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.

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.

All of Italy is reporting it now. At first it was just a crazy rumor. Nobody believed that Kaka would leave Milan for Manchester City. But now it's slowly becoming official. According to Italian press reports (including Milan Channel, Milan's official TV station), Milan have accepted Manchester City's 120 million euro offer for Kaka.

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.

Up until about 2 years ago, if you had asked anyone who the best Italian defender was or even who the top defender in the world was, many people would tell you it was Alessandro Nesta. Everyone appreciated Nesta. He has always been a serious professional who had chosen always to step away from the limelight and preferred to be a silent leader.

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.

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.

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.

Juve Stabia are a club from Castellamare di Stabia, a town outside of Napoli (also the birthplace of Fabio Quagliarella). Juve Stabia, or the Vespe (bees) as they are nicknamed, have always been a club that bounced around the lower divisions, never reaching the paradises of Serie B and Serie A.

How great it was to have Serie A back after the winter break. I missed my weekly calcio fix. Roma-Milan highlighted the return of Serie A. Both teams desperate for the 3 points, as Roma wanted to inch closer to the top half of the table and Milan wanted to get closer to Juventus and Inter.

After a day full of tension, Berlusconi announced late today that Kaka will be staying at Milan and that he closed the deal himself. So Milan fans everywhere can now breathe a sigh of relief (unless you were in favor of him leaving). We'll see what happens over the next few days though. Regarding Serie A, we are now officially at the half-way point.

It's no secret that with all the goals Luca Toni has scored in Germany he has become an idol for Bayern Munich fans all over the world. But one fan in particular decided that he loved Luca Toni so much that he had to write a song for him. The German fans have to help me out here, because I don't know if "Matze Knop" is the name of a group or one guy but he/they is/are the author of the song, titled "Numero Uno".

One of the most popular shows in Italy is "Striscia la Notizia" a parody news show (kind've like a Daily Show with Jon Stewart or a Colbert Report but more variety show styled) that is broadcast on Canale 5 in Italy. It is a very funny show and the news covers all aspects of daily life. Probably one of the shows most famous segments is the "Tapiro D'Oro" (pictured) [Golden Anteater Award] which is given to celebrities and famous people who are embarrassed in the media.

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).

And so, with Serie A starting up again this weekend, the second half of the season begins (although technically it begins January 25th when the girone di ritorno begins). I thought it would be a good idea to give each team a grade for their efforts so far. Serie A has been very interesting this season and has provided us with some top quality football to gaze our eyes upon.

Inter-Milan yesterday turned out to be one of the better derbies of recent years. It was filled with intensity, exciting play, and featured two star-studded squads. Adriano's goal was subject to much debate, but even a Milan fan like myself has to admit that it was a call that could have gone either way.

So the long anticipated Champions League Round of 16 first legs have come and gone, and all the Italian teams will have to go back to the drawing board. Inter would have wanted to have gotten a better result at home (a win) but now face the arduous task of going to Old Trafford and getting a result (a scoring draw would put the Nerazzurri through).

After seeing Marcello Lippi's latest national team call-ups this Sunday, the big question all over Italy has been "Where's Cassano?". The media has written articles on it and are severely questioning Lippi's decision to leave out El Pibe di Bari yet again. It really is mind-boggling how Lippi can leave Italy's most talented player at home watching the game from his couch.

It as been 2 years and a couple of months since the big Calciopoli scandal in the summer of 2006. The big people accused were Luciano Moggi, the director general of Juventus, his agent son Alessandro Moggi, Davide Lippi (son of Marcello Lippi and head of the big Italian football agency GEA), as well as some other agents like Franco Zavaglia, Francesco Ceravolo, and Pasquale Gallo.

Inter defeated Sampdoria 1-0 to give themselves breathing room from Juventus. It was supposed to be the game where we would see the geniuses of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Antonio Cassano do battle, but unfortunately both players were unavailable for selection. The game wasn't pretty, but Jose Mourinho's squad got the job done once again, grinding out a 1-0 victory from a goal from Adriano, who seems to be reborn.

After 41 years, Cagliari beat Juventus in Turin in a thrilling 3-2 come from behind victory. Buffon (pictured) could only watch as the Sardinian side took the 3 points. Cagliari have been the real surprise team of the season. After losing their first 5 games, everyone thought this was the end of Cagliari's run in Serie A and that Cellino had made a mistake in hiring inexperienced manager Massimiliano Allegri.

The Italy squad listen to Lippi talk while training before the big Italy-Brazil friendly tomorrow. In Serie A action, Inter won again and Milan drew Reggina, which meant Juventus had a chance to get back into second place. A tough Catania side stood in their way, and just when the match looked like it would be heading to a 1-1 draw, Christian Poulsen scored in stoppage time to catapult Juve past Milan.

Since Torino had returned to the top flight in 2006, they have not lived up to their potential at all. The squad has a die-hard fanbase with passionate fans that flock to the Stadio Olimpico to watch their beloved Granata, and have a roster of players that can easily get them a mid-table finish.

Some of you may be looking at this picture and thinking: "What is this? Who are these players? And why does Sampdoria have a Scudetto patch on their jersey?" Well, those are the Primavera (the top youth side in Italy, similar to reserves in England) sides of Juventus and Sampdoria doing battle in the Torneo Viareggio final.

There was a time when the UEFA Cup was "the" Italian team competition. An Italian team would win it or would at least get to the semi-final. Unfortunately in recent years when it switched to a group stage format Italian clubs haven't been as successful, and see it as a nuisance or a second rate competition.

Today Lazio and Juventus went head to head at the Stadio Olimpico in the Coppa Italia semi-final 1st leg. Marcello Lippi was on hand to witness the match, and both sides were for the most part first choice (Del Piero and Buffon were rested for Juve). Lazio started with: Muslera, Lichtsteiner, Siviglia, Cribari, Kolarov; Foggia, Ledesma, Matuzalem, Manfredini; Rocchi, Pandev, while Juventus went with: Manninger, Grygera, Mellberg, Chiellini, Molinaro; Marchionni, Sissoko, Tiago, Nedved; Amauri, Iaquinta.

A couple of years ago (2004 to be exact), Sicilian side Messina were promoted from Serie B and returned to Serie A for the first time since the early 1960s. This is also the same time Palermo were promoted to Serie A for the first time in a long time so all of Italy was surprised to see two Sicilian sides in Serie A in the 2004-2005 season (it's not a surprise anymore, as Palermo became a stable Serie A side and they were joined by Catania).

So yesterday I was browsing around Italian Goal.com (the only version of goal.com worth reading since they just post articles from other sources instead of making stuff up like the english version), and I came across this article. It's almost every week that we constantly hear complaints from all teams about referee errors.

So today is the start of spring break for me, and I'm taking a little vacanza, so I won't be around for a week. However I will be back on Monday, March 16th to bring you the Serie A Weekend Round-up. So since the blog will be dead for around a week, I'll leave you with some random Italian soccer videos that I had lying around my youtube favorites to keep you busy while I'm gone.

Remember the whole fiasco a couple of months back when Brescia striker Davide Possanzini and Napoli winger Daniele Mannini were suspended for a year for showing up 15 minutes late to post-match drug testing? Well, they both can breathe huge sighs of relief as today TAS suspended the decision, allowing Mannini and Possanzini to get back on the football pitches.

There have been many players in Italy who are hyped by the media and pundits and in the end they never really amount to nothing in their careers, or just have average careers when they were expected to become superstars. You can look back over the past 10 years and see how many players have been given the "failed promise" label.

There was a time when Christian Vieri was arguably the best striker in the world. He was a goalscoring machine and would hit the back of the net regularly in Serie A and with the national team. Although after a couple of years at the top, "Il Mostro" (The monster) as he was nicknamed by Inter fans, went through a steep decline and was not the player he once was.

Here we have a video compilation which shows us the best goals of the first part of the Serie A season. Some nice goals scored so far. Video after the jump.

(I highly recommend visiting the youtube page of the video and watching it in high quality.)

What do you think has been the best goal so far?

Nobody is expecting big moves during this transfer window in Serie A. Maybe some small clubs will buy a top Serie B player or some players will switch clubs, but the biggest transfer everyone was expecting was the move of Fiorentina striker Giampaolo Pazzini. The Atalanta youth product was considered at a young age to be one of the most promising strikers in all of Italy.

Filippo "SuperPippo" Inzaghi scored his 300th career goal this weekend. Many people don't appreciate Inzaghi. They say he has no technique. They say he really doesn't know how to play football. They say he always dives. They say he always complains. But what they don't realize is that Filippo Inzaghi is one of the greatest strikers of the modern era.

Yet another refereeing error. Napoli should've went up 1-0 with this play. At least it would've made yesterday's game more interesting. Full results after the jump.

Bologna-Cagliari 0-1
Scorers: 45´ Acquafresca (Cag)
Report. Player Ratings.