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.

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.

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.

Either way, he’s still an idiot and it’s BS entirely that he waited 2 years to present Canna with the trophy.