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Defensive Depth Diminishing e Stuff
Comments(79)
(Fabio says hi to Abidal)
Barzagli Down & Out
When Donadoni released his squad list with only 7 defenders, I simply thought “alright, whatever”. When Canna went down and Gamberini was forced into the fold I thought “Shit, calling up 7 defenders, 5 of whom are into the Geritol stage of their careers wasn’t too brilliant, was it?”. Now that Barzagli has gone down with a torn meniscus without a replacement able to be made, all I can think is “WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING?!?!?!”. Is it me, or is this guy capable of making a good decision from the start? No, he couldn’t have seen this coming, but was, say, Fabio Quagliarella really that necessary to the squad?
Luckily, there is some versatility and coverage at CB now with Panucci in the middle. Of course, should one or both fullbacks go down (knocking on wood profusely), then we’re up shits creek with Donadoni as a paddle. Unless you’re looking forward to…
Panucci-Matrix-Gamberini-Chiellini.
….which you shouldn’t be.
Now the better question: If one of the center backs goes down, who comes in? Probably depends, but Materazzi is still sitting on the bench with a fork firmly planted square in the middle of his back, so I’d have to think Gamberini is the only one worth a look right now. Shit, I’d rather have De Rossi at CB than ever see Materazzi in the back again.
And I loved the GoogleAd which accompanied the article:
Meniscus Surgery Healing
Recover Fast, Stop Pain & Swelling 100% Guaranteed & Dr Recommended
AidMyMeniscus.com
I’ll just strongly suggest you don’t put your meniscus in the hands of GoodleAds.
Them’s Fightin’ Words
I love it when public figures not involved with football in any way whatsoever gives their insight on the beautiful game. I’m sorry, but who asked you? (Alright, probably somebody, but that’s beyond the point.)
“Our football is top quality, but every time we play in a major competition we have problems with confidence.“However, our team is better than Italy’s and I think that we will win the game 3-2.”
Canna feels differently:
“I have a different opinion to Zapatero. He thinks that Spain will win 3-2 and I believe Italy will win 1-0.“They have more individual quality than us, but we have a better group solidarity. We are more of a team and that is our winning weapon.”
I’ll take Canna’s expertise any day. After all, he does know Spanish football pretty well these days. And it’s not the Best XI, it’s the Best One.
Aragones
I hate Aragones for a lot of reasons, mainly because of that racist remark he had a couple years back, but I like what he has to say here:
“It is one of the worst opponents we could have drawn…..The Azzurri represent a significant hurdle in a show like this one and a team that sets out to beat them has to be sure of the means it has at its command, as well as put in a great deal of work…..[A team] that works well in defence but is unlikely to finish a match without having created at least two scoring opportunities.”
High praise. Praise which I hope puts the Spanish mentality back into, well, Spain.
uefa Updates
I’m beginning to really enjoy these player updates being offered to us by the good people at uefa.com. Some of them are great inside info (typically of the injury variety), yet most are so far off the rocker they’re in the next room (I’m thinking back to “Ambro over Pirlo” as a prime example – although, this mancrush Donadoni has on Ambro can’t exactly rule it out). Today there were a few that caught the eye:
Luca Toni
Light jogging and abdminal exercises today for Toni, who might want to consider extra shooting practice after the latest catalague of missed chances against France.
Yeah, ya think? They should chauffeur him out to the countryside, find a farm and tell him not to come back until he hits the side of the barn. So they can plan to pick him back up Saturday morning. (He still does a lot, but the goals would be nice any day now.)
Marco Borriello
Has been unlucky to see no action whatsoever, considering his continued excellence in front of goal in training and Toni’s utter loss of form in front of goal.
Three words: The Belgian Waffle. (The sitter he missed against Belgium was so bad it got a name. That was Mario Gomez-esque.)
Marco Amelia
Has not looked in good form in training, Were anything tragic to befall the peerless Buffon, Morgan De Sanctis would get this observer’s vote.
Nice, Sevilla’s #2 is the Azzurri #2. I need a drink.
Gianluigi Buffon
Was given an intensive workout by his goalkeeping coach, involving a great deal of abdominal, back and stretching exercises in addition to close-range catching practice. In world-beating form at present.
When isn’t he? (If he goes down, I may kick the bucket right there.)
Full player update list here.
Links
A couple of good links for you to check out:
First is the always great mCalcio and his quite successful attempt at photojournalism.
And then there’s Jessica over at the ItalyLouge (also very good) with a rundown of the best WAGs Italia has to offer (and they’re fantastic).
Best of both worlds, really. Photo documentation of hot chicks and a victory over France. What more could you ask for?
Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 79 comments.
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Well, even if that was what Don had in mind, he could have at least picked players that were in good form.
incredible turks.. incredible
ppl lose a lot of money with Turkey and Germany..
Posted from 
Netherlands
hopefully they lose some more with Italy.. 
and Russia.. 
jk
Well Spain is experiencing a sort of economic boom whereas Italy is in a recession, so at the moment this man along with many young Italians are living in Barcelona and Madrid. Also the fact that now young person in Italy is taken seriously really until the age of 45 and the immigration crisis along with the turmoil in Campagna and Berlusconi’s deconstruction of the already hapless political system, there are unfortunately many things better about Spain. Let’s hope this doesn’t carry into their calcio.
Do you guys know if Italy is going to dive a lot against Spain?
Posted from 
United States
Doubt it..
Posted from United States
If I ever see Panucci-Matrix-Gamberini-Chiellini, I’m applying for the Italy job. I mean, with Donadoni there I’m surprised its not Favalli-Costacurta-Galli-Tassotti. Though that would probably be better, if not younger, than the current bunch.
Posted from United States
the spanish are so scared of italy right now
italy justneed to relax, and play the game they know how to
as long as aquilani plays, and ambrosini sits on the bench, im cool with that
Posted from 
Australia
Italy always plays great in death matches and im confident that we’ll get the win.Toni will be on fire right from the start and Buffon will also be at the top of his game and cant see anyone putting a ball past him.Not a chance.The aerial game alone will crush spain.Think about it,how often do Azzurri play 2-3 bad games in a row?Exaclty,not so often and they are due to shine and it will happen this sunday.
Posted from 
Canada
yeah… Spain is suprusingly scared of italy having in mind that they won the last time the two teams played! I am starting to wonder if it’ss some sort of strategy to make the italians get over-confident and get a bucket of cold water in the match! Dunno… but their coach is over doing it! Even though Italy is strong but spain is just as strong and they proved to be strong rivals over and over again! Without pirlo things will get rough hopefully not messy as well. Really I was pissed off when brough that yellow card on himself..it was uncalled for!
Good luck Italia
I don’t blame donadoni for calling up 7 defenders only. it’s a good thing that he wants to give the team some attacking edge (if I may say so) if anything is gonna help us against teams with great apetite for scoring, it is having players who can score at any given moment! however, donadoni’s approach is very wrong. he moved too fast with it. he should have given the players more time to make an adjustment. Plus he shouldn’t have abandonded defense completely like he did against the dutch! Such transitions should be made gracefully and should be in harmony with the original way of playing. he should’ve looked for evolving and building on the existing base rather than knocking it down and starting over from zero. Also, one thing we all agree to he chose the wrong players for the job. I love italy on the attack. they are just beautiful.
Lineup for Spain should be…
Buffon (duh!)
Zambrotta Panucci Chiellini Grosso
Aquilani De Rossi Camoranesi
Perrotta Cassano
Toni
or even play Cassano beside Toni as a second striker
I just realized, with Gattuso and Pirlo out, our only other midfielder is Ambrosini….Donadoni must be happy with that!
Too bad Don didn’t bring Inzaghi along, I’d rather have Pippo than Quagliarella.
Anyways….Good Luck on sunday Guys!
Posted from Canada
i really hope Perotta DOESN’T start,even ADP would be better to replace him.
Posted from Canada
ADP is done! Leave him as a sub…thats it!
Posted from Canada
I agree with Frank.
Perrotta is hopeless when he has to shoot at the goal
he would be useless against a team with “not so strong defense”
and like to have open play… this team being spain! We need someone
who can shoot and score or at least keeps his cool inside the box (penalty area) and around it. I don’t know if we have that so Donadoni might just go with Perrottaand he simply won’t take advantage of any chance presented to him.
Perrotta isnt a striker, he’s there to set things up, which he’s great at. ADP can’t take advantage of a weak defense the way Perrotta can. And besides…what has ADP done for the national team? Perrotta isn’t my first choice, but with Pirlo and Gattuso out, he’s the last resort.
Posted from Canada
With the speed of Villa and Torres, there’s a small, and I mean very small, part of me that would rather have Gamberini start instead of the slow Panucci. But yeah, go with Panucci.
Posted from Canada
What has Totti done for the National Team, or what has Toni done ?. Had ADP played against France, he would have finished off all those Toni chances and gotten a hat-trick. ADP should play behind Toni and Cassano, and not Perrotta. Perrotta should be on the bench, we need someone creative like ADP to be on the field especially against a team like Spain.
Ali I can’t agree with you.
it’s just not right to play Del Piero that far back.
unless you’re suggesting that Italy plays with the 4-3-3 formation
then we’ll be ran over no matter what the lineup will be!
Perrotta as I said, is the choice with the lack of alternatives.
You all keep talking about how many chances Luca didn’t succeed to score and you keep forgetting that it would only be real chances because it’s
Luca who’s controlling these high long balls!
and a quick reminder… Del Piero and Totti… can’t even begin to count the chances the wasted in euro final against france!
Give the man a break… he’s the top scorer in the bundesliga he’s bound to get back in form. I was the first to point out that italian strikers didn’t score and that the defense is scoring instead but let’s not fail to acknowledge the danger toni creates infront of the opponent’s goal.
He needs more support. he’s alone and isolated and all he gets is high long crappy balls that you need to have a balance of a clown to be able to control and place inside the net! I am not saying that’s he’s doing great but he’s doing bad enough to be kept out. He is the kinda guy that can score at any given moment. and he scored but it was called off as an offside
Question: Do you Nazis make Andrea Pirlo ride in the back of the team bus? are you threatening to burn down his family’s home too if he doesn’t score?
Posted from United States
Tuta, I totally understand what you’re saying, but a player like Del Piero would bring creativity playing behind Toni and Cassano, if Don wants to go with Toni-Cassano up front. Especially now with Pirlo out, we also need a dead-ball specialist, and who better than Del Piero for that role. I would play DP up front with Toni, because he’s most dangerous when up front, but playing him in the hole wouldn’t be a bad idea either, he could set up plays and get chances to score as well. This would be a 4-3-1-2 formation, with Toni, Cassano and DP all on the field at the same time right from the start, imagine how much damage they could create.
I agree, Del Piero and Totti missed chances in the euro final against France, but there have been many others who’ve missed their chances too. My point was it seems Del Piero gets criticized too much, even when he plays alright, guess there are a lot of expectations from him, but he has to rise to the occasion.
Yes Ali what you say makes sense, thinking about the attack aspect
but the defense and running back … I am 100% sure he will fail to
run back with the rest of the midfielders. I understand that Del Piero
isn’t meant to do that, but against spain we need a player who can!
and I also Agree that Del piero Is a better choice in terms of
shooting at the goal. because surely Toni will be deactivated by at least 1 defender stuck onto him every second of the match, in which case we will be needing players who know their way to the net.
there are points for Perrotta and others for Del Piero. the tactic with which Donadoni will play is the only that can decide who’s most fit to start! and since we can never anticipate that…GOD HELP US!
That’s true Tuta, hopefully Don will make the right decisions and play a solid team that can contain Spain.
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Lol Croatia misses the net on 2 PK’s.Turkey and Germany in the semis.
Posted from
Canada