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]

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.

...It just doesn't look the same without Elaines wonderful art, does it?

And the Azzurri side doesn't look the same without Antonio Cassano, Guiseppe Rossi or Sebastian Giovinco either...:(

Anyways, heres the lineups and whatnot for tonights game, heres to a good start to the Euro 2012 preparations!

Gazzetta dello Sport Ranieri in Gazzetta
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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

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.

According to Paul Hirst at the PA, Totteham made a bid of around £35million 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 .

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.

Would you want to see Guiseppe Rossi this summer?

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. 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).

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.

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.