Full Confed Cup Squad; Ferrara Becomes Full Juve Coach

I believe he should have taken D’agostino and Brighi instead of Montolivo and Palombo. The rest of the squad seems to be his base really although a Cassano or Pazzini inclusion would have been great. Santon call is not much of a surprise really as Lippi has been singing his praise for a while now, Motta along with him would have been great but I guess as captain of the under 21 he left him for Casiraghi.
I think he should have given the 3rd keeper choice to Curci or Marchetti as they are young and De Sanctis really aint gonna be there when Buffon and Amelia goes.

would have love to see Totti (he has been droping the hints)

Posted from  Barbados

where’s brighi? lippi said the callups were based on a whole season of work…brighi was awesome the entire season! and what did montolivo do?

Cassani and Balzaretti were easily the best italian backs this season. I guess they’re just not Lippi-material.

Posted from  Belgium

He called Santon but no Giovinco? Seriously, the boy is desperate to get the chance to shine.

Posted from  Taiwan

Goodness Yes! What a breath of fresh air this group is. No more Pirlo, Cannavaro, Toni, bla bla bla. These squad is much more interesting: a few veterans with a large dose of hungry youngster. Plus, it is so much more fun to watch.

Posted from  United States

And how great is it that Lippi is recognizing tallent from the smaller clubs? Super great!

Posted from  United States

3-0! not bad for a squad with something like 5 newbies.

Posted from  United States

How useless is this Montolivo? As soon as he’s off the pitch, boom! Italy sparks back to life.

Better Lippi find that out now during a friendly than later when it really matters.

Oh, and about the U21 games. I dont think they had a game last week. They do, however, have one next Thursday (June 9).

I think this is the schedule (with local times)-
U21 Friendly:
Italy v Denmark (Copenhagen, Thursday, June 9 at 18:00)

U21 Euors:
Italy-Sweden (Helsingborg, Thursday, June 16 at 20.45)
Italy-Serbia (Helsingborg, Friday June 19 at 16.00)
Italy-Belarus (Helsingborg, Tuesday 23 June at ore 20.45)

Posted from  United States

Can you believe Foggia isn’t in the 23 man squad for the Confeds?! And can you believe how bad Dossena was? And that he IS in the squad for South Africa?!

Lippi’s a real nutcase. Decisions like that are a no-brainer. Especially when you consider that we have zero creativity for South Africa, with no Cassano, Giovinco, Del Piero, Totti, Rosina, Foggia. Rossi, according to Lippi, is the only really creative attacker worth taking. He was great tonight. But we cannot rely on him all the time for killer passes.

Highlights:
Santon looked imperious tonight. Real class with the ball. And tidy.

Gattuso was also a highlight. Great to have him back biting at the heels of the opposition.

Rossi’s passing, composure and that goal, make him a real contender to start upfront in South Africa.

Lowpoints:

Dossena was wasteful, error prone and, in terms of technique, without doubt the worst Italy player on the pitch. Crap crossing, misplaced passes and conceded needless fouls in dangerous areas.

Montolivo. Has he ever had a good game for Italy? His passing was way off tonight and his finishing was even worse, missing a good chance with a tame shot.

I wonder if any of the Italian press pick up on the fact that Italy’s two worst players on the night are the ones Lippi has decided to take to South Africa?

Still, a really nice performance overall. Should have been 4 or 5. Can’t get too excited though. Northern Ireland are crap when they play their 1st team. When they play their second string team, with only four capped players, it SHOULD be a push-over. I mean, some of their players don’t even belong to a club – they’re that bad!

Posted from  United Kingdom

fantastic reffing. scandinavians should ref all the games.

first half made me think Lippi’s been right to play so many veterans. only Gattuso and Grosso looked entirely compitent while the rest of the team looked like the u-21 team playing against a more experienced nationaly team, even though Santon and Rossi looked decent.

second half looked fantastic. first time i have seen the 4-3-3 work

#1 NO MORE TALK OF CASSANO. Foggia looked far more dangerous than Cassano ever has in the last 2 years. nice service, lots of pace and some great runs, not to mention a fantastic goal.

#2 hopefully Lippi will never even think about Toni again and Rossi will become a fixture as both a play-maker and goal scorer. he is really the type of player Italy need for the squad

#3 Pelissier even looked good.

#4 the defense looked decent. there were hardly any stupid mistakes, but lots of nice ball winning.

Brighi, Galloppa and Dossena made a load of difference and made Santon all the more effective. not that i am ready to write Grosso off, but please, no more Montolivo. the 2nd half midfield was so necessary in creating pressure on the opposition’s area.

dossena made some nice passes. i thought he looked pretty good.

I have to agree with Chis, Gio. Dossena was sort of stinky. Santon was good in this game, but his performance can be a bit spotty (at least it has been for Inter). I dont know if he is really ready to take on Brazil and Argentina. I guess we will see, though.

Posted from  United States

Dossena in the last ten minutes, when attempting to pass the ball back to the keeper, passed it straight off for a NI corner. About five minutes later he conceded a needless freekick to the side of the penalty area. Even the incompetent commentators said how stupid it was. And that was after, quite rightly, they pointed out each time Dossena’s technical ability was left lacking. Come on, you know he’s dreadful.

Posted from  United Kingdom

Foggia isn’t even close to Cassano. But I agree he played very well tonight. However, the team that Northern Ireland put out was borderline amateur. Most of those guys would be playing in Serie B/C if they were in Italy. Foggia has been doing good things all season though so he deserves a genuine look at the 23 man squad at least, very disappointing that Lippi didn’t take more of a risk with his player selection.

Dossena is technically not very good but can usually make up for it in other ways. However, he is low on confidence and is shit at the moment.

Santon should make one of the fullback spots his by summer 2010. I just hope he gets a lot of playing time at Inter next season.

Posted from  United States

Been saying it all season, Foggia deserves to be on the National team. He’s been consistently great all season, and is exactly the type of fast, creative midfielder Italy could use.

Okay, first things first.

As experimental as our team was supposed to be, so was the Northern Irish team. They had 4 players making their debuts as well as trying different formations. Plus, even the full strength squad is bad.

So, keep in mind that we were basically playing a training match, all due respect to the North Irish, against a seriously weak team made weaker.

That being said, good performances should be expected. However it was to see Santon and Gamberini look like they belonged, not against the North Irish, but they belonged and held their own with our National Team – that was a big positive.

Leggro and Dossena, in my opinion, unfortunately did not. At times they both looked like they were unduly pressured.

Foggia made some nice passes and looked like he made a nice pairing on the right with Santon as they overlapped and passed to each other – they almost looked like they played together before, which I am not sure that they have.

Rossi and D’Agostino looked like they worked off each other well both sat a little deeper than one would have thought, but they both saw the field well.

Again, against competition like this, I think everyone is going to look like World Cup winners. I am just looking at who I thought looked like they worked well together, who were able to keep their cool in their debut, etc.

Well today we saw an idea of what our Azzurri should be, young, hungry and FAST! I’m going to keep this short. I have been calling for this sort of team for 2 years now, and finally he teased us with this show of what Italy has to offer.

With all due respect out of today’s team, D’Agostino, Rossi, Foggia, Santon and Gamberini are National Team Standouts. Foggia should immediately replace Camro on the right and Santon should have replaced Zambrotta months ago. If Zambrotta sees the pitch at the confed cup with Santon there that will be a serious travisty!

With that being said, I have this to say. No matter how well this national team “B” played, we could still put together another “C” national team of players who have yet to be selected that would blow the socks off the “B” and “A” team. I look forward to Lippi dealing with this mess now, the old moss needs to be taken out of this team, clearly the likes of Cannavaro, Zambrotta, Toni, Camro, Gila, are no longer suitable for the national team. I am also beginning to think Pirlo is very replacable. D’Agostino’s crosses and passes were all on the mark, and he looked faster and more stable than Pirlo. Just some thoughts, I know we played against a lousy Northern Ireland team, but heck the “A” team couldn’t even handle Cyprus

Foggia was great, he should have been called up instead of Montolivo.

Posted from  United States

Montolivo and Dossena should not be anywhere near this team.

Please get rid off them pronto

Standouts to me were Santon, Rossi, Foggia, D’Ago

I also thought Leggro and Gamberini were pretty good considering they are a first time partnership

looking at the Confed Cup line-up, i would really love to see the Galloppa, Foggia, Rossi, Santon team give it a go, but one really does have to wonder if they only looked so good because they were up against a second string team from N.Ireland.

it would be even more interesting to see Balotelli thrown into the mix and, i think, Motta over Santon

hello, does anyone know where the venue of the italy v bulgaria match will be on sept 9 , 2009??

The answer to that, is the Stadio Olimpico of Torino.