World

Europe

Italy

Italy-Holland Preview

November 14th, 2009 | By: Julian | 117 Comments »

That’s a scary looking title. Given what happened in the summer of 08, I think most of us would like to avoid playing the Dutch for oh… 20 years or so. They ripped apart our makeshift backline and handed us the worst loss we had in 30 years. They dominated the counterattack, had speed we couldn’t dealt with, and even scored a goal that was debatable for weeks to come (does an unconscious Panucci facedown on the ground keep a man onside? Apparently, it does).

Yet that was over a year ago, and now we have another chance to prove ourselves- to prove that that one game was merely a fluke and nothing more. Unfortunately, we haven’t really proved that since. Although we improved in the Euros following that disaster, we haven’t really been at the top of our game since oh… a different summer two years before that one.

So we’re pretty familiar with the Dutch. Their squad looks like this:

1 GK Maarten Stekelenburg September 22, 1982 (1982-09-22) (age 27) 22 0 Netherlands Ajax

13 GK Michel Vorm October 20, 1983 (1983-10-20) (age 26) 3 0 Netherlands Utrecht

22 GK Piet Velthuizen November 3, 1986 (1986-11-03) (age 23) 1 0 Netherlands Vitesse

5 DF Giovanni van Bronckhorst (captain) February 5, 1975 (1975-02-05) (age 34) 94 5 Netherlands Feyenoord

2 DF Gregory van der Wiel February 3, 1988 (1988-02-03) (age 21) 5 0 Netherlands Ajax

3 DF John Heitinga November 15, 1983 (1983-11-15) (age 25) 48 6 England Everton

6 DF Edson Braafheid April 8, 1983 (1983-04-08) (age 26) 4 0 Germany Bayern Munich

4 DF Joris Mathijsen April 5, 1980 (1980-04-05) (age 29) 50 3 Germany Hamburg

21 DF Khalid Boulahrouz December 28, 1981 (1981-12-28) (age 27) 28 0 Germany Stuttgart

8 MF Orlando Engelaar August 24, 1979 (1979-08-24) (age 30) 12 0 Netherlands PSV

19 MF Ibrahim Afellay April 2, 1986 (1986-04-02) (age 23) 17 0 Netherlands PSV

18 MF Stijn Schaars January 11, 1984 (1984-01-11) (age 25) 11 0 Netherlands AZ

16 MF Wout Brama August 21, 1986 (1986-08-21) (age 23) 0 0 Netherlands Twente

6 MF Mark van Bommel April 22, 1977 (1977-04-22) (age 32) 51 9 Germany Bayern Munich

17 MF Nigel de Jong November 30, 1984 (1984-11-30) (age 24) 37 1 England Manchester City

10 MF Wesley Sneijder June 9, 1984 (1984-06-09) (age 25) 58 12 Italy Internazionale

23 MF Rafael van der Vaart February 11, 1983 (1983-02-11) (age 26) 72 15 Spain Real Madrid

7 FW Dirk Kuyt July 22, 1980 (1980-07-22) (age 29) 57 13 England Liverpool

15 FW Ryan Babel December 19, 1986 (1986-12-19) (age 22) 35 5 England Liverpool

9 FW Robin van Persie August 6, 1983 (1983-08-06) (age 26) 40 14 England Arsenal

11 FW Arjen Robben January 23, 1984 (1984-01-23) (age 25) 45 11 Germany Bayern Munich

14 MF Eljero Elia February 13, 1987 (1987-02-13) (age 22) 3 1 Germany Hamburg

9 FW Klaas-Jan Huntelaar August 12, 1983 (1983-08-12) (age 26) 27 14 Italy Milan

That’s almost literally a metric ton of familiar faces, unlike most of the teams I had to preview during world cup qualifying. Huntelaar, Robben, Van Persie, Kuyt, Babel… they have some serious firepower up front. Sneijder is out with an injury but with such a packed offense I doubt he’ll be missed too much. Van der Vaart, van Bommel, van Brockhorst… anyone who’s a footy fan knows these guys like the back of thier hand. The Dutch have one impressive generation out right now and are playing all over the world at elite clubs. For those of you who don’t know them, what you need to know is the same thing that Lippi must focus on: they’re goddamn, ridiculously, blindingly fast. The Dutch version of Wheaties must be eaten with milk from Cheetahs because these guys have serious pace. To beat them, we absolutely need to contain them. As ever, Lippi seems to not care.

He’s already named our starting lineup, and it looks like this:

Buffon; Zambrotta, Cannavaro, Chiellini, Grosso; Camoranesi, Pirlo, Palombo; Candreva, Gilardino, Palladino

This confuses me, to be honest. Our back 5 are the usual but 2 out of our 3 attackers haven’t played in years (or in Candreva’s case, ever?). It seems like Lippi is caught between two minds- experimenting and playing youth versus trying to win and sticking with the old guns. I can’t see why Candreva is given a chance, but not any of the young defenders who can actually keep up with the Dutch. It seems to me that this really should be a chance for all our young guys to prove themselves, and that includes the defense. But Lippi as ever remains an enigma.

Course, this lineup could be a lie. Maybe that isn’t the actual lineup, but knowing Lippi it probably is. The most important thing is that Candreva and Palla gain some confidence. To be honest, I’m not expecting a win. That midfield won’t possess the ball and without keeping the ball away from the Dutch, we won’t be able to win. I’d be shocked if we got anything above a tie, but ultimately, I don’t really care. As long as the team gels a bit and we see some youngsters get some playing time, then this is well worth it.

Tags: Friendly, Group E, Holland

Italy World Cup RSS Feed

Comments | Add your comment

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 117 comments.

Read the rest of the comments

By mikederob | November 16th, 2009 at 7:27 pm

im going to flat out come out and say it…i really dont like watching italy play these days. We suck, we’re boring and im really not excited or confident about any of the games we play anymore!

The last game i enjoyed was the friendly against Northern Ireland. Then we played with some passion and ability….passion and ability that lippi promptly ignored before going back to his dull squad of defensive midfielders!

I think marcello lippi has hugely disrespected the italian people who have so often called for change and tweaking. This is our team. We deserve a say. He’s doing this for our country.

can anyone think of a worse italy team in recent years?

Posted from Australia

By alessio | November 16th, 2009 at 7:56 pm

Il Trap? Donadoni? How were either of them better than Lippi?

By mikederob | November 16th, 2009 at 8:12 pm

im talking about the choices of players…the squads…admittedly donadoni brought some humdingers, but at least he took cassano.
It just seems lippi has chosen some of the most out of form, worst players italy has to offer. Donadoni and Trap fluffed the tactics, but they didn’t take a pepe.

Posted from Australia

By mikederob | November 16th, 2009 at 8:17 pm

and to be fair Trap’s Italia played well at world cup 2002, they were just totally cheated with 5 goals disallowed, even then, they got out of the group stage! If the korea debacle hadn’t have happened, who knows where they would have ended up.

Posted from Australia

By alessio | November 16th, 2009 at 9:03 pm

and to be fair Trap’s Italia played well at world cup 2002

Couldn’t disagree more. Pathetic catenaccio at its finest.

Regarding your first sentence- I don’t care who Lippi brings, as long as we win. Trap had a great squad, and did jack shit at two tournaments with it. Donadoni brought Cassano, but how much of an impact did Cassano have? None, it didn’t matter whether he was there or not. Same kind of goes for the 2nd. That’s Lippi’s game- Regardless of what players are there, to win as a team.

By matty t | November 16th, 2009 at 9:08 pm

lippi knows wat he’s doinn, u guys talk bout cassabo like he’s jesus or sumthin. he’s really good but overrated, italy won the world cup without him and they could do it again. its not gona be easy but they can do still win the world cup come junee. u guys think cause italy r world champs winning another world cup just comes natural, well its not and with the team lippi is pickin they will just hit their top form hopefully when the tournament rollss around. besides look at italy’s games before they won in 2006, this year they acquired more points in qualifyin then in 2005, so they were never really killin teams like 4-0 anyway a year before they became world champs and they certainly arent doin that now, italy just plays to win and winnin 2-1, 5-0, or in penalty shootouts, is still a win and winnin at the right time is how u win the world trophy, u guys r to over critical of them team u love, and u all think ur sumhow smarter then lippi at choosin a team and have better strategic tactics then him? haha thats jokes cause ur not a coach, ur just moanin and bitchin online of wat u think is right. theres a reason u do watever u do and lippi is national team coach. jesus christ this blog has gone downhill fast

By matty t | November 16th, 2009 at 9:09 pm

cassano not cassabo lol*

By mikederob | November 16th, 2009 at 9:13 pm

look at what happened to us at the confederations cup and lippi is taking more or less the same squad. How can you be so blase about his management at the moment. He’s clearly not doing as good a job as he could be.

Posted from Australia

By Vincent | November 16th, 2009 at 9:19 pm

My idea of Italy’s best lineup as of now
Buffon, Zambro[sadly], Canna, Chiellini, Criscito
Camo, DDR, Pirlo,Marchisio
Pazzini, ?

Now, if ALL players eligible were available
Buffon, Zambro, Nesta, Chiellini, Criscito
Camo,Pirlo,DDR
Cassano,Rossi
Pazzini

By Nick | November 16th, 2009 at 10:06 pm

More over-reactions, this is a pretty decent starting 11 if we go 4-2-3-1:

—–Buffon—–
Grosso-Cannavaro-Chiellini-Zambrotta
Di Rossi-Montolivo
Candreva-Pirlo-Camoranesi
Totti

Goal: Marchetti, DeSantis
D-Subs: Nesta, Leggro, Criscito, Biondini
MF-Subs: Palombo, Marchisio, Rossi
ST-Subs: Gila, Palladino, DiNatale

Posted from United States

By matty t | November 17th, 2009 at 12:06 am

vincent u need grosso, criscito will have his time, but this world cup’s is grosso, he’s the best attackin fullback for the azzurri

By gio | November 17th, 2009 at 1:59 am

agree with MIKEDERROB; the last and only creative game we have played with Lippi was N. Ireland. i also agree that Trap did a good job with the 2002 team and we were robbed. it was a bit catenaccio, but he got results and we should have won that year as well. we were better than all the other teams there, from N.Korea to Brazil.

the Cassano issue really needs some reflection. yes, he is good, but yes, he is also overrated. he can move the ball and provide good service, but what we really need are good finishers and he is not as good a finisher as Rossi, Pazzini, Balotelli, Totti, etc. Cassano does have good speed, but the Italian game is not about having strikers race around the opposition – it is about creating space and exploiting it, and there are others like Rossi and Totti who are as good or better at it than Cassano and who can score.

here are my 23:

Buffon, DeSanctis, Sorrentino

Zambrotta, Motta, Canavarro, Chiellini, Legrottaglie, Grosso, Santon, Bochetti

De Rossi, Brighi, Pirlo, Camoranesi, Foggia, Candreva, Biondini

Pazzini, Iaquinta, Rossi, DiNatale, Cassano*, Totti**

if we are not considering Players Lippi has not called yet, then *-Miccoli
**-Balotelli (or if Balotelli is not viable, Quagliarella)

Motta—-Canavarro—Chiellini—-Grosso
—————De Rossi—————–
Cassano——Pirlo—-Rossi——-Foggia
—————-Pazzini—————–

DDR is defending midfielder and the rest of the mid section blurs the line between the midfield and fore-guard, with Pirlo acting as distributor and where Rossi can push the ball up and feed to Pazzini as well as push up himself along side Pazzini as a striker and get fed by the wings.

Posted from United States

By Daddio | November 17th, 2009 at 8:43 am

Mancini reveals his Italy XI
Tuesday 17 November, 2009

Former Inter, Lazio and Fiorentina Coach Roberto Mancini has revealed the XI players he would select if he were in charge of Italy.

The 44-year-old recently decided to rescind his contract with Inter just over a year after being sacked by Massimo Moratti.

Mancini is still without a job and would be one of the frontrunners to take over from Marcello Lippi, if the World Cup winner steps down next summer.

Interviewed on Italian TV show Le Iene, Mancini named his XI as Buffon; Zambrotta, Nesta, Barzagli, Grosso; Pirlo, De Rossi, Gattuso, Cassano; Totti, Toni.

Interestingly, Mancini differs with Lippi in that he would prefer Barzagli to Cannavaro.

There is also no room for Cannavaro’s Juventus team-mate Giorgio Chiellini.

But perhaps most important of all is Mancini’s decision to include Antonio Cassano, the Sampdoria fantasista, who has so far been ignored by Lippi during his second stint in charge of La Nazionale.

Cassano has become something of a cause célèbre among the Italian people.

A fan got on the pitch during Italy’s friendly with Holland on Saturday and showed off his T-Shirt on which was printed: “Cassano in the national team.”

By alessio | November 17th, 2009 at 10:17 am

Mancini named his XI as Buffon; Zambrotta, Nesta, Barzagli, Grosso; Pirlo, De Rossi, Gattuso, Cassano; Totti, Toni

Haha the grass is always greener on the other side eh? How many of you would prefer this? Looks awful to me, Nesta-Bargazli? That would be a comedy show, Nesta bailing Barzagli out constantly, then probably going off injured at the half.

By Gabry | November 17th, 2009 at 10:47 am

http://goal.com/en/news/1863/world-cup-2010/2009/11/17/1630265/antonio-cassano-only-has-himself-to-blame-for-italy

Cassano topic should rest, Lippi will never pick him. Lippi knows best so lets have faith.

By Daddio | November 17th, 2009 at 11:16 am

No, but Nesta and Chiellini would be my choice Ale.

And if you’re playing Cassano and Totti I too would take Toni, as crazy as it sounds, over Gila, Pazzini and Iaquinta with those two.

By matty t | November 17th, 2009 at 4:48 pm

ya i agree with the lovable crook, u guys can bash gilardino all u want but facts r he saved us from embarassment against the “minnow” teams. he stepped up when no one else did. sure he did absolutely nothin agaisnt holland but w/e it was just a friendly. he stepped it up when it counted and all that matters. u can’t say the same thing bout rossi, toni, quags, etc.

By donadinghi | November 17th, 2009 at 5:40 pm

Gilardino is pure trash. he saved us from embarrassment? bullshit. Rossi and Pazzini would have saved us from the the embarrassment of having to have Gilardino “save us from embarrassment”. the only reason Gilardino “saved us” is because he got us into the shit situation we have been in for so long. had Lippi picked a real striker instead of Toni or Gilardino for all those games, we could have trounced the opposition instead of squeaking by with a couple of crappy, lucky Gilardino shots. i don’t care if you put Totti, Del Piero and brought back Di Vaio, or even brought DelVecchio out of retirement, but certainly had Pazzini, Foggia, Pellissier, even Floro Flores, Miccoli, shit, i could keep naming better strikers for another 4 lines. if any of these guys played half the amount of time Gilardino was given, we would have finished our group with no losses, period.

Posted from United States

By jackson | November 17th, 2009 at 7:35 pm

pepe & iaquinta did all da work vs. ireland 4 italy 2 tie. even pazzini would have scored da gol

Posted from United States

By matty t | November 17th, 2009 at 11:45 pm

we did finish our group with no losses donadinghi, wat u talkin bout?

By italia2006 | November 18th, 2009 at 9:52 am

Gilardino is utter crap. He should be only be a bench player for Italy.

By gio | November 18th, 2009 at 1:07 pm

N. Ireland are minnows?

moron,

N. Ireland are higher ranked than Ireland, Cyprus, Georgia, Montenegro, not to mention, Scotland, Macedonia, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and all the other teams that the Netherlands have beaten in their campaign.

and if you want to tell me the U.S. are pathetic, even with ten men, they almost stole the Confed. Cup. learn some facts.

Posted from United States

By donadinghi | November 18th, 2009 at 1:14 pm

‘Lardino has played in 414 minutes of game and only scored 4 goals. Pazzini has played only 34 minutes and scored 1 goal (not including friendlies), and Pazzini has many more assists than ‘Lardino in general.

one goal every 34′ … that is impressive.

he only played 14′ with Holland whereas ‘Lardino played 76″, what do expect?

Posted from United States

By donadinghi | November 18th, 2009 at 5:38 pm

Gilardino only scores by convincing the opposition he sucks so bad that they don’t even bother to mark him or bother that he is even on the field. it is easy to score if you are invisible. if that’s the kind of football you want to watch for the WC, do not expect us to win.

Posted from United States

By Irish Pub | November 20th, 2009 at 5:57 am

“You cannot teach fair play. This isn’t sport anymore. Unfortunately football is becoming a political game,” Tardelli told Dahlia Sport.
“There are some things about all this that seemed strange to me. For example, they changed the rules of the draw three months beforehand, when the big teams seemed to be struggling.
what do u think u guys? all ireland feels bad about what happened?