Daejeon, June 18 :    Daejeon, June 18:  And then there was one... in this case, South Korea, the lone surviving World Cup co-host after Turkey's dismissal of Japan. Much needs to be written about the electric atmosphere, the eerie atmosphere created by a 38,000-strong crowd chanting to the drum rhythms and the red-clad unity of these Korean fans. The biggest crowds in Korean history of close to four million were reported to be out and about in Seoul and around the country watching the big-screen public broadcasts of the golden goal triumph over Italy and then celebrating through the night. But what about the losers? What does defeat say about Italian football? What were the issues emerging from the Italian dressing room? On paper, Italy had by far the better team with world-renowned superstars such as Paolo Maldini, Francesco Totti, Ale Del Piero (as he prefers to be called now) and Christian Vieri. But history, of course, was against them. The organisers had even thoughtfully laid out sheets of red and white paper on each seat in the stands behind the one goal so that, when raised in unison by the Korean fans, they sent out a simple message a 100 metres high: 'Again 1966'. That was, of course, the date of the worst debacle in Italian football history when they were knocked out of the World Cup in England by North Korea. Other slogans, too, decorated the stadium such as: 'Welcome to Azzurri's tomb', and 'Hiddink for president'. But it was the reference to 1966 which will have hurt the most. Indeed, the Italians might yet complain that supposedly neutral World Cup organisers should not have connived at such partisan displays. But the game, even the World Cup, was not lost by Italy up in the stands among the fans, it was lost in the match preparation and then out on the pitch. Veteran coach Giovanni Trapattoni will be accused of having mixed his tactical and selection metaphors. His reputation is one of a man of caution. He had built an Italian team around a nucleus of workers rather than stylists with only Roma playmaker Francesco Totti to leaven the weight of effort between keeper Gianluigi Buffon and centre-forward Vieri. He had also apparently decided that Totti and Del Piero could not operate side by side. Coming into this game, however, Trapattoni suddenly decided to start with both Totti and Del Piero. Thus Italy survived a second-minute penalty, took the lead through Vieri on the 17th minute and was generally in control when Trapattoni, succumbing to that suicidal safety-first tendency, replaced Del Piero on the hour with the utilitarian Gennaro Gattuso. Italy, creatively weakened, conceded the initiative and, ultimately, an equalising goal just before full-time. Reduced to 10 men by Totti's expulsion in extra-time, they also conceded the golden goal which plunged fans back home into a depression every bit as deep as that in Argentina 10 days ago. Players to blame? Vieri, for missing two comparatively easy chances for a striker of his status. Totti, for playing as greedily and as badly in the second half as he had played well in the first, for wasting probably Italy's finest opening and for then being silly enough to get himself sent off for diving - when he knew he was already on one yellow card. Veteran skipper Paolo Maldini left the World Cup with a banal record. Three times he had been knocked out of finals contention on penalties, in 1990, 1994 and 1998; once now he has gone out on a golden goal - only this time, it was the end of his national team career. Paradoxically, Maldini was one of Italy's few successes of the night (along with superb keeper Gianluigi Buffon) after a tournament in which he had been otherwise far below his best. But the Italian malaise goes far deeper than mere individuals. The signs were there when Italian clubs began a few years ago to struggle in the Champions League. The defensive mind-set of years gone ago fed a virus into the Italian game, which has yet to be cured. It has spawned a fatal negativity in not only coaching but in administration. Such a contrast with the day's other losers, the Japanese. Their defeat by Turkey punctured the dreams of a nation which had learned in little more than three weeks about football's extraordinary ability to entrance entire nations. The Koreans know all about that. So do the Italians. That is precisely why Rome, Milan, Turin and the rest of the peninsula are plunged into angry grief. Football is not all about deliriously happy fireworks parties. Even Korea will discover that at some stage in the next 12 days.