Italy - USA [R] Feb 29, 2012

Funny, La Gazzetta dello Sport rated him as Italy's best player.

In fact, here are their full ratings for Italy and the USA.

Agree.

haha

You singled out Giovinco & Ogbonna as being especially poor when theyre the ones we should be making most positive comments about (if were to find positive things to say about this game). Reality is Giovinco played better than ronaldinho and neymar combined in the friendly break (no disrespect to these players I enjoy watching them very much).

My explanation is in the first sentence, really. I expect more from him, because he's a player I know can do better and who I have enjoyed following for the past 3 years. I expected and I wanted him to take this chance as the number 10 by being more active in the build-up, and by having better movement. Maybe the start and the responsibility got to him a little.

Why are you bringing Neymar and Ronaldinho (a player who gave up on his career way too early and has been average at best for the past 4-5 years, besides a few flashes here and there) into this? Did I compare either or both of them to Giovinco somewhere? I must have missed it. If it's because of the CBF badge, and it leading you to think I'm here to shit on Italy, then you couldn't be more wrong. Italy are my 2nd NT team, and I will always root, love, and want them to do well against anyone except Brasil, because 3/4 of my grandparents are from Italy. Also, not that it is at all relevant, but Bosnia is a much better team than the USNT.

Positives about Ogbonna? Are you serious? He was by far the biggest liability to the back line, and his distribution is not very good at all, unless you like defenders who play hospital balls, and have no skill on the ball. Why do you think Chiellini came on into the center for the second half?

Nice to know about your background...Neymar and Ronaldino i just made them because i saw ur brazil logo and to highlight the fact that he wasnt as bad as other prolific number 10s that im sure u watched during mid week friendly break....and also just because i can lol.

Ogbonna...liability ...how exactly?

If thats the case ur making how does the fact that you swop Ogbonna from a central to full back position better distribution?...especially when you have Pirlo lined up in front of the center D line.

Also to what extent was Ogbonna`s defending so bad on the numerous goal scoring opportunities that it spurred a chiellini / Ogbonna change of positions......id really like an explanation

I didn't mean that Chiellini came in for him to make distribution better. Chiellini came in for him because he was a liability. He played a hospital ball back to Barzagli in the 1st half, and didn't do much at all as a full-back other than playing the safe pass backward after trying to beat the U.S defenders. He was visibily nervous, and uncomfortable on the ball (there was a passage of play in the first half where he clearned the ball out in the middle of the field where he could carried it and passed it back to Buffon to retain possession). He also lost a few headers he should be winning for a guy his size.

OK...none of this supports ur distribution comments. If anything you contradict urself.
I totally disagree on the nerves, given the fact hes so new and young i thought he played with a great deal of confidence.

Your like a young Felipe Scolari

I disagree, in the first half Ogbonna was the best defender on the field. He was bullying Altidore and winning everything in the air. I don't get why Prandelli would bring in Chiellini and then shift Ogbonna to the LB position, when Chiellini would have been much more comfortable then him there.

Was Ogbonna's 2nd half as good as his first? No... but he was far from a liability. If anything, I think he played his way onto the Euro squad with this performance.

Agree. If test 1 was to see how he did as a CB, and test 2 was to see how he did as a FB...I would say he did better on test 1 (not that criscito was any better as FB - 1sthalf ).

A post from yesterday but reading through the thread, the USA also fielded players who were making their debuts or at least inexperienced national team players most US fans have never heard of. Its not like they had all their starters.

Fabian Johnson 3 caps, Danny Williams 5 caps, Terrence Boyd earned his first cap.

http://www.socceramerica.com/article/45831/bradley-dempsey-lead-historic-usa-win.html

I think we can all agree that the better half (or larger part) of the fans at the Marassi were world class.

I don't think it has been mentioned...If you notice, during the first couple of seconds there were some boos during the American national anthem, but quickly drowned out by the applause of the vast majority of the crowd.

At the end of the game, despite the loss, there was a reciprocated applause between the Italy players on the field and the crowd.






I recall different scenes and atmosphere in an Italia/Serbia game at Marassi, although through no fault of our own.....SEI UN PIRLA!!! I cant understand the english part
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb2DOjRrEUs"]Ivan Bogdanov Show (Italia-Serbia) Canzone ufficiale - YouTube[/ame]

Yeah I saw a few highlights on ESPN but they seem to mostly make fun of it in a sarcastic voice. Its funny the way soccer is treated in the USA. Its almost dealt with along the lines of rascism. I mean they don't know about the sport so they pretend to write it off because they don't want it to overshadow their other major sports; basketball, baseball , hockey and football. I heard one call in during the sports phone talk show on San Francisco's KNBR Gary Radnich show but again he was joking and making fun of it. At least he and his collegues at the station did report the result though so I guess its a start...

I'm honestly convinced that if Ogbonna were playing for a Serie A club instead of a Serie B club people here wouldn't be so quick to single him out with criticism. He honestly was one of our better looking players in this match, and didn't look shakey or uncomfortable at all. In my opinion he's earned himself at least one more start before Euro.

I didn't have any problem with Ogbonna, he played a very good first half. Very physical presence, strong and commanding. I just didn't like him being shifted out to LB. He didn't perform badly there but he looked like what you expected - a center back playing a left back spot. He would often push forward and then make the square pass to Pirlo or back to Chiellini. He didn't know what to do. And, this isn't really his fault but more Prandelli's. Cesare should've at least slid Chiellini out to the left who is more familiar with that role but still is no LB.

i wish ESPN would just give up soccer coverage. I hate them!

There are forces inside US that dont allow soccer to grow. They can make it popular and lots of people are interested but they dont. LA galaxy won the championship and u didnt hear anything. If lakers or dodgers or even kings win the championship there will be parades. For galaxy...NOTHING!
and this is a popular team here, the stadium is packed and its not just mexicans, lots of different races.


Americans just cant keep up with this sport cuz theres too much going on at once; different leagues, champions leagues, international games....they get too confused on whats what....then there is the history of the game and the rivalries and why which game is important. They cant follow all that

Christoper Sullivan. I'm friends with him on facebook. My friends growing up played youth ball with him and he played in Europe and was on the 1990 US men's team at Italia 90. To tell you the truth , he is the only American that knows a little bit about the game at least compared to many others. After he retired from playing he became friends with Roberto Baggio and many other players from the Serie A doing some kind of conditioning work with the players. He is actually from San Jose and is a real nice guy.

WTF..They connected some unrelated facts to insult Italy....Milan-Juve match, Costa Concordia sinking and our bad economic situation. What a bunch of morons.

Yeah you are right but I've heard a lot of comparisons out of Italy the last 2 months to the Costa Concordia tragedy. I mean when Antonio Di Pietro is coparing Francesco Schettino to whichever political foe or when Luciana Littizetto says she can't handle the Costa talk anymore as everyone acts like a bunch of experts, something is wrong.


I think the USA has a lot to learn when commenting on soccer but compared to the way it used to be, they've made incredible strides. At least now they give the sport a look, before they never would. They still have a long way to go but again, when you have a professional league in place for only 17 years, its kind of hard to compare it to a European league. Of course they won't be as knowledgeable as their Euro counterparts. Although , to tell the truth, after hearing the English (England) commentators on FOX, I was far from impressed. They seem to call a game as they are watching the EPL but the game in Italy is played a lot differently than in England. Americans seem to only watch the EPL because of the language but I for one think the EPL is overrated and not is good as the Serie A. I mean its a great league and all but I prefer Italy's soccer better. Just my personal opinion.

This will change as young kids here match up the EPL teams to the Serie A and see the quality difference. EPL overhypes itself and this will bite them in the long run - they can't expect young viewers/players who watch a lot of futbol to continue believing that English futbol is all that strong. Young kid I talk to is watching CL with great interest and sees the EPL teams coming up short. He's becoming intrigued with the history of Juve and Milan and knows all the players on Napoli. He'll only watch City in the EPL so he can follow Balotelli and Aguero.

I also believe American kids truly want to be more skilled on the ball and, really feel slighted when they get lumped into the typical American player sterotype -"...athletic, run all day, great athletes yadda, yadda..." The ones I know REALLY want to be a Messi or Balotelli - they know what skill looks like, believe me. The coaching, even in SoCal, is up/down....not easy to keep kids on a good team with good coaching. Too many young kids around here that do play are in the minority in their neighborhood - baseball is very big in OC. The young guys have to carpool to watch senior players in the top amateur leagues and that's not always easy to organize.

Is there any more friendlies before meeting Spain ??