The Official Azzurri thread

[ricky2882]

[Bagg10]

[RomaShield27]

Italy fear Croker factor
– By Frank Dunne – Thursday October 08 2009

Italy midfielder Daniele De Rossi said yesterday that the Azzurri were expecting an unforgettable atmosphere when they step out at Croke Park in Saturday evening's crucial World Cup qualifier.

"The atmosphere created by the Irish fans will be similar to that created by Scotland's fans," he said. "One of my strongest memories in football was listening to the Scotland fans singing their national anthem and I expect that it will be the same in Ireland."

De Rossi said that Ireland would give everything to beat Italy, "not just for pride but because they still have a chance of winning the group. This will be a real test for us, against a team that's playing well and is extremely hard to beat at home. But it's not the last opportunity for us. We can't get knocked out on Saturday; we still have another game (against Cyprus on Wednesday). If we have to qualify in the second game, we won't be as happy, but it would still mean that we're through," the Roma player said.

Italy coach Marcello Lippi has spent the last two days at Coverciano, the Italian FA's technical centre near Florence, trying to get the message across to his players that this is "the most important week in the whole qualification cycle." With Italy holding a four-point lead over Ireland, Lippi fears complacency above all else and was unusually animated in yesterday morning's coaching session, intervening time and again to get his point across.

De Rossi said that attitude of the team was good. "We are concentrated, but the proof will be what happens out on the pitch. We've said many times before that we were motivated, that we would play a great game, but then the opposite has happened."

There is a simmering resentment in the Italy camp about the 1-1 draw with Ireland in Bari in April. The view is that but for the harsh expulsion of Giampaolo Pazzini in the fourth minute, after a challenge which left John O'Shea covered in blood, Italy would have won comfortably and qualification would already be done and dusted.

Lippi repeated his view this week that the sending off was unfair. De Rossi added: "The first match against Ireland was falsified, or at least altered, by the sending off after a couple of minutes."

Italy are almost certain to be without Claudio Marchisio, who has a knee injury. The absence of Marchisio, hugely impressive on the left side of the midfield against Bulgaria last month, could force Lippi into a tactical shake-up. Italy are already without their inspirational captain, Fabio Cannavaro, who is suspended for Saturday's match.

The 'halo effect' of that Bulgaria match for Lippi already seems to have worn off. In the 'Corriere della Sera' Alberto Costa reopened hostilities, criticising the team's playing style. "Interest in the national team and television ratings drop when the team is not involved in the final stages of a World Cup or a European Championship. But it has to be said that this Italy team does very little to overcome the general indifference. This, without a doubt, is one of the weakest Italy teams in memory."

different

De Rossi responded by saying that Italy had a limited number of matches in which to qualify. "We can't waste time by trying to provide spectacular football, which, in my opinion, Italy has never played. Italy has always had strong squads with great individuals like (Francesco) Totti, (Alessandro) Nesta and (Roberto) Baggio, but has always played a style of football which is different to that of countries like Holland, Spain and Brazil."

Lippi's recent decision to push Milan's Andrea Pirlo forward appears to have resolved the problem of Pirlo and De Rossi failing to reproduce their club form when playing together for Italy -- the same of conundrum which England coaches have faced with Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard.

"Sitting in front of the back four is the position that I usually occupy (for Roma) and where I probably play best," De Rossi said. "But I've always said that we can alternate during the game according to the situation. I've always been puzzled by this view that we are incompatible."

[marco]

[RomaShield27]

Dublin a real Rome from home
– Friday, October 9, 2009

SOCCER WORLD CUP QUALIFYING GROUP EIGHT - THE ITALIANS IN DUBLIN: STEPHEN FINN meets a few of the estimated 10,000 Italians living in this country and while they back Trap, there true loyalties are still with Lippi.

A BALMY night in Dublin felt ever so like Rome from home for thousands of Italians living in Ireland’s capital city. When Fabio Grosso’s winning spot-kick in Berlin secured Italy’s fourth World Cup success after a dramatic final against France, the Irish-based Italians partied like they were dancing at the Trevi Fountain. It is estimated that 10,000 Italians now live in Ireland and three years ago it seemed most of them had converged on Temple Bar to toast the success of Marcelo Lippi’s side.

“2006 was great because it was the first World Cup I saw them win. It was a great feeling,â€

[RomaShield27]

Ireland v Italy - An Historical Look
– Subhankar Mondal, Goal.com – 3 hours, 59 minutes ago

In late 1985 journalist Paddy Agnew left the secure comfort of a newspaper office in Dublin and with his future wife Dympna landed in Italy without a job, a home, a car or even a telephone, and didn't speak Italian either. As a matter of fact, he didn't want to go to Italy: he wanted to move to France, his wife wanted to go to Spain and so they compromised and chose the peninsula instead.

More than 20 years down the line, and Agnew has become one of the most cherished English-speaking Italian football experts, having commented for the Italian state broadcaster Rai for in excess of 15 years and written an exceptional book on football in the country. He is the Italian correspondent for The Irish Times, is based in Rome, and has come to adopt Italy as his new home.

Whether the World Soccer columnist would root for his motherland the Republic of Ireland or his adopted nation Italy on Saturday, or perhaps compromise again and hope for a 1-1 draw, this columnist does not pretend to know, but Paddy Agnew's Irish-Italian link is one of a number of intriguing components that make Saturday's clash so very colourful.

Like those two historic World Cup matches, for example.

Italy were one of the favourites for the 1990 World Cup finals and their presence in the quarter-finals was as much expected as customary. On the other side, Ireland earning a place among the last eight was a huge surprise. It wasn't a vintage footballing display from the Irish either, as they could score only twice before they reached the quarters and had failed to win any game within regulation time.

The Irish were eventually caught out against the Italians as the hosts comfortably won 1-0, Salvatore Schillaci scoring the winner seven minutes before half-time.

Fast forward four years and things would get reversed as this time it would be the Irish who would come on top. The two sides clashed in a Group E opener and the Republic of Ireland caused a major sensation as they thoroughly outplayed Italy and defeated them 1-0, Ray Houghton's 11th minute goal proving the difference between the two sides.

Goal.com's World Editor Peter Staunton, who was born and brought up in Ireland and currently resides in London, recounts that game, "I recall Phil Babb doing his best Paul McGrath impression, Jason McAteer nutmegging Roberto Baggio and of course, the little man for the big occasion, Ray Houghton. His looping volley, Pagliuca's nonchalant stretch, the forward tumble, the place in the record books. I was hoping Italy would beat Brazil in the final. If so, we would have beaten the World Cup champions. We were good value for it too."

Of course, Ireland's footballing relationship with Italy had started some years before those two memorable matches when a certain Liam Brady, the greatest Irish footballer of all time, graced Italian football. He played for Juventus between 1980 and 1982 but has scripted his name as one of Serie A's greats after scoring the final day spot-kick that handed Juve the Scudetto in 1982.

Historically Italy have been one of the giants of world football while Ireland have been pretty much also-rans and the odd surprise package, but when these two sides clashed in April this year in Bari in the qualifiers, Robbie Keane stole a late equaliser to grab a point off the Italians. That result was celebrated in Ireland with unalloyed enthusiasm.


Ireland's manager for that match and for Saturday's game is a certain Giovanni Trapattoni, the only coach to have won all UEFA club competitions and the Intercontinental Cup. Appointed the country's tactician in May 2008, 'Trap' has come close to securing a place for Ireland at the 2010 World Cup finals, and Italy coach Marcello Lippi sums his contribution by saying, “He has brought a serious organisational capacity to Ireland and he has made them into a real team. He has also done a lot for their self-belief, making them capable of providing serious opposition for any side.â€

[RomaShield27]

Right, I'm off home and I've no internet at home at present, so just want to say, in case I dont get a chance beforehand:

FORZA IRLANDA AZZURRI MERDA! C'MON IRELAND!

Goin to the match tomorrow night, should be great (well, probably a drab 0-0, but you know, still good to go to and all).

[p_maldini_3]

http://www.footballitaliano.co.uk/article.aspx?id=653

Italy Camp Focus - We are no more than a river of shadows

By Andrea Tallarita

Now October asserts itself, bringing with it a flurry of media news and a legion of chrysanthemums. Autumn is the season of tragedy, according to Northrop Frye. The time when great empires and glittering cities bow down into nameless mud and murk. If that is the case, then it certainly befits the Italian national team at the moment - champions of the world and conquerors of everything in football a few years ago and now incapable of coming to terms with the death and implosion of its own ageing stars. The blue shirts look faded, more than they have done in a while.

The call-ups were released a few days ago. Essentially, give or take a few names, Marcello Lippi is planning on starting the Juventus squad. How relieving. Those players were so tired that they got kicked in the face by Palermo (2-0), and now we should expect them to repeat themselves with the Azzurri shirt. It will be interesting to see how long Fabio Grosso lasts on the pitch before vanishing from the game (we are estimating 60 minutes, his average). A few of them will be given some rest, such as Fabio Cannavaro, who is suspended. Claudio Marchisio too is unavailable (injury), and he will be replaced by another soldier of autumn, Gennaro Gattuso. A ‘welcome return,’ some sources in the press have called it. Except that this is not a return, it is an exhumation. Gattuso is no longer the tiger that makes the world roll under the thrust of his heel, he is only a skin filled with dust.

Lippi was sensitive to the mood as well. ‘Mi avete stufato,’ he responded to the journalists who inquired on the exclusion of Antonio Cassano. It means that they have exhausted him and are getting on his nerves (so if nothing else the sentiment is mutual, Mr. Confederations Cup). It also suggests that he too is tired. Aren’t we all? One may expect the only vitality to come from the Irish. Who knows how this game may go. The men from the land of Guinness seem set to honour their drink by giving us freshness (in their team) and a tribal union (in their stadium), the likes of which the Italian team is very much shorn of. They also have a far greater drive. Were it not for the loss of some of their men to injury, we would call this game for them.


Lippi can be expected to field the 4-3-1-2 once more, after the success experienced with this against the Bulgarians. We mentioned in our Italy Camp Focus after the above game that the effectiveness of the formation was not dependable, at least not yet. Too much had resulted from the surprise effect of having Andrea Pirlo playing in the position of trequartista for the first time at international level (that, and the awful performance of the Bulgarians). Now that the ace is out of the sleeve, we may expect countermeasures. Republic of Ireland Coach Giovanni Trapattoni, possibly the greatest defensivist since Priam harnessed the city of Troy against the troops of Agamemnon, is guaranteed to do everything in his power to stifle Pirlo. Expect some very heavy man-marking, and given the Rossonero’s age, will he be able to fend it off?

Ireland plays with a very thick, very rough midfield. It is exactly the kind of thing that the Azzurri tend to suffer (alongside fast counters, though that is a different story). The Irish have the possibility of dominating, but Trapattoni’s style is so retentive that they will probably sit back most of the time. At the very most, we may expect them to play aggressively until they earn a lead, only to retreat and form a phalanx right after that. Given that the Azzurri are hardly the most dynamic of teams themselves and that Pirlo could be flattened out, this is shaping up to be a dreadfully boring game. Lippi claims that they are not going to play for the draw, but it looks like even that is far from guaranteed.

It is hard to say how a supporter must feel before a game like this. Obviously we all want Italy to qualify, but the current management is shaping a team of such decadence that shock therapy may be the only cure. At the same time, Lippi has proved over and over that he is invulnerable to shocks – he does not want to learn his own lessons. What worth is anything, then? Perhaps this is the reason behind the atmosphere of autumn that pervades Italian football so strongly, these days. Our giants are collapsing (Milan), our best players are ignored or foreign (Cassano and Giampaolo Pazzini, Stevan Jovetić). Public sources and anecdotal evidence alike would have people united in a feeling – that if we go into the summer like this, we are not going to win the World Cup. This season our team is a beautiful idle woman, bored and tipsy. We look at her like people who are conscious of some coming disaster, yet we have forgotten how to tell her. Around her chrysanthemums, the flowers of autumn, bloom to herald the funerals of a generation deep in winter.

[Italiamia]

Medics explain Buffon injury
Sunday 11 October, 2009

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The chief medic of the Italy squad has explained why Gianluigi Buffon needs knee surgery, even if he is able to play for the moment.

Today the goalkeeper announced he will go under the knife to correct a meniscus problem in his left knee, but will “try to hold onâ€

[RomaShield27]

Jasus no discussion on the Azzurri game...? Oh wait i get it, your all too embarrassed to talk about it because you's robbed us at the end and feel you didn't deserve anything from that game? Makes sense alright.

Let me take this opportunity to congratulate the Azzurri and all Italians here on qualifying for the WC. It was a hard fought group, and in the end probably worked out about right, with the only two undefeated teams finishing top and probably just about deserving to win it with ourselves finishing second. The WC wouldn't be the same without Italy and I will obviously be cheering them on there, as long as they're not playing Ireland (but if that happens, I will be happy all round). Now just in case you think I'm being too nice: your manager is still a senile, stubborn, clueless old twat who picks the wrong players and who will hopefully will be replaced before South Africa next year.

It was a good and enjoyable game overall. I was expecting a drab 0-0 or 1-0 for us, so nice to see a few goals (if not one too many in the end [sic]). We put in a very good opening half, showed great desire and determination and were not overawed by the occasion (we had players making their first start for Ireland or first appearance in Croke Park etc.), but was spoilt by poor marking to let that midget Camoronesi of all people in with a free header. In the second Italy were more relaxed and played some decent football and we found it hard to get a foothold and get possession as we did in the first, and so it wasn't particularly exciting stuff until St Ledger popped up with a that diving header and que fooking mayhem. Then the boys decided to join in the party in the 75,000+ crowd and left massive holes at the back for Pirlo to ping the ball into, then the clumsy disaster that is Iaquinta had all the free space and Gila fell over himself in the box and inadvertently knocked the ball goalward and fucked our shit up. Cnut (we currently have better strikers than Italy). Overall I suppose the draw was probably the fair result. But we are no Brazil, we play to our strengths and win any way we can, and for effort and heart alone we deserved too, but thats not enough in football. Gila's goal was hard to take, it would of been nice to beat the World champs and also keep automatic qualification for us alive, not to mention sweat Lippi knowing he would of have to win the last game at home. But she wasn't to be. Now bring on the playoffs, bring on them French frogs.

(Oh I met De Rossi for a few pints after and he told me he was so impressed by Croke Park and what a wonderful stadium it is and how great the area is that he wished he himself was Irish so he could play there all the time).

[Messinterista]

[Bagg10]

[SPqR]

[quote="RomaShield27"Then the boys decided to join in the party in the 75,000+ crowd and left massive holes at the back for Pirlo to ping the ball into, then the clumsy disaster that is Iaquinta had all the free space and Gila fell over himself in the box and inadvertently knocked the ball goalward and fucked our shit up. Cnut (we currently have better strikers than Italy). [/quote]

[Carlo Romano]

I honestly don't know whether to feel happy or sad about the fact it took the "Old Guard" to make something meaningful out of a farce...I'm left with more questions than answers.

Because the group was already won, I expected to be watching yet another typically Italian act of expedience, the team doing no more than absolutely necessary and taking the easiest way of going about it...the classic Italian mentality which can at times be such a curse!

I wasn't however prepared for Lippi fielding a starting XI which looked at times like a cross between a second and third choice team, complete with matching performance! Last night I started to think Gamberini may be one of those players who finds it hard to move his solid enough club form up a gear to international level. If Casiraghi's Azzurrini were stronger I'd suggest Santon might be better left a little longer to put the finishing touches to his apprenticeship, but as they are, it would harm rather than help him...D'Agostino is another with undoubted talent but is not yet deserving of a starting place. Pepe and Rossi were so ordinary it wasn't funny, though if it is an excuse, Pepe was not playing his normal role.

Camoranesi, Di Natale, and De Rossi as subs lifted the side with their energy and enthusiasm, particularly Quagliarella who'd been another disappointment until the last twenty or so minutes!

It's no surprise Gila was named migliore in campo.

On the subject of who should and shouldn't be selected for la nostra nazionale, I was more than mildly interested in De Rossi's press conference, last Saturday lunch time. He implied Lippi was by no means the only one who doesn't want Cassano, who doesn't score enough goals as far as he, De Rossi, is concerned and that there are others who feel they are more deserving of a place in the team. It's said, in complete contrast, there isn't a problem amongst the players if Totti decides to return and we also saw in the week end's press that Lippi would have him back in a minute!

As I say, more questions than answers.


This Football Italia piece is almost word for word Lippi's post match statement. Believe me, he was not a happy man, his face as dark as a thunder cloud as he barked an abrupt "buona notte" at the camera to close the interview...

http://www.football-italia.net/oct14u.html

[Messinterista]

With the fans chanting Cassano and Lippi's frustration after that match almost makes me believe that has decreased his chances of becoming an Azzurri even further.

[RomaShield27]

Blog: Thanks for…what?
http://www.football-italia.net/blogs/sc83.html?

Is Marcello Lippi right to demand “gratitudeâ€

[Carlo Romano]

Dino Zoff was also getting on Lippi's case today, saying he is being too arrogant in manner with the public.

He implied rather than stated that Lippi over-reacted last night to the boos and whistles. It's no new thing, several commissari technici, even the greats like Bearzot had to suffer in their day similar and even worse treatment, like for example, the 1966 players and manager deservedly being pelted with eggs and tomatoes on their return home from the World Cup!

The present problem is both sides of the story here have their merits, but nothing changes the facts that the team needs to play more convincingly and the coach, even Don Marcello, must accept the fans have the right to express themselves.

While I can see a certain sense in Lippi's objection to we the fans verbally abusing those same players we expect to carry our hopes into the 2010 World Cup, there is no longer any time for the gently gently approach. Our verbal displeasure shows both players and coach in no uncertain terms, more is expected of them...

For this reason I hope the coming Holland friendly is taken seriously!

[Bagg10]

[Carlo Romano]

[Bagg10]