Euro 2012: Mario Balotelli, Antonio Cassano prove Italy can overcome distraction - Canada.com (blog)

Is there a team in the world more adept at overcoming distraction than Italy?

Here they are at Euro 2012, plagued by allegations of match-fixing, concerns about the behaviour of its star players and early jitters about a massive overhaul of its playing system. Yet they're putting on a clinic for their opponents.

Against Spain, we saw a largely defensive battle as the Azzurri held off La Roja just enough to force a one-one draw.

Italy looked to be losing it after Manchester City forward Mario Balotelli missed an incredible chance one-one-one with Iker Casillas, waiting at the goal long enough for Sergio Ramos to tackle him. He earlier pounded the pitch in frustration, drawing a warning from the referee to cool off.

But that was little matter for Italy, as they simply switched Balotelli off for Antonio Di Natale and got a beautiful strike out of the Udinese forward within five minutes of being subbed on. The game was a draw, but the psychological advantage was clearly Italy's.

Then, just a few days shy of Italy's matchup with Croatia, forward Antonio Cassano ran his mouth in the media and said he hoped that there are no gay players on his team.

"That's their problem, but I hope not. … But I don't know," he said in response to a question from a reporter who said there may be closeted players on his team. "Because if not, you know I'll be attacked from every direction."

For any other team, the media attention accompanying this statement might prove a major distraction. Not Italy. They drew their next game too, stifling Croatia with a stingy defence for 72 minutes until Mario Mandzukic tied the game in minute 72.

And that was all before Italy's finest performance, a clinical 2-0 victory over Ireland in their final matchup of the group stage.

Cassano, hot off negative media attention for his remarks, fired a beautiful header off a corner kick by Andrea Pirlo to make it 1-0 in the 35th. Then Balotelli marked one of the finest goals of the tournament when he bicycle-kicked a corner in behind him to make it 2-0 in the 90th.

Truly, the fact that these two scored to win the game is testament alone to Italy's psychological advantage in Euro 2012.

After all, it isn't every team that can overcome a scandal that has brought the very institution of football into question. A match-fixing investigation has ensnared at least 20 teams including Serie A clubs Atalanta, Novara and Siena, and resulted in calls by Italy's prime minister to suspend the sport for a couple of years so authorities can deal with the fixes.

And it isn't even the first time that the Italian football federation has had to deal with allegations of criminality in the game. 2006 saw Serie A plagued by the "Calciopoli" scandal that saw the mighty Juventus stripped of two Serie A titles and relegated to the second division.

The effect on the Italian national team? Nothing. Juvenus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon captained them to a World Cup victory that same year.

The key to winning a game in any sport is to stay focused despite the odds. You'll be beaten, you'll be outrun, you'll be bested at so many things but if you can keep your head in the game you can still pull out the win.

A team that can drastically overhaul its strategy, ignore a match-fixing scandal and overcome the scrutiny associated with a player's homophobic comments is surely the one to beat in an international tournament.