Lippicakes was very busy today, and released not one but two lists of call ups. The first is for the players to participate in a friendly against North Ireland on June 6th. Those players are:

Whew, it’s been a long while. I’ve missed you guys and blogging like crazy. Since I’ve been gone for so long, I feel like I owe you guys. As repayment for my absence, this post is gonna be pretty big. I’ll start it off with an explanation of my hiatus.

Posts like these are so hard to do. They’re extremely speculative in nature, and calling something over a year in advance when footy changes so quickly means that this list is very, very tentative at best. I mean, it’s possible that all of these players could start to suck and be dropped from the roster [...]

In a lot of ways, this game tomorrow will tell us much about the Azzurri. For one, if we win it, it will tell us that there’s a near certainty that we will be going to South Africa next year as group winners. For another, even moreso than the Brazil game, this game should show [...]

I didn’t get to watch the entire game. I started from about the 60th and from what I saw, we played basically how we’ve been playing the whole qualifying campaign. Not looking all that motivated, but not disinterested either; the guys look like they’re out there because it’s their job, and while they do want [...]

Chris from the Catania blog gives his opinion on who deserves a spot on the Azzurri:

At first glance it’s just been a shitty year for Italy in European competitions. The only team we have left representin’ the peninsula is Udinese, and they’ve been doing us proud so far. But with 0 teams left in the CL, is Serie A lookin’ weak these days?

First of all, I know I haven’t blogged in a while, but the usual excuse applies here: really no news going on in the national team world. The blog is back up and running now though, and we’ve got a lot to cover, so let’s get through it.

UEFA Cup in a nutshell: Fior lost, Milan tied, Udinese tied, and Samp lost. If you want more info, check out their respective blogs. Basically, it’s not looking good for Italian clubs in Europe’s little redheaded sister of a competition, but anything can happen in the return legs.

It’s been 3 days since Italy- Brazil. Three days of hindsight, three days of reflection.