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The Day After
Comments(43)
It’s official, Fabio will be having surgery in Vienna. The bad news has already come, so now it’s time for some good news: Fabio wants back.
“I still have such a strong desire to play and I haven’t thought about quitting. I’m hoping to return in two months.”
At his age, the question obviously entered everyone’s mind: is this it? Was the friendly against Spain Fabio’s last ever game for country? It wasn’t, and if he sticks by the two month timeline, we’ll see him back for World Cup qualifying in the fall (don’t even get me started on reigning champions needing to qualify for the World Cup).
So now we move on, and with Alessandro Gamberini in his stead. Now everybody knows Gamberini didn’t get snubbed from the provisional squad to walk into Canna’s starting spot at the tournament, despite having a good season and without question being the best defender not named Alessandro Nesta The Don could’ve called up. In fact, the good money says he probably won’t even see a minute unless it’s garbage time. Effectively he’s now fifth on the depth chart, because the quality of Barzagli and Chiellini plus the experience of Panucci and Materazzi will probably see them onto the pitch before Gamberini ever does. That is, unless someone kills Chiellini in practice first.*
* – Chiellini went in a little hard on Cassano and Antonio took exception today, giving us our first Cassanata moment of the tourny. Wonderful. Two things need to happen here:
1. Chiellini needs to be told to settle the fuck down and lighten up. If he injured Pirlo or Toni along with Canna he’d never be allowed back in the boot. Save that type of enthusiasm for Netherlands, Romania and, particularly, France. Listen to AI:
2. Cassano needs to be sent home if he causes another disruption. Seriously, with Materazzi already seemingly forced into the starting XI, the Azzurri cannot afford another red card waiting to happen. I bought into the hype just like everyone else, but we saw two very, very well-publicized incidents this year where Antonio lost it. Right now, they need team above all, and if he can’t play well with others, they’d be better off with 22 than 23. Not about the best players, it’s about the best team.
And I’m really dreading the late moments of a potential France game when Donadoni has made his third sub and Cassano has yet to see a minute of meaningful Austrian soil. Remember, he has to be The Guy.
Those two clowns aside (I mean that in the most endearing way), it looks like The Don will favor Barzagli and Materazzi. It’s funny because so many people and media outlets have been assuming Chiellini will walk into the XI over Barzagli, even before Canna was injured, yet everything indicates otherwise. Andrea always plays better for country than club (much like Canna with Real these days – the Bernabeu being where great defenders go to watch their careers die, of course) has more experience overall, including some of the very big game variety, and Canna has even dubbed him his heir. Chiellini has a future in the XI, no doubt, but it’s Barzagli trumping him at the moment.
The person replacing Fabio and his megawatt smile looks to be Materazzi, which means we can all look forward to watching the games with a heartrate somewhere around 12 million bpm. His form has been horrendous this year, he’s got more cards than Hallmark and there’s a chance he may inadvertently take out Buffon going in for a “tackle” (if that’s what you want to call whatever it is that he does). He’s everyone’s worst nightmare. Unfortunately, he’s the…and this is fucking painful….best choice. Big game – huge game, actually – experience, and he’s the only one in the boot right now not named Canna or Nesta who can truly say they’ve had sustained experience and productivity at the highest of high levels – however fucking incomprehensible it may be. Of course, you can throw all this out the window when he gets his second yellow in the 34th minute of the opening game.
Doubtful that the tweaking ends there, either, and there’s a good chance that Old Man Panucci will be put out on the right as a bit of extra cover while Zambro is slotted on the left. At least that’s what logic says. Fabio Grosso is great and wonderful and a lot of things, but a vacuum of a defender he is not (that and I’m really beginning to question his decision making). Then you look in the midfield, where it’s entirely possible this seals a starting spot for Gattuso due to his never-say-die will to tacklie anything and everything along with his on-pitch leadership, an aspect that will be sorely lost – perhaps even more so than his defending – with Canna.
The possibilities are endless, but tightening up the defensive side of the ball is a must now, as I’m not sure anyone has a ton of confidence in The Matrix at the moment.
Or maybe all of this is just me, which means poll time. Who should be the CB partnership in Swissaustria?
Who should partner up in the back?
( surveys)
* – And finally, I can’t buy this being a motivating factor/good thing a la Calciopoli in 2006. They lost Nesta then as well, but Materazzi showed up in the form of his life and Nesta was not wearing the band. If two of Barz, Matrix, Chilli and Old Man River show up in positively blazing form and Gattuso, Buffon and/or someone else somehow manages to pick up the slack in the leadership department, maybe then I’ll start drinking the Kool-Aid. ‘Til that happens, the Azzurri just lost its captain, inspirational leader and best defender. This is never a good thing.
As ever…
FORZA ITALIA
Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 43 comments.
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Those who doubt Barzagli based off of his play for Palermo will obviously be concerned. But as a Palermo fan, I can speak for the rest of us when I say that he shows up for the national team and plays WAAAAAY better for them than he did in a Palermo shirt.
I have confidence in him at the back…the bigger question is Chiellini or Matrix.
Posted from 
United States
ANOTHER Cazzano bust up?
Posted from United States
Cassano and Chiellini have now kissed and made up over the incident, and were spotted hugging during this morning’s training session.
Cassano also had a lengthy conversation with Coach Roberto Donadoni, covering his mouth up in trademark fashion so that the press couldn’t lip-read what he was saying.
—
My main worry is that as soon as Cassano steps on the field, the opponents will be given instructions to provoke Cassano..
I definitely would want to see a Chiellini-Barzagli partnership. Materazzi and Panucci have experience, yes…but Chiellini was without doubt the better defender than these two. In fact, I would even say he was the best Italian defender this season. It’s only a question of him being able to form a good partnership with Barzagli. They have 5 days to work on it. Go!
Posted from United States
moka said “My main worry is that as soon as Cassano steps on the field, the opponents will be given instructions to provoke Cassano..”
Agree completely. In fact, if you paid attention during the Belgium game, you probably even saw a bit of Cassanata there. It was scary. Cassano must only be used in a desperate situation when we’re a goal or two down.
Posted from United States
“As for Cannavaro, he’s elected to remain with the group for the whole tournament (after his operation), which is awesome news for everyone. The team needs the presence of their captain, even if he has to walk on crutches, and Platini even made a special VIP pass for him to make sure he stays with the team at all times.”
This really is excellent news; I think his presence will be a huge motivating factor for the team, and it just shows that he’s still Il Capitano – even off the field.
i think barzagli is a shoe-in given our situation and it comes down to matrix vs chiellini. based on form alone, chiellini should get the nod.
i can’t see two frenetic defenders like matrix and chiellini side-by-side. barzagli looks calmer on the ball and less clumsy when jockeying an opposing forward. he is much more clinical in stripping the ball off of the opposition (not as good as canna obviously…more of a ‘cannavaro light’). barzagli is also more of a stay-at-home type of cb while matrix and chiellini have a tendancy to wander out of position a bit.
i’d like a chiellini-barzagli (with zambrotta and panucci on the flanks for some defensive insurance) duo but i think it’ll be matrix-barzagli in the end. the former scenario could also work if the don adds reinforcement by adding another dm (de rossi and gattuso) with pirlo. unfortunately, we’ll probably see ambrosini instead which will likely diminish our creative options in the middle, especially if we resort to a 433.
Posted from 
Canada
John Silver.. notice my comment “…but none of them world class (apart from Christina).” I did mention Chivu.
Posted from United States
Cannot have Tony Cass out there, certainly not in the first half. Moka is dead on, any team will undoubtedly provoke him. I could also see a call going against him, followed by Tony Cass picking up the corner flag and beating the linesman with it.
he didnt need to much to start this one up
http://www.sportmediaset.it/euro2008/video/video1452.shtml
credit to sharp on Xtratime
thanks for putting that up, gabriella. pretty routine tackle and well, cassano’s “explosion” didn’t look as bad as i was expecting. i was expecting shirt off, screaming and crying the way the media was describing it. looked more like “hey dude, that was fuckin uncool.”
Posted from United States
Everyone is scared Chiellini will hurt them.. I don’t know if he would’ve have gone crazy if it was Barzagli making that tackle.. Then again.. it is Cassano..
Posted from United States
The Romanista in Cazzano came out. (whatever is left)
“Aho Gio, punta basta Juventino 
”
Posted from United States
After watching the vid, I start to feel bad for Cassano.
Guy for certain is one of favorite targets of the media.
what i do not understand, according to reports (however credible those are) is that apparently cassano, after that bust up, made a horrible tackle on barzagli.. wth?
cassano’s temperamental and i wouldve chosen pippo instead no doubt, HOWEVER he was surprisingly well behaved in euro04 and our best player in that short lived tournament. i hope he repeats that this year.
Posted from 
Australia
Yes.. but that tournament played very well to Cassano’s ego and the media very well could have turned him into a ego-maniacal head case.. Immediately afterwards his decline started.
Posted from United States
well, maybe i am missing something but the video does not look nearly as bad as how people are describing the “cassanata”. it just looks like Cass is telling Chiellini- “dude, chill. you dont wanna injure your teammate in practice (again??).” Or it could easily be- “dude, chill. you dont wanna injure me, the greatest hope italia has at this euro.” I am not even sure that this is what is called a bust-up in practice- no shoving, nose-to-nose testosterone duel etc.
Posted from United States
apparently that was just the start of it and the Barzagli tackle followed it
Let’s not get paranoid. Canno stays in camp that’s inspirational news for the squad. I don’t know whats firing up the Matrix-sceptism but Marco was stellar in Germany. He picked up a red card, but yet scored three goals (includes penalty in the shootout vs France) and trash talked Zidane out of the game. He loves these big tournaments. Lets give him some spotlight and see what he does.
Posted from 
New Zealand
joe, it think the Matrix palpitations are because his recent form has been atrocious- not even average, or passable. If you think about it, 2 years is a long time in football and Germany is quite far away. All of us are of course hoping he will take on this challenge and reponsibility in the right way. But I am sure some of us are a bit scared that the WC form may not get replicated because he is now a slower, currently out-of-form and aging defender. Lets hope he can and will step up for the azzuri.
Posted from United States
Gabriella (ASR) wrote:
he didnt need to much to start this one up
http://www.sportmediaset.it/euro2008/video/video1452.shtml
This my friends, is a perfect example of media blowing things completely out of proportion. That tackle was dead-on ball (already established fact) but it wasn’t even close to being dangerous. And Cassano’s reaction (although unjustified) was nowhere near even worth mentioning in the papers.
I was glad to have read Chiellini & Cassano made peace this morning, but God… were they even at war? I’m tired of the press making stuff up.
FFS pirlo-rino is a world cup winning combination.you just change those . rino’s defensive performance against manU , lets see de rossi try some of that. how many goals did manU score in two yrs of quarterfinals .11?? please none of that stuff in the national team. pirlo-rino is a proven winning combination, i dont see the need to change it.
What’s the Vegas line on Italy getting a red card?
Posted from Canada
Barzagli + Matrix.
Hands down best center defense choice.
While Matrix has his issues, he’s a great defender, and he’s great on set pieces and corners. Who put the ball in the back of the net when we needed it most in 2006?
I mean, when he’s playing for club, I hate him with a passion, but when it comes to country, he’s one of the best we’ve got, which is why he’s called up, and why he’s likely going to start.
Posted from United States
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Cassano goes berserk in training after a Chiellini tackle.
Posted from
United States