ITALY thread

Re: The Italy Thread - Forza Azzurri! - "Il sogno è appena cominciato"

The thought of Paletta playing WC games is scary.

I too hope Bonucci plays, I know we lost De Sciglio (who is too young and not good enough for the NT for now, really weak performances) for a few games but using Paletta is unacceptable, he should use Darmian on the left and Abate on the right if he wants to keep the SBs.

It's not great but anything is better then using Paletta :P
 
Re: The Italy Thread - Forza Azzurri! - "Il sogno è appena cominciato"

I think he had a very good game vs england , so did Darmian
 
Re: The Italy Thread - Forza Azzurri! - "Il sogno è appena cominciato"

lo zio said:
the chief of the azzurri medical staff said the players lost 2 kilos suring the game....... 2 friggin kilos!! :SHOCK:

if that's what manaus did to us, i can't even imagine how knackered the english (who ran much more than us) must be right now!
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England were in - Miami 2.5 wks which is much hotter than Brasil.
 
Re: The Italy Thread - Forza Azzurri! - "Il sogno è appena cominciato"

True - England actually played most of their friendlies in hot climates to prepare for Italy game..... guess it didn't work out :D
 
Re: The Italy Thread - Forza Azzurri! - "Il sogno è appena cominciato"

i didn't know that. that was quite a smart idea actually. no better place to get accustomed to crazy humidity than florida. :))
Daniel__Juve said:
he should use Darmian on the left and Abate on the right if he wants to keep the SBs.
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apparently that's exactly the lineup prandelli is going for, according to the news.

it's quite a bold defensive lineup, but what the heck, if prandelli thinks we can handle it, let's do this! :COOL:

plus, if that's what it takes to have chiellini back to the centre, then i'm all for it. :))
 
Re: The Italy Thread - Forza Azzurri! - "Il sogno è appena cominciato"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULH6AKCF7Gc
:LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL:
it's nice to see the guys getting along so well. :))

quick translation, for non italian speakers:
Sirigu:"yes, we often play videogames. it's a nice way to pass the time and have fun together. when it comes to war-games and 1st person shooters, me and thiago motta are gold medal material, whereas, when it comes to basket games, de rossi thinks he's great, but he's really not, as perin owns him pretty much every day. however yesterday daniele did beat me and he also mocked me quite a bit, so it's a great satisfaction for me to announce to the world his crappiness at playing videogames".

interviewer: yesterday sirigu told us u think u're great with basket videogames but u're just delusional. what do u have to say?

De rossi: "what can i say, sadly salvatore has some serious, undiagnosed mental issues. we all try to stay as close to him as possible and to involve him in all our activities, so that he may feel almost as if he were one of us. we often let him win whatever videogame we play, so he can at least be happy about something in his life.
truth is, he had a very important game to play and we didn't want him to realise his real (smalltime) dimension, as that would have been too big a blow for him to deal with, right before the england game.
anyway, i'd like to take this chance to give a big hug to salvatore. now that buffon is back and we don't need him anymore, he's probably going to head back home, so goodbye mate, great job and see ya soon"

---------------------------------------------


formation update: apparently barzagli and verratti are out due to minor problems (verratti caught the flu, and i don't know what happened to barzagli, but it's nothing serious).
so bonucci will take barzagli's place next to chiellini (with abate and darmian on the flanks) and thiago motta will take verratti's spot.
 
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Re: The Italy Thread - Forza Azzurri! - "Il sogno è appena cominciato"

I watched the complete conference video these days, quite funny indeed, best part is them talking about the basketball thing :LOL:

Reminded me of this, hehe.

On the other hand, I will have nightmares tonight about Thiago Motta, I can't believe someone considers him a top football player, even good, he was terrible and made lots of critical mistakes EVERY TIME he played for Italy, every single time.

He is as good as Paletta, oh well, he thinks Paletta should be playing a WC so there is clearly no room for rational discussion with Prandelli whatsoever.
 
Re: The Italy Thread - Forza Azzurri! - "Il sogno è appena cominciato"

i gotta disagree on motta. sure he's not the kind of midfielder who can light up the match, but he's a pretty good player. he's a very good passer and he's also not too shabby defensively.
sure, compared to the likes of pirlo, verratti, de rossi and marchisio he's on a different level, but considering he's our 5th pick for the central midfielder, i'm quite happy with him.

just think of this, right now uruguay (which isn't exactly a poor team) is lining up arevalo rios as central midfielder..... arevalo friggin' rios!!! and he's not a backup either, he's a starter. honestly i'd rather play with 10 men than lining up arevalo.

and if u don't think uruguay is a fitting team for a comparison, look at netherlands. they've been one of the most impressive teams so far and are definitely a high profile squad. and yet they start de jong at midfield. de jong!!!
compare motta to the likes of arevalo and de jong and suddenly motta turns into a world class player, with the passing skills and the defensive skills of a de rossi :P

on a different topic...
http://www.corrieredellosport.it/calcio/mondiali_2014/girone-d/italia/2014/06/19-366024/Prandelli+vuole+time-out%3A+40+gradi+in+campo...
40 freaking degrees?!? are u kidding me?! i thought manaus was supposed to be the hottest arena to play in!
nevermind motta, that's what really scares me! :CONFUSE:
 
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Re: The Italy Thread - Forza Azzurri! - "Il sogno è appena cominciato"

Well, there is ALWAYS a worst player to compare with, I don't think that is a good argument, Motta is still bad even if he is better then poor players. And he may be our 4th or 5th pick but he even played the EURO final, that shows Prandelli trusts a such a weak player in a high level :/

I think we should always compare it with better things, and if you don't have a great sub option to replace Verratti, and we don't, than imo you should change back the formation play with Pirlo alone, like we always did and always worked for us.

And 40 degrees is pretty scary indeed :SHOCK:
 
Re: The Italy Thread - Forza Azzurri! - "Il sogno è appena cominciato"

I personally think Thiago Motta is a very effective player - he has good positioning and is generally quite a hard working midfielder. He's kind of like Tiago back in the day, and Emerson. That's how I see him.

Edit - LOL that video. Reminds me of the Pirlo/Nesta PES days in Coverciano. Have any of you guys read Pirlo's book???
 
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Re: The Italy Thread - Forza Azzurri! - "Il sogno è appena cominciato"

England Harts Mario

Do it for Joe :PRAY:

mario_balotelli_2257787b.jpg
 
Re: The Italy Thread - Forza Azzurri! - "Il sogno è appena cominciato"

Milanista said:
Edit - LOL that video. Reminds me of the Pirlo/Nesta PES days in Coverciano. Have any of you guys read Pirlo's book???
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i didn't even know pirlo wrote a book honestly (football players' biographies aren't exactly my kind of book). why? is there any funny anecdote? :))
 
Re: The Italy Thread - Forza Azzurri! - "Il sogno è appena cominciato"

I think it's a very enjoyable light read - many nice stories about his Milan and Italy teammates. It's great that the 2006 team are such good friends - Pippo, De Rossi, Gattuso, Nesta etc... he has many stories about these guys (...and some digs at Galliani).

The book is co-written with Alessandro Alciato from Sky (I've always liked him).... it's a very easy read and can be done within a week :)
 
Re: The Italy Thread - Forza Azzurri! - "Il sogno è appena cominciato"

thanks for the tip. i've never really been much into football related books (which is weird coz i read a lot and i love football), but mondadori bookstores are doing a very nice world cup promotion (every time italy wins or draws u get double points on your card), and i was already planning on raiding the mondadori store next to my home tomorrow, so i'm gonna give it a look :))

as for the weather, i just heard the heat in recife might be less of a problem than expected. apparently the temperature should be around 30 degrees, with 70% humidity. that's a huge relief. it's not ideal, obviously, but it's much better than what i heard yesterday on tv (40°).
 
Re: The Italy Thread - Forza Azzurri! - "Il sogno è appena cominciato"

We wasted all our concentration and focus on England, thinking they were the team to beat. We play an unpredictable team like Costa Rica and they dismantle Prandelli's 451 in one half. Well done, fully deserved.
 
Re: The Italy Thread - Forza Azzurri! - "Il sogno è appena cominciato"

Italy struggled with Recife and the atmospheric conditions ?
It is a disgrace to play football in Recife and Manaus (let alone Quatar).
 
Re: The Italy Thread - Forza Azzurri! - "Il sogno è appena cominciato"

Looked to me as if Italy played at 60%. I believe they will pull through and in the cup games everyone knows that beating Italy is like climbing a long fierce mountain without shoes.
 
Re: The Italy Thread - Forza Azzurri! - "Il sogno è appena cominciato"

i can see Uruguay beating Italy tho
 
Re: The Italy Thread - Forza Azzurri! - "Il sogno è appena cominciato"

ZeroTheHero said:
Looked to me as if Italy played at 60%.
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indeed. problem is, they also looked like they couldn't go any further than that (which is weird, coz just 6 days ago they looked much more fit. and it's not like they wasted many energies against england).
Gerd said:
Italy struggled with Recife and the atmospheric conditions ?
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definitely. motta and marchisio were exhausted after 30 minutes of football. and the rest of the team was in the same condition after half time. hilariously the only one who didn't seem to suffer the heat was our oldest player (pirlo).

anyway the heat is a real concern, but a lame excuse. costaricans were playing under the same heat and that didn't seem to cause them any troubles at all.

what really worries me is the fact that our subs gave no contribution whatsoever. the great thing about this team is its depth. for every position we have a great sub (except the sidebacks). in the 2nd half we threw into the pitch cassano, insigne and cerci. theese are great players, those kind of players who can turn the tide of a game, especially when they come into the pitch late in the game, when everyone else is knackered while they're still fresh..... and yet they made absolutely no impact on the game. not a good news.

i was quite satisfied with our first half. costarica were lovely on the pitch, but after 20 minutes we figured them out and start cutting through their defense with lobs and through balls which could have been deadly (if only balotelli wouldn't have been so wasteful). their high defensive line caused us some troubles at the beginning, but that was also an extremely risky tactic for them and after 20 minutes it really looked like we could exploit that.
at half time i was confident we could win the game..... but the players never really got out of the dressing room and during the whole 2nd half they were basically on "damage-control mode".
 
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Re: The Italy Thread - Forza Azzurri! - "Il sogno è appena cominciato"

lo zio said:
costaricans were playing under the same heat and that didn't seem to cause them any troubles at all.
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What? They live in that kind of heat, of course they didn't had problems, hahah.

The heat is not the reason why we played so bad, of course, but is an important factor that is benefiting the south american (and african) teams in this WC, that is undeniable.

And the subs were terrible indeed, but the only sub that really needed to play didn't, Immobile, while we watched Balotelli loose all our changes, ridiculously fake a penalty and get a stupid yellow card (as always)... and still remained until the end of the match.

Prandelli is totally blind and unfair to the other players, he keeps Balotelli no matter how he plays, a favoritism that is unreal on results and even unprofessional to the other players.

Imo Prandelli lost this game by himself, wrong tactics and extremely wrong sub choices. Costa Rica made a good game but imo it doesn't matter how good they played, we should have won that game.

Truth is, we love the drama, so this is a normal behavior for Italy :P
 
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Re: The Italy Thread - Forza Azzurri! - "Il sogno è appena cominciato"

Can't remember a worse performance by Cassano.
I heard on Football Weekly that he was by far the player on the pitch who lost the ball most frequently, yet he only played one half (or less, can't remember that to be honest).
 
Re: The Italy Thread - Forza Azzurri! - "Il sogno è appena cominciato"

Yes, Cassano was the worst, we left Destro and Giovinco at home to take that useless prick...

Again: Prandelli.
 
Re: The Italy Thread - Forza Azzurri! - "Il sogno è appena cominciato"

cassano is definitely a prick, but useless? technique-wise he's on the same bracket of pirlo... and although he's been everything but consistant throughout his carreer, he's been on fire this season at parma.
yes, he's been terrible in his 20 minutes against costarica, but then again, everyone has been terrible that day. besides even immobile has been quite poor in those 15 minutes he was given against england, but i'm sure u won't judge him by that. ;)

keep in mind daniel, i actually agree with u on several aspects. i also would have brought destro to brasil instead of cassano; we already have enough fantasisti with cerci, insigne and candreva, whereas 2 CF (balotelli and immobile) are not enough (who's gonna sit on the bench today? with both mario and ciro on the pitch we don't even have a 3rd cf to put on the bench... that's just wrong imo).
and i also agree with u that immobile should have been our starter.

where i disagree with u is on prandelli. although i disagree with some of his decisions, it's not like he did anything crazy. like i said, i would have called up destro, but we certainly can't say calling up cassano instead of him was a crazy decision. cassano is a great player who's also been on great form this season, so there's nothing really wrong with prandelli's move. i just think destro would have been more useful, but i'm certainly not gonna hold it against prandelli if cassano doesn't perform.
and the same goes for immobile. i'd rather have him as a starter, but it's not like mario is a poor player. he did a great job against england... and although he was pretty wasteful against costarica, again, the entire team failed against costarica, so it's not fair to single him out.

we just had a very bad day against costarica, that's it. candreva couldn't make 1 dribble in the entire match, marchisio looked knackered after 10 minutes of football, motta looked like he was about to pass out any minute. even chiellini didn't look as sharp as usual.
the game against costarica was a physical breakdown, not a tactical failure.

now about today's game. i think it all comes down to the weather and our form. if the heat isn't as unbearable as it was against costarica and our form is acceptable, i think we can handle uruguay. sure they have a good team, but really nothing more than that. they're amazing upfront but their midffield is really nothing special and their defense is pretty much on par with england's.
de rossi is out (which is a major blow) but we're gonna line up a 3 men defense with chiellini, bonucci and barzagli, which should be enough to keep suarez and cavani under control. we're also gonna see balotelli and immobile playing together.... i wonder what chemistry they'll be able to build up in 90 minutes, coz i don't think they've ever played together before (so that should be interesting).

i'm sure uruguay will try to replicate costa rica's formula. they'll be as nasty as they can, they'll put huge pressure on us, and they're gonna give us everything they got for 95 minutes.... but honestly my biggests concerns are the heat and our form, not uruguay.

one last note; i hear that once again we're gonna play upnorth (in the hottest region in brasil) and once again the game will be played at 1pm local time. did fifa learn anything at all from usa '94???
honestly the stupidity of this organization baffles me. logic would demand that the games played in the hottest regions should be played in the evening.... but no, that's not how they operate at fifa. just like 4 days ago in recife, today we will be playing at 1 pm..... whereas brazil played in brasilia yesterday (4000 ft aboove sea level), and the game was played in the evening, with a lovely temperature of 22 celsius degrees.
seriously fuck fifa. people are going crazy coz we'll be going to qatar in 2022.... but honestly i find this situation much more ridiculous. i'd rather play in a dome in qatar with air conditioning and all, than playing in the freaking amazon, or in an almost equatorial region.... at 1pm!!! :RANT:
 
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Re: The Italy Thread - Forza Azzurri! - "Il sogno è appena cominciato"

I agree Cassano is great... AT PARMA, but he never delivered in the NT not even in the EURO 2004 when he was at great moment club-wise.

That is why I call him useless, you know? He will not deliver, in the EURO 2012 was the same thing, same as Di Natale, this is crazy to me, it's so easy to see this things and these guys don't work like that in the NT, they only work on smaller teams when the whole team plays for them to play.

And nobody can judge Immobile against England because the team was simply not even making a effort anymore to attack, I think he touched the ball ONE time and completely alone in attack, but the team was completely walking and in defense.

On the other hand, Cassano entered and played when the team was making all possible to score, even if playing bad, and he had MANY chances with the ball do do something besides missing every pass he could (and having his teammates beside him on every play).

Also putting Cerci like that to resolve something? Has he ever seen Cerci play? He will NEVER decide a match like that, the only way he works is playing with a striker better them him to get the best of him in the process, like they do on Torino.

Thiago Motta didn't played in the first game and is Brazilian, what excuse he had to play do badly and stop running after 20 min? I told you he is terrible :P

He also lost a goal opportunity kicking the ball like an amateur in the first half.

IMO Prandelli should have started with Marchisio in the middle with Pirlo and maybe Insigne in Marchisios original position in front of them on the left, because even though Insigne is not brilliant I would give him a chance with also Immobile as the lone CF, it worked great against Fluminense in that training friendly.

And after a while if there was no result he could have put De Rossi on defense to replace Barzagli (who is clearly not fully recovered and gets tired real fast) and left Pirlo alone in the middle and making a 3 line in the middle with Candreva-Marchisio-Insigne.

I think this would have worked better because Insigne and Immobile were fully rested for this match, so they would make the important running and Marchisio and Pirlo could work more as a link between defense and attack with smart passes not needing to run so much.

But about Uruguay, I fully agree with everything you said, would only add that Barzagli is not fit for a game like this and we don't have any other (good) defenders to sub him since De Rossi is also out, I feel this will be a real problem. :(
 
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Re: The Italy Thread - Forza Azzurri! - "Il sogno è appena cominciato"

I'll never understand the Cassano substitution.

Verratti the only one with balls.
 
Re: The Italy Thread - Forza Azzurri! - "Il sogno è appena cominciato"

i don't understand why insignie didn't play.
 
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