Amelia Is Out of WC Qualifiers; Also Blatter Is Still a Moron

To continue the discussion started on the previous post, I think Ancelotti’s performance over the last three years with Milan has been abysmal. On paper, the Milan team is the strongest in Italy, with concessions made perhaps to Capello’s Juventus and last year’s Inter. Yet Milan barely qualified for the CL two years ago and failed to do it last year. Much of his recent CL success is a joke. The group stages have been consistently risible and last time Milan won it, they encountered only one team in the whole tournament with a manpower their equal (ManU, mainly dealt with by stunning performances by Kaka). When the draw did assign them proper teams, like last year with Arsenal, or like Barcelona in 2006, Milan went out.

I’ll concede Ancelotti has had his day in the past, but his present administration is a monument to incompetence. With the players he has, he should be getting at least second-places by default. MAD’s comment that “His ability to make a team that includes Pirlo, Kaka, Pippo and Gattuso working off each other is quite a feat in and of itself” is to me entirely mysterious. How the hell do you fail to dominate play against Bologna with a midfield and an attack like that? It’s not like Milan hit three posts or anything. They simply didn’t play well. And that’s been their problem for three or four years now.

The misuse and consequential ruin of an azzurro like Gilardino is only the most infuriating of his many blunders. It is good to see Alberto go back to the hands of a decent coach, and I’m fully expecting him to boom this year, perhaps even become capocannoniere if he’s not riddled with injuries.

Posted from  United Kingdom

Well, my only disagreement is that Milan did dominate possession against Bologna.

I would say Ancelotti has been losing it for the last year or so. Maybe he’s lost his will to win alla Ronaldinho, I don’t know. He’s always been a tactician over a motivator, and he’s tactics aren’t working. And last year I saw several instances where he made terrible sub decisions.

Posted from  United States

‘MAD’s comment that “His ability to make a team that includes Pirlo, Kaka, Pippo and Gattuso working off each other is quite a feat in and of itself” is to me entirely mysterious.’

my comment only reflected that these players on first blush have different styles of play from each other. Gattuso is a hard nosed defensive horse. He runs all day looking for someone to wipe out. Pirlo like to hang back, not get his nose dirty and make nice passes up the field. Pippo is slow, doesn’t run too much, I wouldn’t call him particularly skillful but he’s an opportunist of the first magnitude. And Kaka, completing the completely different midfield/attack runs around all over the field passing and shooting… almost without structure.

They are also very strong personalities and egos (not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be contentious if/when things go badly as they do for every team).

But for several years and despite some massive heartbreak (Istanbul, wasn’t it?) he made a team that has won domestic and MULTIPLE European championships. I don’t think I could do it. Noone else bothered to do it in Italy recently. So I give the man his due. His team might be getting older, or he didn’t the breaks he got before (all t hose breaks that every successful team gets) but that doesn’t mean he’s not a good coach in my opinion. I would still take him over many others I could name who had class talent but failed to win anything.

Not to put to fine a point on it, but in the last three years Milan had finished 3rd (post Calciopoli penalty), 4th and 5th. They also won The CL and the Club World Cup. Depending how you fell about that last cup, you could say that:

Milan finished in the top 5 Italian teams the last three years and won 2 International Championships including the CL.

I don’t know about anyone else but, it sounds pretty okay to me. And I tend to put domestic league over European.

hats off to Lippi for taking a right step in choosing Curci as a replacement for Amelia..The wole of Siena will be proud for ths kid as he will be the firs one from Siena to be called for the Azzurri..i was worried tha Lippi might go for someone like Flavio oma or Antonini or Abbiati but he has taken the right step today and it is a matter of time before Rossi, Santacroce, Cigarini, Giovinco, De ceglie, Balotelli, Aquafresa …will be given opportunities..

Julian regarding Blatter: I’m not debating whethere he’s an idiot or not, but things didn’t exactly take place like you described them….
http://www.mcalcio.com/italy-shirt-gets-fifa-world-champions-tag/

And just to clarify further: Abete was talking about the “FIFA World Champions” tag when he said those words (i.e. a positive thing). He wasn’t being sarcastic about what Blatter did with the World Cup.
http://www.gazzetta.it/Calcio/Nazionale/Primo_Piano/2008/09/02/blatter.shtml

I really hate Blatter for that.
I saw Paolucci play for Ascoli.I think he’s a good striker.

Posted from  Viet Nam

well..the formation is almost clear according to Lippi…we will see the striking pair of Toni and DiNatale with Gilardino substituting the least effective of them in the 60th minute…
The midfield must must must and should be De Rossi..Pirlo..Aquilani..Camoronesi..i hope Lippi doesnt play Gattuso because he is definately out of form and also, he hasnt played competetive football for many days..Canna looks set to play but it bothers me a bit..whatever he is, he has not even had a single COMPETITIVE match since that Euro injury so is it wise to play him??i mean CYPRUS look like minnows BUT REMEMBER THEY DREW AGAINST MIGHTY GERMANS AND DEFEATED AND DREW WITH IRELAND AT HOME AND AWAY AND ALSO DEFEATED HUNGARY , THE VER YSAME HUNGARY WHICH EMBARRASSED ITALIA 3-0 IN A FRIENDLY..CANNA IS 35, HIS REFLEXES HAVE BEEN WANING WITH REAL MADRID, WHEN PLAYERS LIKE SINAMA PONGOLLE AND SERGIO AGUERO AND GUIZA RUN CIRCLES AROUND HIM…WELL…CHIELLINI IS ALSO NOT THERE..IAM NOT AT ALL CONFIDENT OF OUR CENTRAL DEFENSE PAIR UP…CYPRUS IS VERY TALENTED..THEY R NO MINNOWS..THE NATIOANL TEAM VIRTUALLY HAS PLAYERS FROM THE CLUB WHICH QUALIFIED FOR CL THIS SEASON FOR THE FIRST TIME..IAM AFRAID AND THE MEMORIES OF THE QUALIFIER AGAINST FAROES COME DOWN HAUNTING…DRAW IS HIGHLY UNACCEPTABLE..NO WAY..THE ONLY WAY TO START IS WITH A BANG..DINATALE, TONI, PIRLO..MUST AND SHOULD PLAY WELL..WE SHOULD WIN BY A CONVINCING MARGIN NOT TRY TO DEFEND OR IN CASE IF WE SCORE EARLY, WE SHOULD NOT TRY TO DEFEND THE LEAD..DEFINATELY, WE CANT ALLOW THEM TO SCORE FIRST NO WAY….
IAM NOT AT ALL CONFIDENT 100% If we win against cyprus, we will demolish Georgia–

Posted from  Spain

Blatter has always been a racist when it comes time to Italy. In addition to all the speculation regarding multiple counts of corruption that he has sustained, including match-fixing, there are serious questions about refereeing in international games in which Italy has played (14 or more goals disallowed for the azzurri since 2002 world cup … that is a huge amount; and numerous penalties given against Italy for incorrect calls as well as an abnormal number of penalties not called against other teams playing Italy … not to mention the scandal of wc-2002)

There is no doubt that Blatter’s refusal to hand Italy the cup was a result of his disappointment that France did not beat Italy.

He did not want to create trouble by presenting it? What trouble could he have creates? He created more by not presenting it.

Also, as for Marco’s source on what Blatter said, i would not take too much stock. He didn’t say it in English so you are basing it on translation.

i have noticed that much of the French media have left out the exchange between Cannavarro and Blatter. It makes one wonder.

Porchetta,

very well put.

i would love to know what Lippi is thinking for the line-up.

if they play the midfield you are suggesting, this most likely would mean

Grosso–Cannavarro–Gamberini(?)–Zambrotta
—————DeRossi—————–
Camoranese(?)——Pirlo——Aquilani
———–DiNatale — Toni————-

i do not know who will stand in the back 4. Pannucci, Barzagli, Materazzi seems to be playing;
i would love to see Legrottaglie, Dessena, even Santacroce

the only problem with this is that i have my doubts about Camoranese and aquilani would be played a bit out of position. He is much better next to De Rossi more in the middle. this, however, would shift things from a 4-1-3-2 to a 4-2-3-1, in which case i would do something more like

Grosso–Cannavarro–Gamberini(?)–Zambrotta
————DeRossi—Aquilani———–
DiNatale———-Pirlo——Quagliarella/Cassano/Balotelli!
—————–Toni———————

i would pick Quagliarella becasue he pairs well with DiNatale, but also because he is very creative and has great instincts. Plus it would be great to get him more experienced on the international level.

Camoranesi or Perrotta would be better for getting balls to Toni, but neither have very good finishing skills.

No gio, I’m not talking about what Blatter said but what Giancarlo Abete said regarding the “FIFA World Champions” logo. And in Italian, that’s unequivocal.

Gio, Camoronesi is a must in our line up , he makes that darting runs, he sets up plays and he is probably the best dribbler we have..
This will probably be the team on saturday..
Grosso–Cannavarro–Gamberini–Zambrotta
—————DeRossi—————–
Camoronesi——Pirlo——Aquilani
———–DiNatale — Toni————-

Posted from  Spain

Porchetta (i love the name),

i think Cassano is a better dribbler, though he lacks the hustle of Camo. otherwise i agree with you. Balotelli is also excellent and combined with his power and incredible bursts of speed, he will be a force with which to be reckoned when he gets into an Azzurri shirt.

it is a strange thing that we lack good dribblers in Italy. it seems to be a talent more a part of the south american game (no surprise than that Camo is one of our better dribblers) with some good prospects in Spain and even France. i think this is a critical area on which Italy need to focus.

John Silver made an excellent analysis of the Italian vs. the Brazilian game that was very perceptive and spot on - he points out that while Brazil plays by taking advantage of openings in space, Italy play by manipulating openings in time. by adding better dribbling up front we would be able to exploit both and thus expand the dimensions of what we are capable of.