Prandelli is the future: a coach with an attacking style and a mindset which understands the need of youth in a team. Now, with Prandelli's first match as Italy coach coming up August 10th, against the Ivory Coast, the ex-Fiorentina coach has called up a provisional squad of 30 players. In the squad there are […]

After the disappointing results in South Africa from the senior Italian team, the Italy Under 19s were looking to give the future a winning start at the European championships in France. The U-19 competition is slightly different from the senior level European championships, here's how the competition works: There are two groups of four teams […]

World Cup 2010 South Africa has now been and gone, a feast of football for a month in the rainbow nation. Here are a few memories of the good and bad for the first World Cup of the decade. The Good Paul the Octopus – the world stood still in amazement and in humour, (in […]

Italy has been punished, thanks to their poor performances Italy has lost ground in the FIFA and UEFA rankings. La Gazzetta dello Sport is reporting that Italy has fallen all the way down to 11th in the FIFA rankings, behind Chile and Egypt. This is an anticipation that will most likely be confirmed the 14th […]

Buffon has been troubled by his back for just about three years, and when he had to pull out of the World Cup just 45 minutes in the first match, it was time for Buffon to get an operation. Buffon was operated in Milan because of his herniated disc and the operation went perfectly, a […]

Genoa have plenty of options for their search for a keeper, while they've practically sealed the deal with the Corinthians keeper Felipe, they could be rethinking their plans a little bit. This is thanks to the new rule on player transfers which could hit Serie A teams, reducing the slots to only one non-European player […]

With Italy out of the 2010 World Cup, we have plenty of time to plan for the future and avoid any mistakes we made in this tournament. So it's important to know what Italy did wrong, the mistakes that cost us dearly in the World Cup, making us end up last in the group, behind […]

As the World Cup is attracting all headlines related to soccer, there's always a small echo of transfer market news which now, after Italy's elimination from the World Cup, becomes much more than an echo for Italy fans. And as you read about transfer rumors and deals, you hear the names like Di Maria, Maicon, […]

The Azzurri performed poorly throughout the World Cup and waited till the 80th minute of the match against Slovakia to start playing when it was too late to make a reaction to compensate for the failures in the previous 260 minutes of football. What is most troubling is the fact the Italian reaction was not […]

What should be considered a fair result; Slovakia were better, and Italy were poor, it's just as simple as that. In the end Italy ends up right where they deserve to end up, the bottom of the table, behind New Zealand, Slovakia, and Paraguay. Italy has not played well throughout their three games, only turning […]

Lippi has a strange team of players for this 2010 World Cup, while he's decided to stick with some of the old guard, we've also seen him pick a couple of youngsters. But one thing is constant throughout Lippi's selections, Marcello Lippi's omnipresent affection towards picking and relying on Juventus players. This has led to […]

I appeared on a CBC TV news program in Canada Monday night and was asked to defend the theatrics of soccer. The diving and the cheating that are so woven into the fabric of soccer and are most evident to the public when the World Cup takes center stage every four years. To be fair, […]

Italy managed to draw 1-1 against both Paraguay and New Zealand while failing to impress despite having seen a lot in terms of ball possession, in particular against the Kiwis when the Italians had just over 70% in terms of ball possession. Pundits and fans alike are debating what has gone wrong for the Azzurri […]

Yet another disappointing result for the Azzurri, while they drew with Paraguay last round of matches, that result seemed acceptable because New Zealand and Slovakia drew as well. But a draw against New Zealand, knowing that Paraguay had beaten Slovakia 2-0 is definitely a bad result. Lippi decided to start with a standard 4-4-2 formation, […]

So the World Cup is now a week old, every team has played at least once. It is now becoming clear whether your team was a sound bet or as dodgy as a Northern Rock balance sheet. There have already been a few surprises, and those following a minnow may have had a nice surprise. Also […]