Yes, a combination of various factors, probably. The fact that for long most Italian players weren't professional (actually they aren't yet, although a lot of them right now, especially in big clubs, are basically paid as if they were) meant that they used to want to stay close not only to their family, but especially to their schools/universities or to their day-time jobs (since football didn't seem like a possible life-supporting career, even for the best players). Also, the fact that Italy didn't manage to qualify to the World Cup for a whopping 20 years before 2019 wasn't probably the best advertisement for overseas clubs to sign our players. Of course, as it happens for many other countries, there could have been single good and motivated players who could have tried their luck in countries were women's football was much more established than in Italy. And actually there were some few cases, even quite recently; it's just a combination that these days there are none: Valentina Giacinti went playing in a minor division in USA for a short stint; GK Laura Giuliani played in Germany for 4 seasons, between 2012 and 2017; Elena Linari was at Atletico Madrid between 2018 and 2020 and was subsequently replaced there by Alia Guagni, who had also played in US minor divisions for some time. By the way, Alia Guagni is out injured by quite a longtime, or she could have been the only NT player currently playing abroad. As readers of this thread know, this could change soon, since Barbara Bonansea has been rumoured to have raised interest from big European clubs (although we could recently see how rumours are indeed just rumours ).
By the way, Aurora Galli (you'll probably remember about her, two goals at WWC 2019) wasn't called for these friendly matches because she's out injured for about a month with an ankle sprain, but I read that her transfer from Juventus to Everton will soon be officially announced.
Sunday was cup final time, in the Coppa Italia Femminile. You know, I'm starting to suspect that these Milan TV commentators may also be Milan fans themselves! Heck of a coincidence, if so. Anyway, here's the game AC Milan - AS Roma, full match (30 Mar) dailymotion.com/video/x81mhhb And gli Highlights dailymotion.com/video/x81mjrp
Thanks for posting! Despite the 0-0 score it was a quite entertaining match; maybe Milan had a little prevalence in number of chances (or potential chances, since many actions were stopped by very close off-side calls), but they completely crumbled apart, with no excuses, in the penalty shootout. Not sure if it was mainly mental or from fatigue (the rhythm of the game had been quite high, and, after 90' + 30' of extra-time, many players, actually from both teams, had cramps: at least one per team, Andressa and Fifi, had to be subbed-out for that), but it's a shame that those PKs were taken so badly by Milan. As I've written on another thread, it reminded me a little of the sequence of PKs in the USA-Japan final from WWC 2011: in that case also there was a team missing 3 PKs out of 4 (USA) and one winning the trophy by scoring 3 out of 4 instead (Japan). Well, I guess this is the sendoff of the season in Italy, at least for what concerns club football (Milan will be the first team to resume the season, in August, when they'll have to play Champions' League's preliminary round). The National Team still have the friendly matches vs Netherlands and Austria to play, that will be soon covered on this very thread!
If Montemurro is taking over Juventus, it is a strong indication that he was pushed out by the management at Arsenal. Arsenal was his dream job; he wouldn't have just resigned to take another job. He caught a lot of flak this past season for Arsenal's losses to its big rivals--Chelsea and ManCity in particular. I'm not sure the flak was deserved.
I believe he jumped the boat after a lot of criticism due to the club losing all the big games to Chelsea, City and United. My understanding is back in March, he was in the final 3 coaches for the Wales job. He will have a big job to make Juventus relevant on the international scene as I think they lost in the WCL Round 1 three times in a row. Low coefficient but tough opponents.
Yes, in three consecutive years they have lost to Brøndby, to Barcelona and to OL! (Only Brøndby could have looked vaguely manageable, but on the other hand that year was Juventus' debut in Champions' League, although a lot of the players had already experienced the tournament with Brescia, incidentally being clobbered by OL in that circumstance also). I guess it will be important to know if Montemurro will have Bonansea available or not: she's the most brilliant domestic talent in Italy, but there were many rumours in the last month about a potential transfer for her. By the way, do you have any idea if the one suggesting an interest from OL is legit, @shlj?
And once again, as it happened multiple times during the last weeks, rumours reveal for what they are, just rumours: Barbara Bonansea re-signs for Juventus for another season. Did Montemurro manage to persuade her that they're building a competitive team for Europe also? Anyway, securing Bonansea for another year, after all that had been said in the last month, almost feels like a "big" new signing. She's for sure the most talented Italian player from her generation, one of the few who can almost single-handedly change the course of a game (see Italy-Australia at WWC 2019). Juventus win this round.
Recent Bonansea's renewal of her contract with Juventus (after many rumours had circulated about potential signings abroad) and the reaction to that on most Italian media made me think of another reason why Italian players could be less oriented to move overseas: Italian women's league is still very fragile and it needs all (or most) of its domestic stars to attract supporters and investments. Here in Italy we're probably at the crucial moment for the growth of women's football movement and basically any "big name" player (Italian or not, but mostly Italian) the league manages to retain could mean many more supporters showing up at the stadium (when it'll be possible) or anyway supporting the teams and the league as a whole. I can tell from personal experience that, before the explosion of the interest for women's football that followed WWC 2019, there were many Serie A Femminile's matches (or even most of them, I'd say) with attendances that were barely touching the few hundreds. Even just before the pandemic, only a few big clubs were gathering decent crowds, but most of the games looked like shows for just parents and sparse niche-enthusiasts. There will be for sure Italian players trying experiences abroad (there have been in the past and there will be in the future), but in this moment Italian League needs all of the Bonanseas and the Giacintis of this world to stay here to just thrive and to hopefully grow to sustainable levels. The players know, the teams know, the League knows, the Federation knows. So, I guess there are many forces pushing in the same direction of protecting domestic talent.
It was already known since at least a pair of weeks, but now it's official: Joe Montemurro is Juventus' new coach.
Italy-Netherlands friendly match going to start right now (not sure if there is a streaming link because I am watching it on TV on RAI 2). Strange line-up for Italy: an unusual 3-4-3 with only players from Juventus and Roma. Why no Miedema for Netherlands? Injured? May the best one win!
Water break at 22' in Ferrara. Italy is ahead by 1-0 with a Cristiana Girelli's PK from a foul on Bonansea at 14'. Netherlands look quite slow. Of course no Miedema and no Martens doesn't help Netherlands looking like Netherlands.
Italy-Netherlands 1-0 at HT. Netherlands with a ponderous but useless possession, mostly in their own half: they only had one clear chance, but frankly they didn't impress. They look slow from a preparation timed to peak at the Olympics or out of ideas or both. Italy look very careful in defense, sometimes brilliant in the building of some offensive actions, but with no real finishing except a pair FKs and the PK.
Yes. ℹ️ @VivianneMiedema heeft last van een lichte blessure en komt vandaag niet in actie. Ze zal ook niet op de bank plaatsnemen. #ITANED https://t.co/dRkRnNmVWR— OranjeLeeuwinnen (@oranjevrouwen) June 10, 2021
Well, it was a Netherlands team without Miedema and Martens, but it's anyway very good for Italy to beat the team that's #3 in the world in FIFA rankings! Italy 1-0 Netherlands, FT (Girelli (PK) 14') The Second Half was much more entertaining than the First one and both teams had some good chances, but I'd say that Italy was closer to score 2-0 than Netherlands to equalize (a very brilliant action concluded by Bonansea was the best one, but Serturini and Giacinti could have scored too from fast counter-attack actions). I guess this win should give Italy much more self-confidence: they could even end... beating Switzerland, at this point!
Not sure why: I missed the pre-match, when the commentators were presenting the teams and probably were explaining Miedema's and Martens' absences, and later they only pointed out from time to time that they were missing but never mentioned the reason.
In the International Friendlies 2021 thread I had only posted highlights of the thread, that by the way I gladly repost here: Here, I decided to also post the full game (with comment in Italian); maybe some people from the Netherlands 2021 thread could be interested in it (@L'orange, @Ethan Frank, @desinho anyone? ). The video includes the pre-game chatting that I mentioned I had partially missed: Miedema's injury is confirmed, but Martens out was apparently just technical choice; she can even be seen during the warm up before the game, but she remained siiting on the bench for the whole match: probably Wiegman wanted to try different solutions that didn't include Martens at all (and it somehow makes sense, since, with the very compressed schedule of the Olympic Tournament, she will probably need to rest Martens at least once at group stage):
Surprise, surprise! Now the fact that Bertolini called 35 players for two friendly games suddenly makes sense: half the team was sent home and the team that will play Austria will basically be an Italy B-team, made mostly of young prospects. It only remains two of the starters (Manuela Giugliano and Elena Linari) and one that's by now at least an half-starter (Annamaria Serturini). The list of the players who were sent home is basically 9/11 of a classic starting line-up from the latest years: Laura Giuliani, Elisa Bartoli, Lisa Boattin, Sara Gama, Valentina Cernoia, Martina Rosucci, Barbara Bonansea, Valentina Giacinti, Cristiana Girelli! Unlike other NTs, Italy doesn't have an "official" B-team, but the one that will play against Austria sure won't be the usual line-up. These are the names of the 23 players who remain available to Bertolini (it's likely that many of the readers of this international forum won't know most of them, since they're only very well known to those who regularly follow Serie A Femminile): Goalkeepers: Roberta Aprile (Inter), Francesca Durante (Hellas Verona), Katja Schroffenegger (Fiorentina); Defenders: Maria Luisa Filangeri (Sassuolo), Martina Lenzini (Sassuolo), Elena Linari (Roma), Beatrice Merlo (Inter), Benedetta Orsi (Sassuolo), Angelica Soffia (Roma), Alice Tortelli (Fiorentina), Martina Zanoli (Fiorentina); Midfielders: Melissa Bellucci (Empoli), Arianna Caruso (Juventus), Norma Cinotti (Empoli), Manuela Giugliano (Roma), Giada Greggi (Roma), Cecilia Prugna (Empoli), Martina Tomaselli (Sassuolo); Forwards: Agnese Bonfantini (Roma), Sofia Cantore (Florentia), Benedetta Glionna (Empoli), Valeria Pirone (Sassuolo), Annamaria Serturini (Roma). 9 of these 23 players have 0 official caps with the Senior Team (and another 5 or 6 have between 1 and 3 caps), so I can predict some debuts tomorrow! Before I knew that the starters would have only played the Netherlands game, I couldn't actually see many debuts, but now it is clear that they'll happen instead. I guess the players probably knew about this set-up in advance, so it could be that they were even more motivated to do well vs Netherlands, since it was literally their last match of the season, before leaving the stage to their younger counterparts. I guess Bertolini made this choice because she needed to see some of the youngsters in action on the international stage to decide which ones could be brought to England 2022 (and beyond, since this squad of course needs a generational change). Also, the fact that youth tournaments were hit hard by the pandemic could have been another reason to give those players this chance.
Well, I seem to remember that a "France B", or something of the kind, was even sent to some kind of minor friendly tournaments in the past: do I remember wrong? Of course, maybe "official" is not the right word, since I don't think it's anything FIFA-recognized, but I seem to remember that France, for instance, deploys a full "secondary" team, with camps and matches. Maybe someone (@shlj?) can confirm or deny my impression? Japan, in the past, had a sort of "Challenge Team", that was also send to some tournaments (maybe some kind of East Asian Cup?) under the name of the Senior Team, but in fact being a secondary team. My memories are blurred, because I didn't always follow this kind of set-ups, but the idea of having a sort of B-team, that's not just the U-20 NT or similar Youth Teams, is something that seems to be coming and going among "big" traditional teams.
We used to have an official B team that is now called U23. England also used to a Next Gen team that also became U23 and later U21. That team no longer exist as it was cut to to the FA cutting many jobs during the pandemic. Many countries have a U23 team.
A mix of a few experienced players and a bunch of youngsters or players who hadn't had many chances to shine in the latest years managed to beat Austria, #21 in FIFA rankings, by 2-3 at their home, in Wiener Neustadt (in other threads I mentioned why I particularly love this little Austrian town: ). Out of these young uncapped players I had mentioned in a previous post, 4 debuted yesterday: Empoli's Melissa Bellucci (yes, it's a M. Bellucci, but it's not Monica! ) started the game and was subbed out at HT (actually, it wasn't a particularly brilliant debut for her, in my opinion), while Inter's Beatrice Merlo, Sassuolo's Maria Luisa Filangeri and Empoli's Cecilia Prugna were subbed-in during 2nd Half. Also Angelica Soffia, who, as I had mentioned, had debuted two months ago vs Iceland, started as a MF, despite being normally a DF, and scored a brace at her 3rd cap with the Senior Team! A predestined one? Valeria Pirone started also, collecting her 6th cap at a whopping 10 years since her 5th one!!! You always have to believe you can make it! So, basically a team that only had Elena Linari (who was wearing the captain's armband for the first time) as a starter from the "regular" team (later in 2nd Half Manuela Giugliano would have been subbed-in also) managed to beat a team that was sitting just 6 placed below them and was starting most of their regulars. In fact it needed a lil bit of luck to beat them and they controlled the game for long periods of the match. But I guess this win is a testament to the growth of the women's football movement in Italy: basically it's stating: "We have depth". Behind the regular starters there is a group of girls who are ready to eventually take their place. It will be difficult for Bertolini to correctly select the roster for Euro 2022, and this is actually good for Italy. After an home win vs team #3 and an away win vs team #21, Italy is expected to gain some points in FIFA rankings: despite the fact that they were just friendly matches, someone in the FIFA World Ranking thread calculated that we should at least catch up with China at #14 place. Here are the official highlights of the game (sorry for the darkness: in TV it looked more bright ): Bonus: Italy-Netherlands additional highlights from the ground-level camera :
Blow off dust from the thread... I am honest: I am not sure I'll have time, this year, to keep this thread regularly updated. It doesn't generate enough interest for many other people to post here, but I am busy following my main interest, Nadeshiko Japan thread, so I don't actually feel like I'll be able to keep this national thread alive almost alone, @Bauser-like. What I can promise is some update from time to time, if people like that. The start of the 2023 qualifier campaign is a good excuse to add a post, since this thread, despite being namely dedicated to the league, has been traditionally used for all the things more broadly regarding women's football in Italy, National Teams included. Italy played Moldova yesterday at home, in Trieste, and will play an away match in Croatia on Tuesday. Trieste was most probably chosen because it was close to the border with Croatia (ok, technically the one with Slovania, but after that it's less than 20 Km to reach Croatia ), but the upside was that it's the town where captain Sara Gama was born and raised and yesterday she played there with NT for the first time : The game was honestly some kind of a stinker: Italy went ahead by 3-0 in 1st Half with a brace from Cristiana Girelli and a goal from Valentina Giacinti, but they they weren't able to score any other goals in 2nd Half, despite outshooting Moldova by 39-0. Moldova literally camped in their half of the pitch all of the game, but such an awful converting ratio from "Le Azzurre" could sting vs stronger teams in our qualifying group (Moldova, 97th in FIFA rankings, was the minnow there, and of course was expected to lose by a much bigger margin): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUnVodBnteAdGONNcUpS_kw As I mentioned, I wanted to piggybick on the NT match to add some info about the beginning of the national league, but I guess it's a good idea to keep that in a separated post.