Portieri: Marchetti (Cagliari), Sirigu (Palermo), Viviano (Bologna); Difensori: Antonini (Milan), Astori (Cagliari), Bonucci (Juventus), Cassani (Palermo), Chiellini (Juventus), Lucchini (Sampdoria), Molinaro (Stoccarda), Motta (Juventus); Centrocampisti: De Rossi (Roma), Lazzari (Cagliari), Marchisio (Juventus), Montolivo (Fiorentina), Palombo (Sampdoria), Pepe (Juventus); Attaccanti: Amauri (Juventus), Balotelli (Inter), Borriello (Milan), Cassano (Sampdoria), Quagliarella (Napoli), Rossi (Villarreal). http://www.figc.it/it/204/25569/2010/08/News.shtml
Thats a great team! That team could have won the World Cup in South Africa!!! + Pirlo ofcourse OMG! Im so excited, CAN"T WAIT!!! ITALIA IS BACK!!!
Antonini....Bonucci...Chiellini...Cassini ........DeRossi.............Lazzari ....................Montolivo Balotelli.............................Cassano .....................Rossi
It's interesting to see all the new names, but honestly, a bit worrisome as far as the lack of experience; not just international experience, but experience in big time European competition. As a Juve supporter, I can't comprehend how Molinaro and Amauri are called up. Clearly undeserving. I'd be interested to see a 4-3-2-1 (Ancelotti Milan) with these players that used: Sirigu; Maggio, Bonucci, Chiellini, Cassani; Marchisio, De Rossi, Montolivo; Rossi, Cassano; Balotelli.
Molinaro deserves it period. He was the best Italian left back last year and proved it in the champions league against Messi and Barcelona. He is better than what Juventus have right now and it isnt even close.
Amauri. LOL. As a Juve supporter, you should be more concerned that half of our team might end up playing 3 full matches before the season has even started.
Looks like we are headed in the right direction but Amauri is wrong is too many ways. #1 he stinks, and his pinky bone isn't even 1% Italian.
WTF Amauri? are u kidding me?? im a juve supporter and i think he's garbage...5 goals last season playing 90min almost every game is beyond pathetic.... arent there other italian forwards better than him? besides that i like the rest of the call ups
hopefully the trio upfront is Balotelli/Rossi/Cassano with Amauri coming off the bench. As for your question, Boriello and Pazzini I think are both better.
Incredible squad Prandelli. Thank you!! A couple points: 1. This is a friendly game, so the result doesn't matter, but the performance and the chemistry is very important. 2. We have so many talented players and obviously Prandelli picked the best talent available. 3. I don't agree with Amauri, but I think he wants to give him a shot and see if he can act as a finisher and he well can he play along with Cassano and Balotelli. 4. He didn't call Gila and this is a good sign which means he will only call the best players available. 5. I understand they lack the experience, but this is the point. We would like to build a team that is ready for 2012 and 2014. He picked a lot of young players like Rossi and Balotelli, so he is going to build on them. We don't lazy unskilled experienced old players like Iaquinta and Di Natale. 6. Agian, I think it's a very promising selection and it makes us as fans very excited . It's been very rough in the last four years.
Talking about making an impression right from the start! I know it's just a pre-Euro qualifying friendly, which really means very little, but I didn't expect Prandelli to get the ball rolling quite as drastically as he is. I really wasn't even expecting Balotelli to get the call right off the bat, let alone guys like Amauri, Motta, and ANtonini. I must say, I'm not very happy about Amauri being selected, seeing as how I'd like us to start moving away from bringing in Oriundi. At the same time though, he has been in great form during pre-season friendlies, and he's obviously a MUCH better option that *cringe* Iaquinta. I'm already salivating at the idea of Cassano, Balotelli, and Rossi leading our attack!
He only played 2229 minutes. I'd take Amauri over Gilardino any day. If Lippi had picked this squad + Buffon, Italy would not have looked like a bunch of twats at the World Cup.
I agree, I would have liked Thiago Motta in there as well but maybe thats down the line. All in all Im very happy! As for Amauri, with talent like Balotelli and Cassano behind him I think he'll do well on the Azzurri... Heck I could score with those guys playing behind me LOL!!! As for the experience, it will come, the key is to keep the core together, through good and bad and they will grown as a unit, look at Spain and look at Germany, both young teams that are growing and have grown together. Spain has had the same core for 5 years now and look at the results!!! As for Iaquinta being lazy, he's not, but he just doesn't have the skills and talent to succeed at the national level.
I agree. This could be a pretty good trident up front. ------- MF --------- MF --------- MF ------- --------------------------------------------- ----------------- Cassano ------------------ --------------------------------------------- --------- Balotelli ----- Amauri -------------
excellent point, anytime he takes the field he's going to give you 90 minutes non stop. What he lacks in ball skills and technique he makes up with speed, aggressiveness, drop back cover, and fitness. In the right system (Stuttgart) he can show his true class and that he is highly underrated. Utilized properly at Stuttgart has him playing behind a capable offensive LM like Hleb were he wasn't forced to push constantly, but just enough and then cover when Hleb and Khedira were attacking, hence his excellent campaign last season. Whereas at Juve, the team was a mess and he was forced to push forward constantly and send in disappointing crosses and in turn it exposed him defensively and critics had a field day. Wish him all the best, and It would be nice to see him get a shot at the NT, if Prandelli can use him properly it should be a good experiment.
Excellent squad selections for the most part. I don't agree with the Amauri selection not so much because he is average, but because he is 30 years old. So even if he does play well for the Azzurri he won't keep his form for very long.
So we go from a coach who refuses to pick Cassano because of a personal beef, to a coach who refuses to pick Pazzini because of a personal beef. Is this progress?
I think it's a little premature to say that Pazzini's omission from the squad has to do with any kind of "personal beef". Gila is Prandelli's star pupil, yet he was left off the list of call ups as well. THis is your typical EXPIREMENTAL friendly squad in order for PRandelli to check out some new faces before the first batch of qualifiers gets started. This is why people shouldn't get getting TOO excited just yet, as this squad may still see some drastic changes over teh course of the next 2 years. All Pazz has to do is continue to play well for Samp, and he'll surely get a call.