Italy Euro 2012 Puma Home Football Shirt - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
The Italian National Team are one of the favourites to win the Euro 2012
tournament. The Azzuri last tasted success at the 2006 World Cup and are always one of the main
contenders for every major tournament.
Italy Euro 2012 Puma Home Football Shirt - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
The Italian National Team are one of the favourites to win the Euro 2012
tournament. The Azzuri last tasted success at the 2006 World Cup and are always one of the main
contenders for every major tournament.
As Guiseppe Rossi and Antonio Cassano's respective ailments take their toll on the Azzurri
selection process, the more cynical fans among us will be already preparing the finger pointing
when Italy lack the firepower needed to overcome the likes of Spain and the Republic of Ireland,
citing the duo's absence [read more]
the question(s) is, will Guiseppe Rossi show up in Italy at a club side this summer or are those
feet firmly planted in Spain? will Antonio Cassano find his scoring partner at Milan and in doing
so transfer that partnership to the national squad, if yes who will Mister X be? and will Andrea
Pirlo find rejuvenation at mighty Juventus during the 2011-2012 season as both club and player
look for a.
It is incredible to think that Italy, World Champions five years ago, were ever ranked outside of
the top ten in the FIFA rankings. But, such had been their fall from the summit of world football
that started after their horrid display in South Africa, that the Italian National team found
themselves in sixteenth position last November behind the likes of Slovenia, Norway, Egypt and
Greece.
Now that we know the squad that Cesare Prandelli is taking with him it is time to discuss the
matches coming up. Italy have two games within a 4 day stretch, and they will be the away side for
both games. However, there is a big difference between the two games. One is a Euro Qualifier that,
with a win, could send Italy to a very safe place in group C and the other is an international
friendly.
Traditionally Italy have always fared poorly in friendly matches. The Italian mentality is such
that only in important matches do the players really put in the required effort. Clearly, this is
not a real problem, after all when measuring a nations' football success in terms of World Cup
triumphs, Italy is second only to Brazil.
Today's friend ended all even with Italy 1, Romania 1 what say all you Azzurri fans can Pandelli
right the ship and book a place for Italy in Euro 2012? This video post goes out to the Azzurri
with The Specials. "better straighten right out Azzurri",... I'm sure it will take a few people
back, some.
Guest writer/Matthew Coccoluto With international break again upon us, a few European countries
will be squaring off in the Euro 2012 playoff rounds. The rest will be using these upcoming
friendlies to further prepare for the tournament in June. Cesar Prandelli will be without some key
players as they face Poland on Friday and host Uruguay on Tuesday.
This episode we welcome freelance writer Scott Fleming from Football-Italia.net. More on summer
2011 and Italian Serie A new arrivals in clubs, players and owndership. give the podcast a listen
and leave your comments Recorded during the previous 24hrs with Italian football discussion
including, the new and not so new Lazio a hazy transfer window Rossi to Juventus Cesena build up
the return of.
Three big stories this past week have perhaps set in motion a chain of events, the eventual results
of which may have huge implications on both the Serie A title race this season and the future of
the Italian national team. First among these, and easily the saddest tale is the season-ending knee
injury suffered by Fabio Quagliarella.
Another transfer window means will Cesc go or will he stay. This is become repetitive and
tedious. Many Arsenal fans are sick and tired of the annual Barcelona attempt to poach our
captain for nothing!
Last summer was the summer we all thought Cesc would leave, he even asked to leave and told
Arsene to his face he wanted to leave, or so the stories go.
Earlier this offseason, I posted a poll and question about what EPL teams you would like to see
do a tour of the United States. Â Since then we have seen Barcelona confirm a three-stop tour of
the U.S., where they will be playing both Manchester United (DC) and AC Milan (Miami).
With only one "natural" defender in Pep Guardiola's lineup on Monday night FC Barcelona took the
Camp Nou pitch to open the 2011/2012 La Liga campaign after a one week strike stoppage.
Due to the unavailability of Pique, Puyol, Alves, Adriano and Maxwell Pep Guardiola decided to
unveil a new formation for the La Liga champions.
While the UEFA Champions League gets all the attention, it's the Europa League that is home to some
of the best gems in European club football. For example, the first half of the Villarreal - Napoli
match at the El Madrigal Stadium contained some of this week's most fascinating moments in
football.
In the 17th minute, Hamsik headed in a beauty of a goal and several celebrating Napoli fans went
tumbling to the sideline when the stadium guardrail broke:
As beautiful as that Hamsik goal was and as excited as the Napoli fans were, it was all for naught
as Nilmar got the equalizer for Villarreal in the 42nd minute and then the Boy from Teaneck,
Giuseppe Rossi, got the game winner for the Yellow Submarine:
According to Paul Hirst at the PA, Totteham made a bid of around ÂŁ35million
for Villarreal striker Guiseppe Rossi during the transfer window.
Manager Harry Redknapp said,
"Daniel [Levy] always said that if we found the right player then we would have gone for him but
it was difficult .
Jozy Altidore was on the bench for Villarreal's 3-3 draw with Sevilla in the opening leg of their
semifinal series at El Madrigal. Villarreal were up a goal in the 24th minute when Cani scored.
They doubled that lead through Guiseppe Rossi four minutes later. Sevilla cut the lead in half in
the 39th, but Villarreal were back in front by two goals when Marco Ruben scored in the 55th
minute.
As Spurs face up to the reality that the 2011/12 season will not include a return to the UEFA
Champions League, supporters are left to rue the failure of Harry Redknapp to lure a top striker to
the club in the January transfer window. It certainly wasn't for lack of trying as Fernando
Llorente, Diego Forlan, Kun Aguero and Guiseppe Rossi were all targeted for a switch to White Hart
Lane to beef up Spurs assault on both the domestic and European front.
Was there a game on Sunday? There was? You'll have to fill us in on what happened. Strangely, there
doesn't seem to be any recollection round these parts of a proud Tottenham side actually playing
football this past weekend.
Okay, okay. We saw it. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't enjoyable. It was an utterly shambolic way to
start a football match, up there with the worst moments of Young Boys away and Inter at the San
Siro.
Tottenham have made a swoop for Ryan Babel after moves for four big-name strikers have fallen
through over the last 48 hours, Goal.com UK have revealed.
Spurs have turned to the Liverpool forward after their attempts to capture Luis Fabiano, Klaas-Jan
Huntelaar, Emmanuel Adebayor and Guiseppe Rossi all hit dead ends.
Transfer deadline day. As I write this we're 8.30 hours away from the end of the rumour mills
and the various "In The Know's" located all over the internet will have to jump back into their
boxes until at least mid December.
It seems it could be a busy day, as it always is just before the window shuts, but will it be
for Spurs?
Andy Najar is the 18-year old winger, already believed by some to be one of DC United's best
players. He had an impressive first season, making 28 appearances and scoring 5 goals. That
performance created a lot of buzz, particularly because he is a US resident on a path to
citizenship and could play for the USMNT or for his home country, Honduras.
Our second round of USMNT Celebrity Death Matches continues today! Round one was a real
bloodbath...
For those of you wondering why our series has omitted the most obvious of Death Matches, Mexico;
there's a whole post of its own coming down because we've got so much material.
Starting with the positives, Zac MacMath is named to SI's Team of the Week for Week 7.
We all knew that Peter Nowak would serve a one game suspension after he was ejected from
Saturday's game for entering the pitch during the pushey-shovey that followed the tackle that led
to Garfan's red card.
It's been a bit of a slow week, and aside from the tragedy at the weekend and the news of
Guiseppe Rossi's new ACL injury, all is rather quiet on the Azzurri front.
So, I am going to endeavour to round up some Calcio/Italian based news of the week as we [read
more]
Amanda fills in as host on the show this week, along with Melissa and Kirsten. Melissa gloats
Marylands victory over Amandas beloved Blue Devils and we take a quick look at NCAA soccer. We
dissect the USMNT roster for the October friendlies, learn how to pronounce Eric Lichajs last name,
mock Brek Shea a little (in our continuing quest to get Heath Pearce on the show), and get into the
Charlie Davies conundrum.
The EUROPA League, formerly known as the UEFA Cup, took place around Europe on Thursday. Some
matches were played in the afternoon, some in the evening whereas others even started during the
night. From early kick offs in Russia to late kick offs in Portugal, Thursday saw plenty of
European football played and a number of high profile clubs were involved, including Liverpool, AEK
Athens, Bayer Leverkusen, Stuttgart, Juventus, Sampdoria, Sevilla, Paris SG and even reigning
champions Atletico Madrid.
As the new season looms large, there is great anticipation around Old Trafford that the youth of
today can become the stars of tomorrow and finally blossom into United greats much like the class
of '92 had done many moons ago. And the signs are there that the current bunch can do just that and
even emulate the luminaries of '92 which consisted of the likes of Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and
David Beckham among many others.
