Italy is a notorious bad starter in competition play and their Confederations cup opener against the U.S. was no exception.

The Italians struggled to create much going forward in the first 45 minutes and their midfield looked unbalanced with Daniele De Rossi, Gennaro Gattuso and Andrea Pirlo all essentially central players meaning their was no real width on the left hand side. 

Luckily for the Italians, the U.S. didn't play with wide players in midfield so Lippi's men were never caught out defensively because of this system.

The one area in which I feel the Italians did struggle defensively was when Landon Donovan dropped off Jozy Altidore and ran at the Italian back four.

It seemed that there was some confusion as to who was picking up Donovan and the US. captain almost took advantage by setting up two good chances for Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore.

Ricardo Clark's sending off certainly changed the complexion of this game but I believe the real turning point was the introduction of Giuseppe Rossi and Riccardo Montolivo for the ineffective duo of Gattuso and Camoranesi.

Rossi's impact was obvious but Montolivo provided great width on the right hand side and helped open up the U.S. defense by providing a balance that was missing earlier in the game.

The exit of Gattuso also allowed De Rossi and Pirlo to form a much more effective partnership in the middle of the park and essentially boss the rest of the proceedings.

Rossi's goal-scoring performance off the bench gives Lippi something to think about as the Iaquinta/Gillardino partnership didn't exactly sparkle.

The Italians may not be happy with their overall performance but they did pick up a win to start the tournament and that is all that will really matter to Marcello Lippi.