As you may have heard, the wildly elaborate World Cup Qualifying draw was held today. Italy (yes, you have to qualify even if you have the damn Cup at home) were one of nine top-seeded teams, so they avoided all the top nations by default, but England, Romania, and the dreaded Scotland were all in Pot B and therefore possible opponents.

[Posts on the death of Gabriele Sandri and subsequent events are collected here; this post is being updated with the latest news. It's been announced that Luigi Spaccarotella the shooter will face murder charges.]

First and probably most importantly, as long as you're not tender-shinned Scotland-killer Luca Toni, is the news that the FIGC have banned the supporters of 15 clubs across all divisions from traveling when play resumes, presumably after the international break.

•Kaka is FIFA's World Player of the Year. Try to control your shock.

•Is Luciano Moggi's phone ever not being tapped these days? Another investigation has opened into his behavior because he continued to "influence" football after his banning. Well.

•Manuela Prandelli, the wife of Fiorentina manager Cesare Prandelli, died this morning after a long illness. I'm trying to resist the old chestnut about it putting everything in perspective but it's sort of undeniable it's awfully hard to care about the table now, isn't it?

I've mentioned Mario Balotelli on this site only once, when he scored the winning goal for Inter's youth side in last season's Primavera title game. But, in the future, you'll probably be hearing more about him in the future: The kid is 16 years old, scored four goals for Inter's Primavera side, and is starting to get a lot of attention and not just in Italy.

The sports people at The London Times seem to be dedicating their summer to publishing lists of the 50 Best/Worst [intert football-related thing here]. So far they've pissed people off with their 50 Best (Current) Footballers, insulted Andriy Shevchenko with their 50 Worst Transfers, and mostly ignored goals not scored for English teams in their list of 50 Goals that Rocked Football.

•This time it's Olivier Dacourt. I don't want to talk about it.

•Francesco Totti is (probably) going to be back full force for the make-up match with Cargliari on Wedneday. No more of that bench-sitting shit, he and his bionic boot are (hopefully) ready to go.

•Roma's biggest Ultra groups have announced that they will not attend the team's home match with Caglari tomorrow. They won't come together elsewhere this time (as they did during the Udine match), but instead will just stay home.

•Antonio Cassano is jumping up and down outside Roberto Donadoni's back window, begging to be allowed to wear the blue shirt again.

•FIFA's latest rankings came out today and the top five remain unchanged, with Italy third behind Brazil and Argentina and just ahead of fourth-place France and Germany, who remain fifth. The rest of the top ten are: Croatia (!), The Netherlands, Spain, the Czech Republic and Portugal.

•Kaka to Arsenal?!

•It's about time for some more Adriano-to-Real rumors, don't you think?

Italy coach Roberto Donadoni has revealed the list of the 25 players which will battle it out against France and Ukraine in the Euro 2008 qualifiers next week. The biggest novelty in the Azzurri squad includes the first International call-up for Cagliari midfielder Pasquale Foggia, a player under the watch of Donadoni for quite some [...]

By the way, in case you're wondering why Gennaro Gattuso and Florent Malouda were so amicable during the Italy-France match, here's why. Ahhh, the power of Nike ads... . . . . . . . . . . Share This

The Preliminary Draw of the South Africa 2010 FIFA World Cup has just taken place in Durban, South Africa. The UEFA (Europe), CONCACAF (North-America), CAF (Africa), and AFC (Asia) regions now know the qualifying rounds for their road to 2010, and current World Champions Italy have been drawn in Group 8 with Bulgaria, Ireland, Cyprus, Georgia, [.

Such a shame for Italy! The Azzurri Futsal team did all they could against current World and European Champions Spain, but in the end the Furia Roja proved to be too strong in the Euro 2007 Futsal UEFA Championship final game. It is decidedly a Spanish curse the Azzurri are under: just like in the [.

Because they've been out playing competitive matches and reaching the final of major(ish) tournaments while the Azzurri have been lying on beaches in posh resorts tanning (or hanging around in various American cities, the weirdos), both Argentina and Brazil have passed Italy in FIFA's World Rankings. The result is that, despite not having dropped a point since the last ranking, Italy dropped two places and are now third in the list, above France, Germany and Holland in that order.

So, a 3-1 loss to Hungary a few weeks before a huge qualifier? NOT a good sign. Roberto Donadoni immediately put the blame on fitness but, while it's true the goals came late, the Azzurri didn't really inspire confidence before that, either.

The first half was certainly better than the second, though Massimo Ambrosini has never looked so awkward in his life things got much better when he sort of drifted out of the game.

The press in Italy is currently exploding with stories about the health of Marco Materazzi, and they get worse with each passing hour. At first, he had simply "suffered a thigh problem and was replaced." It quickly got more serious, though, with stories of a deep bruise and "trauma" (physical, apparently, though it's strangely entertaining to imagine Matrix weeping over his lost childhood, or something) that left him vomiting on the sideline.

According to Gazzetta dello Sport, Italian coach Roberto Donadoni has inadvertently revealed that striker Luca Toni will miss out on the game vs France this Saturday. As per his usual custom, Donadoni declared that he would not reveal his plans until the very last moment: "You know very well that all doubts concerning my starting eleven [...]

Who'd have thought? The biggest surprise of the day didn't come from yet another disappointing Azzurri performance (victory aside), but the incredible 1-0 win of Scotland on French soil (courtesy of Everton striker James McFadden). It really can't get any tighter in group B, because this surprising result (coupled with Italy's win in Kiev) now sees [.

As Francesco mentioned in the comments last night, Roberto Donadoni has called up a very different team for the upcoming friendly against South Africa than he fielded against Georgia. Among other things, this approach allows him to finally give Alessandro Rosina the call he deserves, thus shutting people up without actually, you know, picking the lad for a real match.

•The Azzurrini side for the upcoming matches against Azerbaijan and the Faroe Islands was just announced, and both Roma-owned Alessio Cerci and Fiorentina's baby Argie (with Italian heritage) Pablo Daniel Osvaldo have received their first call-ups. Osvaldo was expected to be in the team for the last round of U-21 matches but was injured, so an appearance in either match will mark his first Italy cap at every level (Cerci has U-19 and U-20 caps).

[If you're looking for information on the death of Gabriele Sandri and subsequent events, go here; the most recent post is on top. Inter-Lazio and Roma-Cagliari will be played on December 5th.]

•I'm not the only who thinks the new Azzurri kit is just foul, am I? Nice sheen there, Puma. What is this, 1977?

•Someone at Inter clearly reads this site because, check it out they're going to get Adriano help!

•Francesco Totti was back in full training for 15 minutes yesterday before getting hurt again. Needless to say, he's not going to Genoa. (RomaChris tells me Roma have four starters healthy for the match. Oh dear.)

•Could someone please tell Giorgio Chiellini to shut up?

Next time you see Francesco Totti on the pitch, he could well actually be hovering right above it: The crack (I might mean that literally, given how long it's taking their charges to recover from injuries the season) Roma medical stuff have built him a "special boot," one that will apparently render the captain impervious to both pain and injury.

The official prognosis isn't even in yet on Marco Materazzi (the Inter site says, and I quote, "He will undergo routine checks during the day." Great, thanks for that.), and the clamoring for the return of Sandro Nesta has already begun. He's an obvious solution to the temporary hole in the Azzurri back line and, despite his long absence from the national team, his name alone does a lot to calm the nerves of people who were left in a panic at the dire defensive performance on Wednesday.

•Despite reportedly being outplayed for stretches by Albania, the Azzurrini pulled out a 1-0 away win today on a goal from Robert Acquafresca to remain top of their Euro 2009 qualifying group. Though they didn't play particularly well this week, the U-21s have taken all possible points from their first three matches, and coach Pierluigi Casiraghi can breathe easy for a while as everyone spends their time glaring in the general direction of Roberto Donadoni.

Well, that was a hell of a lot more exciting than the France game. Jesus. So, do we call Dondoni a genius now because he started Antonio Di Natale and the guy scored two goals? Or is he just lucky the team saved his job for another day?

Overall, it was probably a deserved win, if only because Italy did more with their chances and, for the most part, defended awfully well.

Alex Del Piero will surely be thrilled to see Roberto Donadoni's list of call-ups for the upcoming Azzurri matches (a qualifier against Georgia and a friendly against South Africa), because the Juve captain successfully talked himself out of a spot in the team. Great work, Ale! Also missing are Pippo Inzaghi, who is yet to score for Milan, and a whole bunch of injured squad regulars, including Gianluca Zambrotta, Marco Materazzi, Mauro Camoranesi and Alberto Aquilani.

Italy's latest practice session just finished earlier today at Coverciano, before the Azzurri squad is set to depart for Genova. The traditional "yellow pinnie", which is used to tag the likely starters for Italy's next game, has been worn today by Buffon in goal, Oddo, Bonera, Barzagli, Chiellini in defense; Gattuso, De Rossi and Ambrosini [...]

Last call for Euro 2008: November 17th may be over a month away, but for Roma and Azzurri midfielder Daniele De Rossi the battle's already begun. De Rossi will be stepping onto the grass of Stadio Artemio Franchi in Siena for the first time as Azzurri captain Wednesday (given the many absences of the usual starters), when [...]

To sum up: Total domination; Lucarelli brace; several dozen players and nearly that many debutants.

Really, that's all you need to know. Italy's B-team, AKA Lucarelli and the Kids, dominated South Africa, threatening to run them off the pitch in the first 10 minutes until SA settled down and hung in there, pulling out a counter now and then and putting together the odd pretty move (all of which ended with Benni McCarthy running really fast).

Italy's 'Reserve' team has done pretty well considering: in Wednesday's friendly match the Azzurri obtained a 2-0 victory over South Africa, thanks to a double of Shakhtar striker Cristiano Lucarelli. The national team debuts of Alessandro Rosina and Andrea Dossena were both excellent. However, the biggest news of the days wasn't the good performance of the [.

How quickly things change just a few days ago, the press (and the rest of us) were in a Euro 2008 frenzy, hanging on Roberto Donadoni's every wise word, closely analyzing his possible formations, and talking endlessly about the Scots and their frenzied supporters. Now, though, you have to dig to find out the Azzurri have a match today.

Not much to play for in the final round of group B qualifiers: the Azzurri obtained a relatively easy 3-1 victory against Faroe Islands and concluded their Euro 2008 qualifying campaign ranked at nº1 spot behind France (who tied 2-2 away to the Ukraine). The first half saw a complete territorial domination by the home team, [.

Roberto Donadoni busted out another B-team yesterday, returning only three starters from the Scotland match, but the team he sent out was more than enough to drop a semi-interested 3-1 whupping on the Faroe Islands. Which is great and all, but since the Faroes ended qualifying with a grand total of zero points from 12 matches, anything less would have been really, really embarrassing.

•Manuela Prandelli, the wife of Fiorentina manager Cesare Prandelli, died this morning after a long illness. I'm trying to resist the old chestnut about it putting everything in perspective but it's sort of undeniable it's awfully hard to care about the table now, isn't it?

Note: I just arrived in Europe today (spending the Xmas holidays in Salerno, Italy), after a pretty long voyage. So I apologize for the lack of updates yesterday and today. I'll try to connect when possible during the next week, but expect a significant decrease in update frequency This article is my submission for the Soccerlens ‘Share [.

Roberto Donadoni's current contract expires at the end of June, 2008, right after the Euros. Feeling all puffed up and pleased with himself after successfully guiding the Azzurri through qualifying, though, he's preparing to enter in to negotiations for a contract extension, before he even gets to Austria.

Amauri's agent Mariano Grimaldi is, from all available evidence, an unrepentant sleazebag. In order to keep his client's name in the press, he has no compunction about telling bold-faced lies about other clubs and their interest, as well as Amauri's relationship with Palermo.

This was happening. (The best thing about that last video is how, after the last PK goes in, Lippi calmly turns around and picks up his jacket. THEN he thinks about celebrating not only is he a pimp, but the man has ice in his veins.)

So, as suggested by Mike in the comments, to celebrate the grand occasion we're have a BBQ! I made potato salad, Muddia will be slaughtering a (French) goat for the grill, and Chris will stand around and talk about how cool it would be if Zlatan was Italian.

There's a short (albeit picture-filled, which is nice) interview with Fabio Cannavaro in La Gazzetta today only a single paragraph of which is online and, after reading it, the people at Channel 4 decided the gist of the story was "Cannavaro calls Juve." As a result, they struggled manfully throughout their write-up to make it sound as if Canna was desperate to come home, despite being unable to find quotes to that effect.