The Azzurrini: A Shining Light For the Senior Team

Balotelli is better than the present starters for the senior team. That alone should be reason enough for his inclusion. So he is a bit hot headed, he is 18. We all went through that phase.

mac, his record speaks for itself. How many international tournaments has he been sent off in? His disciplinary record with Roma isn’t that great either. Not every player has to be a saint, I freely admit that there are dirty players that I love, but let’s not delude ourselves about Francesco.

Sigh MAD, I think you think I’m against Interistas in the Nazionale. Not true. Of course I don’t think a player shouldn’t be called up because other fans don’t like him, but it doesn’t help him. There’s a difference between celebrating a goal and deliberately pissing off the other fans unnecessarily. And I’m talking about Riomanistas, who you know I do not like. If Amauri scored against Inter, I wouldn’t want him to give the ‘ole vaffanculo salute.

Balotelli has maturing to do, and I’m aware he’s only 18. There is no rush to push him into the senior squad.

Posted from  United States

Alessio….please enlighten us with five (5) instances of Totti’s worst deeds.

Posted from  United States

Let them hate on Totti. He is our captain and we love him. Thats good enough for me. I dont need the approval of juventini(supporters of a cheating team) or interistas (supporters of a team that should be moved to some country in South America and wouldnt know an Italian if it bit them on their ass) just so that i can have pride and respect for my captain. My fellow romanistas, let it go. You will never change their minds.

1 Silvio Piola 274
2 Gunnar Nordahl 225
3 Giuseppe Meazza 216
3 José Altafini 216
5 Roberto Baggio 205
6 Kurt Hamrin 190
7 Giuseppe Signori 188
8 Gabriel Batistuta 184
9 ++Francesco Totti 178++
10 Giampiero Boniperti 178

… their is much to be proud of despite what they say.

If your good enough your old enough. It’s sports for pete’s sake.

I guess Messi was too young to play for Argentina a few years ago. Please.

The Azzurri needs some fresh faces badly. If the USA can make the Finals of a FIFA tourney, the younger Italy players with some of the vets can do better.

As for Totti, even as a Napoli supporter he is one of my favs. A great player and he gets a bad rap for a few instances. He spit at Poulsen, so what??? Big deal, Poulson is an annoying so and so. Couldn’t care less except it hurt the Azzurri somewhat

“how many major international tournaments has he been sent off in”

He deserved Euro 2004, but you cannot in your right mind believe that 2002 vs. South Korea was deserved. Not only did Totti get screwed on that one, Italia got screwed.

Posted from  United States

“There’s a difference between celebrating a goal and deliberately pissing off the other fans unnecessarily. And I’m talking about Riomanistas, who you know I do not like.”

There is no such thing as pissing off Riomaniste unnecessarily. It’s definitely deserved and necessary. Fun even.

But my point was that Balotelli is “mature” enough to PLAY for anyone. If Totti wasn’t killed in the press for all of his antics on the field – and they are legion – then complaining about Balotelli is just silly.

Now is he mature enough handle the trappings of success off the field? That is a completely different question, and I think separate from whether he can handle playing for the National Team.

And just ’cause it’s on the same topic, he again has shrugged off the overtures from Ghana.

Good. We’ll need him for the future, MAD.

Asem, just off the top of my head- spitting in Poulsen’s face, ghetto stomping a German player in the CL, telling a ref to “f*** yourself in your a**” (same weekend Cassano threw a fit and was banned for a month…somehow Totti didn’t even get sent off) and then the time he got in a fight with the Livorno captain in 2006-2007.

Posted from  United States

I’d be interested in hearing Sofia’s thoughts on Giuseppe Rossi’s inclusion in the Azzurri…The kid wasn’t even born in Italy. Meanwhile, not only has Balotelli lived here his whole life, he was born in PALERMO.

Posted from  United States

of course Balotelli deserves a call up to the national team. So do many of the people who played at the U21. I believe that had Marchisio and Deceglie been in the line up the result would have been vastly different.

Regardless, we shouldn’t mix words, these kids deserve the call up well before an arrogant asshole who isnt good enough to play for his own country – AMAURI – is called to this team. Speaking of which, I fully expect lippi to do something pigheaded like call a 30 yearold brazilian to this team before an 18, 20, 22, 24, 27 year old italian.

Can I just put something into context for all the Italy Under-21 doubters?

Context 1: No member of the entire Italy squad at that tournament has a senior cap for Italy

2: Of the Sweden team who Italy ’struggled’ to beat, 10 of the 11 starters on the pitch had one or many more senior caps for Sweden i.e. if Italy were to meet Sweden at the WC, at least half of that team would be on the pitch. And our under-21’s beat them DESPITE a very harsh sending off of the most gifted (and frustrating) player in our team AND Casiraghi’s pathetic tactics, you NEVER NEVER play without a striker, it takes all the damn pressure off the opposition’s defence AND denies your own team an outlet to play the ball out of defence.

3: Same goes for Belarus, only 3 of their starting 11 didn’t have senior caps, admittedly not the best performance but as I see it in every game, the team has to struggle against Casiraghi’s ineptitude.

4: Of the Germany team we completely and totally outplayed (God knows how we lost) 6 (SIX) have senior caps for Germany. Not some small team; Germany. Also how many of that German team were actually German? 3, 4?

5: Two of Under-21’s absolute best players in Rossi and Santon were not there, think of the difference those two talents could have made.

P.S. I really don’t want to see Amauri in an Italy shirt, even if he is better than Iaquinta and a million times better than Toni. Actually, if it was a straight choice between Toni & Amauri, fuck it, I’ll go with the Brazilian. Which is what he is.

I’m going to be a hypocrite here because despite what I said about Amauri there, I am happy about one piece of Azzurrini news that may have escaped the authors of this blog here: A certain Rodrigo Possebon of Manchester United applied for an Italian passport when he joined Utd, for work permit reasons and thanks to his Italian ancestry. In April he was called up by Italy for an Under-20 friendly against Germany. He didn’t play but the fact that he accepted it indicates a potential willingness to play for his motherland instead of his birthland. Who knows, he’s looked decent so far, let’s hope he doesn’t stray from the Azzurri path.

Hahaha. Wow. Why are some people still talking about Totti?

He has absolutely nothing to do with the future success of this team.

Posted from  United States

P.S. Almeno Possebon e un Italiano. Amauri potrebbe essere una cittadina Italiana ma’ dovrebbe confirmare le sue intenzioni.

so who would you guys put up front in 2010 as our CF? pazzini maybe? Iaquinta would probably be ok up there on his own

Posted from  Australia

Pazzini should be our CF and Cassano should be playing behind him end of story. The two have shown in a magnitude of ways what they can do against the best in Serie A even with a team that is nowhere near to where they were last year.

where is everybody? where are the blogs? what’s happened to this site?

Posted from  Australia

the incredible amount of douchebags that feel the need to shit all over everyone’s fun drove everyone else away.

Posted from  United States

Italy’s goals made the top 10 goals of CC 09.

http://www.fifa.com/confederationscup/video/goalofthetournament.html

alessio, you said major international tournaments…
just talking about that fact.

and the udinese game where totti did that, yeah he was out of control. but he didn’t throw a hissy fit the entire time, take his clothes off and throw it at the ref, then refuse to leave the field, and THEN give the devil horns to the ref…

the livorno fight was after the player had elbowed him in the mouth. and he was sent off afterwards.

poulsen & the german both deserved it.

Posted from  United States

well..well..well..iam amazed at the lack of culture and manners in the discussions!!

Posted from  Spain

Gotti = porchetta?

Posted from  United States

i hate when people complain about g rossi, u dont have to be born in a country to be that nationality, if my family is italian and im born in korea, soes that make me korean, cause that wont give me the slanty eyes, im not being racist thats just for the example becuase thats a physical trait that ALL PEOPLE from that country have. Besides, the Italian government recognizes people based on their lineage not their birthplace only countries like the us do that because a large proportion of their population is of foreign descent.

Posted from  Canada

http://www.onmysite.ro u will find here all u need about