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Confederations Cup Draw And Other Azzurri News

November 22nd, 2008 | By: Julian | 16 Comments »

Now that we don’t have another match until February- and what a match that should be, against Brazil at the Emirates Stadium- I’ll still be posting regularly. I had posted a few weeks ago for you guys to give me some ideas of what to blog about while the team isn’t playing, and those have helped me greatly. So check the blog daily cause I’ll try to update it regularly.

News:

Continuing the trend that every single major tournament we go into, we get in the Group of Death: the Confederations Cup. Group draw was today, and look what we’re up against:

Group B:

USA, Italy, Brazil, Egypt

To be fair, this is nowhere near as tough as our group was in Euro or even in 06, but it’s still pretty fiesty.

The other group (shockingly enough, called Group A) consists of South Africa, Iraq, New Zealand, Spain. Here’s what our schedule looks like for the tournament next summer:

June 15 Brazil-Egypt (Bloemfontein, 14.00 UK time)
June 15 USA-Italy (Pretoria, 18.30 UK time)
June 18 USA-Brazil (Pretoria, 14.00 UK time)
June 18 Egypt-Italy (Johannesburg, 18.30 UK time)
June 21 Italy-Brazil (Pretoria, 18.30 UK time)
June 21 Egypt-USA (Rustenburg, 18.30 UK time)

For those of you who don’t know, the Confederation’s Cup is kinda like the Champions League with national teams. It’s a tournament in which all the winners of other national team tournaments are entered- including the last World Cup Winner (That would be us), winner of the previous Euro (Spain), etc. Should be a good test for Lippi to try out younger guys and for us to see how much progress we’ve made on the road to World Cup 2010.

What’s really interesting thoguh is that we’re playing Brazil twice next year now- the friendly early in the year, and then the group stage game in the summer. Those two games more than anything should be a test of how far we can go in South Africa 2010.

How serious is Lippi taking the Cup, though?

“We will face it with the usual determination, respecting our prerogatives and a group of top class opponents.

“We’re aware that we can take another step in our development for qualification, which remains one of our two principle objectives,”

He also thinks it’ll be a good test to see where we stand against other national teams a year away from South Africa. Younger guys and more experienced ones will be called up according to the Maestro, so I expect the team that goes to be pretty close to the one that goes to the next World Cup.

Last but not least, Pirlo’s finally back from injury. Milan may not have missed him as they sit second in the table, and only one point off of Inter, but the Azzurri were clearly lacking something without him. His return should provide us with some much needed creativity against Brazil come early next year.

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Comments

By Jeff | November 22nd, 2008 at 12:14 pm

I can’t wait for the game against Brazil in February, it should be one hell of a match. And then we play them again in June which should be even more exciting no matter the outcome of the game in February.

Posted from United States

By Tamim | November 22nd, 2008 at 12:20 pm

looking forward to meeting you guys, since you are my second favorite team; it is going to be one hell of a match!!

By Bobo | November 22nd, 2008 at 1:19 pm

Assuming Rossi makes it to the Confed cup (don’t see why not), I wonder how he would feel if he scored against the United States.

By Julian | November 22nd, 2008 at 1:43 pm

Tamim- should be a great match

Bobo- I hope he scores but I don’t think he’ll celebrate.

BTW, Udinese-Fior is a great great match. I started watching at the beginning of the second half and Fior went from 1 nil down to 4 nil up. Monto scored twice and Gila nabbed another

Posted from United States

By Michel-Olivier | November 22nd, 2008 at 2:50 pm

it’s going to be a italian-american classic if players like pablo mastroeni, sal zizzo, giuseppe nazzani, and gabe ferrari make the cc team(u.s.)

Posted from United States

By Kurdt | November 22nd, 2008 at 6:22 pm

Julian: yeah i watched it too, 6 goals!what a match! i thought fio would lose since their first half performances were so dull. I bet prandelli changing something in the half-time. If only ricardo perform in azzurri as good as he is in fio…

Posted from Taiwan

By ferdinand | November 22nd, 2008 at 9:06 pm

The likes of Cannavaro,Andrea pirlo and Del piero are one of the best players in the world.I am looking foward to the Azzuris repeating what they did during the 2006 world cup in Germany.

By Vincent | November 23rd, 2008 at 12:11 am

Fixed draw to get S. Africa into the semi’s at least?? Group of Death and the Group of Stink.

5 time WC Champs, 4 time WC Champs, 4 or 5 time African Champs, and N. American Champs in one group

2 time Euro Champs, Little sisters of the poor, Hanley school of the Blind, and the All Blacks Junior squad.

What a joke

By 9 champs league | November 23rd, 2008 at 3:59 pm

iam really begining to hate Lippi. It is fairly obvious that he is acting as a dictator and is allowing his ego to rule over in selecting Azzurri team. Definately, even though aged, i cant see the likes of Dossena, Legra and sadly even the present day canna more effective than brilliant pannucci who is playing brilliantly , defending precisely and even scoring goals time and again, even when he was dropped by Lippi, it was Pannucci who saved our arrses against Scotland in Glasgow and also against Romania in the Euros when we were down and out…Also, it is unaccetable that Cassano the best player in italia is not being selected or considered and most importantly, we are playing like crapp under Lippi…this is what he had to say today about cassano
http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_italia/nov23m.html

what does he mean when the Cigar chomping old idiot says that Cassano has a tiny chance of playing for Italia, i mean what does the foolish dictator mean when he says that everyone from 18 to 40 is eligible to ply for Italia if he provves himself, in that case, why is Lippi blocking pannucci and Cassano?????????????????????????????????????
Hypocrite that he is, if he continues with this policy, i can see Italia get humiliated in the future..

Posted from Spain

By 9 champs league | November 23rd, 2008 at 4:10 pm

especially when he said this in the interveiw today, i hated him for the hypocrite and dictator he sounds to be..
¨¨“Cassano? All players from 18 to 40 have to prove themselves and dream of a place in the Italy side,” …what else has Cassano has to do to proove to this senile old fool Lippi that he is miles ahead of the likes of pepe, Gilardino, toni…..??Cassano is seriously the key if we even have a chance of defending the world cup.he can single handedly sow seeds of doubt and fear in opponents´hearts and he can torment any defence at will..If Lippi has him and integrates him in the squad, it would be devastating!

Posted from Spain

By asem | November 23rd, 2008 at 10:07 pm

All-Blacks Junior Squad…?
Might wanna take it easy there big guy.

By kqql | November 24th, 2008 at 1:30 am

Reminder to everyone.
Here is Lippi’s DON”T CALL LIST!

1) Panucci
2) Ambro
3) Cassano.

Did u guys see see Rosina today, he was impressive…….

By kqql | November 24th, 2008 at 1:37 am

U21 Players this week:
———————–

De Ceglie
Warmed the bench vs. Inter

Giovinco
Warmed the bench vs. Juve, even though Nedved sucked today

Marchisio
Came in @ 3″ vs. Inter – Did o.k

Coda
Played 90″ vs. Fiorentina

Motta
Played 90″ vs. Fiorentina

Osvaldo – 0 Goals/ 6 Games
Is out injured

Balotelli – 0 Goals/ 6 Games (1 CL goal + 2 CL Assists in 08/09)
Warmed the bench vs. Juve

Bocchetti
Warmed the bench vs. Lazio

Criscito
Played 90″ vs. Lazio – 1 yellow card

Lanzafame – 0 Goals + 1 Assist/ 8 Games(but not many minutes)
Came in @ 88″ Bologna

Abate
Out injured w/Ankle Injury

Cigarini
Is out Injured

Consigli
Warmed the Bench vs. Reggina

Dessana
Played 90″ vs. Catania – 1 yellow card

De Silvestri
Warmed th bench vs. Genoa

Santacroce
Played 90″ vs. Cagliari

Russotto
Came in @ 78″ vs. Cagliari – His goal was called back for an offiside
Time for him to move to another Serie A team or to Liga.
His talent is being wasted @ Napoli

Acquafresca/ Freshwater – 5(1Pk) Goals/ 12 games
Played 78″ vs. Napoli

———————————————->
Sorry I don’t have Serie B players info.
———————————————–>

Extra:

Lupoli – On Loan @ Norwich City – 4 Goals + 1 Assist/ 11 games
Warmed the bench vs. Nottingham Forest
and watched -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSXM3Zg0eBo

Di Carmine – On Loan @ QPR – 1 goal/ 8 Games
Came in @ 61″ vs. Watford FC

Pelle – 0 Goals + 2 Aissts/ 7 Games
Is out injured

By John Silver | November 24th, 2008 at 8:01 am

I can’t wait for Italy-Brazil! I’m going to be in London at that time and I hope I can get tickets for it. Does anyone know where I should get them from?

Love the photo of Pirlo Super-Sayan, too.

Posted from Germany