Per the RAI International website, next Wednesday's friendly between Italy and Slovenia will be shown live at 2:30 pm Eastern (Aug 21).
Callups will be announced tomorrow. Expected to be called are newcomers Matteo Brighi (Juventus) and Massimo Oddo (Lazio), as well as Zauri (Atalanta) and Ambrosini (Milan).
ROMA - (ANSA) - Italian national team head coach Giovanni Trapattoni has announced his 22-man squad for Wednesday's friendly against Slovenia in Trieste. Italy squad Adani (Inter), Ambrosini (AC Milan), Brighi, Buffon (Juventus), F. Cannavaro , Coco (Inter), Del Piero (Juventus), Di Biagio (Inter), Di Vaio (Parma), Doni (Atalanta), Gattuso, Inzaghi (AC Milan), Iuliano (Juventus), Materazzi (Inter), Montella (Roma), Nesta, Oddo (Lazio), Panucci (Roma), Toldo (Inter), Tommasi (Roma), Vieri (Inter), Zauri (Atalanta) Ahem, 7 interisti!
from sportinglife.com omg... hundreds of thousands men have died in the last century to make Trieste italian again
So, are you predicting or hoping for more failure? And who do you think would take his place - Capello or Lippi? Zoff? And, by the way, does anybody else think the presence of the "thug" of the world championship team - Claudio Gentile - in the heir-apparent position as U-21 national team coach is mildly disturbing? Speaking of which, what ever happened to Marco Tardelli? I thought he was a very promising coach until he got run out of Milan on a rail. I haven't seen him since.
Sorry this is a little off topic, but what is the deal with that moose Materazzi getting the call? Granted, I've only seen him play a few times but he seems like the most un-Italian Italian player imaginable. His skills seem minimal and even his fouls are brutally obvious--none of that old world subtlety. Is he better than I think he is (sampling error is a definite possibility), or is the pool getting shallow over there?
Well, yes and yes. Beyond Nesta and Cannavaro, there are no great Italian defenders anymore, and those two are not going to last forever. Nesta is fragile. Cannavaro is not a central defender anyway. When you look and see that Mark Iuliano (ack!) is the third-best Italian defender around, you have to say the pool is thin right now. Materazzi is a classic central defender, and he's still young. Imagine the pressure he was under in Korea. I certainly don't think he was solely to blame for the defensive breakdowns. The deflected goal against Croatia was a bizarre fluke. Italy was without their two best defenders (see above) against Korea.
The game was a disgrace. Thug play (why is Gattuso on the national team?) and crowd trouble made this game unbearable to watch. Panucci got burned one on one on the Slovenian goal. The Italian midfield was non-existent again. Trappatoni's tactics are old fashioned and simply do not work.
Materazzi while looking like a fresh faced boy is actually older than all those you mention. Materazzi turned 29 on the 19th of this month. DOB: 8/19/1973 http://www.soccerage.com/it/04/01606.html Iuliano turns 29 in December of this year. DOB 8/12/1973 http://www.soccerage.com/it/04/00736.html Cannavaro turns 29 next month. DOB 9/13/1973 http://www.soccerage.com/it/04/00226.html and Nesta of course is still just a baby, he turned 26 in Feb this year. DOB 3/19/76 http://www.soccerage.com/it/04/00087.html But anyway why does everyone look at Materazzi and complain? By far the defender that has cost us the most in recent times is Panucci. When they back him into the box he is hopeless. (As he showed last night)
Oh and last nights game was truely forgettable. Thank your lucky starts you are in a time zone that lets you watch it at 2.30pm. I had to get up at 2.30am to watch that Crap! Off field antics totally pathetic too. I know where thay should have stuck some of those flares.
You have my condolences. I watched it on tape after I got home after work. You would have to pay me to watch that match in person!
Points taken, thanks for the response. Interesting also to learn he's 29 (I for one thought he was in his early 20's).
Actually, my bad on that one. I didn't do any checking and assumed the same. I thought he was still very young when he moved from Perugia to Inter but obviously not. Late bloomer I guess.