Italy-Bulgaria Preview

On September 6th, at 20:45, the Stadio Renzo Barbera of Palermo will host the world cup qualifier clash between Italy and Bulgaria.

Prior to this match, Italy and Bulgaria have faced each other a total of 16 times, which are resulted in 8 victories for Italy, 6 ties, and 2 victories for Bulgaria.

From www.italia1910.com

Out of the 16 matches, the one that is the most remembered is certainly the world cup semifinal of USA 94. 

A great double of Roberto Baggio in the first half gave Italy the 2-1 win over the strong Bulgarian team. Besides Baggio's goals, special mention to the great performance of Demetrio Albertini, who played a perfect game. 

  

Italy-Bulgaria also reminds us, sadly, of Euro 2004. On June 22 of that year, the whole nation join Cassano's tears as the 2-1 victory wasn't enough for the Nazionale to go through the group stage given the "biscotto" between Sweden & Denmark.

#ForzaItalia!!! 

Italia: One Step at a Time

Quintus Horatius taught us over 2000 years ago: Carpe Diem. In English, seize the day. Despite our great heritage from the Roman culture, we Italians do not seem to have picked up the essence of Horatiu's lesson. Patience is not a very well spread quality among our great population. 

The world of football is where this is mainly demonstrated: short-run projects; managers fired even during preseason; and so on.

So here we are, our beloved Nazionale is about to print the tickets for Brazil 2014 as it prepares to face two difficult teams, Bulgaria and Czech Republic, both in national territory. 

Early world cup qualification would represent another sign of maturity for Prandelli's team. It would be the best way for the Nazionale to prepare for the magical tournament of next year. 

Unfortunately, a couple of days ago Italians received very bad news. Not any bad news, but one of the saddest news calcio fans could have heard these days: Cesare Prandelli will leave the Nazionale right after the world cup.

Of course, what is the most likely thing for us Italians to do after hearing the news? There's in only one possible answer. Travelling in time to the future, precisely to August 2014, to only discuss about who is going to take over the Nazionale's managerial job. No more discussion about world cup qualification or, more surprisingly, not even room to discuss about the actual world cup. 

One step at a time guys. First thing to worry about now is to secure the qualification on Friday and Tuesday. Then, what is going to be the final group to take on the adventure of hunting for the fifth star in Brazil. Then, and only then, it's when we will finally have the right and obligation to think about the next manager. 

Forza ragazzi. Our players need us. Prandelli deserves it. Let's start the season by eating Bulgarians!

#ForzaItalia

The Italians are not very "friendly"

Cesare Prandelli is a fancy gentleman that everyone adores. He is the man who completely changed the face of the Nazionale. The disaster of 2010 is the second lowest point ever touched by Italian football. Only the non-qualification to 1958 World Cup has been a darker page than the South-African adventure. (Yes, I consider world cup 2010 to be even more shameful than 1966, when were eliminated by North Korea: to South Africa, we arrived as world champions).

Prandelli has the merit of bringing the "love for the Nazionale" back to the people. He revolutionized everything: from introducing the famous "ethical code" to giving the squad a ball-possession oriented playing style. These are only a few reasons why he is already a part of Italian history, even if he doesn't win any title!

Prandelli is many things: he's fancy, aesthetic, polite, and at times, even tough. However, we can say, by all means, that he is not very friendly. With this I mean that he hardly makes the team perform well in friendly matches. I don't specifically intend this as a compliment nor a criticism. This is just my personal opinion, intended as a fact. Managing the Nazionale, he has only lost 10 matches in three years. 8 of these, have been in friendlies.

Italy's bad results in friendlies are not specifically attached to just Prandelli, however. Just think about the clubs, who basically lost almost every friendly match this preseason. Most of these defeats were even by many goals. The Nazionale, just like the club teams, is always in bad shape in August.

In this graphic, the results of Nazionale's friendly matches of August from 2002 to 2012: 3 victories (one to Germany, big surprise!), 2 ties, and 6 defeats, which become 7 if we add yesterday's loss to Argentina.

www.italia1910.com

The match against Argentina was basically the same old story of Italy in friendlies, especially of the era Prandelli. The team starts very slow and suffers the opponent's initiative, especially in the beginnings of the first and second half. Then, as time goes by, the sense of pride finally makes players wake up and strongly react to the difficulties. The Nazionale usually finishes the game attacking and creating lots of scoring opportunities, producing a "flame" that is extinguished by the lack of time. This kind of situation also happened against Brazil in the Confederations Cup, which was not a friendly. 

Several were the positive sides of the match:

- Federico Marchetti: with hard work and consistent, the Venetian goalkeeper has silently been able to (re)earn his well deserved spot as the vice-Buffon. Last night, two great saves in addition to a great sense of confidence between the posts. He should be the successor of Saint Buffon, after Brazil's world cup.

- Lorenzo Insigne: endless flashes of talent for the young Neapolitan. After a great U-21 Euro, he scores his first goal with the Nazionale at his second cap, with a beautiful goal that reminds us of the great Del Piero. He is our future.

- Antonio Candreva: the Laziale is becoming a strong reality of our football. Today's performance was only a continuation of what was seen in the Confederations Cup and with Lazio. He is taking over the right wing of the Nazionale. Today he even took a free kick that did not end well, but it shows leadership.

- Christian Maggio: the run-off with Abate is non stop. However, in the last year Napoli's wing man has been able to maintain a positive degree of consistency with the Nazionale. As of now, that position for Brazil should be his. Abate is to prove the opposite. 

- Alessandro Diamanti: what a shame he established in Nazionale being too old. His amazing left foot will certainly be a great resource for the world cup.

- Marco Verratti: last night, it wasn't the best of his matches. Still soon to say that he is the successor of Andrea Pirlo, but he has shown that he owns a great sense of courage and responsibility in the middle of the pitch. He knows the profession very well. What a bright future he has. 

- Daniele De Rossi: our next captain. Despite the big mistake that led to Higuain's goal, he always responds well when he wears the Nazionale jersey, even when required to play in defense. Amazing his half a field run with the ball giving an almost magnificent assist to Osvaldo. 

- The overall team reaction, mostly resulted by the great sense of pride.

The negative aspects of the match: 

- The slow and poor approach to the match. Argentina didn't forget that the best way to honor the Pope was to play a real and competitive match. Italy had a hard time realizing this. 

- Pablo Osvaldo: despite the many opportunities given by Prandelli, I honestly don't see him at the same level of Balotelli, and even Gilardino.                                                                                                                                    - Prandelli's efforts to keep trying the Christmas Tree (4-3-2-1). I'm not the appropriate person to judge Prandelli's knowledge, and I know that the tactic formation is not the only important aspect, but with that formation, the team keeps suffering. 

Without a doubt, Argentina looked very strong. If we only take into consideration the technical aspect, they are much superior to our Nazionale. However, I am far convinced that if we face them in the world cup, it would be a whole different story. Perhaps they will also end up beating Italy, but certainly not like last night. Of course, they were missing Messi; but we were missing Balotelli and, more especially, Pirlo.  

The next time we will see the Nazionale will be on the doubleheader of September 6th (against Bulgaria) and the 10th (against Czech Republic) for world cup qualifiers. Prandelli should not have major problems securing the first place of the group in the two matches, despite the dangers of the opponents. I definitely hope to see more of young players such as Florenzi and Insigne in the squad, as well as having Barzagli and Balotelli finally back in health. I will see you then! 

#ForzaItalia 

Nazionale's All-Time Best XI

In one of the too many conversations about football, I was recently challenged by a fellow British friend to come up with my personal Italy's all-time best XI line-up that would ideally face his England's best XI.

When having to think about such squad, at first I thought it could have been done within 20 minutes. However, as I got to half of the formation, this job actually became very stressful, and even painful.

Of course, choosing the first 3-4 players of the Dream-Team was easy: the unquestioned legends easily took their spot. The problem came as I started to realize that for each position there are two or more individuals that would absolutely deserve a place in such team. Great surprise!!!

For a few days, and just for fun, I experienced the same problems the Nazionale's great managers have had in the past. I felt like Ferruccio Valcareggi in 1970, who had the ability to arrive to a World Cup final but was never able to make a final choice between Sandro Mazzola & Gianni Rivera. He invented the historic, and quite controversial, Staffetta (Relay): the Interista would play the first 45 minutes of the game, and would then be substituted by the Milanista.

I also felt like Cesare Maldini in 1998, having to choose between Roberto Baggio & Alessandro Del Piero. Or like Dino Zoff in 2000, arriving to the Euro final with the infinite dispute between Francesco Totti and, again, Del Piero.

All this might be the only downside of having such a rich history: a quite embarrassing wealth of options. On the bright side, as much as I wanted to select way more than 11 players, it also came into my mind that it didn't really matter as any team I chose would probably be more competitive than any other all-time best XI of any other country!

So, finally getting to the point, this is my best XI squad (3-4-3):

What a great team it turned out to be. In reality, I have no idea how Valentino Mazzola and Giuseppe Meazza were as players. Their presence in this team is more symbolic than anything else. For what they represent and how they are remembered, they deserved a spot in this team.

Giuseppe Meazza is the symbol of the Italy back to back World Champion of the 30's. Impossible not having one member of that generation. The same deal for Valentino Mazzola, captain of the Great Torino of the 40's. That amazing team won 5 "Scudetti" in a row and represented more than half of the Nazionale of that time. The 1950 World Cup would have been a whole different story without the tragedy of Superga. 

Don't forget, however, that Italian football experts consider Meazza and V. Mazzola the greatest players ever produced in the country. 

If my bestXI would have to be only for players I have actually seen playing (in videos or real live), I would have to replace V. Mazzola for Giuseppe Bergomi as a right back and have a 4-3-3. Then, to replace Meazza, I would use Christian Vieri.

BONUS:

Given the huge list of honorable mentions of the Nazionale's greatest players, I decided to do a second selection. This one, has a different formation (4-3-3) 

These 11 players could not remain behind. Each of these players would deserve to be in the first team as well. Silvio Piola, World Champion in 1938, is also the top scorer in Serie A history (274 goals). Impossible not to add him, despite not having seen in play. If I were to only add players I have seen, I would replace him with either Gianluca Zambrotta or Roberto Donadoni, who would play as left midfielder in a 4-4-2. 

Other honorable mentions:

- Gianluca Pagliuca
- Roberto Donadoni
- Angelo Schiavio
- Salvatore Schillaci
- Alessandro Costacurta
- Giampiero Boniperti
- Gianluca Zambrotta
- Alessandro Del Piero
- Valentino Mazzola
- Silvio Piola
- Tarcisio Burgnich
- Massimo Oddo
- Giuseppe Bergomi
- Francesco Totti
- Dino Baggio
- Alessandro Altobelli
- Antonio Cabrini
- Roberto Bettega
- Gennaro Gattuso
- Enrico Albertosi
- Angelo Domenghini
- Giuseppe Giannini
- Gabriele Oriali
- Walter Zenga
- Fulvio Collovati
- Franco Causio
- Giancarlo Antognoni
- Giancarlo De Sisti

#ForzaItalia

Italian Leadership & Captains (Part 2)

Wearing the captain's arm-band of the Nazionale during a World Cup is the ultimate dream of any Italian kid who starts playing football. In a country that is always bombed by controversies and scandals, being the captain of the national team is not an easy job. In fact, this job can be as stressful as it is rewarding. It is a tough job due to the fact that the captain has to always be the first one of the players in taking responsibility for any negative thing might happen around the team.

However, one thing has to be said, being the captain in Italy is always much more prestigious than in other countries (with a few exception, of course) just for the fact that Italy has always high chances of becoming world champion. Four of Italy's captains have had the insuperable honor of lifting the trophy to the sky to celebrate a World Cup victory: Giampiero Combi, Giuseppe Meazza, Dino Zoff, and Fabio Cannavaro. 

Here is the full list of all the captains that have led the Nazionale to the glorious journey of the World Cups: 

- 1934: Giampiero Combi (1902-1956). Goalkeeper. 47 international caps with Italy. World Champion.  

- 1938: Giuseppe Meazza (1910-1979). Forward. Considered the best Italian player of all time. 53 international caps (33 goals). World Champion in 1934 and 1938. So legendary he even got the name of a stadium in his honor. 

- 1950: Riccardo Carapellese (1922-1995). Forward. 16 international caps (10 goals).

- 1954: Giampiero Boniperti (1928). Forward. 38 international caps (8 goals). 

- 1958: Italy did not participate in this world cup.

- 1962: Lorenzo Buffon (1929). Goalkeeper. Distant relative of Gianluigi Buffon. 15 international caps. 

- 1966: Sandro Salvadore (1939-2007). Defender. 36 international caps. Euro-Cup winner in 1968. 

- 1970-1974: Giacinto Facchetti (1942-2006). Left back. Absolute legend. 94 international caps (3 goals). World Cup finalist. Also captain-winner of Euro 68.

- 1978-1982: Dino Zoff (1942). Goalkeeper. Dino holds the world's record for the longest time without receiving goals in international tournaments (1142 minutes) between 1972 and 1974. First Italian in reaching over 100 international caps (112). Oldest winner ever of the World Cup (40 years and 4 months). Only Italian in history that has won both the Euro-Cup (1968) and the World Cup (1982).

- 1986: Gaetano Scirea (1953-1989). Defender. 72 international caps (2 goals). World Champion in 1982. 

-1990: Giuseppe Bergomi (1963). Defender. 81 international games (6 goals). World Champion in 1982.  

- 1994: Franco Baresi (1960). Defender. 81 international caps (1 goal). Absolute legend. World Champion in 1982. World Cup finalist in 1994.

- 1998-2002: Paolo Maldini (1968). Left back. Holds the record of most minute played in World Cup history (2216). Absolute legend. 126 international caps (7 goals). World Cup finalist in 1994. Euro-Cup finalist 2000.

- 2006-2010: Fabio Cannavaro (1973). Defender. Golden Ball and FIFA World Player in 2006. 136 international caps (2 goals). World Champion. Euro-Cup finalist 2000.

  

- 2014: If nothing major happens, it will be Gianluigi Buffon (1978) the captain and leader of the Nazionale. 133 international caps, he will soon overpass Cannavaro. World Champion 2006. Euro-Cup finalist 2012.

- For after Buffon, the next captain will most likely be Daniele De Rossi (1983). Capitan Futuro. At 90 international caps, he is soon to join Zoff, Maldini, Cannavaro, Buffon, and Pirlo to the centenarian club. 

- Special mention to Francesco Calí (1882-1949) for being the first captain ever of the Italian Nazionale's in 1910. 

- Second special mention to Giuseppe Rossi (1987) for representing Italy as the captain at the age of 23 for one game. 

It is an absolute honor to have been and be represented by such great individuals and true captains. I am sure that our glorious Nazionale will continue to have the same kind of leaders for the future as well. 

#ForzaItalia

Italian Leadership & Captains (Part 1)

The history of the Nazionale has been characterized by having legendary captains that, beyond being great football players, they were first incredible men with an immense sense of leadership and human value.

Let's be honest, the Nazionale never won titles purely relying on actual talent. Even though many of its leaders were very talented with the ball in their feet, it is not this quality that has given Italy the high amount of titles it has. If talent was the major component of a glorious team such as Italy, we would remember more the various Zola, Mancini, Chiesa, Di Natale rather than the various Gattuso, Dino Baggio, Oriali, Gentile and so on.

Of course, in such a rich history like the one of Italian football, it has also been the case that the leader of particular generation happens to be the most talented player in the team. Think of today's Nazionale: the two main leaders are Gianluigi Buffon and Andrea Pirlo. Do I need to say more? Both them are absolute top-class talents in the world of football, one as a goalkeeper and the other one as field player. 

However, this is not always the case. It is a well known fact that every team, and even every player, achieves success by taking advantage of their own strengths to the fullest, and by relying the least they can on their biggest weaknesses. Essentially, a team whose players are not particularly good at heading the ball won't try to rely on air play to win matches.

The Italian Nazionale is a clear example of this. Analyzing pure talent player by player, we never have the best team. If we looked at the rosters or Argentina and Spain, for example, their players are much more talented than ours. Yet, Italy has one more World Cup than Argentina and Spain combined. 

This happens because Italian players are almost always able to go beyond their capabilities. In decisive moments, they go through some kind of transformation in which they become stronger than everything and everyone: the other teams, the controversies, the media, negative supporters, and so on.

This point is demonstrated by the fact that, compared to other countries, some of our great heroes of our past are players who did not particularly had notorious careers other than one specific tournament at the highest levels. 

The most recent example of this is, without a doubt, Fabio Grosso. For one single month, he became the world's best player as he achieved the ultimate dream of every kid around the world: Scoring the last penalty kick to give a country the title of champion of the world, in addition to scoring a late winner goal in a World Cup semifinal against the home team in a stadium in which such team had never lost before. These are experiences that even the history's best players could have the opportunity to live.

Along the Nazionale's history, there are many other examples. Salvatore Schillaci's celebrations are the most remembered images of the Nazionale in World Cup 1990. Scoring six goals, he became the main character of the famous "Notti Magiche" of the tournament, leading Italy to a final third place. 

Like Grosso, Schillaci didn't also have a notorious career, besides the magnificent World Cup. Even though he should have been a world champion too, he only played five seasons in Italian Serie A, scoring "only" 37 goals. Insignificant to the 119 goals of Cristiano Lucarelli in Serie A, who barely played six games in Nazionale. 

Even Paolo Rossi, who did have an overall great career, reached his maximum peak in World Cup 1982, leading Italy to the title of world champion in 1982 with six goals, including a hat-trick against the great Brazil. 

Every generation of the Nazionale has always had a strong component of leadership, way beyond the actual player who wears the arm-band. This is exactly what makes Italy so glorious: being able to rely on great individuals that will give it all and act like leaders in decisive and specific moments: 

- Dino Baggio scoring a late goal against Norway in World Cup1994, saving Italy and Sacchi from a huge shame.

- Fabio Cannavaro leading and starting the counter-attack in World Cup 2006 semifinal, recovering the ball twice in 5 seconds right when Germany was attacking trying to tie the game. The counter-attack resulted in Del Piero's goal. 

- Marco Materazzi tying the final in 2006 after having caused the penalty kick for France, minutes before. 

- Andrea Pirlo chipping the ball to Joe Hart in penalty series against England in Euro 2012. England was winning the series, and this episode totally sent British players out of their place. 

- Tarcisio Burnich, center defender who never went beyond midfield, finally going forward and tying the semifinal vs Germany in World Cup 1970 semifinal in extra time right after Germany went up in the score board. The game of the century.

- Claudio Gentile being the worst (or maybe the only) nightmare of Maradona in World Cup 1982.

- Alessandro Del Piero playing as a side back for most of the Euro 2000 semifinal vs home team Holland, as the Nazionale played in 10 after Zambrotta's red card. 

- Christian Panucci tying the match against Romania in Euro 2008, a minute after Romania scored. 

I could go on forever with these examples. There are many more. As well as there are way more cases of "silent" leaders who were very important for Italy, like Gattuso, Oriali, and Giannini. 

Italy, moreover, has also had the luck of being represented by heroic individuals who actually wore the arm-band. In the second part of this post, I will list and post pictures of all the main captains the Nazionale had in every single World Cup. 

Thanks for reading and #ForzaItalia

The Azzurri singing Azzurro by Adriano Celentano

Awesome people, great singers, and even better football players.

Trapattoni's Nazionale (precisely of the period 2003-04) recorded and sang Celentano's historic song for a good cause in support of the AIC tournament of solidarity!

Noticeable the singing talent of Massimo Oddo, who in 2006 was also the barber for teammates and manager Marcello Lippi. Multifunctional right back!

Enjoy

Via +YouTube 

Nazionale, what do we get from the Confederations Cup 2013

The director of the Corriere Dello Sport, Paolo De Paola, manifested through his blog that it shouldn't be OK for a country that has won four World Cups to be satisfied by just doing a good job.

Italian football has evolved in the last years, and, due to the economic crisis and also to many bad decisions taken, its overall tendency and performance have strongly decreased. With this, also the standards of the supporters have consistently lowered, in such that it is acceptable for the Nazionale and club teams to lose against the world's best teams.

In a sense, De Paola is right. Certainly, there is some degree of mediocrity in this new approach that has risen in Italy. Essentially, it should not be acceptable to lose a European final by four goals or to be satisfied with a Confederations Cup that left us with two suffered victories over Mexico and Japan (this one, totally undeserved), a regular second half against Brazil and good performance against Spain in semifinals.

If we look into the Nazionale's history as a whole, then certain things are totally not acceptable. Beyond the fact that only Brazil is above us in World Cup titles, the glory of our Calcio is not only limited to the actual four World Cups.

As a matter of fact, our glory is much more than that as our history is characterized by such a great number of legendary players, managers, specific matches, records, and so on. Italy has played many great tournaments that, even though they didn't result in final victory, they wrote the history of world's football history:

- The 4-3 win over Germany in 1970 World Cup semifinal, known as the Game of the Century.
- The historic performance of Franco Baresi in 1994 World Cup final, only three weeks after havign surgery on his knee.
- Paolo Maldini's record of minutes played in World Cups (2216)
- Marco Tardelli's celebration goal in 1982 World Cup final. By far, one of the most remembered celebrations in the world.

These are only four examples. There are many more.

However, if we looked into the Nazionale's history in separate parts, and we take into consideration all the difficulties we've had in the last eight years, then we could start being satisfied with the performances of Euro 2012 and Confederations Cup 2013.

2010 World Cup could easily be remembered as the worst ever played by Italy. It was the sign of how Calcio suffered the consequences of Calciopoli and other scandals. Far beyond the actual results, Marcello Lippi, who gave us the glory in 2006, did many mistakes managing the team in 2010. With this I don't mean to say that he should have called-up Cassano and even Balotelli because, frankly, I think not calling them was a good decision.

However, what I want to say is that Lippi could have managed the situation better. One thing is to not call Cassano, which (again) it is understandable, and another thing is to create this hateful relationship with fans and journalists prior to a major event.

After the disaster of 2010, the role of managing the Nazionale was assigned to a new different character, Cesare Prandelli, the fancy man who successfully took care of renewing the team and give a new face to the Nazionale.

The improvement from 2010 didn't take much time to be noticed. From the beautiful playing to the the new relationship with the fans, we can say that the Nazionale has risen again. Prandelli has made an excellent job with overall young players, who step by step, have been gaining more confidence with the jersey. Plus, if there is someone to thank for Balotelli's ongoing maturity, this someone is only Cesare.

Moreover, only thanks to the performances of the last two years, is that we can some degree of positive expectations for the 2014 World Cup. Prior to last year's Euro-Cup, expectations were very low, honestly.

After three years of Prandelli, we have many positive results:

- The maturity of Balotelli.
- The establishment in the squad of important players for the future, such as Bonucci, Maggio, Montolivo, Giaccherini, De Sciglio, and Rossi, who will come back stronger than before!
- The experience of veterans such as world champions Buffon, Pirlo, Barzagli, and De Rossi, and Italy's best defender Giorgio Chiellini.

At this point, the only thing that is missing to Prandelli's Nazionale is the real winning spirit that has always characterized Italy. Lippi had it, Bearzot had it, Vicini had it, and many more. Prandelli isn't quite there yet.

But, if Cesare finds the way to stamp a winning spirit to his own Nazionale, this team is ready to do great things. If not, this team will always remain in the "almost."

Anyway, always #ForzaItalia!

Welcome to my blog!

Dear reader,

Thank you for visiting my blog. In this portal, I will go into depth in the analysis of Italian Calcio. Moreover, I will share unique material, such as videos and pictures, that have made the history of Italian football.

Weekly, I will also be sharing various anecdotes and interesting facts about club teams, players, and, of course, the Nazionale (Italian National Team).

Quizzes will belong to this blog as well.

Enjoy and Forza Italia,

Riccardo Di Iulio