Spain – Italy Friendly Liveblog

Spain 1 – Italy 0

Halftime.

Half the liveblog and some comments got deleted….ummm. Apologies.

And that’s that and, uh….who cares? Friendly. Not too much in either direction.

Game

94′ Free kick to Gattuso flicked into the box, bounced out.

Camo stuffs Torres, Matrix gives away possession. Thanks for WC06, but it’s time to go, buddy.

DDR to Grosso to Pirlo to ADT to Casillas. Nice buildup….Spain hits on the counter. Shot parried wide by Gigi. A LOT of Spanish counters.

3′ of stoppage.

Corner Spain…shot blocked. Spain holding possession…poor cross. Goal kick.

43′ Grosso foul on Xavi. Luca Toni has lost possession a few times, but he’s also playing so far back and out of his element. Azzurri really need to sustain some more possession and set up closer to the Spanish net.

41′ Phenomenal ball by DDR to Grosso, nothing works, Spain counter….Panucci defends it very well for a goal kick.

The Azzurri are the very definition of bend but not break right now. For all of Spain’s possession and chances, they haven’t been clear goal scoring chances.

38′ Azzurri with possession, but not being hugely effective with it. Spain counter….Matrix clears it.

Clusterfuck in the box, Gigi saves Torres, Perrotta and Canna stifled the rebound then cleared out of play. Sure goal it seemed for Spain. And there’s Perrotta’s influence in a nutshell.

36′ Cannavaro has been dusting off the 2006 boots today. Can we get him out of Spain, please.

34′ Cross from Toto to Toni gets fluffed, and then I’m pretty sure Perrotta kneed Albiol in the head. Spanish defenders are dropping like flies.

Marco Senna has delusions of grandeur, fires one towards the crowd from way out.

32′ Panucci sends a cross in looking for Tonigol but it’s snatched by Casillas. Set piece or cross seems to be the only way they’re going to get a goal at this point.

31′ Were it not for Spain’s collective choke during tourneys, they’d have to be a favorite heading in to the tournament. They have talent coming from places you wouldn’t expect.

28′ Andrea Pirlo just no look passed from his own box. He’s just that good.

26′ Fab Grosso doing much better since Sergio Ramos spent the first 20 minutes recreating the Pulp Fiction basement scene with him.

I feel like picking out individuals would be pointless. Nearly the entire Azzurri squad has been invisible. Back line is holding though.

25′ Fernando Torres is down. Stretchers coming on. Rafa just soiled himself. Came from a Burdisso-esque tackle by Matrix. He gets yellow.

24′ Hey, a Cesc appearance. He’s having a relatively quiet gamee.

21′ If I were Xavi I’d request that everyone call me “Chavs” phonetically. The pomposity matches his hair.

20′ Azzuri get stifled on the counter, Spain back to playing keep away again. Xavi shoots andd it goes wide.

Here are Spain’s tactics in a nutshell: Find Xavi, get it to Xavi, find Sergio Ramoss, get it to Sergio Ramos.

GROSSO MADE A TACKLE!!!! GROSSO MADE A TACKLE!!!!!!

16′ Puyol is coming off. Albiol coming on. Thanks for your 16 minutes, Carlos. Corner for Spain.

15′ Great chance for the Azzurri, offsides on Camo. And did you know “offsides” in turkish is “offsides”? Let that sink in. Your gratuitous nugget of knowledge for the day. You’re welcome.

14′ Spain get possession back, grabassing and whatnot. Pirlo gets taken down, another free kick for the Azzurri. Ramos takes it in the face.

I still have no idea why that goal was called back. Pirlo on a free kick.

Toni heads one into the net and Spain gets a counter.,….what the fuck just happened. Foul? Offside? And Spain just damn near scored. Good christ that was fast.

11′ Di Natala had a chance and a half to feed a through ball into the box, but gets hacked down by Ramos. Free kick upcoming, but Puyol has a booboo.

10′ Love these away jerseys, even if they look like tennis unis a bit.

Panucci gives up possession to Spain….great ball into the box from Camo, Iker has to come out and clear it away….corner…..headed back. Spain back into possession.

7′ HAB Ramos sends cross #472 into the box. What a mismatch for Spain that is.

6′ Spain wins possession again. I swear, it must be 90-10 right now. Canna made a nice swoop to clear Xavi from a 1v1 chance with the Giginator.

Headed out of the box…cross in, back out, Xavi shoots wide. Hey, here’s an idea: win possession.

5′ Spain just owning possession right now. Foul won just outside the box for the Spaniards. Grosso on the foul.

4′ De Rossi with a nice tackle in breaking up the Spanish attack. Looking very appropriate in that #10.

3′ Ball through the box for the Azzurri, winds up a throw in…..lose possession.

2′ Offside Torres. Why do I get the feeling he’s going to eat Canna and Matrix for lunch. Early candidate for Euro 2008 player of the tournament.

1′ They’re hoofing long balls up to Fernando Torres already. It’d be easy to criticize if it wasn’t effective because he’s such a monster.

Kickoff

There’s a lot of confetti on the field…..they know this is a friendly, right?

Game coverage starting….here we go. Maybe the drum guy will do a performance at halftime. Here’s to hoping.

I know they’re speaking Turkish, but I’m 99% sure this guy just said “Fuck Milan”. Clearly not a Donadoni supporter.

Alright, screw the game, I’m really getting into this Turkish guy playing the drums.

Lineup:

Buffon;
Panucci, Canna, Materazzi, Grosso;
De Rossi;
Camoranesi, Pirlo, Perrotta, Di Natale;
Toni.

Materazzi starting is a slight surprise, other than that the expected. Zambro’s not starting because every time he gets a whiff of impending Azzurri action lately he gets injured. Donadoni is keeping him locked in a rubber room until June 7th.

Right now the stream is coming from some Turkish channel, which has fantastic quality, but has nothing to do with footy. Come for the world champs, stay for a bunch of dudes playing percussion in the background while some guy says shit in Turkish.

When: Wednesday, March 26th 2200 local, 1700 EST.
Where: Estadio Manuel Martinez Valero

Groups

Spain (D): Greece, Russia, Sweden
Italy (C): Netherlands, Romania, France


Squads

Spain:

Goalkeepers: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), Pepe Reina (Liverpool)

Defenders: Raul Albiol (Valencia), Carlos Marchena (Valencia), Joan Capdevila (Villarreal), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Juanito Gutierrez (Real Betis), Raul Arbeloa (Liverpool), Fernando Navarro (Mallorca), Carles Puyol (FC Barcelona)

Midfielders: Xavi Hernandez (FC Barcelona), Albert Riera (Espanyol), Andres Iniesta (FC Barcelona), Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal), David Silva (Valencia), Xabi Alonso (Liverpool), Ruben De La Red (Getafe), Marcos Senna (Villarreal)

Forwards: Fernando Torres (Liverpool), David Villa (Valencia), Daniel Guiza (Mallorca), Luis Garcia (Espanyol).

Italia:

Portieri: Buffon (Juventus), Amelia (Livorno).

Difensori: Barzagli (Palermo), Cannavaro (Real Madrid), Grosso (Lione), Materazzi (Inter), Panucci (Roma), Oddo (Milan), Zambrotta (Barcellona).

Centrocampisti: Ambrosini (Milan), Aquilani (Roma), Camoranesi (Juventus), De Rossi (Roma), Gattuso (Milan), Perrotta (Roma), Pirlo (Milan).

Attaccanti: Borriello (Genoa), Di Natale (Udinese), Iaquinta (Juventus), Quagliarella (Udinese), Toni (Bayern Monaco).