Does Christoph Metzelder have a new gal-pal? Rumour has it that Marie Wellmann, who works in PR for a swanky hotel, is the lucky lady. Nothing officially confirmed yet, but the pair have been seen together at several different events recently. Watch this space.
Lots of weddings to celebrate: Alberto Gilardino married his girlfriend Alice, Alvaro Arbeola tied the knot in Zaragoza, Ruben de la Red married his fiancee Tania, and Mancini married his girl Vanessa.

Marcelo Lippi finalized his Azzurri squad for the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup and the big news is that Inter's teenage sensation Davide Santon. The youngster played mostly left back for Inter but is seen as a player who can play on both sides.

Three red-hot attacking players with breakout seasons in the 08-09 Serie A campaign were left off the list in favor of more veteran Azzurri players.

Fiorentina's Pantaleo Corvino is known to be one of the best sporting directors in all of Italian calcio. Over the years Corvino has discovered a wealth of talent, including Fabrizio Miccoli, Valeri Bojinov, Mirko Vucinic, Christian Ledesma, and Stevan Jovetic just to name a few. He is also responsible for bringing players like Sebastien Frey, Luca Toni, Adrian Mutu, and Alberto Gilardino to Florence.

Five days have passed since Italy's whopping 3-0 defeat at the hands of Brazil, a match which put an an end to Lippi's South African countryside scouting (one year before the big tournament) and sent the Azzurri home among general shrugs of indifference, frowned eyebrows, and sincere worries in the ranks of Italian supporters.

It was a dramatic end to a thrilling encounter at Croke Park. The Italians needed a 90th minute equaliser from substitute Alberto Gilardino to seal Italy's World Cup passage to South Africa.Sean St Ledger's 87th-minute header had almost earned the Irish a famous victory over the Italians. St Ledger said: 'It's great to score a goal for your country but I'm disappointed we didn't win.

Italian footballers seek alternative employment This new advert for Sky Italia features some of the biggest names in Serie A (well, you can#8217;t get much bigger than Quagliarella, can you?) trying their hand in the fast-paced environment of a TV newsroom. Adrian Mutu, Sebastien Frey, Alberto Gilardino, Simone Pepe and Fabio Quagliarella all take on bit-part [.

The perennial fifth place Fiorentina sent a stong message yesterday that they want something more by embarrassing Roma 4-1.
My personal goal of the weekend (already) goes to the Viola's Peruvian ace Juan Manuel Vargas for his 6th minute crusher into Roma's net.
Watch it here:
Alberto Gilardino added two more goals for Fiorentina and Massimo Gobbi completed the butt whuppin' with a 73rd-minute tap-in.

Italy has winnowed their squad down to 23 players for the Confederations Cup and here's what it looks like:
Goalkeepers (3): Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Marco Amelia (Palermo), Morgan De Sanctis (Galatasaray);
Defenders (8): Fabio Cannavaro (Juventus), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Gianluca Zambrotta (Milan) Fabio Grosso (Lyon), Davide Santon (Inter), Alessandro Gamberini (Fiorentina), Nicola Legrottaglie (Juventus), Andrea Dossena (Liverpool);
Midfielders (6): Mauro Camoranesi (Juventus), Gennaro Gattuso (Milan), Angelo Palombo (Sampdoria), Riccardo Montolivo (Fiorentina), Daniele De Rossi (Roma), Andrea Pirlo (Milan);
Forwards (6): Alberto Gilardino (Fiorentina), Vincenzo Iaquinta (Juventus), Fabio Quagliarella (Napoli), Luca Toni (Bayern Munich), Giuseppe Rossi (Villarreal), Pepe (Udinese).

To fans of Calcio it's still as vivid as ever: The vision of Fabio Cannavaro lifting the World Cup aloft remains the proudest of Italian memories in a difficult recent history. But with one year to go before the 19th World Cup Final, Cannavaro and his Azzurri have a lot of hard work to do if the national team are to avoid an embarrassing fate in their defence of the trophy.

Ireland's dramatic 2-2 draw with Italy may have secured them a 2010 World Cup play-off place but for captain Robbie Keane the result triggered mixed emotions.
Ireland thought they had snatched a win over the world champions when Sean St Ledger put them into a 2-1 lead with three minutes remaining on Saturday.

With a new round of Serie A coming up, the juiciest piece of footy action this week-end is probably the tie between Fiorentina and Lazio.  The home side have come through a rough period but are back to winning ways after two convincing victories vs. Napoli and Bologna.  Lazio on the other hand go into [.

Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Marco Amelia (Palermo), Morgan De Sanctis (Galatasaray) Defenders: Fabio Cannavaro (Juventus), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Gianluca Zambrotta (Milan) Fabio Grosso (Lyon), Davide Santon (Inter), Alessandro Gamberini (Fiorentina), Nicola Legrottaglie (Juventus), Andrea Dossena (Liverpool) Midfielders: Mauro Camoranesi (Juventus), Gennaro Gattuso (Milan), Angelo Palombo (Sampdoria), Riccardo Montolivo (Fiorentina), Daniele De Rossi (Roma), Andrea Pirlo (Milan) Forwards: Alberto Gilardino (Fiorentina), Vincenzo Iaquinta (Juventus), Fabio Quagliarella (Napoli), Luca Toni (Bayern Munich), Giuseppe Rossi (Villarreal), Pepe (Udinese)

Marco Amelia Italy's Keeper was horrible.Not is horrible, but last night in the Pretoria night was simple awful. Our ability to defend set pieces last night revealed a weakness that needs addressing.Marco Materazi's size and mental attitude needs to be replaced by someone. New Zealand were big strong and physical and deserve kudos.

Does Christoph Metzelder have a new gal-pal? Rumour has it that Marie Wellmann, who works in PR for a swanky hotel, is the lucky lady. Nothing officially confirmed yet, but the pair have been seen together at several different events recently. Watch this space.
Lots of weddings to celebrate: Alberto Gilardino married his girlfriend Alice, Alvaro Arbeola tied the knot in Zaragoza, Ruben de la Red married his fiancee Tania, and Mancini married his girl Vanessa.

Late Drama

It was the sort of goal that you would expect the team leading 2-1, rather than those chasing the game at the wrong end of a 2-1 scoreline, to get. Catching the opposition out on the break with a swift counter-attack in the 90th minute to put the gloss on a convincing 3-1 triumph.

The Republic of Ireland will take on France in the World Cup play-offs which commence next weekend in what will be an intriguing clash between the shrewd Italian coach Giovanni Trapattoni and the much-maligned French national team coach Raymond Domenech.

Trapattoni's record speaks for itself with successful spells almost everywhere he coached yet his most notable job prior to taking over Ireland ended in miserable failure with the Azzurri.

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard gave a frank assessment of his side's UEFA Champions League performance after they were beaten 2-1 by Fiorentina at Anfield.
The Reds were already condemned to the obscurity of the Europa League prior to the match and were guaranteed to finish third in Group E.

Marcello Lippi has released a squad for Italy's friendly against Northern Ireland, but the roster is devoid of many of the big names you would expect in the Confederations Cup. That's because he's decided to keep them fresh for the tournament in South Africa, and on Thursday elected to name two teams.

Fielding a team of reserves, the Italian national team went into halftime trailing New Zealand 2-1 in their international friendly on Wednesday. A few second-half subs later and Italy had rattled off three goals to score a 4-3 victory against the Kiwis in a friendly in South Africa.

Vincenzo Iaquinta's pair of second-half strikes proved to be the difference as Italy overcame some first-half goalkeeping blunders from back-up Marco Amelia.

The last time the USA met Italy was during the 2006 World Cup. Jorge Larrionda was one busy man. Before the match was over, the Uruguayan referee had issued three red card and four yellows, unleashing a storm of criticism as well as support over his controversial decisions. Larrionda officiated in the opening match between South Africa vs Iraq where he again faced some criticism.

Soccer America's Ridge Mahoney previews the USA vs Italy match today, which is the opening round of the FIFA Confederations Cup. The match will be televised live on ESPN at 1:30PM CST.
Nearly three years after they tied, 1-1, at the 2006 World Cup, the USA and Italy meet again Monday to open their schedules at the 2009 Confederations Cup (2:25 p.

Five days have passed since Italy's whopping 3-0 defeat at the hands of Brazil, a match which put an an end to Lippi's South African countryside scouting (one year before the big tournament) and sent the Azzurri home among general shrugs of indifference, frowned eyebrows, and sincere worries in the ranks of Italian supporters.

. There were some interesting results in the play-off stage in the Champions League, and some teams progressed with pride into the biggest club competition in Europe, while for some other, it was a case of a slip between the cup and the lip. Cypriot First Division club APOEL FC overturned a 1-0 deficit with a 3-1 [.

Some nice goals this week. We're still very early into the season, but two possible goal of the year candidates were scored this weekend. Samuel Eto'o's strike vs. Parma and Giandomenico Mesto's screamer vs. Napoli are joys to behold. Goals of the week after the jump.

Two unbeaten sides went head to head in this Group 8 match as Ireland gave Italy a stern test at Croke Park and almost ran out winners after a late goal from Sean St Ledger but Alberto Gilardino scored a last gasp equalizer.

1-0 Whelan

1-1 Camoranesi

2-1 St Ledger

2-2 Gilardino
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The UEFA Region had its second to last matchday with some countries needing wins to keep their hopes of traveling to South Africa next summer alive. Some of the key matches were Republic of Ireland v Italy, France v Faroe Islands, and Portugal v Hungary.

Here's a recap of these matches along with video highlights from Saturday, October 10, 2009.

After the international break, the man of the moment is undoubtedly Alberto Gilardino. The Fiorentina striker scored 4 goals in 2 matches with the Azzurri, including the impressive hat trick in 14 minutes vs. Cyprus. He now has 16 goals in 38 appearances (now level with Gianluca Vialli and Luca Toni) for the Azzurri and looks to be the headline striker heading into South Africa this June.

Soon after the start of Saturday's 0-0 friendly between Italy and Netherlands, an Italian fan ran out onto the pitch wearing a Superman t-shirt with "Cassano in Nazionale" (Cassano in the national team) written on the front and back. Once he got his shirt message of support for the ignored Sampdoria striker seen (hooray for s-words!

A huge round for Serie A with some big matches this weekend while all the top guns return from...
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Fiorentina warmed up for their midweek Champions League trip to Anfield with a convincing 2-0 win over Atalanta in Florence. Juan Vargas and Alberto Gilardino were the scorers for Cesare Prandelli's men. Atalanta finished with ten men after the dismissal of Valdes. It was a timely result for La Viola, who had suffered two consecutive [.

"Fourth place is the priority, it always is at this club. For financial reasons and because all the top players want to play in the Champions League."
If those words had been said by Spurs skipper Robbie Keane, Aston Villa counterpart Stiliyan Petrov, even Manchester City captain Kolo Toure, they would have been more than acceptable.

(Summary is not available.)

Before we go on with the Team Of The Week, our thoughts & prayers are with those that were affected by the tragic earthquake that hit L'Aquila on Monday. I spent the summer of 2002 in L'Aquila, its a beautiful place with friendly people, keep hope that more survivors will be found and that the town will recover quickly.

Whomever said that the race for the Scudetto was over, spoke too soon. Inter Milan suffered a stunning 1-0 loss on the road to Napoli. Ex-Juve striker Marcelo Zalayeta scored in the 73rd minute to give Napoli the win and extend Inter's winless streak to 3 games. The loss was the Nerazzurri's 3rd of the season and may have opened the door to 2nd place AC Milan to challenge Inter for the Scudetto.

After 36 weeks & a New Years/Christmas break, Italy has its champions. Congratulations to FC Internazionale Milano for clinching their 17th Scudetto. The Nerazzurri won the title after arch-rivals AC Milan lost on Saturday 2-1 on the road to Udinese. For good measure, Inter gave their home fans a show by trouncing Siena 3-0 at home to solidify their place as Italy's best team.

Manchester United got thrashed 3-0 by AC Milan back in 2007 and this country loved it.

BBC: AC Milan will face Liverpool in the Champions League final after crushing Manchester United at the San Siro.

Milan started the semi-final 3-2 down but were ahead on away goals after just 11 minutes when Clarence Seedorf headed down for Kaka to drill into the corner.

Italy and New Zealand squared off in their final tune-up for the tournament at the Super Stadium in Atteridgeville, about 45 minutes from the U.S. base camp. There were plenty of goals at both ends, with the Kiwis taking the lead three times before finally surrendering 4-3 after Vincenzo Iaquinta scored his second of the night in the 68th minute.

Fiorentina striker Alberto Gilardino has categorically denied saying that his team-mate and reported Arsenal target Felipe Melo will probably be 'sold' this summer. British tabloid The Daily Mail latched onto quotes from the Italian press earlier this evening, but they were denied just an hour ago after Gilardino insisted that his comments were completely [.

How can one undo all the good will and sympathies from a near career ending injury within seconds? Do what Eduardo did against Celtic yesterday. From an object of near universal sympathy, he becomes an object of near universal shame and derision. And with this, we need some way of compiling the worst of the worst.

The Serie A is back from the international break and the surprise start of Genoa to the season continued. Genoa defeated Napoli at home 4-1 on the strength of 2 penalty kicks in a game that ended with Genoa's 10 men and Napoli's 9. Ex-Inter forward Hernan Crespo scored his 1st for his new team as Genoa stayed in 1st place with a perfect record.