Given that I have started threads on the women's national team and most youth teams, I thought I'd be remiss if I didn't include a thread about Italy's successful futsal (indoor soccer) team. Italy is the defending European champion and is currently preparing for next month's FIFA World Championships in Taiwan. The tournament begins on Nov 21. Italy's group opponents are the United States, Japan and Paraguay. In February, Italy will try to defend its European championship with group games vs Portugal, Hungary and Spain (the current world champions). Futsal - called "Calcio a 5" in Italy - is moderately popular in Italy with competitions in Serie A, A2 and B divisions, a U-21 league, a women's league, as well as national cups for each division. www.divisionecalcioa5.it 2003 European champions
Re: Italian Futsal [R] Italy beat Croatia today in one of their final tune-ups for the World Championships: http://www.divisionecalcioa5.it/leggi.asp?id=1643
Italy has two more friendlies this week, both vs Slovenia. The first one will be shown live on RAISport Thursday at 3 pm EST.
A 3-2 loss to Slovenia today. Doesn't bode well as Slovenia didn't even qualify for the world championships. The two teams meet again on Saturday.
Much better performance for the Azzurri yesterday as they beat Slovenia 7-0. http://www.divisionecalcioa5.it/leggi.asp?id=1653 The squad for the world championships gets announced tomorrow.
Here is Italy's squad for the tournament: ANGELINI Gianfranco AS Rome c/5, ITA 21/07/1974 178 105 GK 2 GRANA Playas de Castellon, ESP 26/08/1979 176 74 MF 3 PELLEGRINI MRA Gvtarra Xota, ESP 16/12/1975 177 75 DF 4 MONTOVANELI AS Rome c/5, ITA 13/09/1973 175 69 MF 5 ZAFFIRO Salvatore Brillante Roma, ITA 22/09/1969 173 70 DF 6 BERTONI Edgar Erregi Travel Perugia, ITA 24/07/1981 179 80 MF 7 BACARO Vinicius AS Rome c/5, ITA 20/08/1978 181 81 FW 8 VICENTINI Andre Seep Luparense, ITA 17/06/1977 175 72 MF 9 FABIANO AS Rome c/5, ITA 05/01/1980 176 76 MF 10 FOGLIA Adriano Arzignano Grifo, ITA 25/04/1981 169 66 FW 11 MORGADO Citta di Montesilvano, ITA 19/06/1981 174 66 FW 12 FELLER Alexandre Prato c/5, ITA 28/09/1971 178 79 GK 13 ZANETTI Sandro Playas de Castellon, ESP 20/01/1976 179 79 FW 14 BERTONI Rodrigo Leghe Leggere Napoli, ITA 01/12/1978 176 75 MF Italy's first group game vs the USA will be shown on Galavision in the US, on Sunday Nov 21 at 8 pm EST (14-hour delay).
Interesting to note that only 2 of the above roster (Angelini and Zaffiro) were actually born in Italy. The others are naturalized Brazilians! Anyway, some articles at FIFA - Interview with Italian head coach Alessandro Nuccorini http://www.fifa.com/en/comp/index/0,2442,103957,00.html?comp=Futsal&year=2004&articleid=103957 Interview with American player Jamar Beasley (who was briefly with Serie C club Putoleana a couple years back) http://www.fifa.com/en/comp/index/0,2442,104002,00.html?comp=Futsal&year=2004&articleid=104002
Final score from today's opening match: Italy 6 USA 3 Sounds like it was a close game to the very end:- http://www.fifa.com/en/news/feature/0,1451,104077,00.html?articleid=104077
Did anybody see the game? Italy's keeper weighs something like 250 pounds! It's incredible. He looks like an undersized (in this day and age) offensive lineman!
Yeah, i watched the whole game. They're goalie is so fat, he coverst he whole net. But he was making a lot of diving saves. I think he's Italy's beach soccer goalie too. The spanish announcers called him "Il Gordito" (the fat guy) during the game.
Italy shut out Japan in their second group match, 5-0. Final group match is Thursday vs Paraguay. BTW, the second round is another group stage.
Hadn't kept up with this - Italy beat Paraguay 4-2 in their final group C match to win the group. In their second phase group, they are matched with 3 European teams - Spain, Portugal, and the Czech Republic. Yesterday, they drew 0-0 with Portugal. It's a very rare score in futsal! Today, they beat Spain 3-2 in a game they really had to win. BTW, their big (fat) keeper sprained his ankle in yesterday's match and is probably out for the tournament.
Yes, apparently the Italians celebrated as if they'd won the tournament. But I think it's mainly because, after only drawing vs Portugal, they really needed the victory. Italy is European champion, after all, and current world #1, so it wasn't that huge of an upset. Also, keep in mind, that only 2 members of the team were born in Italy - most are naturalized Brazilians.
Italy defeated the Czech Republic 3-0 today to win their second stage group and reach Friday's semifinals. Italy will face Argentina while Brazil plays Spain in the other semi.
Italy beat Argentina 7-4 to reach the championship game where they'll meet - not Brazil - but Spain, who won the other semifinal on PKs. Final game is Sunday.
Italy vs Spain! European final all over again! 2-1 to Itay then, wouldn't be bad to be world champions. FUTSAL is real fun to play, that ball makes your control seem amazing!
I love playing futsal. I almost prefer it to outdoor soccer because, at least at the level I play these days, there is more emphasis on accurate passing and ball control than there is outside.
Their is less emphasis on physical ability and more on talent, passing, shooting, all the skill elements. Made for the people, like me, who aren't as athletically gifted as the next guy! Plus it's possible to score some amazing goals!
Its unbelievable really. Another game an ITALIAN NT loses in a final! From all accounts, didn't see any of the games, the ITALY futsal NT played well and deserved a final appearance and considering they beat Spain 3-1 in second round group play may have fancied chances of winning the championship but unfortunately not to be, but a final appearance shows we're at least one of the best.
I just watched this game after being out of town for a few days. Spain played really great defense. Italy just couldn't break it down (until the goal with 30 seconds left). Basically, it seems like at this level of futsal, you just better not get behind.