Trap door creaks open for Maldini

There is nothing pleasant in watching a great player take a step too far. But Paolo Maldini must feel every day that the game he has graced for so long is moving into the distance with the speed of the Kobe Shinkansen. The Dropping of Maldini? It sounds like a novel by Elmore Leonard, but it is the question around which Italy's future in this tournament depends.

Take Thursday night in the southern city of Oita, on the island of Kyushu. Italy travel south with the fear of a team who face expulsion from the first round of the World Cup for the first time since 1974. National disgrace beckons and the pictures of French and Argentinian players, heads hanging in shame, are magnified to the size of posters on the Tokyo skyscrapers in the minds of the Italian players. This is what happens to losers.

At an ill-tempered press conference on the eve of the final group match, against Mexico – a lively, dangerous young side superbly marshalled by Javier Aguirre, a Zapatista supporter and a popular and respected coach – Giovanni Trapattoni defends his continued decision to omit Alessandro Del Piero from the starting line-up. The venerable and elegant Trap says that he will revert to Italy's usual 3-5-2, but will not name the team. The press know that means a place for the perennial Filippo Inzaghi and not for Del Piero. But there is another question. "What about Maldini?" Trap answers almost before it has been asked. "Paolo Maldini will play tomorrow," he says emphatically. Why? Because Maldini always plays.

The following night, in the Big Eye stadium in Oita, Maldini starts on the left side of a defensive three. He is the only starting player on either side who is over 30. Later this month, Maldini will be 34. Against Ecuador, in the first match of his fourth World Cup, he became the most capped Italian captain. With 125 caps, he is by far the most experienced international player in Italian history. But, like Germany with Lothar Matthäus, the Italians need to be weaned from the thought that no team is complete without the reassuring presence of Maldini.

On the evidence of every match, the opposite is true. By selecting Christian Panucci, a natural right- back, at left wing-back, Trapattoni admitted as much. Fearing Mexico's pace down the flanks, the Italy coach had to draft in reinforcements in front of Maldini, seriously unbalancing the side. Panucci was withdrawn after 62 minutes.

The same problem had surfaced in the opening group games, in which, to the astonishment of the Italian press, Trapattoni ignored the lessons of the whole of the qualifying campaign and adopted an old-fashioned 4-4-2, using Francesco Totti, a natural No 10 for club and country, as an auxiliary striker and leaving Del Piero and Vincenza Montella, the pairing most of Italy would like to see and the combination responsible for rescuing a vestige of pride from a truly horrible display against Mexico, on the bench. Trap's explanation was that Totti had been injured for the last two months of the season and was not fit enough to play such a decisive role. So why not use Del Piero instead? "I am fit and my body is in condition to play," said Del Piero pointedly.

Standing in the concrete interview area beneath the main stand late on Thursday, waiting for an explanation from players and coach, a chorus of "Alessandro, Alessandro Del Piero" rose from the ranks of the Italian press – and not just the Juventus corps. Del Piero duly emerged, playing the role of lost boy to perfection, to say that on consideration this was the most important international goal of his career. Subtext: and I had only been on the field for eight minutes, so what can I do? Del Piero has played a total of 28 minutes in the tournament so far.

Maldini's failings lie at the root of Italy's problems. Against Croatia, Maldini was one of the sentries standing guard while Ivica Olic, a 21-year-old unknown from FC Zagreb, sneaked in to equalise at the far post, and it was Maldini again who conceded possession at the start of the move which led to Milan Rapaic's winner. Against Mexico, he was dragged deep into the penalty area by Jared Borgetti, then left in no-man's-land as the Mexican centre-forward turned to loop a clever header beyond Gianluigi Buffon.

Maldini in his prime would never have been exposed so completely. But this is a slow, ageing, impostor, unable to contribute anything significant to the attack from a position which, as the Mexicans and the Danes have already proved, is critical to a progressive team's creative line of supply, and such a liability in defence that Trapattoni has to construct a protective edifice around him by switching Panucci or playing an essentially defensive 4-4-2.

Yet it is not the first time the Italians have scraped through the group stages. Their course through major tournaments is always Byzantine. Keeping the peace between the forces of Rome, Milan and Turin requires a degree of sensitivity that is stretching the likeable, but stubborn, Trapattoni to the limit. But his selections from the first have betrayed a conservatism which has defied the claim made by his captain before the tournament. "The team which has courage will win the World Cup," said Maldini. South Korea, skilful and industrious, will test them to the limit on Tuesday.

Croatia's surprise defeat by Ecuador meant that, even without Del Piero's late equaliser, Italy would have progressed to the last 16. Italy always find a way. But few can remember a duller, more tactically sterile, side than the 2002 Azzurri. For long swathes of the second half, Mexico, a team in gestation but bursting with pace and athleticism, reduced the mighty Italians to the role of bystanders. Their energy was epitomised by Jesus Arellanno, a curly-haired right wing-back who has spent his career with Monterrey and Guadalaraja, earning decent money by local standards but never quite attracting the lucrative move abroad.

At the age of 29, this World Cup represents his last chance of upward mobility, but personal gain was not at the forefront of his mind in the minute he skipped happily through the heart of the Italian defence, exchanged a neat one-two with Cuauhtemoc Blanco, and prodded a shot which was parried by Buffon and cleared by Fabio Cannavaro.

But what followed was more significant. Caught out of position by Italy's swift counterattack, Arellanno sprinted back a full 60 yards to help man the barricades. Though paid a fraction of the Serie A stars, the beauty of this World Cup is that, dressed in the dark green of Mexico, he is worth twice as much as any of them. Mexico need to believe in life beyond the second round; Trapattoni has to face up to the truth and think the unthinkable.