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Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

June 4th, 2009 | By: Julian | 13 Comments »

As you guys may have noticed at the end of the last post, I asked for anyone who was interested in co-blogging to email me and see what we can set up. The response has been very enthusiastic and by June 9th, this blog will officially have a co-blogger. It’s going to be very tough to just pick one person when all who applied seemed very fit for the job, but at the end of the day it’s based on time, writing style, and enthusiasm. I thank all for their interest and if anyone else is interested, email me @ jdemart@gmail.com.

Today’s post is going to be about the state of Serie A. I know these can be as boring as the State of the Union addresses, but recent rumors/happenings in the soccer world beg for some quetsions to be asked.

Let’s cut right to the punch: Kaka is a Real Madrid player. Or a Chelsea player. Or maybe Man Citeh. Someone’s bidding on the former Balloon D’or winner, and Milan is leaving it in the hands of the player himself to decide his future. At this point, it looks like he’s heading out of the peninsula to England or Spain. What does this mean for calcio?

For one, it almost definitely means changes. On a club level, Milan are losing a superstar, and not just any superstar. Ricky Kaka is one of the few soccer stars of our time that comes without baggage. The man is as clean as they come, with no transsexual prostitute visits (a la Fat Ronaldo), no spitting controversies (Hey Cesc) and no real bad marks on a great CV. As a role model, the man is irreplaceable. I mean, cmon:

It doesn’t get much better than that in terms of morals and family-friendly images. The man was even named to the Time 100 last year.

More importantly (for footy anyway), Milan are losing arguably thier best player. Kaka is not the guy he was in 06, but he’s still easily in the top 10 players in the world. On form, he’s devastatingly fast, unpredictable, and creative. He’s not going to be easy to replace for Milan.

Nor for calcio. Some are arguing that the loss of Kaka could be devastating to calcio. Personally, I’m not so sure. For one thing, if the only thing Italian soccer had going for it was Kaka, then we were screwed a long time ago. Secondly, Italian footy is clearly in transition right now, but in a few years we’ll have homegrown guys who coud be as good as Ricky- Giovinco, Marchisio, Acquafresca, etc. So while I’d love for Ricky to stay in Italy, I don’t think his loss means the demise of calcio. In fact, with the money Milan get from his sale, they could end up buying the next Kaka… or knowing thier transfer policies, maybe just the next Quaresma.

Tags: co-blogger, Group E, Kaka, Milan, Real Madrid

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Comments

By alessio | June 4th, 2009 at 9:11 am

Other than being a silly diver, I agree with you.

Posted from United States

By Antonio | June 4th, 2009 at 12:00 pm

ok now, the Quaresma jibe was below the belt (but more than possible, unfortunately)

Posted from Australia

By Calisi | June 4th, 2009 at 12:26 pm

hahaha

Posted from United States

By Michele Stasio | June 4th, 2009 at 2:31 pm

THE SQUAD FOR THE CONF. CUP IS IN BELOW:

Portieri: Amelia, Buffon, De Sanctis

Difensori: Cannavaro, Chiellini, Zambrotta, Dossena, Legrottaglie, Gamberini, Grosso, Santon

Centrocampisti: Camoranesi, De Rossi, Pirlo, Gattuso, Montolivo, Palombo

Attaccanti: Gilardino, Iaquinta, Pepe, Quagliarella, Toni, Rossi

By Michele Stasio | June 4th, 2009 at 2:36 pm

My Line Up:

Buffon

Zambrotta-Cannavaro-Chiellini-Grosso

Camoranesi-De Rossi-Pirlo-Gattuso

Quagliarella-Rossi

1st subs: Santon,Iaquinta,Palombo

Thought’s: No Brighi and Pazzini I dont like at all??? lets hope by 2010 WC our line can look as so:

Buffon

Motta-Cannavaro-Chiellini-Santon

Camoranesi-De Rossi-Pirlo

Totti/Cassano

Pazzini-Rossi

By Eric | June 4th, 2009 at 2:58 pm

Prediction:

Buffon
Zambrotta-Canna-Chiellini-Grosso
Camo-De Rossi-Pirlo-Palombo
Toni-Iaquinta

I don’t think Gattuso is quite Match Fit yet.

Posted from United States

By Stefano | June 4th, 2009 at 3:34 pm

What do you guys think about the under-21 team? I think it looks pretty good. Looks strong in every area.
Italy squad
Goalkeepers: Andrea Consigli (Atalanta BC), Salvatore Sirigu (Cagliari Calcio), Andrea Seculin (ACF Fiorentina).

Defenders: Marco Andreolli (US Sassuolo Calcio), Salvatore Bocchetti (Genoa CFC), Domenico Criscito (Genoa CFC), Paolo De Ceglie (Juventus), Lino Marzoratti (Empoli FC), Marco Motta (AS Roma), Francesco Pisano (Cagliari Calcio), Andrea Ranocchia (AS Bari).

Midfielders: Ignazio Abate (Torino FC), Antonio Candreva (AS Livorno Calcio), Alessio Cerci (Atalanta BC), Luca Cigarini (Atalanta BC), Daniele Dessena (UC Sampdoria), Claudio Marchisio (Juventus), Piermario Morosini (Vicenza Calcio), Andrea Poli (US Sassuolo Calcio).

Forwards: Robert Acquafresca (Cagliari Calcio), Mario Balotelli (FC Internazionale Milano), Sebastian Giovinco (Juventus), Alberto Paloschi (Parma FC).

By Julian | June 4th, 2009 at 5:11 pm

Stefano- The U21 team has me all kinds of excited for the future. We really have quite the youth setup. We’ve got a very strong defense spearheaded by guys like Motta, De Ceglie, and Criscito; a tactical and technical midfield in the hands of Abate, Marchisio, and Dessena; and finally, what might be the best up and coming strike force in all of national team play.

If 2010 doesn’t work out for us I think 2014 is easily within grasp in the hands of the right coach.

By Julian | June 4th, 2009 at 5:13 pm

As for the squad, again, was the be expected. Twill be discussed in tomorrow’s post.

By Tony | June 4th, 2009 at 9:41 pm

Here are the squad numbers aswell.

1 Gianluigi Buffon, 2 Davide Santon, 3 Fabio Grosso, 4 Giorgio Chiellini, 5 Fabio Cannavaro, 6 Nicola Legrottaglie, 7 Simone Pepe,
8 Gennaro Gattuso, 9 Luca Toni, 10 Daniele De Rossi, 11 Alberto Gilardino, 12 Morgan De Sanctis, 13 Alessandro Gamberini, 14 Marco Amelia,
15 Vincenzo Iaquinta, 16 Mauro German Camoranesi, 17 Giuseppe Rossi,
18 Angelo Palombo, 19 Gianluca Zambrotta, 20 Riccardo Montolivo,
21 Andrea Pirlo, 22 Andrea Dossena, 23 Fabio Quagliarella.

Remarkably similar to the 2006 WC.

By gio | June 5th, 2009 at 12:15 am

seriously? Toni and Gilardino? the do-nothing duo, again?

By Calisi | June 5th, 2009 at 7:08 am

Has anyone seen a formation posted that we will be using? I hope it isn’t a 4-3-3..

Posted from United States

By Michele Stasio | June 5th, 2009 at 7:46 am

After this confed cup the squad should be – the goalkeepers are fine, defenders – motta zambrotta, cannnavaro chiellini legrottaglie Santon grosso

midfileders- pirlo dagostino marchisio derossi Gattuso

attackers- camoranesi rossi quagliarella giovinco pazzini iaquinta cassano (22players) –Totti (if he wants to play should be hear as well)

backups- marchetti, bochetti, santacroce, gamberini, criscito, aquilani, montolivo, palombo, balotelli, gilardino, delpiero

Lets defend this title and show the talent we have