Gamesmanship has never been anything new or even particularly unwelcome in the Italian game, and for good or for ill Herrera was a master at it. He was among the first managers to use mind games and psychology both to motivate his players and intimidate opponents, and was one of the earliest managers to receive credit for his team’s successes – in prior eras, teams would be identified with the name of their top player, from Herrera on the manager is the one whose name is attached to a particular team. He could be an extraordinary motivator, but could also be cruel, insisting his players put the team above any and all other concerns including family. Most unsettlingly, some of his Inter players later alleged that he administered pharmaceuticals to his team, from “south American herbal teas” to mysterious pills that many of the players only pretended to swallow. These allegations were never conclusively proved, but still go to show the ethical blurriness that so often invades and influences the sport.
Regardless, however, Herrera and Facchetti were two visionaries who forever changed the face of Italian and world football, and their nerazzurri earned well their nickname of La Grande Inter, in one of the most significant periods of dominance of Serie A by a single club in its history.
The post Throwback Thursday: Herrera, Facchetti, and Catenaccio Unchained appeared first on Italian Football Daily.
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