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A Random Hodgepodge of Soccer Madness

September 2nd, 2008 | By: Julian | 16 Comments »

Here’s a whole bunch of stuff going on in the Italian soccer world (and some stuff that’s going on in the non-Italian soccer world, but more on that in a bit).

-Lippi decided to talk a bit about his recent call ups. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who was kinda irked that most of the “old guard” (and I mean that literally) was called up. According to the great man himself:

“I have nothing against the people who didn’t make it,”

“For one thing I would have called Riccardo Montolivo and Giuseppe Rossi if they were available.”

“I am also watching Mario Balotelli because he is a promising youngster. I like him a lot and I think he’ll become an important player.”

“I respect Ambrosini as a player and a professional but I have to make my decisions,”

That’s good enough for me. I don’t think the whole squad needed to go out the window, but the fact that he was gonna call up Rossi and Monto (hopefully at Gattuso’s and Gila’s expense) shows that he’s willing to make some changes. I wanna know what he has against Cassano, though.

- I watched some of the Serie A games this weekend and here’s some brief thoughts:

1. If Di Natale played like that in the Azzurri shirt I’d be stunned. He’s a great example of a player who’s great on thier clubs but just can’t step it up on the national team. Him, Del Piero, and just about all of the English national team.

2. Gila scored a great goal, but I’m not convinced yet. He has to score consistently before I feel he should be back in the national team. It was a great goal for Fior, but it was only 1 goal.

3. Roma and Juve must be kicking themselves for tying teams that were a man down. It’s nothing new for Roma (and I say that as a Roma fan) but I’m pretty surprised Juve would concede one so late.

4. I have no idea what Milan’s problem is anymore. They have a goalie, they have the big name players… why couldn’t they beat a newly promoted side? It’s almost a rhetorical question at this point.

And as I’ve said before, I know this is an Azzurri blog. But it’s also a soccer blog, so I feel the following is relevant.

What the hell went on in Robinho’s head? Now I understand his point of view- he claims he was being used as a bargaining chip for Man U to get Prima Donna(which ended up falling through). But is it really worth leaving Real Madrid–and the Champions League–for a midtable, UEFA Cup-by-the-skin-of-their-teeth team in England? All I heard before the move is that he was singing the praises of Chelsea. So I’d love to hear what he thinks about his move to Man City. As if this couldn’t get any more interesting, the next time Man City play in the EPL… they play Chelsea.

Tags: Antonio Di Natale, Group E, Guiseppe Rossi, Juventus, Lippi, Ricardo Montolivo, Robinho, Roma, Serie A, Udinese, World Cup 2010

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Comments

By John Silver | September 2nd, 2008 at 12:47 pm

Julian, I suggest you re-evaluate your thoughts on Gilardino. He’s been ruined by Ancelotti for about two years (arguably the worst coach in Italy, if we assume that Donadoni doesn’t even qualify as a coach). But he has tremendous potential and has already proven himself at high levels – more importantly, unlike Toni or ADP, he seems to play as well as if not better with the Azzurri than with his clubs. He was definitely useful in Germany.

If used right, Gilardino can be devastating. Not giving him his chances now, especially in the light of his move to a team with a competent coach, would be silly.

Posted from United Kingdom

By alessio | September 2nd, 2008 at 12:58 pm

Yeah, Ancelotti is no motivator, unlike Lippi. And his tactics/subs are starting to come apart. No doubt that Gila has talent, and Lippi+Prandelli are probably the best combos of coaches to get him back to the top level.

Posted from United States

By MAD | September 2nd, 2008 at 1:09 pm

Man City has just gotten new, rich ownership that hasn’t had it’s assets frozen. As one commentator put it, Roman Abromivich (or however you spell it) finally has someone who can match him dollar for dollar.

Plus lets face it, most of the time money equals titles. The richest clubs win most of the titles. It isn’t too far out of imagination to think that Man City will win more often, perhaps Europe, as it spends more money and accumulates more talent.

Man City is looking to buy and buy big in the next calender year. I think that Robinho just wanted to be the first to get the big money. After all, Roman spent absurd amounts early on (hello Sheva!) before leveling off at embarrassingly huge amounts.

Even us at Inter are only used to weirdly generous amounts of spending.

By MAD | September 2nd, 2008 at 1:46 pm

That should be *perhaps GO to Europe.

By gianfranco | September 2nd, 2008 at 1:48 pm

“I have no idea what Milan’s problem is anymore. They have a goalie, they have the big name players… why couldn’t they beat a newly promoted side? It’s almost a rhetorical question at this point.”

YOU ARE SO RIGHT…

Posted from United States

By Mike(ASR) | September 2nd, 2008 at 1:49 pm

lets just say that man city fans are unbelievably stoked. My housemate being one of them, I was constantly barraged with shouts of ” ROBINHO!!!!!!!”" while we were playing halo last night.

Posted from United States

By gianfranco | September 2nd, 2008 at 1:52 pm

John how can Ancellotti be the worst coach in Italy? Doesnt his silveware at least give him a shake ahead of Spalletti, Mancini, and Prandelli. I am Milan fan I am not his biggest promoter, but the man revolutionize the play of Pirlo, won two CL titles, and pioneered a formation that has been copied tweaked and never truly duplicated. He is a poor motivator, and a mess when it comes to youth, but he is by no means attached to the bold claims that you make.

Posted from United States

By MAD | September 2nd, 2008 at 2:17 pm

Gian, Ancelotti is a good coach, who has his weaknesses just like every other coach.

His silverware and success with a diverse group of players speaks for itself.

His ability to make a team that includes Pirlo, Kaka, Pippo and Gattuso working off each other is quite a feat in and of itself, even if he didn’t have domestic and European hardware to go with it.

That’s my opinion, anyway.

By sofia | September 2nd, 2008 at 4:28 pm

Sepp Blatter FINALLY presented Canna with the WC trophey..uhhh your about 2 years late on that one racist genius. ( that was probably rude but oh well) During the ceremony he laughed and said “its never too late”…uhh yeahh…like i said its 2 years too late. i think the man is a complete moron personally, but thats just me.

Posted from Canada

By Porchetta | September 2nd, 2008 at 4:51 pm

The whole berbetev saga and Robinho saga bored me to hell..Actually, i feel that the signings of Ronaldinho, Quarsema and the brazillian ¨seal¨¨ to chievo were better..
but the best transfer of the season is this one..
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=360149&cc=5739
hehehe

Posted from Spain

By Porchetta | September 2nd, 2008 at 4:56 pm

Lippi, canna the champ he is cant play forever..he is 35 for christ´s sake!!!!pls start integrating Santacroce and also start giving chances in friendlies to boys like Andreolli( many will be surprised but this lad has it in him to be the next nesta!!) and others..
Chiellini will be the automatic choice for one central defender slot, iam not sure about our champ Canna playing in 2010 when he will be 37???(geeez)..also, please get Cristian Maggio , Dossena and De silvestre for the right wing slot..Zambrotta, a greatly talented champion that he is, has started making vital mistakes which is costing his club and country( champions league, against man unt , he gifts a goal with a misplaced pass, ditto against Romania, that weak back header gifts Mutu a goal..,what about his weak marking last sunday in Milan match??)

Posted from Spain

By Julian | September 2nd, 2008 at 5:25 pm

John Silver I am slowly starting to re-evaluate him. Like I said, I won’t be convinced until he scores consistently, but scoring a big goal like that against a team like Juve earns him some props.

gianfranco- I’m not sure if you’re being sarcastic with your first comment, but about your second. I’d say that he’s better than Mancini but Prandelli and Spalletti are light years ahead. They’re tactical geniuses and have
taken sides that most people wrote off a long time ago to great hieghts.

sofia- Blatter is an idiot, end of.

Posted from United States

By gianfranco | September 2nd, 2008 at 7:15 pm

No sarcasm on comment one, only agreement. As for the second comment, I have to disagree Spalletti and Prandelli are babies when it comes to the world of coaching and still have very much to prove. Neither one has shown the tactical menace to shut down opponents, or the chameleon type genuis that makes good coaches great, granted Ancellotti forget how to do these things but he used to, and he used to do it well. As an example Prandelli was outcoached against Rangers in UEFA, while Spalletti is owned by SAF and a few of the lesser known coaches in Serie A where Roma tends to drop points.

Please dont get me wrong, these are great coaches and both Italian, but they have a lot to prove, and a little silverware to put on the CV would help as well…

Posted from United States

By gianfranco | September 2nd, 2008 at 7:16 pm

Basically what I am saying Julian is if the game is a shoot out my money is on Prandelli or Spalletti but if the game is a tactical chess match I will always bet against…

Posted from United States

By Alex | September 2nd, 2008 at 7:17 pm

I think that they way the step up for the italian national team doesn’t support the roles of the likes of alessandro and luca because luca needs that support striker to give him the pass to work his magic. And when
Del plays like in the Euro he was on the left hand side wide striker and he is more comfortable in the center sloting the ball threw, thats why he links well with Tresaque in Juve, i think we need a true wingers out there and not just depend on the full backs coming up to support, we need the likes of mabey paldino when he played the few times in juve when he took the place for nedved he sent in some good balls to the center of the box,but we need not to have the defensive minded gattuso on the right hand-side he should be in the middle with pirlo and ambrosini even though hes great its time for him to come in a sub instead because he still does have the ablitly to change a game instantly, but always has to be subed out, i believe even though cassano is good i believe he doesnt mix in well with the italians he is more of the spanish player he likes to attack a full back instead of pass it wich when we do start passing we dominate anything the only reason we lost to spain was because of pks and that we didnt have the link up between the mids and the attack, so i think that if we get those true wingers in there it might be a more cohesion in the team.

By lamagica | September 2nd, 2008 at 8:05 pm

…and wenger owned ancellotti. what’s your point?

how exactly does a supposed ‘great’ coach “forget” how to coach?

“Neither one has shown the tactical menace to shut down opponents, or the chameleon type genuis that makes good coaches great, granted Ancellotti FORGOT how to do these things but he used to, and he used to do it well.”

i think you mean that ancellotti was solved, not that he “forgot”.

Posted from Canada

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