Some of you remember a couple of months ago when I posted that Puma was planning to kit Italy with a light blue/brown shorts combo to be worn at this summer's Confederations Cup. Well, Puma has in fact made the new kit, but it is not as dramatic as we first thought. Puma has decided to celebrate Italy's glorious past of the 1930's, when the Azzurri were back to back World Cup champions in 1934 and 1938.

Italian-American is definitely Italian today Ex-Manchester United striker Giuseppe Rossi was Italy's goalscoring hero last night as he bagged a brace to help the Azzurri come from a goal down to beat 10-man USA. That is the same USA where Rossi was born and spent the first 13 years of his life. I have read some [.

It is well known that Italy is a center of high fashion and style. The Azzurri jersey is naturally an extension of that fashion sense. The 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup will see a new Italian shirt that promises to be a hot seller. Check it out: The new shirt will be worn by [...]

The Azzurri are one of football's top teams around the world. The Italians can count four World Cup titles, one European Championship, one Olympic trophy and two Central European International Cups as part of their illustrious football history. However, if Italy have enjoyed a lot of success on the International stage, they also had to [.

Egypt beat Italy today 1 - 0 and made the entire group B of Confederations Cup take qualification to the next round. Brasil has 6 points, Italy and Egypt have 3 points and USA is already out with 0 points. Brazil can lose to Italy 1 - 0 on Sunday and will still qualify regardless of the results of USA vs.

And so, after my historical Bayern Munich 2007-08 jersey (which by the way, won "Best Shirt" in the 2008 Soccerlens Awards) article, the time has come to review yet another fine SoccerPro product. This time, even more relevant to us Serie A and Calcio fans, I picked an Azzurri-related product: the Puma Italia backpack.

On June 16th, Italy will play their first game of the UEFA U-21 Championship 2009 vs. Serbia. The Azzurrini find themselves in a group with Belarus, Serbia, and hosts Sweden. Italy have always been successful at this level however they have not won the U-21 Championship since 2004. Pierluigi Casiraghi has been unsuccessful with the Azzurrini so far since taking over from Claudio Gentile in 2006 and this is arguably his last chance.

For analysis, check the Italy World Cup Blog. Here are the goals:

National Anthem and Line-ups:

1-1 Giuseppe Rossi

2-1 Daniele De Rossi

3-1 Giuseppe Rossi

Often we see a young player explode onto the calcio scene and everyone turns heads and says "Where did this kid come from?". Well, now is your chance to gain some knowledge about some promising Italian young players and maybe in a year or two when one of these players starts to do some good things on the pitch you'll know who they are.

It looks like American forward Vincenzo Bernardo will be staying with SSC Napoli this spring after turning down several offers from throughout Europe. Bernardo had drawn interest from Spain, England, Romania, Belgium, Greece, and among several Italian Serie B and C teams. The strongest offer came from Serie B side Brescia which offered to buy joint ownership (50-50) of the New Jersey player - an offer Napoli refused.

Today the list of 35 players was announced that will play in a friendly on June 6th in Pisa vs. Northern Ireland and the upcoming FIFA Confederations Cup. 22 players were called up for the Northern Ireland game, while 13 will skip that match and go straight to South Africa. Lippi said in recent weeks that the roster for the Northern Ireland match would be mainly experimental and would give national team experience to the players that merited a call-up based on their play throughout the Serie A season.

Stuff to read while you dribble through a minefield with no one watching (til now)......... The new (sorta) and improved (definitely) Azzurri kit. (Italy Offside) ESPN fails in its bid for EPL TV rights. (Unprofessional Foul) Hibernation means nothin' in the Bundesliga. (Guardian) Podcast interview with the man, the myth, the legend: Vinnie Jones.

Today was the FIFA deadline to submit the final 23 man roster going to the Confederations Cup, and Marcello Lippi has picked his 23 man squad. He had already chosen 13 names, but he added on 10 more. There are no real surprises (besides the inclusion of Davide Santon), and the squad is mostly what we've seen for recent qualifiers and friendlies.

After the 0-0 draw with Serbia in the opening match, the game against hosts Sweden was very important, as a loss or a draw would've put Italy's chances of getting out of the group in lots of trouble. Fortunately, the Azzurrini stood up to the task, winning 2-1 and putting them in a strong position to advance to the semi-final.

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.

After a summer of speculation about where he may wind up, Oguchi Onyewu has signed with one of the biggest clubs in Europe.

Onyewu has signed with AC Milan, joining the Italian giants on a free transfer. Milan announced the signing on its club website.

A standout for Standard Liege over the past five seasons, Onyewu left the Belgian club after helping lead Liege to a pair of Jupiler League championships.

Most of the heavy favourites have already qualified for the World Cup due next summer in South Africa. Previous World Cup winners such as Brazil, Germany, England, Argentina and Italy (also current WC Winners) all booked their spot in South Africa following a long and arduous road. Some teams such as Argentina have struggled while others such as England have cruised, yet the World Cup stage is a different playing field and previous results will not count.

While Italian football provides excellent quality and entertainment on the pitch, we all know that it equally provides excellent quality and entertainment off the pitch. The crazy owners, the fights in the media between opposing managers and directors, the outbursts in press conferences, and all that other great stuff that keeps us entertained during the week.

Usually we get the call-ups on Sunday afternoons, but with the Italy game being Tuesday we get Marcello Lippi's call-ups a day early. Lippi has gotten criticism from the press for his call-ups since he took over, most notably for the exclusions of Alessandro Del Piero and Antonio Cassano. Lippi said that this game would be no place to experiment and new faces should not be expected, and he was right on point.

We all know by now that Rino Gattuso is not one who keeps his thoughts to himself. He'll tell you like it is, and he's not afraid of anyone. (I mean come on, this is the man who choked Marcello Lippi at the World Cup.) Gattuso always gives 110% for club and country, and now that he's on the sidelines injured he's become an analyst of sorts, always being interviewed about various topics in the calcio world.

When it comes to national team shirts, Italy's are one of the Top 5 in popularity and style.  The Azzurri shirts for the 2009 Confederations Cup are out and all accounts are that they are a throwback to the shirts of the 1930s.  Check it out: The 8th Confederations Cup will be held in South Africa from [.

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The Italy squad for the 2009 Confederations Cup has been announced by coach Marcelo Lippi. Lippi announced the squad alongside the one to be playing Northern Ireland. 13 players are guaranteed to be on the plane to South Africa, while the remaining 10 will be chosen from players representing the Azzurri in the friendly against [.

With the big hype surrounding the Italy-Brazil friendly this coming Tuesday, I thought it would be a good idea to show all the big games Italy and Brazil have played against each other. As we all know, Italy and Brazil have won the most World Cups (Brazil has 5, Italy has 4). But you could also say that Italy has always had an admiration for Brazilian soccer and vice-versa.

So the big friendly everybody waited for lived up to it's billing as an entertaining encounter, but it was entertaining for Brazil fans. Carlos Dunga's side played a great match, a real samba style mixed with grit and determination. Italy, on the other hand, at times looked like San Marino (especially in the first half) but picked it up in the second (but still not playing up to par).

So when I was a little kid watching calcio back in the '90's, my idol was none other than Roberto Baggio. Everything about him amazed me: his technique and skill, his perfect free kicks, the way he just slipped past defenders like they were practice cones, the amazing goals he scored, everything.

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After this summer's UEFA U-21 Championship, the current cycle will end and a new cycle (2009-2011) will start, which will result in a new Azzurrini team being put together because the current players will be too old to be eligible. Therefore in preparation for the qualifiers in September, Casiraghi is using next week's friendly vs.

Pretty much sums up the game quite nicely.

I think there are way too many problems with this team and it wouldn't really be good to reiterate my feelings after you've all seen my thoughts after every national team game (Never have been in favor of Lippi's return; we need a fantasista *cough* Cassano *cough*; the stupid 4-3-3 formation; etc.

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.

In honor of the national team break, I thought the video of the week should be national team-themed. Here's a great little video I found on youtube, which goes through the history of the national team in 3 minutes and shows us that we too are part of the national team (L'Italia siamo noi=We are Italy).

Three points in the bag, and thank you Bulgaria. Italy's week-end couldn't have started better: a win against Montenegro (courtesy of Pirlo and Pazzini) and the Berbatov boys neutralizing Trapattoni in Dublin, Marcello Lippi must be rather satisfied & smiling at his boys' performance: Saturday's was match which, for lack of a mind-blowing performance, the [.

I watched today's Roma Milan game with a split heart.Roma needed the win to maintain the final UEfa cup spot. With Palermo breathing down their neck Roma could ill afford the slip up against Milan.At the same time i couldn't help but think of Maldini and his national team service and his club excellence.

The Azzurri will be sporting these bad boys for the upcoming Confederations Cup. Throwback style.
I don't like 'em.
I think I'll like them less when they're beating up on the U.S.

By Clemente Lisi - NEW YORK, NY (Jun 15, 2009) USSoccerPlayers -- It was a tale of two halves for the US in its 3-1 loss to mighty Italy in its Confederations Cup opener on Monday in Pretoria, South Africa. In the first half, the Americans were a rugged, counterattacking bunch. The players effectively absorbed the pressure.

Well, it's that time of the summer again. I'm off to the old country tomorrow, so the blog will be inactive for a couple of weeks. However I will be back right before the start of the Serie A season so I'll be able to maybe get a mega-preview up like last season and we'll wrap up the important news that happened while I was gone.

By now he has made his decision. Amauri wants to play for the Italian national team. Dunga doesn't want to call him up for Brazil, and Amauri knows that Lippi is interested in calling him up to the Azzurri. Amauri thought he would be getting his passport sometime this month and that Lippi would call him up for October's World Cup qualifiers, but that is not the case, as a new Italian law (passed on August 8th) will now prevent Amauri from getting his Italian passport until March 2010.

It was a good day for the young generation of Italian players at FIFA's U20 World Cup. The Azzurri beat Spain 3:1 and sent the opponents home. La Furia had 10 men on the pitch and could not hold Italy's strength. With Italy desperately needing renovation in its current squad this is surely looking good.

A number of players can stake a claim for being part of the best team in the world at this early period of the European domestic leagues. However, very few players standout the way those listed below have in terms of their contribution to their team, their role as leaders, and certainly their crucial involvement in their respective clubs.

The coach of the defending World Champions, Marcelo Lippi finalized his roster for the massive encounter against Brazil. An omission from the squad is Juventus icon, Alessandro Del Piero. Il Capocannoniere from last year didn't get the call and neither did Serie A's leading scorer Marco Di Vaio of Bologna.