The Official Azzurrini Thread - Italys future stars!

[JuveGER]

I feel free to start the official Azzurrini thread for Italys U21 and other youth teams.

The U21 currently tops their qualification group for the U21 Euro next year.

The U19 will participate at the U19 Euro this year. They will face England, Czech Republic and Greece in Group B.

And most important: Italy will participate at the Olympics in China facing Honduras, Cameroon and Korea. Coach Casiraghi has announced the provisional squad today.

Italy’s provisional Olympic squad:

Abate (Milan), Acquafresca (Cagliari), Bocchetti (Genoa), Candreva (Udinese), Cigarini (Parma), Coda (Udinese), Consigli (Atalanta), Criscito (Genoa), De Ceglie (Juventus), De Silvestri (Lazio), Dessena (Parma), Giovinco (Juventus), Marchisio (Juventus), Montolivo (Fiorentina), Motta (Udinese), Nocerino (Palermo), Ranocchia (Arezzo), Rocchi (Lazio), Rossi (Villarreal), Russotto (Treviso), Sirigu (Palermo), Viviano (Brescia)

Casiraghi has also submitted a short-list of 15 other players who can be called into the squad.

Alfonso (Venezia), Bassi (Empoli), Curci (Siena), Andreolli (Vicenza), Canini (Cagliari), Marzoratti (Empoli), Pisano (Cagliari), M Rossi (Parma), Bolzoni (Inter), Galloppa (Siena), Guarente (Atalanta), Morosini (Vicenza), Lanzafame (Palermo), Osvaldo (Fiorentina), Pelle’ (AZ Alkmaar)

[Amedio]

We needed such a thread on the Serie A forums. Well done, JuveGER!

[Bagg10]

[Messinterista]

[Bagg10]

[Messinterista]

[RomaShield27]

[Alfio]

Giovinco to star again!

[JuveGER]

[Carlo Romano]

Messina, cross your fingers on Palermo fans...

Shield, a handjob from Rosella? What a lovely thought! I'm guessing the big stud we sometimes see sitting beside her in the VIP box is her partner...he'll know all about the funny handshake!

JG, I'm surprised Rocchi is the only over age player being taken to the Olympics. Pippo fancied his chances in this one and told enough people about it!

[Messinterista]

[marco]

giovani fenomeni italiani:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aagjeXeFB28

a glimpse into our promising future.

[p_maldini_3]

[Bagg10]

[marco]

[Bagg10]

[RomaShield27]

Blog: Going for Gold
http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_ ... s/gs2.html – Tuesday 8 July, 2008

Before Serie A gets going there is the Olympics to look forward to. Giovanni Spinella looks back at the Azzurri’s history in the prestigious event

Football and the modern Olympics have never been a comfortable fit. From the start, the Olympics’ romantic and vaguely aristocratic ideals of amateurism clashed with football’s mass popularity and – more seriously – its professional nature, footballers being paid wages early on. The clash between amateurism and professionalism would endure.

When football was admitted, the International Olympic Committee ruled that only amateur players could participate in the Games, which suited the nascent FIFA, busy organising its first World Cup, just fine as the better players would be reserved for the their competitions. National football federations had to decide whether to compete in the Olympics and what team to field.

It is in this context that Italy’s one gold medal came about. Vittorio Pozzo, the legendary Italian tactician who twice won the World Cup in 1934 and 1938, was charged with fielding an Olympic side in 1936.

Fortunately for him, the IOC ruling considered any football player who was still a student to be an amateur. Pozzo could thus call up some of the younger players in Italy’s big sides. The most famous of these was L’Aquila and then Inter winger Annibale Frossi. Nicknamed Doctor Thin for his slender build and for the glasses he wore, Frossi was Italy’s top scorer with seven goals. Italy beat the USA 1-0, Japan 9-0, Norway 2-1 and Austria 2-1, winning their first and only gold medal.

Over the years the relationship remained fraught. FIFA didn’t want competition for the World Cup and the Olympics didn’t want other sports to be obscured by professional football. This situation benefitted the Cold War Eastern European sides, as all the players were state-sponsored and could thus qualify as amateurs, explaining the Soviet bloc’s successes.

In 1984 the IOC revised the ruling for European and South American sides, allowing professional players who hadn’t played in the first national side to participate. African, Asian and North American federations could field their proper sides, however, thus explaining their better performances in the Olympics. In these years, the Italian Olympic side had an indifferent track-record, its best result being the fourth place in Seoul 1988 that Italy remember mainly for the 4-0 hammering they received from Zambia.

The Olympics’ difficult relationship with professionalism came to a head when athletes from other sports began receiving endorsements and other professional sports such as volleyball and baseball demanded inclusion

Eventually the IOC, co-ordinating with FIFA, came up with a new formula becoming an Under-23s competition. It had an interesting levelling effect, as the sheer exuberance and raw talent of the poorer countries’ teams – usually Africans and South Americans – could counter the European sides’ greater discipline and organisation. Italy still underperformed, despite the Italian Under-21s’ domination of European football for much of the 1990s.

Italy will field a competitive side in Beijing this year, with Coach Gigi Casiraghi able to count on players such as Giuseppe Rossi and Sebastian Giovinco. But will they be enough to bring home the gold?

[JuveGER]

The European teams have the disadvantage that they can't bring their best overage players to the Olympics since the EURO is always in the same year. I really rate that Italian team, but if you look at Argentina or Brazil I wouldn't call Italy favourites. I dream of Sebastian Giovinco running circles around them and stealing the show from Robinho and Messi, though.

[tonykart]

Where is the official Italy rosteR?

[tonykart]

Rossi: Messi? Pato? We Have Giovinco!

Giuseppe Rossi insists that the Italy Under-21s have nothing to fear going into next month’s Olympics Games, despite the presence of a whole host of stars such as Lionel Messi and Alexandre Pato for Argentina and Brazil respectively.

The Azzurrini will go into the tournament in Beijing as one of the favourites, however they will not be as strongly tipped as the two South American giants.

Argentina will be able to rely on wonderkids Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, and Ezequiel Lavezzi, as well as over-age stars such as Juan Roman Riquelme and Javier Mascherano.

Brazil meanwhile will be able to count on the talents of Alexandre Pato, Weder Bremen’s Diego, as well as the over-aged Robinho.

Despite this, Rossi is not scared, and he points to the prodigious talents of Sebastian Giovinco, and a host of other promising starlets.

“Am I scared? I answer with Giovinco, Acquafresca, Montolivo and Nocerino, just to name a few, and our over-aged Rocchi,â€