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The Old Guys Could Surely Learn Something From the Newbies… Or Just Be Replaced By Them, Preferably.

June 7th, 2009 | By: Julian | 38 Comments »

The friendly between Italy and North Ireland was very impressive. Very impressive indeed. I saw something that I hadn’t seen for 3 years- a truly hungry Azzurri that also played some nice football.

Now, I know what you’re going to say. It was just a friendly. North Ireland isn’t exactly Brazil or Spain. Even moreso, it was their B team. Yada yada yada. All of that is largely irrelevant. We saw a group of players out there who wanted to impress Lippi and earn their place on the full squad. For some of these guys, it’s only a matter of time: Rossi and Santon and future lock ins for their respective positions. For others, it was maybe their one shot at glory: Pellissier sure as hell made sure that we would remember his name. He also left us wondering why, exactly, Lippi ignores form and youth for guys who seem so jaded and unwilling to play anymore.

Sure, it was merely a friendly against 2 B squads, and in the grand scheme of things, meaningless. That probably reflects most assumptions about the game. How wrong those assumptions are. This friendly showed that all the cliches about Italy- slow, boring, defensive (well, maybe)- are simply not true. Not for these guys. We saw an Italy squad that was young, dynamic, and powerful. I have half a mind to send these guys to the Confederations Cup instead of most of the guys called up. Yet, it’s not up to me.

All I can say is: Santon, welcome to the Azzurri. I look forward of a decade plus years of watching you play in our defense. Gamberini, for the first time, you looked truly confident and stable at the back. Rossi, you’re the forward we’ve been hoping for since Baggio retired. And goddamn Foggia, I’m sorry your call up didn’t come sooner. Like before the last Euro, when we could’ve used such hunger and creativity.

If only it were up to me, and every game was like this friendly. Once again, we’ve shown the world why we’re world champions. It’s not because of our coaches, because of one player, because of a few superstars. It’s because our entire league, from the mighty Inter to the lowly Chievo, have quality, quality players playing. And week in and week out, our guys play these guys, and only get better as a result.

Tags: Foggia, Group E, Hooray for friendlies, Marcello Lippi, North Ireland, Pellissier, Rossi, Santon

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 38 comments.

Read the rest of the comments

By Julian | June 8th, 2009 at 3:45 pm

The search for the co blogger is almost done. I have a choice in mind but I’m waiting on one more reply from someone before I make my decision. I’ll let you guys know tomorrow

By 9 champs leagues Milan target | June 8th, 2009 at 4:33 pm

Deleted – Daryl

Posted from Spain

By 9 champs leagues Milan target | June 8th, 2009 at 4:44 pm

Deleted – Daryl

Posted from Spain

By 9 champs leagues Milan target | June 8th, 2009 at 7:25 pm

Deleted – Daryl

Posted from Spain

By Weston | June 8th, 2009 at 7:52 pm

i hope foggia replaces camoranesi in style, d’agostino goes to juve, and marchisio replaces montolivo in the azzurri. giovinco and rossi will rule the attack better than gila/toni (or pepe, lol) could ever hope to. maybe even balotelli if he gets a life.

Posted from United States

By Weston | June 8th, 2009 at 7:54 pm

seeing this has really renewed my excitement for the world cup, forza azzurri!

Posted from United States

By mike de robbio | June 8th, 2009 at 7:54 pm

got to say, im gutted about the line up lippi is taking to the confeds. why does he keep resorting back to these tired players? pepe?

Posted from Australia

By gio | June 8th, 2009 at 9:11 pm

ditto Weston,

what’s up with the New Zealand game on Wed.?

By Jackie | June 8th, 2009 at 9:38 pm

Anyone who seriously follows Serie A would know Foggia has been good this year.

By CD | June 8th, 2009 at 11:50 pm

Hi, anyone know the venue of the Italy v. Bulgaria match on sept 9, 2009 in Italy??

And anyone know when/where they will start selling tickets for that game online?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

By Mostafa | June 9th, 2009 at 7:22 am

Wow i’m gonna be really waiting that Italy-Egypt game … Although we all know the outcome, i mean Italy’s C team would beat Egypt any day lol but it’s gonna be fun to watch

By Alex | June 9th, 2009 at 12:41 pm

Does anyone have ANY idea how old D’Agostino is? He’s not the new anything. And there’s a kid named Andrea Poli who is everything that Pirlo was and more. This kid will become one of the best midfielders in the entire world and I sincerely hope that Casiraghi gives him time at the U21 Euro (he bypassed the U20 level after having an outstanding U19 tournament).

D’Agostino can be pretty erratic and it’ll take a lot more than a game against a bad team’s B team to convince me otherwise.

By MAD | June 9th, 2009 at 1:46 pm

This is from Lippi:

“We want to perform a few experiments against New Zealand. I can confirm that Giuseppe Rossi and Davide Santon will feature, Rossi from the start.”

By MAD | June 9th, 2009 at 1:48 pm

D’Agostino is 27 (born in 1982).

By alessio | June 9th, 2009 at 2:02 pm

Have you watched anything from D’Agostino at Udinese? Then you’d be knowing why everyone is crowing about him. The reason he’s exploded recently is he was converted from a trequartista to a regista this season. At 27, he’s got plenty of years left.

Posted from United States

By Greg | June 9th, 2009 at 3:12 pm

Hey Neo,
pretty much all Confederations Cup games are airing in the US on the various ESPN stations

By ilcapitano | June 9th, 2009 at 4:06 pm

D’Ago has always been a talented player in my eye. He’s just always been on a lower level team, where since he was so talented, they would make him play trequartista. He definately isn’t a tre, and like alessio said, Udine moved him to regista (kinda like Pirlo’s role), and he has taken off.

Posted from United States

By ilcapitano | June 9th, 2009 at 4:07 pm

Ohh, and there should soon be a Confederations Cup preview post up with fixtures, times, and such.

Posted from United States

By MAD | June 9th, 2009 at 9:18 pm

Well, lets be fair about the guy – keeping in mind that I think he’s a decent player.

He didn’t produce much when Udinese was losing 10 games in a row and falling down the table faster than the Hindenburg.

Once the season was pretty much over for them and Udinese wasn’t playing for anything – when the pressure of the season was pretty much off the team – the team lit it up offensively.

Okay, so all that being said, he had a very good last two months of the season – keeping in mind the very good first half and the giant slide right in the middle of their season. Say he goes to Juve like he’s supposed to this will be a test to see if he can handle the pressure that being on a team like Juve is likely to bring.

If he can, then he’ll likely find himself on the National Team for the WC.

By alessio | June 9th, 2009 at 10:32 pm

True true, MAD.

Posted from United States

By forzafrankie | June 10th, 2009 at 11:26 am

Hey guys someone posted a stream site while back. Were you are able to watch some of these odd games, like todays friendly. Anyone know what it is, or any of those sites or ways to watch as many games as possible. Much appreciated.

Posted from United States

By Gabry | June 10th, 2009 at 12:00 pm

Anyone know if it will shown on Rai International?

Posted from Australia

By Julian | June 10th, 2009 at 12:15 pm

A good site for watching games online is atdhe.net.
And we’ll have a Confederations’ Cup preview up soon with the listings of where and when to watch it.

By Gabry | June 10th, 2009 at 12:18 pm

Thanks man, keep up the good work

Posted from Australia

By Shuli Italia | June 10th, 2009 at 4:38 pm

I said it from day one, FIGC should of picked a coach who is hungry and adores creativity. Lippi will no go further to what he has in mind the predictable. He took the guys from 2006 to the confederations cup and will take them to world cup 2010.

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