The Golden Lining

bueno adiós Donadoni !
mixed feelings are inside, this is the loss, but the loss blessed from above!
let’s draw the fifth star in 2010!

Aquilani did not impress me. DDR was not the same as against France.

Chiellini- MOTM.

Brilliant that awful italy have been knocked out. a nice attacking football team won

That sums up Donster…shitting bricks all tourney.

BRING ME SOME CIGAR SMOKIN, GATUSSO BEATING MARCELLO LIPPI!!!

Turnberry- attacking team won??? If putting in PK’s is being an “attacking” team, then ok. You were neutralized for the better part of the game…you still had chances, but no attacking football won you that game.

Turnberry go fuck yourself.

Justice reigns for a day! Good riddance to you boring, negative motherfu@@ers!!

alessio, I wholeheartedly agree on the Chiellini point but I only want to point out that this wasn’t the game for Aquilani to make his mark. Starved of the ball, but everytime he got the ball he did something pretty decent with it. 100000000000000000X better than Ambrosini on both sides of the ball who deserves to be cooking eggs on the side of a road somewhere, not playing for the national team.

an embarrassment. The whole italian game based on kicking long, searching balls to a lone striker who hasn’t been on target for many games. We lose possession, run back and defend and do the whole thing again over and over. we need some class, speed and tight passing and a striker up front who can control the ball and shoot on target. Time for a change. New boss, new team.
Forza the youngsters of tomorrow.

Italy are so poor, their league is so poor also when compared to the Premiership and the Spainish Primera…the have players like Ronaldhino, Messi, Torres…they have depended on poor Buffon too long, but not tonight

I’m not saying Aquilani flopped, but he did not make his mark on the game.

Camoranesi and DDR were good, Panucci made a couple errors which gave me a heart attack.

Aquilani played well.. got some nice flicks and covered the gaps good.

I hate DDR to miss penalty It sucks for him.. i hope this dont fuck with his mind when takign a PK for roma next season..

Italy did well, spain wasnt that great
This EC title is for germany i think

Someone delete these stupid troll’s comments.

Hey Turnberry, we’re world champions and have won the bloody thing four times. How can you seriously say our league is so poor? Your best teams have Italian players in them too for God’s sakes. Fair enough we lost tonight, but have some pride and don’t attack us with bullshit

Turnberry18 go search for a life instead of looking “us” up on an internet blog and starting arguments..

Weirdo

Ambrosini is one of the worst players in the euro.

In about 2 seconds I’m gonna delete this guy’s comments like Donadoni should get deleted from the entire Italian coaching scene.

Ambrosini wasn’t that awful.

Everyone ignore Turnberry. When you start responding to him he’s just gonna post more.

you guys still have the 2008 olympics, confederation 2009, and WC2010

Turnberry18 fuckin’ idiot, your blog is somewhere in Guatemala, go an do what Alessio’s sayin’!
kix you may follow your idiot friend

Comment deleted

2010:
We got guys like Montolivo, Aquiliani, DDR, Cassano, Rosina, Rossi, Dessena, Giovicino, and so on.

The new generation is here! Thanks for the WC old guys, but the youngsters will take over from here.

if italy was able to make it to PK it’s only
because of the good defense and GK…

Italian Midfield… was there even one? Doubt it!

Italian attack … no question, it didn’t exist.

Aquilani, Cassano, Ambrosini … Awful!

Donadoni your IQ must be in minus cause what coach in his right mind
would put Di Natale to shoot a deciding PK up against Casillas???
he could’ve picked Del Piero for the job, hell he could’ve let Buffon do it and it wouldn’t have been a bad decision! Once I saw Di natale walking to the Penalty area , I screamed WHY? can Donadoni ever justify his choice? I don’t think so!

to sum it all up…Italy sucked… :’(
it’s very hard and painful to watch the azzurri suffer this much!
seriously donadoni should be immediately fired!

I can’t wait to see Giovinco for the full national team.

anyone who watched the toulon even know the italiens have a really exciting new team a really attacking one with lanzafame and giovinco.

look tonight spain were very very poor but I still would prefer them to through, rather than a italien team that even with the excuse of missing pirlo their engine, have offered very little in this tourlement.

time for a new approach and goodbye donnadoni.

Bust the most strange thing is Di Natale to take a spot kick, WTF ???
Such a pressure for the player who simply can’t play SUCH big games… stupidity, sorry(

And where is ADP?
oh, so much to say, but this chapter is over, not worthy of any analysis (

here’s to the future…giovinco brings in some pacy, sexy class…something we desperately need…let’s pray for an exciting future with lots of good strikers.

tuta, I thought Cassano was pretty good. He did what he could and he beat quite a few Spanish defenders. Toni should have came off, he was pretty god awful. Does he even look up when he gets the ball?

My hastily composed player ratings:

Buffon: 6.5- Wasn’t called into action that much but did make an error I’d never seen him do before. Good penalty save.
Zambrotta: 6- Was beaten repeatedly on the wings in the first 30 minutes, but did better later and had some good crosses.
Panucci: 5.5- Made some good challenges but he did make several errors.
Chiellini: 7.5- MOTM for me. Terrific challenges, saved us several times.
Grosso- 6- Pretty much what I said for Zambrotta.

Ambrosini: 6- He wasn’t too bad, he got involved in some good plays and cleaned up occasionally but he shouldn’t be starting for the Nazionale.
De Rossi: 6.5- Good play, a couple important challenges, unfortunate to see his penalty saved.
Aquilani: 6- Have the Roman hordes got off already? Big game to come into but he really didn’t do that great in distribution.
Perrotta: 6- Typical stuff. Ran a lot.

Cassano: 6.5- Had a few good plays but unfortunately was not the savior for us.
Toni: 4.5- Completely beaten by the Spanish defenders, even if he was left stranded for most of the game he just doesn’t have it in him. Goddamnit.

Subs:
Camoranesi: 6.5- I think our best midfielder, had some good runs and good crosses and our only real effort on goal.
Di Natale: 5- A few crappy shots and a terrible penalty. Big game player? I think not.
Del Piero: N/A- Look if you’re going to bring him on, give him more than 10minutes.

I was looking for ADP instead of Di Natale as the 2nd sub…disappointing shit from the Don.

alessio.. Buffon, Panucci and Chiellini deserve higher. Zambrotta lower.. Aquilani, Ambrosini and Perrotta just a little bit lower each.. Camoranesi and Di Natale a tad higher.

where are the guys who said missing pirlo was a blessing in disguise??? should have taken montolivo

Feel bad for Pirlo, was in tears. I was more disappointed in the way Italy played then the lost. Chiellini rocked, I know Aquilani didn’t play well but he wasn’t used properly. Don should be fired and also the dumbass in FIGC that put him in charge.

Ricci

to bring toni off is to change the whole formation and
the way in which the team plays. risky to do so b4 the game
but we all know Donadoni has balls to do all the wrong things but never a one good thing. As for doing that during a match it’s simply impossible.
Toni… Did he even recieve one decent ball? NO!
but again if you followed my comments b4 the match I already anticipated that.
Cassano… I didn’t even notice when he was taken out! Actually no I notice him once and he selfishly kept the ball instead of passing it to one of the two in the Penatly area. SELFISH… UNPROFFESIONAL

Although I agree with you… this wasn’t the game for aquilani. not his fault that he didn’t do enough!

Toni and Cassano lost the game for us. Toni because he could never get open and stopped a great chance for Grosso, Cassano because he never passed it even when it was clear that if he did a scoring chance would’ve resulted from it

He (toni) had plenty of decent passes that he controlled. He just doesn’t pass the ball, look up, even look for help. I realize he had little support but c’mon do more than get the ball and immediately start flopping when you get challenged.

I am gutted! Italy is out! It is so unfair and unjust. The Italians were the only team this tournament who actually came to play FOOTBALL… Where are the football Gods? Spain never looked it wanted to win, or score or entertain the fans. I get up at 4 am to watch football and was delighted with the way Italy played. All that Spanish diving in the box and yesterday those defensive Russians… Football lost today. I am so depressed.

We were cheated by the Dutch (off side goal, two sleazy counters), kicked and beaten by the ugly Romanians… We finally got our way against the defensive and negative French.

No more Italy, no more wingers, no more attractive interplay or individual dribbles. I respect the players and their coach for at least trying to stun the world with their creative, offensive play and we will always remember this Italian team as being one of the finest and most skilled units ever!

Forza Italia! Hail Donadoni! I’m sure Luca Toni will win the top scoring award this tournament, though, no one will be able to reach him anymore and in two years, with our Gattuso, Pirlo, Materazzi and hopefully Gentile and Cabrini we can teach the world what class act we really are.

Jan- You’re exactly right! I never knew you were such a little bitch, but your comment really convinced me. Great post!

And judging by your name, Netherlands did really good yesterday huh?

Both our teams are out, lets be peaceful and look forward to WC 2010 ok?

Ricci my dear
Toni had two defenders on him at all times
they tumbled in most of the plays (my little brother eventually said: is this a wall or a human and he cheered for spian)
anyway having two men on Toni created a lot of empty areas
in the already weak spanish defense .. an area that cassano or perrotta should’ve filled. Toni failed to score but really did italy get any decent scoring chances, I think no. well maybe 1 , created by Luca and wasted by Camoranesi!

Italy played very bad, awful! Donadoni should be fired immediatly! WHY DI NATALE AND NO ADP!!!!!!! as for Buffon he was very great today! although he couldnt save more than 1… it wasnt his fault at all…! 2010 HERE WE COME!

Jan.. ur being sarcastic right?? I hope you are..

YAAAY!!
http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_italia/jun22o.html

That article says nothing. Misleading title.

Jan, thought you were better than that.

Antonio Matarrese:
“We mustn’t destroy any of what has been created and must remember we are still world champions.
“Donadoni proved once again he is a solid Coach and did well”
I just want to ask, Exactly what was created and how donadoni proved that he’s a solid coach? Mr. Antonio Matarrese you should fire your own ass bro!

Jan.. OMG you want gattuso and materazzi and pirlo playing in 2010?
they would be mummies by then! maybe because you woke up at 4 you were still sleepy. go back to sleep hun.

hey, some people are forgetting or maybe ignoring what has been accomplished here. italy, like france, have now been freed from what you could jokingly refer to as coaches. chris has made this point numerous times, but what is a semi-final birth in the Euros worth if it means Donadoni potentially staying on for 2010? with Lippi waiting on the sidelines to take over, i mean, this loss is a complete blessing in disguise. regardless i know it sucks to see the azzuri lose, but id rather exit here than be embarrassed at south africa in two years time.

a lot of people are blaming ambrosini-”the guy with limited talents who gave 100% on the field”.

ddr-??]
aqui-??
PERROTTA-???

well so closes a disasterous chapter for our team. When we should have come into this tourney and dominated to a cup, we instead humiliated ourselves. This tournament was decided back in 2006 the day lippi resigned and donadoni was hired. I pray they reverse this situation immediatly. We need the confederation cup now to prepare our younger boys for the 2010 world cup. This european championships could have been used as that building block, yet what I have witnessed in two years has been a return to the old mentality of football which failed us throughout the 90s.

At NO point in this tournament did Donadoni make a right decision. He bowed to public pressure when he had to, he made the most irregular and questionable tactical decisions and he simply picked a team that was too old, egotistic and arrogant.

There was no thirst to win for this team. And at the end of the day it was sweet irony that it was Di Natale who missed the final shot of the match. A player who is second rate when compared to some of the best our country has to offer.

Hopefully, Lippi will be back. To be honest any other manager, simply wont do. Lippi is a proven winner, and a gem of a tactition and inspirational figure. Let’s not forget he gave chances to little know luca toni and fabio grosso in 2006. he didnt rely on the old guard. he brought in players that were on form and ready to win. When inzaghi made a single minded effort and scored against the czech instead of passing to gilardino who was wide open, lippi sat him for the remainder of the tournament.

Tonight we saw a tired, beaten, stuburn, diving luca toni stay on until the end. He made no challenges, made no contribution and yet he remaind on. Ambrosini who was basically giving the all clear to the spanish to run right past him remained on too. Aquilani who at the end of the day is a defensive mid, was taken off in place of a striker (ADP) at that moment you saw spain running right through the italian mid. Not only that Zambrotta, once a favorite of mine, was like swiss cheese in this tourney. Absolutly disappointing. Where was mr ODDO? Oh thats right at home. With Talent at home waiting, and Montolivo on a plane back home, italy embarrassed themselves out tonight. 1-1-2 is a disgusting record. Not only did the dutch end a 30 year losing streak, the spain also put a rest to an 80 year losing streak. Albertini and Donadoni need to be on their way out. Marcello lippi must come back, he is proven and the best we have availible.

Let the nightmare end, and let the dreams begin to shine through the clouds again!

FUCK DONADONI! 4 Things that cost Italy:

1. Cassano for Di Natale….Fucking moronic
2. Toni on the whole game when he hasn’t done fuck all!
3. Del Piero in the second half of extra time….FUCK YOU DONADONI!
4. Di Natale taking a penalty after a brilliant buffon save…STUPID!
* Ambrosini on the whole game with a yellow

On top of all that del piero and cassano did not even get a chance to feature together in euro 2008. Donadoni will be fired while we have to wait for another 2 years. FUCK YOU DONADONI!!! A record breaker for the Italian National team…..worst loss in 30 years….first loss to spain since 1920……I REPEAT…..FUCK YOU DONADONI FOR CRUSHING THE ITALIAN DREAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here’s one case of the Don’s incompetence? Presumably, he brought on Del Piero for the shootout. Was he scheduled to be the 5th or did the Don put in ADN for no reason.

The FIGC has already said they are going to review this tournament and Donadoni’s position as manager. Albertini should be fired too for bringing Donadoni in. I think we should petition for Lippi to resume the job he was destined for!

ITaly should clean house.. Nobody older than 30 stays except Gigi, Pirlo and Cannavaro.

De Rossi was Italy’s best midfielder this tournament.. Don’t point fingers.. Perrotta ran around and did nothing as did Ambrosini.. Aquilani didn’t do anything bad but he didn’t do anything period.. Pirlo’s creativity is irreplaceable on this team. When will Cigarini be ready again?

agreed Bashar, DDR was a stud all tourney…

Ambro shouldnt sniff the field, Aqui made it feel like we played with 10, Perotta was blah..I would take Camo over Perotta anyday

I think the bottom line is that Italy came into the tournament without knowing their best formation. Donadoni didn’t know who to play in defense, who to play in midfield and who to play around Toni. And after the first couple games it seemed like he didn’t know what formation works. He kept jumping from 4-3-3 to 4-3-1-2 to 4-4-2 and back again.

That’s why Italy was so poor all tournament. How many teams had 4 completely different starting lineups in the tournament??

Gigi, DDR, Chiellini.. They are studs.. fantastic stuff from all of them.. And old man Panucci did not disappoint at all..

ok…what’s your favourite line up for 2010 based on who we have playing in italy now? a midfield with giovinco, pirlo, rossi and aquilani perhaps? just imagine the possibilities?

Donadoni’s initial game plan and squad selection was solid but it became obvious when we needed to test Spain’s steady but not spectacular back line we continued to target Luca Toni as if the game rules specified that for Italy to score it must only come from Luca Toni,otherwise the goal would be null and void.

The absence of Pirlo was most felt.We simply could not deliver any quality on any of our set pieces.

As for Donadoni i feel empathy for him.He was given a job he couldnt handle at this stage in his professional life.Demetrio Albertini is said to be the force behind his initial hire and though he thought he was acting in his freinds best interest,it would have been better for Donadoni to perfect his craft at the club level before being given the biggest job in Italy.

For now it hurts but good lessons will be earned from this tournament.

Forza Italia

Jan, this quote says it all….. from bbc euro 2008 “606″ section…
“what is it with italy? the country that cellebrates life in such a flamboyant manner, its cars , its motorbikes, its food, its art, its fashion all embrace an indulgance of style for styles sake, yet when it comes to the beautiful game they seem hell bent on destroying it. i`d rather watch watford.”

Can’t you all tell Jan is being sarcastic. The man is talking about claudio Gentile of 1982 wc and you all took him seriously.Jan, i think i understand what you mean,but you are not funny.

Panucci impressed me immensely, Chiellini’s got a great future

major tactical errors , should have played aquilani and derossi in middle of the park together . Toni should have been subbed for Borrillo and delpiero needed to play in the hole from the start, Donadoni is Gonadoni …. ciao baby

Make no mistake the future for Italy is bright with so many young talent and now is even better since this loss is a complete blessing in disguise, now Lippi will be back and the Azurri wil once again be that all conquering side of 2 years ago… We´ll get rady to defend the title in 2010. Forza Azurri

another frustrating performance from Italy.. Luca NOGOALS !! ADP should’ve been there from the start supporting Luca and Cassano.. Cammo should’ve started instead of Ambro — Aqualini was overawed by the occassion…. Marco Borriello should have replaced Cassano. very disappointed to go out on pens.. Though we didn’t look like scoring from open play in this tourney..

i agree with maverick on Boriello for Toni.
Damn hurt to watch a toothless striker.

lol i was just coming here to give the one positive note about todays dismal and disastrous display of football that the Azzurri showed haha…Buffon, Chiellini and DDR were the only world class players on the pitch for the Azzurri…Chiellini and DDR are defensive monsters…

Aquilani did nothing but I think his ineffectiveness was more a result of the tactics than his personal abilities. How did we go from having Totti our attacking playmaker playing in the hole to PERROTTA???? Its insane!! I new before this game we would have a problem creating plays. They’ve had problems creating plays this whole tournament because of the absence of any attacking midfield creativity leaving the strategy to depend on Pirlo’s long balls to Toni…despite that strategy failing badly even when Pirlo was on the pitch…the DON it seems decided to use that game plan in this game..haha I don’t think I’ve seen this may failed long balls to a off form and immobile target man who falls to the ground every time he touches the ball…AND EVEN WHEN IT FAILS FOR 50 MINUTES THEY STILL TRY IT OVER AND OVER AGAIN..what persistent bastards haha…I still can’t get over the fact that Perrotta was our playmaker…or at least in that position to be one…

Pannucci is garbage ok..he made 2 or 3 good interceptions but thats it..if it wasn’t for Chiellini and De Rossi covering his sorry old ass Spain wouldve scored…

And for God’s sake I don’t want to say any of these players other than Gigi, Chiellini, De Rossi, Pirlo and Aquilani ever again!!!! They’re absolutely garbage!!! And we don’t need 3 or 4 defensive midfielders on the pitch…DDR is enough…and DUMP THE LONG BALL TO TARGET MAN STRATEGY FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!!

panucci was solid but he did make several errors, luckily spain couldnt capitalize on them.

all us juventini told you how great chiellini was, most of you saw it when we played you. amazing, this performance was with one year as a center-back. imagine how he’ll be in the future. his sliding tackles remind me of maldini.

I think Donadoni did the best that could be done. It’s not his fault Toni couldn’t score, it’s not his fault Canna got injured, it’s not his fault Gattuso and Pirlo were suspended, it’s not his fault Totti wasn’t there, it’s not his fault DDR and Di Natale missed their PKs. You’d all be hailing him as a genius if they had won the lottery that is the PK shootout. Spain did NOT end the string of defeats, they merely got a draw and a lucky one at that. Spain created many chances but they were all thwarted with stellar defense whereas Italy created very few but almost scored on that Camo strike, Casillas lucky to get a boot on it.

Forza Azzurri!!

I blame you Chris you know… the one time you didn’t liveblog the Azzurri… :/

I’ve always loved my Azzuri, but I’m glad they’re out of it after today. Just horrible, horrible offensive plan. Ugly. The bright side is that it pretty much seals the deal that Donadoni will be fired and hopefully Lippi will return to rebuild the squad with Chiellini and Derossi as the new core. Plus it’s time for the Giovinco, Lanzafame, Quagliarella, Borriello era to begin. We’ve got the young exciting talent, just need a coach willing to make the change. Hang on to the key vets who still have some gas in the tank in Pirlo, Camoranesi, Grosso and Zambrotta. IMO Cassano will never be more asset than distraction but if Lippi feels he can make something of his potential, only then will I believe in him. We still have a solid core of World Cup Champs and we have the #1 under-21 team in the world as well. Let’s use them now as the rest of the world is going young now too. Let our youngsters gain caps along with them or risk becoming irrelavent like the French are now. Most important though is getting rid of Donadoni. Any coach could have done better with the players we have than what Don did.

Go Germany and Russia! I’m all for Russia now!… Can you just imagine a Russia / Germany final? The historical political ramifications alone should make it electric.

Thierry

with all do respect. the Pk isn’t lottery. it’s about picking the
most experienced, most cool (not nervouse) players and how make the order. who goes first, who goes last and such! I am sure most of us knew that Di Natale was not gonna score. Personally I knew it. for me we lost the game the moment I was Di Natale walking to the goal! If it was a different player say Alessandro del Piero and he lost it we wouldn’t blame Donadoni for the lost penalty. take the penalty Roby Baggio lost. Nobody blamed the coach but everyone blamed Baggio. because the coach made the best choice the shit happens. but with Donadoni he “made the shit” so shit happening was only a natural result.

Chiellini was awsome today looked like cannavaro Jr. and Aqualini was not exsitent…

Tuta, I agree. As Chris said, the moment I saw ADN walk up I knew we were going to lose.

Don should be fired, as simple as that !.

I agree with Paolo, Del Piero on in the second half of extra time ?…are you kidding me ?….he should have been on from the start…and DN for Cassano was a stupid move as well…what was Don thinking ?…and I fully agree, Del Piero and Cassano didn’t get a chance to feature together in this whole tourney, what a waste….really hope Lippi comes back, he’s the right man for the job.

Here is what Don has to say:

“I could have introduced Del Piero earlier, but we had a problem with De Rossi and a knock, so I risked being left with 10 men. Daniele was stoic and everyone fought so hard right to the end.”

Tuta, that is a good point but I think the order of shooters is determined before the shootout begins and I’m certain that ADP was to be the 5th in what is usually the clinching or stay-alive kick. Di Natale is a quality player, he should be able to sink a PK. Besides, let’s give some credit to Casillas for GUESSING correctly.

Ali, Cassano was completely useless today. He made one nice move in the first half but he was bad today. Maybe Di Natale was not the right choice, I don’t know, but Cassano sucked.

on to the next event guys eh?

THE OLYMPICS!! let’s get pumped up for it…we’ll win gold no problems surely.

anyone know much about our olympics azzurrini’s

Thierry, I agree, Cassano didn’t play well today, but he can still change a match in a moment, which is why he should have stayed on a little longer. I really wish we could have seen Del Piero and Cassano together in one match. All the tactics were wrong in this whole tourney, if Lippi was there we would have been in the semi’s right now.

Too bad for Italy didn’ win the lottery.
Yes, I was quite amaze with Don’s choice for penalties takers.
How could defenders started up as a penalty taker at the first place?
Save the best for last … perhaps?

Russia, I’m in !!

meh, ECs are just a little fix between WCs. For me, the real competition is WC titles, and the real job at hand is catching and surpassing Brazil at 5 titles to Italys 4. Consider this a lesson and modivation for italy to rebuild for 2010.

im done with this tournament, dont care about any of the teams left. I hope turkey steal it, and they can have it.

Azzurri faithful, lets pray for a team we can be proud of in 2010, win or lose.

Ciao.

did anyone see the dive from toni, it’s like if he got shot by a scattergun. this guy deserve an oscar award for best euro 08 dive.

Which one? For someone of his “Strength” he goes to ground awfully easy.

future squads? what is our future team gonna be like folks? what do you think?

buffon
de silvestre- cannavaro – chiellini – grosso
-de rossi-
aquilani – pirlo – - giovinco
rossi – cassano

Antialias, it’s quite common for defenders to shoot PKs. Remember in 06, versus France, Materazzi and Grosso both scored from the spot.

in all honesty what is Cassano to do with no service. This unimaginative lob the ball to Toni syndrome has to go asap. Cassano should have stayed on, why didnt they bring on a striker for Ambrosini? ie, Borriello or even Quags. Like use these guys, this DONADONI brought 6 strikers and let Montolivo go. WHY? Hopefully he is gone and Lippi can come in. I dont think there is another coach out there that can replace lippi. Not only that but lippi does deserve the opportunity to defend the world cup.

see the prob with the scoring was this. You have one striker standing up at the front – 4 defensemen on him. Cassano always passes why he doesnt shoot is beyond me. you put in another stiker ie Gilardino, then boom the defense is spread out.

Regardless, Italy really missed three people today. 1) Pirlo – midfield mastro, it would have been okay if Montolivo wasnt let go. 2) Totti – wonder if he’d come back if lippi comes back? 3) Lippi – no one imo is a better tactical coach or inspiration like Lippi.

Too early to tell. I think Cannavaro is prob done by 2010, won’t he be 36-37? I also can’t wait to see where Montolivo fits in.

Great point Marco. He brings like 85 strikers and then uses the same ones every game. If our midfield was a little deeper, Assbrosini could have been taken out and Perrotta probably doesn’t see so much time. How anybody gives these 2 guys a rating above 4 today is beyond me. Perrota’s THING is his conditioning and yet he is walking around and letting players pass around him. He was bad today. The Perrotta from Roma gives everyone hell, he gave nobody hell today.

Spain are a bunch of fc#kn dirty cheating bastards..they plyed the whole fc#ckn game trying to dive in the penaly area to get PK’s.Thats the only hope that they had to beat the Azzurri in regulation time.Did you see Buffon and torres have alittle chat?Buffon you should have smashed his mother *******ng retarded face harder.Oh they won pPk’s…..pfffffttt..Cant wait till Russia humilitates theses fk#ck clowns.

should have been camoranesi for ambrosini, cassano in place of perrota and del piero up with toni…

“THE OLYMPICS!! let’s get pumped up for it…we’ll win gold no problems surely.”

If you want to win it, you’ll have to go through the young Oranjes again!

Last time was fun, too bad Huntelaar can’t play anymore.

“Oh they won pPk’s…..pfffffttt..”

So, Frank, you want to bring up the penalty debate? lol.. It’ll be fun. I swear!

hey bunchapooha, just you wait pal…italia under the right management could have won the euros will the youngsters we have playing at the moment. Our league looks after young italians and we have plenty of future stars in the ranks. Gold medals guaranteed

The diving, dolphin-like Italians have been sent back to the sea from whence they came!!!! Thank You Spain!!!!

bunchapooha- you want to bring up our trophy showcase? will be even better i swear ; )

Izzy – i didnt know homeless shelters have internet connections,great job!Btw your mother says hi.

Frank,

A least Spain were trying to actually win the game instead of playing it ‘not to loose’. They had a positive attitude when it comes to football. Creating chances, trying to score ‘making the game’
In my opinion it’s very childish to now complain about spanish playing falling over nothing. Even if so, let;s just blame it on the bad karma the italiens (grosso) have created for themselves.
What am i talking about?
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=l1kx8aOaSbA

And believe me there’s plenty more. Italiens (like germans) play to win, no matter how or what. No matter about integrity or the love for football. As long a they win. Therefore it’s not approriate to wine about spanish falling.

Good game Italian fans but guess what your game was weak and the better team won.Spanish cheaters ha!? Justice is served the Italisn were floping around everytime the Spanish were on the counter.

De Rossi’s PK was not a terrible shot, it was a good save by Casillas. Di Natale’s PK was an awful, weak attempt. The PK attempt that Buffon saved was also very weak. Buffon is a great keeper, but not when it comes to penalties. Donadoni being axed is indeed the silver lining. Wrong team, wrong formation, wrong tactics.

Casillas just showed who the best keeper in the world is! Sorry Buffon the only guy in Italy who is a great ambassador of footbal for his country but San Iker is the SHITS!

PKs don’t determine anything but who goes through or gets to claim a trophy; they do not decide who the better team is. In fact, games that go to PKs are considered a draw. So technically, Spain still hasn’t beaten Italy in competitive matches since 1920. World Cup 2006 was a bit different, not because Italy won but because the right team won. Italy should have won in regular time when Toni’s goal was called off on a bad offside call. In this game, as in the Croatia-Turkey game, nothing was resolved as to who actually deserved to go through. If the better team is ever to be determined in these tournaments, golden goal until someone scores needs to be implemented. But FIFA or UEFA will probably never bring back the golden goal and/or introduce sudden death until someone scores in extra time. So 4 years of work will come down to the lottery that are PKs and nothing will ever be resolved as to who the better team is. You can make a case that Spain was the “better” team because they had more of the possession and were on the attack more; you can also make a case that Italy was better because they were tighter in defence and had several good chances with the best coming from Camoranesi who was unfortunate to strike it against the feet of the down and out goalkeeper. At the end of the day, the only difference between Spain and Italy were spot kicks. Until Spain defeats Italy in play and in competition, Spain is not the better team.

By the way, if you are disappointed that Italy lost, or happy that Spain won, consider this – when was the last time the winner of the Euro trophy did well at the following World Cup? In history, only 1 team that won the Euro Cup went on to win the following World Cup and of the last 4 Euro winners, 2 did not even qualify for the following World Cup and 1, France, didn’t even score a goal once they got there. Even 1996 winners Germany didn’t do that well in the following World Cup going out in the quarterfinals, and in 1990 Holland barely made it out of its group and were knocked out in the Round of 16. So Italy bowing out early in the Euro Cup may actually be good news since the World Cup is the most prestigious trophy in international football.

IMO the midfield DON set out was too stiffling, too defensive — no creativity — cammo should have been on from the start, along with ADP and Cassano taking the role of perrotta.. and ambro shouldn’t wear an azzurri shirt again — only the AC Milan connection with the DON kept him in the squad.

FORZA AZZURRI

I really hope Lippi comes in and finally gets the tactics sorted.
This hoofing tactic is just terrible.

Spain wasnt great and their attack was reduced to shooting from distance. Passing the ball around at the half line comfortably and shooting from distance is not attacking football. It is impotent ball possession. All they did in the box was diving for penalties.

Italy were also guilty of diving, let’s not kid ourselves, although these dives were not for game changing penalties.

Spain may have had more shots on goal but I think Italy had more clear chances on goal but failed to convert them. Kudos for Spain to contain Toni… although he couldnt have scored even if there was no keeper and defender between him and the goal.

Chiellini was great, Panucci was shaky at times but all in all the defense was very good.

I felt sorry for Aquilani because he was left without options in attack (I had a long long explanation of this on the Roma blog)

Regarding the PKs:

De Rossi put it where he put it at the WC. That is his safe spot and I tink Iker knew it. It was not a bad pk but good goalkeeping.
Di Natale’s pk was bad.

Whoever complains about spaniards diving should take a look at this video:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QRO626ImQek

Italia has a european wide reputation. Throwing stones while sitting in a glass house never tends to be a good idea.

I also particular love the notion of winning the european cup negates winning the world cup. Superb attitude! Should make the EC a much less boring event without the Italians then when they stay home so they can win the WC

Phil > that is a load of crap

Panucci and Chiellini had Villa and Torres in their pockets!
Spain won but it was close…
love those spanish fvcktards who go on italian blogs making arguments

if italy had won from spain, i wont go to a spanish blog trying to argue with spanish ppl… i would celebrate on the streets

I don’t think Italy has a bright future. The Italian tv was talking about a “ricambio generazionale”. In the same way as France if you don’t encourage the young ones (see Aquilani’s change yesterday) you can’t set the foundations for the future.
Furthermore, despite a couple names (Rossi, Giovinco, Balotelli, Rosina), I don’t really see a winning team there.

Italy paid for Toni’s disastrous performance. I also felt a lack of concentration yesterday (Buffon’s incredible mistake which almost cost him a goal). Chiellini was extraordinary.

Oh well, I hope a different team wins for once. Maybe Russia?

@Gabriella

Maybe so. It does not change certain perceptions prelevant throughout all of Europe. Italy is by far the least liked team overall. And that does not have anything to do with its success, as Brazil, the worlds by far best football nation, is well respected.

In this light it is indeed ironic when Italians start to complain about “diving” by other teams and mocking later on, when indeed they hold a license to exactly this behaviour.

Jan > he next generation of Italians are very promising.

We need to sort out the defense but there are some great players there already

Thank god italy is out and this football has an end at least this time.

All football fans should really thank spain for the chance of good and attractive football during the halffinal and within the final.

itlaian football is the death of this sport and all friends of this sport had a party after the itlaian nightmare of 120 minutes had an end.

My only question was when do the italians play with a secoond goalkeeper that would be a logical consequense of their attidute

@Porchetta

I do not know what sport or match you watched yesterday or what italian team but if you believe that italian football is a gift to this sport a plessure or even interesting to watch than you really have a masochistic attidute.

There was only one team at least trying to play football and there was a team just destroyinng everything possible and you can choose for your own.

The real one to blame was the german ref. perhabs it would have been a nice match if he gave the penalty for spain in the first halftime and italy couldn´t play longer with 11 players behind the ball

Phil >
“It does not change certain perceptions prelevant throughout all of Europe. Italy is by far the least liked team overall.”

where did you get this from? is there a statistic for this? or is it just your perception?

Most people on this blog who support Italy are non Italians, like myself. If you look at the stats on this website the Italian blog is the second most commented blog and by comment/blogentry ratio is by far the highest. Based on that I’d say Italy is very well supported at least on this blog even if we discount the non supporter comments like yours.

Regarding the diving… two wrongs doesnt make it right. I also had this long post somewhere about the types of diving there are in football but I will not go there again explaining the difference. I’d like to point out also that everybody dives, even the Steven “I never dive” Gerrard.

@Porchetta

you are right you havn´t DENIED SPAIN ANYTHING IN 120 MINUTES at least not much and that´s the problem. it was the only goal of italy to do this and everything we say is thank god that we have a chance of really good football at the end of this tournament.

In the end it was just wasted 120 minutes but i can hopefully look forward for three very good matches and i do not care who wins the EC i just want interesting football and the chances are rising after italy is gone because itlay has always been and will always be a pain in the ass to watch until the other team scores the first goal

Porchetta

Proud of your country for maintaining a 0-0 in 120 minutes? That’s normally the talk inferior teams make when going up against visibly stronger teams. I guess that shows what you really thought of the Spain vs Italy match up?

“u call diving and cheating and trying to CON referee to claim penalties and free kicks( like Torres and Villa were doing), if u believee that just ball possession and restoring to long rangers as beautiful football, if u believe that clearing ZERO chances in the Italian penalty area as beautiful football, if u believe that ..well…lol”

I have never said that and i do not belive that everything i said was it would have been a more interesting match to wathc if spain got a deserved penalty in the first half because itlay would have to stop defending with 11 players. That´s all. I am not spanish i am not a fan of spain i just wnat to watch football and have fun. the italian national team is torture but no fun

first no del piero at all then perrota & ambrosini in the line up
then no camoranesi and from the beginning no inzagi and he didn’t talk to maldini and nesta to end their retirement
plus giving del piero 5 mins
he is way beyond stupidness
you are so right

First of all, Villa was hacked down inside the box with some idiot stepping on his foot and wasn’t called for it. See, unlike toni, who dived plenty in that game, villa was actually fouled inside the box and didn’t get his deserved penalty and a card for the guy stepping on his foot. Lucky italy.

And to say that Spain created no good chances to score is idiotic. They had chances where the ball past an empty goal with villa just 1 second away from whacking it in. And buffon lucked out big time that that shot slipped to the post. Watch the game more properly next time.

@Porchetta

Jesus christ how fanatic can someone be. There were two different fouls during the first half not seen by the german ref. One was within the box and one was outside the box both without punishment.

If your biased view allows only a different judgement than it is your problem as your whole judgement of the match is perhabs understandable but clearly not correct.

“but had ZERO scoring creativity inside our penalty area”

LOL not a easy thing to do with 11 itlaians within the box from the first minute

“they just resorted to harmless long rangers”

you do not talk about the itlaian tactics playing only long balls to toni because of the fact that many italian players did not even left their half during the complete match

Montolivo should have been in the squad. i was NOT impressed by aquilani.

No Sushan, I would have been surprised if Montolivo would have been better then Aquilani… I would have been surprised if Aquilani would have been better than Aquilani. He did all anyone could have done in my opinion

he is supposed to be on the ball and dictate play and stuff. he hardly got a sniff of the ball . where was he??

I am going to copy paste this fro the Roma blog:
=================================
My evaluation of KA’s performance is that it was ineffective because:
- he played on the right and there was no one in front of him to pass to when he received the ball
- many times he simply didnt get the ball, most of our attack, when not hoofing, went through the left, no wonder our top passer by stats with a staggering 94 passes was Grosso
- he didnt link up well with Zambrotta because he is not a winger and we were overly defensive anyway, not many runs in the first half by him
- let’s not compare with Pirlo who plays in the centre, did you guys see him drifting central after Camo came on? At one point he even went completely left where Ambrosini played. I thought the boy is desperate for the ball.
- the tactics were to hoof the ball to Toni. According to stats Aquilani hoofed it only once (not even sure if that was in this match since I only had the compiled stats for passing between players) so his options were: passing backwords, passing to DDR, passing to Ambrosini and passing to Perrotta… that is not attacking for a player that is best at one to ones and through balls but there were no runs in front of him since Cassano played on the left and Toni in the middle. He even made 2 passes cross the pitch to Cassano and the other one to Grosso because there was nothing in frot of him.
- good, solid defending, worked hard

=========================

and to add that he has never played on the right, not for Roma, not for Italy

CHIELLINI!!!!!!! damn that kid was amazing!!!!! JUVENTINO REPRESENTTT!! ahhah sorry that kid is great and has such a bright azzurri future!

Donadoni will most likely be fired within the next 10 days which is even better news than learning that if/when he is fired Lippi is ready to come back!! Thank God we actually can win the 2010 WC!!!

and not even for the U21s

lol… I agree, sofia

seems like aquilani has a lot of limitations, not good

well, I think the only fitting reply to that is : fuck you

Chillineli is a beast…future Cannavaro. Donadoni will be gone due to him keeping Luca Toni in the game, he went down with Toni..DelPiero should have been in on the 70th minute with Toni. Now Donadoni is gone.

exscue me for Toni, Obviously not with that clutz..he cost us the game in my eyes

abusing on the internet, geez. No one is giving me a proper answer. I had asked if quilani can play like pirlo and host of guys Like JOHN SILVER said he will be much BETTER than pirlo. WHo is laughing now?? Bashar, daniele etc said he will fit the role to a T. ok fine. and now gabriella says dont compare him to pirlo, wtf??

Gabs cannot be unbiased towards Roma players apparently. Aquilani was as useful as a cherry tree planted on the pitch.

Here is my take as posted on Roma page
‘Aquilani was still non-aggressive and passive. The two things that can be overcome regardless of tactics.
Sounds like the Milanistas defending Ambrosini. Lets get real’

Porchetta

‘@GD, u r just jealous i can guage that from ur arguments’

From the same person who thought Spain had zero opportunities to score and how toni didn’t dive, your ability to “gauge” anything is laughable, at best.

Toni dived multiple times and quite clearly. Either that or the invisible sniper got him good. I suppose he IS a rather easy target, being that big and all.

Toni didnt dive, but he looked for fouls and contact, and went down after he felt it..Being soft and diving are different

Sushan > I have never said that he was like Pirlo, He is quiet different indeed.

My fuck you reply was the equivalent in substance and role of your post.

My post about Aquilani was not biased. I posted a similar comment about the Milan midfield after the Holland match and I am no Milanista. I also posted that Panucci was shaky in defense at times after the Spanish game and he is a Roma player.

Toni did not play well and did dive, lucky for Spain he was kept in the game. However, Italy had a couple quality chances to score even while playing defenseive. Bottom line is you can not cleary say that Spain played ‘beautiful’ football, to me they looked like nothing special. A different coach i truly think italy wins for sure.

Here you go guys…..Very much what i was saying and what some others in here have said as well.
http://www.goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=748191

I’m sort of sick of people slagging Italy for being too defensive. I will admit I am new to the beautiful game, and therefore I don’t know everything perfectly at all, however, I thought the point of the game was to score AND keep the other team from scoring. You can’t play all attacking football and just hope the other team doesn’t score. I’m of the belief that I would rather win a game than make it pretty for you, but if you can do both by all means keep doing it. While Italy is accused of being defensive, people always fail to mention their great attacking core(though it was non-existent during this tourny), not to mention that our defense can score just as well and just as often as the strikers. Italy probably were too defensive in the midfield yesterday; that’s what happens when all you have left on the bench available to play is defensive or still wet behind the ears to the big league. It just really bothers me to hear people say they hate defensive teams. Playing defense will not be the death of football, not trying and having no heart will be the death. Don’t hate because we don’t play it like you do, it works for us.

Italy had the only clear cut chance on goal.

How ironic that at the beginning of the tournament we were panicking about our defense and cheering on our much vaunted attack, and look at us now. Two clean sheets to finish up, and no goals from the strikers.

On top of everything else here is what Donadoni accomplished:

Italy’s worst defeat in 30 years
Italy’s first defeat to spain since 1920
A favour from Van Basten to go through to the knockout stages

WORLD CHAMPIONS SHOULD NOT HAVE ANY OF THE ABOVE!

Wrong players wrong times wrong everything. I’m still angry about all this because Del Piero and Cassano NEVER got to play together even for a minute. In all four of these games can anyone honestly say that there looked to be any sort of depth or fluency from this Italian team? They never looked like winning and never really did turn things around.

GIGI BUFFON IS THE GREATEST GOALKEEPER TO EVER HIT THE FIELD!!!

Forza Azzuri 2010!
Forza Donadoni getting fired within the next 2 days!

i put the entire blame on Donadoni for persisting on Toni. Look ,let us be honest with ourselves. Toni was very unlucky against Holland and Romania, he played great football, managed to out with rival defenders and carve out chances for himself and his team mates, he was very unlucky especially against Romanians, but against France, he got our penalty but otherwise was useless. Time and again, Pirlo with his wonderful passes gave Toni some great opportunities to score and especially 3 chances were a clear 1-1 with Coupet which toni horribly missed!!The fatigue was all there to see, infact, physically toni was finished after the Romanian match.Yesterday, Toni could not move an inch and i blame Donadoni for being a coward as to persist with Toni and not give Borriello and Quagliaella a decent chance. I mean, it is not definate or certain that Borriello or Quagliarella would have changed the course of the match but they were better options than toni, they were fully fit and with adrenalin rushing!1Look at what Camoronesi did when he came on..It was a joke that del piero was brought on with only 4 minutes remaining!!Donadoni has to answer Italia why he choose Borriello and quagliarella if he doesnt have the balls to play them

adding to this, just compare donadoni with Lippi..i mean Lippi rotated his squad wonderfully( i mean the forwards) and made use of all the strong points of each strikers..Toni and Gilardino were the permanent fixtures. but it were the likes of Iaquinta( good goal against ghana and a great great game against Germany and France pulling out the French and German defence to the left of the feild), De Piero( got limited chgances but how he scored against Germany), Inzagi( amazingly was played only one game in the second half against the Czechs and he scored on a counter attack as Lippi expected him to)..Lippi played all the forwards and conserved his aces Toni and Gilardino. It was a team effort but here, foolish Donadoni plays only Toni and physically wears him out..Borriello and Quagliarella must and should have been played for atleast 20 minutes yesterday considering Toni´s physical inability to even run

DeRossi says it best—–”Maybe Spain played the ball around a little better than us, but we had the clearest chances through Camoranesi and Di Natale,” he concluded.

the italian team is old. it’s time for a new generation, a new team, fresh legs, rejuvenation. toni, piero, ambrosini, camoranesi, materazzi, zambrotta, panucci, grosso, and cannavaro, and pipo zaghi should retired, they won the WC they should of quit like totti and nesta.

Sushan.. Enough with this.. Why do you insist that Aquilani was supposed to play just like Pirlo? I made that perfectly clear. I never said that Aquilani fits Pirlo’s role to a T. Don’t put words in my mouth. I have always stated that Pirlo is irreplaceable and without him Italy would not be in this tournament.

Aquliani is not the same type of player as Pirlo at all. He was never supposed to be expected to do what Pirlo does. Even if he was supposed to then he would have played in the same position Pirlo does, which he wasn’t. Pirlo plays in the middle alongside De Rossi while Aquilani played on the right (a position he NEVER played in during his entire Roma career).

If Aquliani was expected to dictate the play than it’s Donadoni’s own fault. He doesn’t dictate the play for Roma, De Rossi does. Aquliani doesn’t provide creativity for Roma, Totti does. Don had to change the system to match the players.. You don’t try to shove a square peg into a round hole as Andy Gray keeps saying. You don’t see me saying “I want to put Pirlo up top next to Toni and have him do what Roberto Baggio does.” and when it doesn’t work say “Sushan said this would work.”

I am not defending Aquilani here. He had a nightmare game.. He was bypassed all game and the only time you saw him is when he wandered up front and even then he didn’t do well. As I stated, the Spanish could have landed a plane with the space they had on the right.

But when was the last time Montolivo played well for the national team? For the U-21s, Aquilani was 3 times better than Montolivo. If you think Montolivo would not have been overwhelmed you are horribly mistaken. Montolivo got overrun by the Serbian U-21 team.. God knows what would have happened against the Spanish first team. You can’t say that Montolivo would have done better and there is no way of telling now.

Spain had the momentum going at keeping the ball possession but that was not definately the story of the match at the end of the day. Italian defense marshalled by the evergreen pannucci and the young future rock Chiellini closed the shop for the marvellous fleet footed spanish forwards Villa and Torres and did not even give them a sniff at the goal to their credit. Also, Italia definately had the best of chances( two of them) of the whole game to score goals. Italy’s penalty shoot-out defeat against Spain in the Euro 2008 quarter-finals has met with a mixed reaction in the peninsula.

While many critics have blasted the world champions for not attacking enough, i believe that they did a good job in limiting the devastating Spanish strikers.

Italians took on Spain looking to exploit all their positive characteristics until the end.
Italy were impeccable at closing down the space against a Spanish attack that was often dangerous and has extraordinary ability.
They may have been strong going forward, but the fact remains that we Italians had the only two clear-cut chances.
When the game went to penalties we paid the price for Iker Casillas’ brilliance and in the lottery of penalties, as he stopped two well-taken spot-kicks
We deserve praise whatever the outcome.

Give Aquilani a break guys!
He is an amazing player, it’s just that he doesn’t have that much experience playing in the Italian national team. Pirlo, Del Piero and lots of others have played on the same team for a long long time and they understand the chemistry and have lots of experience. I am sure that Aquilani will prove himself in the future.
Italian defense held up beautifully against Spain without Canna and Nesta (and that is coming from a Spanish…).
I don’t know what Italy is going to do without Buffon…
GO SPAIN!
-Hawk

Well, the good news is all of us can start hating each other again.

http://italy.worldcupblog.org/group-e/italy-through-thoughts-and-player-reviews.html

read John silver and daniele’s comments about aquilani and pirlo.

roma fans are contradicting themselves

http://euro2008.worldcupblog.org/euro-2008-liveblog/euro-2008-liveblog-france-vs-italy.html

apologies bashar, it was dhaw who said it, aqui is fit for pirlo’s role.

the debate was never about aquilani vs montolivo. its about who can deputise for pirlo better

C o n g r a t u l a t i o n s , E S P A N I A !

At long last Italy’s chain of ill-deserved advancing has been broken !

The Spaniards are one class superior to the Italians.

SPAIN vs. RUSSIA will be very exciting to watch.

Welcome to the TOP FOUR , Espania ! And saludos from ALEMANIA !

Arminius: btw the Spain blog is over here http://spain.worldcupblog.org/

If the debate is about who can deputize Pirlo better, then it’s Montolivo..

and about Aquilani, I agree with Hawk..

Best Italian players of the tournament:

1) Chiellini
————–
2) Buffon

Both Juve players.. Alessio must be happy..

actually..

2) De Rossi
3) Buffon

If the formation was something like the Dutch set up of 3 players behind the target man, with 2 defensive mids:

4; De Rossi, Ambrosini; Camoronesi, Aquilani, Cassano; Toni

Aquilani can go back and defend, but when Italy have possession he moves to a position behind Toni.. He would have done wayy better there I think..

Perotta was a mistake..

and about Toni.. not the best of tournaments, but give him a break..

Look at the shit service he was getting.. (for the most part)

It was basically, get possession and send a long ball to Toni, and let him figure out something.. OR go down the flanks and just get the ball in the box, and let Toni figure something out..

He had very little support when trying to hold up the ball..

Totti where art thou?

I’d rate them:

1 Chiellini
2 Buffon
3 Panucci
4 Pirlo
5 Grosso
6 De Rossi
7 Zambrotta

De Rossi was great, but his limitations are by now very clear: he’s a very solid defensive mid but he lacks any semblance of creativity. The idea that he wears the #10 is pretty nutty in my book.

With the exception of Chiellini, Buffon, Panucci and possibly Grosso the whole team underperformed in this tournament. Hard to blame anyone but the coach for that…

Sushan.. Nobody can deputize for Pirlo.. At least not until Cigarini is ready.

I would say it was:

Buffon
Chiellini
De Rossi
Grosso
Panucci
Pirlo (I love the guy but he wasn’t as good as the WC and the euro qualifying)
——
The rest don’t matter.

Spain are a class above a crippled, old and incompetently coached Italy.. Yes.. And I’m sure that this Russian team can probably beat the 2002 WC winning Brazil team.

HAHA Alessio, that is the true joy is it not? Well now Bologna is in Serie A once again so finally I can get back into some true argumentation.

It was wrong when Don was pick as coach. How could that have happened in the first place?! In a country with many great coaches, why an unproven coach was picked? I am telling you, it started all at the top, by association not by ability.

If a young coach was to be picked, it should have been the under 21(23?) coach, I forgot his name in English but he was the defender that maked Maradona, Zico in 1982.

The one good thing about this tournament is that we found out we have a real center back of the future forget about Barzagli. I thought Zambrotta was just awful the whole tourney. As I was thinking about this tournament last night we didnt have one play maker other then Pirlo on the team. Cassano I hope every one stops hyping this coffee cake looking psycho up. ADP ADN both r the same player and both r garbage on the international level. We shoulda brought Peppe Rossi. Our mid field was just horrible Pirlo only had one good game and that was from Romania. Donadoni literally made a mistake in every call up besides Pirlo, Chiellini, Buffon, and De Rossi. What I saw from Aquilani was nothing so please stop praising him like he’s the next jesus. I thought he would crumble on the big stage and he did. I hope 2010 only consist of the 4 guys I mentioned and then the new class of Azzurri. PS Luca Toni should probably kill him self what a whining bitch.

For 2010;

Buffon; *insert some right-back here*, Canna, Chiellini, Grosso; De Rossi, Pirlo; Montolivo, Giovinco, Aquilani; *insert good striker here, hopefully Gila gets back to his best*

I figured, with Canna/Chiellini and De Rossi support in the back, they don’t need more defensive players..

Aquilani played his 7th game for Italy last night.. Give him a break!!

Ben,

Keep it to a dull roar

Basta with all of this.

Aqui played timid, but had ZERO SUPPORT in front him.

The defensive shell kept hold, and Donadoni the goat, hoped we would win it PK’s. A bad mistake.

Without DDR we don’t get out of the group.

And Chiellini played his 13th. What’s your point?

Guy score one goal against Real Madrid now he is the next Roberto Baggio.. Get real the kid look lik he cant even pass 5 yards.

Alessio i have to agree Chiellini was amazing. Think about this when he was put in we only let in one goal because of the fuck up from Zambrotta.

Too much pressure was put on Aquilani for the simple reason that he was ‘expected’ to fill in for Pirlo..

So, everyone’s expectations were high.. He seemed very nervous and not confident..

He had a bad game.. But that doesn’t make him more or less a very good player with heaps of potential..

2010:

————–Buffon————-
-Motta–Chiellini-Canna—Zambro-
———Pirlo—DDR————-
-Giovinco————–Montolivo-
————-Totti—————
————-Rossi—————

Aquilani didn’t score against Real Madrid.. He had a phenomenal game.. He’s 23 years old and he and Chiellini dominated the U-21s. Aquilani is part of the future of the Azzurri midfield. But you never know. Things change. He can’t pass 5 yards? What were you watching.. He didn’t get the ball yesterday to show any of his passing.

This criticism of him is ridiculous. Criticize his performance all you want. I won’t stop you. But criticizing his abilities based on ONE game where he was thrown into the deep end and played out of position is just wrong… Shows how little you know about Aquliani, or football for that matter.

He’s been great for Roma when he wasn’t hurt. Many clubs want him including Real Madrid, Inter, Juventus, Man Utd and Chelsea. Buffon had nothing but the highest praise for Aquilani. Scored 5 goals from the defensive midfield position. He rocked the U-21 euros in a team containing Rossi, Pazzini, Palladino, Montolivo, Rosina… He was the best out of all of those and one of the best players of that tournament. If you say he doesn’t deserve to be part of the Azzurri future you don’t know anything.

Giovinco is a ray of hope because he can bring some added creativity in midfield and up front (something Italy really could have used this tournament).

And nobody compared him to Baggio. Who on earth would be idiotic enough to compare a defensive midfielder to a forward?? And from all the comments I read I don’t think anyone claimed that he is Italy’s savior. And he wasn’t any worse than Ambrosini or Gattuso in their first game.

SPQR I dont think Rossi will be the next striker for italy in 2010.. we have plenty of other fwds that are better than Rossi i think.

SPQR do you seriously think Totti will be starting at CAM/trequartista at 2010? You’re a nutjob, take off the Romanista glasses. He doesn’t even play that for Roma anymore.

I NEVER THOUGHT I WAS SAY THIS BUT Spain thank you, watching the italians loose brought so much joy to my hart, i am French this is karma,an italian loss makes me as happy as a french win, viva espana

Is Amauri on Italian national team?

Alessio is Giovinco gonna be a starter with you guys next year?

I’ve really sat out the last few days with discussion, but I’ve come to a few observations:

1. Spain is the New Brazil.
Likeable team that doesn’t step on too many toes, since England’s out (and the EPL hoovers up their top talent outside of Madrid and Barca), it’s the team that many Brits are cheering for. They’re very easy to root for, and even I can’t really hate them. Both teams sucked yesterday; Spain just sucked marginally less.

2. Chiellini is the future of the backline. He goddamn well better be; he killed Cannavaro.

3. Pirlo deserves the armband in 2010. I doubted him during Romania. Never again.

4. Toni’s Bayern season killed him, regardless of what poor service he got. Podolski sat on the bench for Bayern while the club paraded Toni, Ribery, and Klose around Deutschland. We see the end result now. I don’t see him wearing the shirt ever again.

5. DDR is ready for prime time. Aquilani is not. With some bubble wrap and a few more caps, he’ll build up, but Pirlo is also as unique as the likes of Cannavaro and Buffon.

6. Cassano didn’t kill anybody. Not always the most inspired performances, but he was surprisingly the least of our worries.

7. The refs sucked in our favor, too. Sure, they disallowed the Toni goal and let the RVN goal stand, but they also disallowed a potential Spain PK yesterday. Also, fuck Andy Gray, who obviously has a vacation home in Mallorca, not around Amalfi. I hope EA lets me mute him in FIFA 09.

terrycarvahlo – well, that must feel good for you given that you never had an opportunity to enjoy a frewch victory. do you equally find pleasure when you remove that baguette lodged up your ass every night? just asking.

terrycarvahlo – well, that must feel good for you given that you never had an opportunity to enjoy a french victory. also, do you equally find pleasure when you remove that baguette lodged up your ass every night? just asking.

no amauri for the national team. not now or ever, thank you.

@terrycarvalho, it is not joy, iam sure it is jealousy sprouted with hatred and the realisation that an ordinary Italia eliminated France and retired Thurram, makelele, henry, Sagnol….
well for others, dont worry, we have quality to bounce back….
the team for 2010 will definately have the likes of
buffon, Chiellini,Grosso, maggio( if he continues to play like he did for the last two seasons), Motta, Santacroce, De rossi( who will be a great in 2010), Pirlo, Montolivo, Aquilani, Rosina, giovinco( he will set the football world on fire..he will get only better..), Nocerino, Quagliarella, guiseppe Rossi, robert Aquafresca( many dont know him but he will be our next great center forward), Gilardino( he is only 25 now and he can get better after a disappointing season or two), balotelli( he is already a class apart and i wonder how fearful his sight will be for opponents in another two years), Amauri.. and also i expect another two or three new talents to suddenly emerge out of nowhere like Luca Toni..
Good times are ahead..we will be back with a vengeance..our defensive problems will be sorted out with the emergence of Chiellini who is solid solid solid

Lagaica..is that your opinion or is it definately a no. Regardless of him being Brazilian, just curious if he can or will be used on the team?

Thanks

Terrycarvallo,

One World Cup, one Euro, your hatred comes from envy. I don’t understand why the French always sling insults at the Italian National team. When has an Italian player ever said something like William Gallas “It would be great to eliminate Italy in the knock-out stages.” Well I guess he’ll just have to dream on.

i also see that the opportunist, scum-sucking, piece of shit stephen has crawled out of his real madrid hole again to impose his ‘wisdom’ on us.

Do you think Totti would come out of retiremetn for us in 2010 WC?

how aobut:

Zamb-Chillineli-Canna-Grosso
AQUI-DDR-Pirlo-Montolivo
Gionvinco
Borilleo

bg frank, yes, that is my opinion but i guess to answer your question directly: no, he is not on the team at the moment.

guys, this is a serious issue, i mean allowing players with foreign blood in our great Blue team..i mean, it is about time we follow the steps of England, France, Holland, Portugal and Spain and field talented super class players without Italian blood (like Balotelli, Amauri..)for the good..reasons??first and foremost, all of these made their career and honed their skills and achieved stardom in our great country, so it is natural to let them play for us..
regards

for me the only bright spots were (as many have already stated):

1. emergence of chiellini as a legit heir to the cb position
2. re-emergence of grosso in light of his poor showing at lyon for most of the year.
3. buffon…duh
4. de rossi cementing his spot on the nt starting lineup
5. cassano proving that he can be sane for longer than one week.

Im a 100% sure if Amauri was on the field instead of Toni he would have put 7 goals away. I dont think Zamb and Grosso have another tourney in them. Look how many fouls Grosso got away with vs. Spain. He is only going to get worse in the next 2 years same goes for Zamb.

sorry, i cannot agree with that principle for a national team. i think this has been talked about several times and admittedly there is a lot of grey area in defining the ‘legitimacy’ of a player for the national team.

eg. balotelli was born in italy, was groomed in italy in the italian youth academies, has a cultural connection to the country, played his club football in italy, etc. he declined guana’s offer with the hopes of playing for italy. he deserves to be considered in my opinion.

amauri has far less ‘credentials’ in my opinion. personally, i find it rediculous to consider him since he overtly expressed his desire to play for Brazil first and foremost. they dont want him. his ‘ambition’ to play for italy is nothing short of trying to sieze an opportunity – by opportunity i mean playing on a high profile nt so that he can use that as a vehicle to promote himself on the world stage for the benefit of his club carreer. what is ‘italian’ about that?

At least we have the olympics. When does world cup qualifying start?

agreed that we may have seen the best of grosso. wing positions are usually dependant on youthful, fast legs to succeed. i was just suggesting that i was happy for him to have found his form again during this tournament. i thought he was one of our most consistent players, not to mention most threatening. if only toni hadnt attempted that awkward bicycle(?) kick that grosso was ready to blast in at the far post.

does the reigning champion not automatically qualify anymore? i cant remeber if that rule has changed or not. i know host nations automatically qualify.

i think qualifiers start in oct 08.

reigning champs have to qualify now

.. no, only the host(s).

I must say i did not for one minute enjoy this tournament from An italian view. I mean not one of ou strikers scored. Our 2 golas against france were a deflection and a pk. Toni looked slow and that over the top bullshit rarely works when other teams defend it knowing its coming. Changing the formation every game, just didnt get a good feeling from any of the games. It looked ugly to me. i hope since we have to wait 2 yrs for another tourney they improve this team let the young guys play.

Frank, Amauri has not been called up. He hasn’t received his passport yet, so he’s not quite eligible. Sometime in the next few months though. Amauri would have been better than Toni, but I still don’t want him to play for the Azzurri. Nothin about blood, he grew up and lived in Brazil. The only reason he wants to play for Italy is cause Brazil rejected him and he happens to live there.

Moka, no. Probably not, depends who you ask. Some say he will break through and win a spot but he’s not going to be starting if you ask me. Most of us assume he’ll be playing left wing when Nedved isn’t.

Random lineup for 2010:

———— Buffon

Motta, Chiellini, Gamberini, Grosso

——— De Rossi, Pirlo
Iaquinta —————— Rosina

———- Giovinco
——————- Rossi

Possible Bench: Amelia, Storari, Barzagli, Andreolli, Dessena, Cigarini, Aquilani, Montolivo, Nocerino, Palladino, Cerci, Abate, Cassano, Gilardino, Balotelli, Borriello

I think this lineup is a little on the young side and we might see some of the bench guys starting like Iaquinta, Aquliani, Montolivo, Cassano, etc… I’m sure I’m missing a ton of promising players…

Oooh.. Santacroce and Quagliarella..

Why so much love for G.Rossi a bit overrated to me– at this point to be slotting him in the starting line of the Azzuri in 2 years im not sure..

Were did this come from about lamagica???

so what?! most of us here are not Italian.

honestly, you trolling whore, when i read the shit that you spew i want to vomit and thoroughly embarrased about sharing a shred of lineage with you.

you have no fucking clue what you are talking about, including your made up story about being from fr(I)sinone. show me a fucking map of italy that has a town with that name in lazio. fucking idiot poser!

you are a classless fucktart.

aho, fai propio pena. cerca di farci tutti un gran favore e vattene a fanculo.

stasio – i think this wannabe italian is suffering from a complex known as, “i am a fucking useless waste of sperm”. he’s taking issue with the fact that others are calling him out on his ultra xenophobic, hateful comments on other blogs. he’s barely worthy of licking the sweat off my balls.

“It is tools and Sicilians like lamagica who makes us hang our head in shame in the western world by falsly proclaiming themselves as italians..”
Can’t be worse than you.

portchetta, you mean frosinone? my grandparents lived there for a while, thats the only reason i know it, its not really a big town anyone would know or unless they follow serie b.

i agree with lamagica.

i like your back line Bashar…but your mid? Iaquinta? where’s Aquilani or Montolivo?

do we have any other decent left backs playing these days? Grosso might be getting on a bit by 2010..good to have another pacy left back on the field…santacroce may well be the man

Lamagica? You’re Sicilian descent and youre a Romanista? Fuckin glory hunter

Forza Palermo, Forza Sicilia

lol…i’m not sicilian at all although i love the place. i’m roman-born from roman parents, actually.

It was eating me apart not putting either Aquilani or Montolivo in there. I like to see Italy with some wingers like they played against Germany in the WC. And with Iaquinta, Quagliarella, Camoranesi, Rossi, Rosina, Palladino all coming out Italy can play with wingers now.

Bashar u never know with Lippi back or even Ancelotti ther could be a certain experince attacker leading the side….. Francesco Totti!!!
I can always hope on it.

totti’s too old and hasn’t really shone for the azzurri. we need to concentrate on our future. Let’s stop looking back, we shouldn’t be afraid to move on to the next generation. It’ll be a crime if these amazing new talents don’t get to play for the azzurri, because old timers in their 30’s who played well 10 years ago are being brought back.
At the moment it’s hard to imagine which strikers will become our next superstars. Maybe we should keep our eyes on Borriello, Pazzini, Acquafresca and Rossi. When Russota is good and ready he’ll shine like the star he is!

ok, cool la magica…there are more juve supporters in sicily than in Turin..it drives me nuts

I really wanted to see Del Piero in action a lot in this tournament but unfortunately Don didn’t use him right, and he hardly played. The guy’s in the best form of his life, and yet Don screwed things over and got all tactics wrong. I’m sure had Lippi been there, we would have seen Alex score goals in this tourney.

I hope Alex stays on for the next world cup, I know he’ll be 35, but look at many of the great legends of the game, as long as they played great and were in form, age was not an issue. If DP continues his great form, I really would love to see him captaining the side at WC 2010. I hope that WC squad in 2010 is a mix of youth and experience.

Forgot to add, Del Piero is also a legend as well. Lippi would have played Alex and Cassano together, that would have been a deadly combination, and we would be in the semi’s right now.

ooo porchetta always trying to come up with excuses, spain had possession but no chances, geee if you place your 11 players in the box, of course its hard to create chances, let them advance a bit and then its a different story. You guys waited the entire match and overtime in your box hoping to get one break or pass through the penalties but in the end, you got what you deserved. Toni proved to be worthless and torres even slapped grosso a couple times to shut him up. lol i know you are getting psychotic as you’re reading this.

BTW we miss you in espn lol im sure everyone here is flippin out asking themselves who in the world is this porco character that speaks about true europeans, italians and the proceed to explain why he is in spain…i mean, who in the world would ever bother to come here. Sorry you didnt sleep and have been crying over your D&G tissues, perhaps you take this too seriously.

whitey – a slight exaggeration there on your assessment of the game. just slightly.

i’m not quite sure your scenario could have been possible considering italy actually had the better scoring chances in the gamne. toni’s backward header that just glanced over the bar, the camoranesi shoot that cassilas hit out with his leg, the shot di natle took that cassilas deflected over the bar or even the zambrotta cross that toni mistakenly tried to bicycle kick instead of letting grosso have a clear shot all did not happen because italy “waited the entire match and overtime in (our) box”. so despite you claiming spain were “more attacking”, you actually had less opportunities to do ANYTHING other than when the brazilian, marcos senna, took a shot from 40 yards out that buffon fumbled and casualy bounced on theto the post.

i also dont understand what the spaniards want. you have a lethal attacking duo (your strength) and you think that the answer to that is to open it up and allow torres, guiza or villa to have freedom and space to do their stuff? i’m not sure italy were out there to give anyone any favours. so if you were the opposing coach, would you honestly do that?

Maaaaan.. Russotto, Acquafresca, Okaka, Rosi, Foggia, Lanzafame, Lupoli, Pelle.. Italy is STACKED with young players just ready to explode.. It’s just a matter of when they are ready and how they can combine with the more experienced members of the team. No shortage of talent at aaall.

…and maggio, abate, giovinco, dessena, balotelli, paloschi…

@ Bashar
Okaka, Lupoli, and Pelle are flops, i can’t see them playing for a big club or the national team.

i would rather see taddei play for italy than amauri.

Michel-Olivier, why Taddei more? I’d rather see neither of them, but I don’t see one over the other.

KJ, then why aren’t you a fackin Juventino?

cigarini and criscito are good too

well la magica, your assesments on italy’s chances are right but i can argue almost three clear penalties, a lost ball that luckly bounced off the post to buffon’s hands, a couple deep shots and general possession, italy had good chances but of course some breaks are going to occur during the match, spain played already knowing the risks but they have enough quality to keep the ball, the italians didnt really look for it without pirlo rather exploit the sidelines. Actually im glad luca toni played, its almost a given he wont score as long as there arent too many comfortable airballs in the box, had italy played with inzaghi or del piero, perhaps it would have been a different story. Villa and torres can have all the freedom they want, nobody said it would be easy since the italians defend defend and did i mention defend? . torres and villa didnt have enough space to take advantage of a run or break since spain played pure possession. Anyway i dont buy into all this donadoni hate, had the italians passed the penalties, the press would have labeled him as graande and bravo but if he loses, its the highway, same thing happened in the WC.

WORLD CHAMPIONS — nuff said!!

Why did Italy not send Matarazzi into the match?

He could have provoked a Spaniard into retaliation worth a red card and then Italy might have been better against a decimated ESPANIA team …

Run out of tricks this time, eh ?

Tss, tss, tss …

@germania, still u r pissed off with the fact that Italia hammered u in Dortmund fair and square??ahh now go ahead and say that Italia cheated that day too..loser!!germania was lucky that the scoreline was not something like 5-0 that day!!and for ur warped sense of imagination,France did not dominate Italia in the final, infact malouda dived for the only fake French goal and Italia were denied a very valid toni goal and we dominated France like we did ur useless physical country

Does anyone think that Donadoni should go and be replaced by Mancini? atleast he has some coaching experience for starters. They shouldnt have let Lippi leave – he’s a legend. And as for Donadoni’s decision to bring Del Piero on for the last 10 minutes of extra time and then not let him take a penalty was totally pointless and a complete waste of some of the best Italian Footballing skill that there has ever been. There seemed to be a completely lack of depth in the squad for the Euro’s. I mean Cassano!!! he’s nothing but a spoilt piece of scum who doesnt even deserve to wear the shirt. Did he even touch the ball or did he just fall over everytime the opposition breathed near him – he’s so frustrating!!!!!!

it´s always the same about italian football some call it efficient others ugly and boring. Some belive many italian striker are clever others call them dirty cheaters and some of my australian friends still do that because of 2006.

italy plays this style for decades know (more or less) and yes it is boring to watch for someone just interested to watch a nice football match but i also believe it is not very successfull. I think they could have been much better if they would use their talent. italy won two tournaments since the old 30s and never could win a EC. I think they could have done better and clearly in a more attractive way because they always had and have very skilled players

haha whats even funnier is to see the spanish flag in all porchetta’s comments….ooo you poor thing, did daddy take you along on business against your consent?

Italy is closer to pakistan by the way, it was the only pale skinned player in italy that missed the penalty, and your dark players did the job. Remember to apply sun protection this summer, your pale skin can’t take the iberian sun, you probably belong in the bar where you can get pissed and share your love for that toni soprano midget you have for president.

Arribaderchi luigi

I don’t know about 3 clear penalties. I saw one clear penalty by Ambrosini. Another time they got the ball first then the man and Grosso fouled Villa just outside the box which should have been a dangerous free kick.

And I hate how everyone is exaggerating by saying Italy played with 10 men behind the ball.. Cassano and Toni were isolated up front and didn’t come back to defend, and Perrotta did not come back all the time. At most it was 7-8 guys back. At the end you had Del Piero, Camoranesi, Toni and Di Natale up front and not tracking back so that’s 6. It’s still very defensive, don’t get me wrong but it’s still terribly exaggerated.

white is right.. Your comments are incredibly inappropriate. What does the color of their skin have to do with them missing penalties? Besides you’re just talking out of your ass because they all looked pale to me. Why do your parents not raise you properly you racist prick! And they weren’t playing in Iberia they were playing in Switzerland.

Arribaderchi?? How old are you son? Before using Italian words know what they are.. It’s Arrivederci..

Poo porcetta,

feeling so inconsolable that he has to revert to the past and even drum up big phantasies … You prove to be a true native son.

Italians were superior 2 years ago: I admit that: but just by an inch. Nevertheless, the winner is who scores (more) – and you did. But most prominent experts agreed that that was the best match of the tournament. Do you think there can be a best match when one side is so superior as you are trying to suggest?

You live in the p a s t .

We here live in the P R E S E N T :

We are among the 4 best. You can’t imagine how we are enjoying it – especiall with italy out… Or maybe you can – that would explain something, hehe.

We are looking forward to the semi-final (F U T U R E ) .

I am sure we’ll be in the final ( F U T U R E ).

And then everything is possible – but not for you .

I wish you a pleasant T I M E J O U R N E Y into the past ! :-d

Maybe you end up with Caligula ? Or in Monument Valley ?

Wow Bashar, insulting me..?

if you bother to read my responses you’ll see i was SARCASTICALLY responding to porchetta who goes around racially insulting all spaniards, so you can save the insults and read above a bit. I am a dark person so it wouldnt make much sense that i were a racist now would it? Were they really playing in Swtzlnd? thanks for the info, i would have never guessed.

Now regarding toni and cassano alone in the box…that should say it all, how do you expect them to recieve decent passes if they are alone up there, no midfield link and they depend on long passes or cattenattios, that is the nature of the whole argument. Sorry your team lost, don’t hate the player but hate the sport. Oh its Arrivaderci….its was spelled wrong bashar, i do understand the meaning. Arrivaderciii

ma tu guarda ’sto gran testa di cazzo. anchora insisti?!?! FROSINONE. its FROSINONE stronzo figlio di mignotta, not frIsinone. oh yeah, you are italian alright….fucking poser. lol!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazio

its a shame your whore of a mother didnt take that load of cum on her face the day you were conceived.

Porchetta, shut the fuck up. You’re giving us Italians a bad name.

germania – italia were better by more than two inches…although that’s about the size of porchetta’s managina when fully erect. given that the ball circumfrance is about 38 inches, italy were better than germany by 76 inches. or two beautiful goals if you want to put it into more subjective terms.

careful, alessio. piggy might come back with an insult like, “hey shut up you southern italian”. lol.

hey, porky pig. i have a question for you but, i warn you, it might be too complicated for you to comprehend. is frisinone maybe a town / province in scandinavia somewhere? i think you might be lost, in more senses than one.

oh and here’s the italian version of your ‘homeland’, you fucking ignorant twat:

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provincia_di_Frosinone

wtf is your malfunction?
lamagica, why don’t you just stop feeding the troll?

Oh, there you are, Porchetta. I’ve been looking all over for you. I think the fun and games are over for now and its time for you to head back to our headquarters. we need you to finish up the last chapter to the Mein Kampf sequel.

Junior, I don’t sit around all day waiting to delete ignorant comments. When I’m around and I see them, I delete them. Simple as that.

Rudolf Hess,

You are a flaming asshole.

Take that from a German from Germany.

Well lamagica,

you know full well that international surveys have it as a proven fact that italians have the shortest ones in all of Europe.

The shorter the prick, the bigger the bragging. Od story, really.

Italy out ! hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe !

And you won’t be in South Africa either !

And greets to Maestro berlusconi !

armani, i’m pretty sure that is likely a personal ’survey’ you took. of course you’re going to think any penis is small in relation to your cavernous asshole.

and for the love of god, armani, why the fuck are you having to pose as multiple people on this blog?

the fact that a ‘german’ is here trying to stir shit about a game that didnt even involve the germans certainly hints at an inferiority complex.

lol. thanks for the ’shock value’.

lamagica,

why are you transsexuals always so excited ? Don’t fancy any chances.
I like Italian w o m e n – they are just about the 3rd or 4th best in Europe – unlike your soccer team.

HE he he… ” l a m a g i c a ” – I should have known from the start !

i think i need an interpreter to understand your anemic ‘insults’.

lamagica, Italia has beaten Germany in EVERY game they had… I think the Germans have said in 1980 that they’re looking to the future and they LOST.
They said it in 2004 and they LOST and they will say it again and they will LOSE.
The German inferiority complex to the ITALIANS will never cease. Why? Because you can NEVER beat us…
And in case you didn’t notice, because I’m sure you haven’t. The title of this post is the Golden lining, which is the coming back of MARCELLO LIPPI.
We’re seeing you in 2010.

very true, elie.

Germany has had more World Cup and Euro Cup(taken together) successes than Italy, albeit they were not admitted to WC in 1950 and entered the Euro competition as late as ‘72.

Honky, what ur not taking into consideration is the fact that a tema with 525287532538753752321357 Euro would switch them for 1 star on his chest. And Italia has 4 when Germany has 3 and will not have its 4th star anytime soon.

Elie,
You can’t even r e a d – not to speak of c o u n t.

WC 4:3 – accepted.

And the rest? WC 2nds 3rds, EURO Champs: where are you, italy ?

Ignoring is no way of clever perception.

But then again – what can you expext from an Italian ?

I have read a lot of stupid and racist comments and a lot of name calling in this blog. Hey guys we are talking about football here. So stick to the subject. I have also read a lot of comments agst Donadoni which equally are rather stupid. Whenever a team loses the coach is always to blame. That is shitty since a team is made up of the coach AND the players and besides there is also the fact that teams played agst might be better. So please desist from blaming anyone. That is besides the point. Yes I am rather pleased Italy are out. They deserved it. But let’s direct the blame where it should be directed. Italian football has always stunk. Italian fans rebut by saying that they have won 4 WCs. So what. Football success is not measured by how many cups you win but by the pleasure you give other ppl in watching a game. And also by real sportsmanship which I am sorry to say the Italians lack. They blame everything – their coach, referees, back luck and whatnot.And they never blame the real issue – their boring, defensive, “I don’t want to lose” (rather than “I want to win”) tactics. In pastr editions where Italians were successful, their success lay with bad refereeing. Referees who did not see beyond their noses to see the simulation tactics and palyt acting of the Italians. During the last WC Italians limped through the first stage through shameful refereeing and continued to limp to the finals likewise – the German penalty/goal which was not conceded etc etc. Italians fans do not admit this. Why are Italian footballers called the world over Cheatalians? Why? Because those who are the most blind are those who have eyes and do not want to see as those who are the most deaf are those who have ears but do not listen. I am sorry but Italy have never impressed and never pleased as opposed to Brazil, Germany, Holland, England etc – by their total football, good sportmsmanship and attcking football skills. A prooof of this is – how many Italian players play outside their shores? and how many players of these nations play in other countries???

You guys are correct, Italy has the only players that ever dive in the penalty area, as oposed to the French player that was literally chopped to pieces in the area to get a penalty in the 2006 final. I’m surprised he was able to get up after that brutal foul! And for some reason, the refs always disallow goals scored against Italy, but all goals scored by Italy are always given, like Toni’s goal against Romania, where he was 3 yards onside. Italy’s technical ability is terrible. Grosso’s rotten shot against germany in 06 should never have gone in. The Keeper must have been drugged (by an Italian doctor). Germany’s shots over the crossbar should have counted as goals instead. Italy’s victory in 82 was surely a fluke. The fact that Brazil had no clue how to defend had nothing to do with it. And how could such a defensive team possibly score 3 goals in the final even after missing a penalty kick against a surely superior team like Germany? In 06 Italy allowed 2 goals in the WC, one PK and an own goal. They must have been constantly bullying and threatening the opposing forwards, especially the ones from Australia who dominated (but scored nothing). And yes, the victories in the 30s shouldn’t even count since it was so long ago anyway. We should also forget about the wars of that era and everything else.

The Italians don’t need to go to other countries to play. They get paid plenty in Italy. It’s the players from the other countries who try to get on Italian teams. Italian club teams have won more than their fair share of eauropean tournaments, even when they had fewer foreign players. Today’s high powered English teams have mostly foreign players. Where would they be without them?

You people should find something else to do other than making jackasses out of yourselves.

Sore losers, sore losers. Whining, petulant childlike fans. Italian players do not play outside their shores cause no one appreciates them – boooooh. As the Siennese say – “L’avete in culo”. Cry babies. Always a poor show – champs cheatalians. Next time round train more in simulations (you’ve got cinecitta’ and anyways italian footballers like tobe seen with soubrettes and attriccette, probably to learn more of their art)- you might win again as that it the only way you can advance – playactors

Way to go Ritianne:))How sore can you get Bruno.It hurts MAN. Get a pc of your raving squad and jerk your sorrows over them: laod of floosies:

zambrotta – barca
cannavarro – real madrid
grosso – lyon
toni – bayern
barzagli – wolfsburg

now fuck off, as the canadians say.

victor – your mother would be proud of the way you suck other people’s dicks around here. she taught you well.

Krafft:

Congratulations on a precise analysis. Italy’s soccer might is one of the media’s myths that has now come to wither away.

There is no country that has had so many foul things gone their way than Italy.

If you follow the int’l blogs this a red thread going through all the way no matter where the posts come from. Mere coincidence ? Cosmic conspiracy against poor liitle nice ever-so-clean Italy? Hogwash.

But do not hope they will ever get inbto perspective. Just like Bella Napoli – smothered in dirt, filth, and corruption ( “To see Naples and then die” has assumed a very interesting and alarming connotation).

But I like their pasta.

From GERMANY

Error :

Of course the addresse should read: “james” .

Hey all, I need to apologize for my sarcastic post earlier on… My emotions got the best of me.

I think I was a tad uptight after some nasty posts made on the Dutch blog by some Italy fans… I should have counted to ten, I know…

I tried to do it “tongue in cheek” but I realize sarcasm isn’t always funny and definitely not when your team has just lost. And I shouldn’t lower myself to stuff like this.

I am sorry if I offended anyone.

The point is: (as I said before) I am actually an admirer of the Italian team (not particularly this one though) and would have liked to see a more adventurous side this EC…

Anyway, I’ll stay on my own turf

Ciao to all

ahhh, yet another brilliant mind speaking. i guess the media gave us 4 world cups, 2 runners-up, one 3rd place and one 4th place finish; one euro trophy. one runners up and one 4th place.

and krafft, being german, you couldnt resist taking it beyond football, huh. how typically german of you. like germany has a great reputation in its history, right? typical.

I am not a sore loser or a whiner. Just answering to ignorant remarks I never expected Italy to win this tournament. The team was not as strong as 06. Donadoni did not produce a dominant midfielder to replace Totti, and the attack was nothing more than a one way street to a stumbling Toni who could not even stay on his feet. The remaining WORLD CHAMPIONS are all 2 years older now, and Donadoni brought in retreads like Cassano who contributed little, if anything. The only thing that worked was the defense, evidenced by the fact that Spain scored 0 goals. The fact is, even when Italy has a weak squad, and a stupid coach, they are almost impossible to beat, and everyone fears them. You bums that like to insult a great team with a great history, should go talk about your own teams, if there is anything to talk about.

Lamagica,
Germany barely beat Turkish subs… LOL… and they dare to call themselves LEGEND! HAHAHAHA!
Honky, it seems ur the one who cannot read. My previous post clearly said that a huge nbr of Euro titles won by any team would be switched in a hear beat to a star on their shirts… Germany might have more euro titles than Italy but Italy has more world cup titles than Germany.
Besides, Germany has NEVER beaten Italy in any official tournament and Italy is the only team EVER to beat Germany in Dortmund. Remember the 2-0 in the semi-finals?
Lamagica, let’s not reply anymore. They are seeing Germany as this huge team that really can’t even play. Even their coach said they won against Turkey by chance and every single football expert knows they won against Portugal because of their coach’s wit and tactics.
As to those who are saying Italian football is just a myth, I have a very brief thing to say: Lippi is back… we’re seeing you in 2010!

Plus Honky, I’m not Italian! LOOOOOOOOOOOOL

To Gaby and all the rest

“Phil >
“It does not change certain perceptions prelevant throughout all of Europe. Italy is by far the least liked team overall.” Where did you get this from? is there a statistic for this? or is it just your perception?” – You should read more international sports papers/mags etc etc. As to “Most people on this blog who support Italy are non Italians, like myself.” Yes very true. We see a lot of american/australian/canadian flags. However that is neither here nor there. Most probably first/second or third generation italian immigrants – who although brought up in these new countries – countries which with all respect know very little about the game (alto’ in the past wc offered better matches agst italy itself)- still have a sentimental link to the mother country.
You italian fans bring criticsm agst yourselves – whenever someone criticises your football youget all het up/arrogant/hysterical and start using foul language – cf Bruno’s and Lamagica comments

The mighty azzuri will rise again, and we will have Marcello Lippi back to win his second world cup in a row. Forza Azzuri

Facts are facts, no matter what bambini may babble.

Germany has a history of drawbacks vs. Italy. No denying. Fact.

Sweden has never defeated Germany. Fact.

Germany – not counting pre-war encounters (when Germany was an underdevelopped country in soccer) has hurt England more often than the other way round. Fact.

Brazil has a negative record with France. Fact.

Such things do occur.

But fact is, too, that internationally the Germany team has been distinctly more (often) successful than Italy.

Do you honestly think that one World Cup more weighs more than those many 2nd, 3rd and 4th places G. had – not to forget the t h r e e (no other country has hitherto achieved this) Europe Championships? Do you? Do you really?

For Christ’s sake, be h o n e s t at least once.
But I’m afraid that’s too tough for the likes of you. And most Europeans see it that way, too,

Honly:

Brilliant. I agree 100 %.

Honky:

Forget Elie, bruno, lamagica. They are Italians.

Forgive Elie, bruno, lamagica. They are Italians.

They came on here with so much hype. Where is the hype now? Done in their diarrheric tummies. How the gods are smitten. This time round God wanted to be neutral and he wasn’t italian anymore. POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOr italians. They had no refs to favour them this time. They forgot how to simulate and dive from the last WC where they excelled in them. So they had nothing to lean on to. Poor football is all that they could offer. Well prima ballerinas have often reitred at the apex of their carreers. These lot did not and what a let down for them. I pity Donandoni for taking the brunt for the inanitiies of his players.

BTW Honky all those u mentioned above aren’t even Italians. The most they can be called are half breeds. Dreaming of LA Patria which now they have no claim on. They do not really know what they are. Italians – NAHHHHHHHHHH. They were born elsewhere. Canadians, amercians, what not – NAHHHHHHHHHHH. They cannot be so since they claim otherwise. Poverini – figli di nessuno.