Italy: Balotelli’s Italy shines in friendlies

After clinching the qualifications to the final stage of the Euro cup competition to be plated in 2012, Italy played 2 friendlies to sharpen its gameplay. In the first match played on Nov. 11th in Poland, Italy performed well winning (0-2) with goals scored by an inspiring Balotelli (photo) and Pazzini with Buffon even saving a penalty. In the 2nd match played on Nov 15th in Roma, Italy struggled to put into practice its offensive gameplay and lost (0-1_ against Uruguay America’s current champions. The guest clinched an early lead and played a smart counter-attack closing spaces but Italy created several chances on goal with Balotellli, Balazaretti and Pepe among others. Coach Prandelli was satisfied of both performances but its new Italy will need to continue to build its character if it wants to succeed against more experienced and solid teams.

Italy: Montolivo leads team to key friendly win

In a friendly match played in Bari, Italy defeated Spain (2-1) in an entertaining match. Prandelli’s team appeared inspired taking the lead early on with a beautiful shot by Montolivo (photo). The guests equalized on penalty but were often in difficulty against the Italian offensive line driven by Cassano. The deciding goal was scored by Aquilani on a deflected shot late in the game sealing a win that seems to highlight the work performed by Prandelli to rejuvenate the Italian national team.

Italy: Disappointing friendly loss is a setback

In a friendly match played in Belgium, Italy lost to Ireland (0-2) after a disappointing match. Prandelli’s team fresh off a convincing victory over Estonia for the Euro 2012 qualifications, offered a poor showing, completely opposite to the spirit and skill displayed in the earlier match. Ireland coached by Trapattoni was well prepared and focused while the Azzurri as so often in these late season friendly matches appeared more to be focused on vacation conceding one goal in each half and never really creating any chances to score. A year on after it arrived on the national bench, Prandelli’s work, it seems, has still a long way to go

Italy: Rossi leads to friendly win in Ukraine

In a friendly match, setup to fine tune Italy’s growth, Italy won in Ukraine (0-2). The match was not spectacular nor intensive so the Italian squad managed gameplay to their advantage leveraging a counter offensive strategy that paid off well in the end. It was Rossi that scored the initial key goal in the first half while Matri doubled the lead just before the end of the match sealing a win that continues to reflect the progress being made by Prandelli’ squad.

Italy: Rossi’s goal gets friendly tie with Germany

In another friendly match, coach Prandelli continued to experiment with the make up of  the new national team. Despite the changes, Italy managed to tie (1-1) in Germany against the home team after trailing from almost the start of the match. The Italian defense however held up well in the second half and the team managed to scrape a deserved tie late in the second half with a goal scored by Rossi.  Prandelli was satisfied with the performance of young newly added players such as Ranocchia in defense, Giovinco and Thiago Motta in midfield. The team however still lacks cohesiveness and stuggles to finalize on goal leaving a lot of work to be done.

Italy: Friendly Tie, Nothing New

In a neutral Austrian setting, Italy and Romania played a friendly match that ended with  a tie (1-1) of little value. Italy’s coach Prandelli called several new youthful talents to test their skills with the national team but was sorely disappointed.  New players (such as Ranocchia, Ledesma, Balzaretti and Diamanti) alongside more  experienced ones (such as Balotelli, Rossi and Aquilani) struggled plenty in the first half with the team conceding a goal that could have been avoided. Only with the entry on the pitch  on the second half of the usual mature talents of Pirlo, DeRossi and Quagliarella, Italy was able to tie the score with Qagliarella. Although Italy has never been inspired in friendly matches, Prandelli clearly has a lot of work cut out to build the foundations of a future more youthful Italian team.

New Italy: Lots of new talent, same old friendly loss

The first match of the new Italy under Cesare Prandelli’s management ended with a disappointing loss (1-0) in a friendly with Ivory Coast played in London. Prandelli revolutionized the team (photo) with the new captain DeRossi (given Cannavaro’s retirement while waiting for Buffon’s return after a surgery) to guide an unfamiliar group. With Sirigu as keeper, the new defense lineup introduced Motta, Bonucci and Molinaro alongside Chiellini. DeRossi led the midfield with Palombo while the biggest changes however were on the offensive line with Pepe now operating with Cassano, and Balotelli behind Amauri. Unfortunately, with not much training in their legs, the talented trio did not really shine offering only a few enlightening plays. The Azzurri only came close to scoring when Motta hit the post but after conceding the goal, they virtually disappeared with the subs (Montolivo, Rossi, Borriello, Quagliarella, etc) not adding much. In the end this result does not say much about Prandelli’s new course except that he will have to work very hard to create a coherent and united team in a very short time as the qualifying stage for the Europe Cup begins next month.

Italy: New Coach Prandelli Takes Rein

Today Cesare Prandelli (left photo) became officially the new coach of the Italian national team. With Lippi set to leave, Prandelli was selected by the Italian Federation before the 2010 World Cup in South Africa which ended in disaster with Italy exiting at the first round. Departing Marcello Lippi (right photo), which was heavily criticized by the media for not calling up some popular player, will be remembered nonetheless for leading Italy to its 4 World Cup title in 2006. Lippi led Italy between 2004 and 2006 and came back to coach the national team in 2008 after Roberto Donadoni was let go as a result of the poor showing in the 2008 European Cup. Prandelli’s main goal will be rebuild the national team, now made up of mostly aged players and develop new talent that will lead Italy to reach new successes.

Italy: 2 friendlies, mixed results

In preparation of the World Cup, Lippi’s Italy played 2 friendly matches this week that turned out to be anything but leading to disappointing and with Pirlo getting injured which is a major setback.

In the first match played Thursday in Brussels, Italy lost to Mexico (2-1) after an awful performance. The team seemed tired from the intensive prep work Lippi imposed and never entered the match scoring only in the final minutes with Bonucci.

In the second match played today in Geneva, Italy tied with Switzerland showing some improvement but still struggling in defense and in producing counter offensive play. The match ended 1-1 with Quagliarella scoring the draw with a great header.

Italy: 1910-2010 – 100th year Anniversary

Today the the Italian National Football team celebrates its first 100th birthday. The Italian national team (photo) played its first match 15 May 1910. At that time the first team played with white shirts and won beating France 6-2 at the Civico Arena di Milano. In the 100 years since that first match, the Italian National team played 700 matches against 80 different teams with 378 wins, 185 ties and 137 losses. The Azzurri scored 1,238 goals while conceding 702. A total of 721 different players played with the Azzurri shirt with 47 different coaches or technical commissions. More importantly, in its glorious history,  Italy has won 4 World Cups (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006) and 1 European Cup (1968).