Daniele De Rossi: Driven to repeat 2006 success and avoid 2010 failure

Sport360 staff 13:52 22/06/2014
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  • No time for regrets: De Rossi is aiming for his second World Cup title.

    Italy midfielder Daniele De Rossi is taking part in his third World Cup and his aiming for a second title.

    Here, the Roma star talks to adidas about his memories and regrets from 2006, the pain of 2010, and his hopes for 2014. 

    You’re probably one of the very few footballers who can look back on a World Cup that your team won and feel a tinge of regret…

    It is true.

    I look back on 2006 and think that it would have been nice if it had been different.

    The foul I did on Brian McBride was bad, and I apologised to him for it immediately afterwards.

    I got banned for four matches, so I missed four of the great games of our World Cup winning campaign.

    I’ll always regret that and wish I could wind back and not have that moment of madness.

    I’m sure Brian does too.

    But he accepted my apologies, and I paid the price.

    You did, of course, still play a major part in Italy winning the World Cup, however. That must be unforgettable.
    Yes, at least I wasn’t banned for the final – that would have been a heartbreaker.

    I came on after 60 minutes and played to the end of the game and then extra time.

    When it went to penalties, I knew I’d be taking a kick.

    It’s hard to describe how much pressure that puts you under.

    Especially considering what had gone before, I’d have been Italy’s villain if I’d missed my kick, too.

    But luckily it went in.

    You didn’t look too much under pressure when you dispatched that penalty against France, though…
    Believe me there is nothing like it.

    You need a good poker face for penalties, and I managed to keep cool.

    The relief that flooded through me was indescribable.

    And the euphoria when we won it, that is hard to put into words.

    To know you are a World Cup winner, it doesn’t seem real at first.

    It takes a few days to really sink in.

    That was a crazy final wasn’t it, looking back – especially Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt on Materazzi…
    I’m sure Zizou looks back on that and still can’t work out what got into him.

    Marco Materazzi got to him, but he should have just been professional and brushed it off.

    But we have moments of madness in football.

    I know that from the McBride thing, but luckily it didn’t cost me as badly as it cost Zidane.

    If he’d stayed on the pitch, maybe France would have won their second World Cup, because he was the best player in the world.

    How do you reflect on having a World Cup winner’s medal in your collection, eight year on?
    I don’t know how eight years have passed so quickly.

    It obviously remains the high point of my career.

    I’ve been lucky in my career and enjoyed it all, but winning the World Cup tops everything.

    It is something to tell the grandchildren, something that will last forever, it is in the history books.

    It’s the best sporting event in the world.

    Does that drive you on as a player, wanting to taste that winning feeling again in 2014 in Brazil?
    Yes.

    You get a hunger for winning and I’d love to win the trophy one more time.

    It would stake Italy’s claim for being the best team in the history of the tournament, because we’ve won it four times, and Brazil have five.

    Having two World Cup winner’s medals would also put me in an exclusive club.

    Not many players can win two.

    Your defence of the World Cup at South Africa 2010 was not so enjoyable, though, with Italy crashing out in the group stages…
    To say the least.

    Finishing bottom of a group that we were expected to win, with New Zealand, Paraguay and Slovakia, that was a surprise and a very poor performance from us.

    We expected to win that group but we just didn’t perform.

    It’s a warning to any team though.

    There is no room for error in the group stages because if you start badly, you will be home again before you’ve had the chance to breathe in.

    Trying to put that right motivated me just as strongly as trying to recapture the feeling of winning it again.

    Italy manager Cesare Prandelli seems like a man with a plan.
    He’s very shrewd, he is great with the young players, and he knows what to expect from his more experienced individuals like myself.

    I think he has brought a real steel to this side, and that’s why I’d be surprised if we didn’t get through the group.

    He is calm, his tactics are excellent, and he thinks out every element of training, style and so on very carefully.

    He’s a great manager, and just like Marcelo Lippi did in 2006, I think he has a plan to win this tournament.

    Did your visit to Brazil for the Confederations Cup make you excited for the World Cup?
    Definitely.

    It’s a beautiful place and you just know they’re going to put on a beautiful, iconic tournament like they did in 1950.

    And that people will be talking about Brazil 2014 in a hundred years time.

    Hopefully they’ll be talking about Italy winning it.

    Will you keep in touch with the fans back home?
    I’m not on twitter or anything like that, but I’ll be calling home of course, and we will know what the mood is like back in Italy.

    I’ve had one homecoming with the World Cup before, which was totally crazy, so another one would be very pleasant.

    You might even get to meet the Pope again…
    The pope is Argentinian now, so I’m not sure he’d be too happy if Italy won it again!

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