How are you wasting speed by playing Balotelli with two wingers? Balotelli is more than capable of putting in a cross that the wingers could get by beating their respective men off the dribble. Also, Immobile plays one friendly with Cerci, and all of a sudden they have this great chemistry? I'm not knocking Immobile. I think he could have a nice future ahead of him. However, Balotelli is the proven player, and should get the starting nod over Immobile at this point until proven otherwise.
Um, Cerci & Immobile played all season together at Torino and were one of the more formidable attacking pairs in Serie A. You could say that his chemistry with Cerci (& with Insigne from Pescara 2 years earlier) are key to his success as he was pretty piss poor at Genoa last year w/o either one of those guys.
Thanks for the vid. Would have loved to see DeRossi-Pirlo-Marchisio midfield play a few minutes with the "B" attack trio. I think Immobile and Insigne might have scored 2-3 more goals. If anyone thinks that Italy are better served at this point with Cassano out there instead of any one of the 3 attackers who started today, then I want some of what you're smoking. And while I still think Balo should start, both England & Uruguay play strong, physical defense that can be broken down by speed and quick ball movement. Balo better find his top gear and stop falling on his ass looking for ref calls every time the ball comes near him.
I'm sorry. I mistyped. I meant Immobile and Insigne. In any event, Balotelli should start until it is shown that he is inadequate. He has come up big for us in the past and is a proven commodity. Why fix something that is not broken?
Most, maybe, but not the top clubs in the CL for example. I would pit Real and Bayern against almost any national team and believe they'd have the advantage.
Falc would you please with this "he's no good" "now he is" "no he's not" "Italy is good" "no they're not" "yes they are again" clazy talk!!! It's like some of the posters who want Paletta, don't want Paletta, want Verratti, don't want Verratti, want Insigne, still want Insigne talk! Oh snap...you were joking again?
if we win group d, what group winner would we play, and if we come in 2nd, what group winner would we play?
Play with the ESPN prediction bracket .... http://games.espn.go.com/world-cup-bracket-predictor/2014/en/entry
so what you're saying is on the way to getting our 5th star we will smash germanys dreams of getting a 4th and brazils dream of getting a 6th?
1 - most brazilian teams are defense oriented. Fluminense also was a couple of years ago. They have a new coach who is more attack minded. Anyway, at brazilian TV, they were explaining how the coach was using the NON-SERIOUS match against Italy to test a new tactical scheme. The Fluminense Italy played against is NOT the usual Fluminense which plays the brazilian league. The brazilian league has paused after it´s 9th round, so teams are training... it´s almost a pre-season again. That means Fluminense coach used that match to test NEW things to when the league restarts in mid July. 2 - Fluminense was playing without some of it's main players. Fred is in the Seleção. Rafael Sobis, the other main attacker, was released to attend a funeral of a friend and ex-player Fernandão, who died in an helicopter just one-two days before the match. The goalkeeper Cavalieri was not playing also. Obviously, in a brazilian club without all the money of european clubs and stars of a national team, 3 important players missing makes a LOT of difference. Add to that they were testing a new tactical scheme and that put a strain in the defense, which was caught off-guard plenty of times. 3 - Must remember Fluminense had a 5 minutes blackout where Italy scored 3 goals in sequence. The blackout may have been caused by confusion due to the new scheme, or players just being too relaxed/absent-minded, considering it was a less important game for them than to Italy (because Italy starts a serious competition this thursday), while Fluminense still has one month of training before the league restart. 4 - Considering World Cup teams will NOT be testing new tactical schemes in the World Cup, will be concentrated in their matches (and thus will hardly have a 5 minutes blackout conceding 3 goals in sequence so fast), and worse... that Fluminense was playing with it´s RESERVE attack players (who even so scored 3 goals in the Italian defense), yes, Italy must take the result with a grain of salt. 5 - we all know Italy does better when nobody believes in it. If Italy then almost fails to qualify in the Group Stage... then it´s certain Italy will be the World Cup Champions... However... good results before the World Cup are not a good omen for Italy lol they mean EVERYTHING... in reverse, for Italy. lol
Thanks for the info. I think this pretty much reinforces my point. As I understand, Fluminese didn't even have their best team, and we all saw that they paid no attention to the defensive end of things. With all that considered, Immobile and Insigne did exactly what they were supposed to, put balls in that were served up for them on a silver platter. Good finishing, no question, though those chances were not exactly there in numbers in Italy's other two friendlies vs Ireland and Luxemburg due to the defensive tactics those teams employed. The only thing Italy got out of this match was to experience the climate, and a bit of a run out and some positivity rippling the net. I don't think fans should (but many will) put a lot of emphasis on the game expecting huge changes to tactical schemes and player choices already decided before this one match. Italy drew 0-0 and 1-1 before 06 to national teams, then as Falvo pointed out won a game vs a young club squad. Same old same old. So long as you're serious about Brazilians being friendly to us (no matter what ) I'm happy
Good points. But I think the main difference was that Italy had two very motivated young forwards trying to impress their manager. Immobile and Insigne played with a great deal of desire, something Italy rarely does in any friendly.
Well, different teams play different styles. Fluminense won two national titles - 2010, 2012 - recently and struggled in 2013 beucause of a series of coaches who wanted to play defense. Our current coach was smart enough to change that and capitalize on the virtues of our offensive players (who are definitely good) and has been doing wonders. Unfortunately, we were missing 3 of our front man yesterday: Fred is playing for the national team, Rafael Sobis was on bereavement and Wagner is recovering from a surgery. Our defense is very week as you could see yesterday, but to make matters worse, we were missing one defender and our goalkeeper who's is one of the best in Brazil today. Fluminense just hired Carlos Henrique from Bordeaux, Cicero from Santos and is trying to get a few more good players to reinforce the team for the second round of the national championship after the World Cup. That said, we didn't expect to win against Italy's national team. I don't think we deserved five goals, but in my opinion some of the less experienced players panicked after the Italy's third goal and gave away two easy gols. Fluminense substititute keeper was particularly bad. Imobille was incredible, but I don't think Cavalieri would alow so many easy gols. As for your question: Yes, Fluminense always goes for the win. We either win or loose. It's all or nothing at all. So far this season, we had only one draw. Here you can see how open Fluminense normally plays. This is not Italy, but Sao Paulo is one of the strongest squads in Brazil today. Fred wasn't playing and was replaced by Walter "Fatboy".
Are you serious? Are yu being sarcastic? if not judging him on a ********ing friendly game vs a cub side is a joke. 3 years ago? hahah 2 years ago he almost got the player of the tournament at Euro's.
Just as a note. Fluminense fans were very honored with this game. Fluminense was founded by anglo-brazilians, but many fans of Fluminense are from italian descent, as Italian immigrants identified with the team because of its colors. For us it was an incredible honor to play against Italy and we will support the Italian team in this W.C. (except against Brazil, of course). Thank you!
Your new. You don't know about me. My mother calls me facciatosta and has done so since I was a little kid.