Posts Tagged ‘Alberto Gilardino’

Azzurri 2010: What to Look Forward To…

Friday, June 26th, 2009

Azzurri 2010: What to Look Forward To…

Five days have passed since Italy’s whopping 3-0 defeat at the hands of Brazil, a match which put an an end to Lippi’s South African countryside scouting (one year before the big tournament) and sent the Azzurri home among general shrugs of indifference, frowned eyebrows, and sincere worries in the ranks of Italian supporters.

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Confederations Cup… Confederations schmuck

Something should be established right from the get-go in this article, and that is one has to take the FIFA Confederations Cup for its true value: a tournament of prestige, played to fill the gap between Euro and World Cup Summers and to make a certain FIFA mogul (whose name starts with S and ends with …epp Blatter) happy. Happy at proclaiming his love for the beautiful game, the continued globalization of football, the athletic clashing of cultures, and blah blah blah. All that is great for sports unity, but in terms of true football competition no one (certainly not the big teams) takes this tournament seriously. Certainly not to the extent of a Euro tournament, a Copa America, or the master of them all: the FIFA World Cup.

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Ajax 1-1 Fiorentina: A Dutch Kick in the Teeth for La Viola (UEFA Cup Round of 32, 2nd Leg)

Saturday, February 28th, 2009

Ajax player Leonardo, right, scores 1-1 as Fiorentina goalkeeper Sebastien Frey, center, dives to stop the ball during their UEFA Cup round of 32 second leg soccer match at ArenA stadium in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Thursday Feb. 26, 2009. Ajax continues to the next round. (AP Photo)

When a team competes in both its domestic league and European cups, there are bound to be subtle differences in the way they play in each competition. Sometimes, the difference isn’t even so subtle. You wanna know in the last month what that difference is for Fiorentina? Domestically, La Viola play average and get full points from their matches; in Europe, they dominate for 90 minutes and are left with nothing.

Marco Van Basten & his Ajax boys can celebrate on the latter.

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Fiorentina vs. Lazio Preview: A Case of ‘Don’t Fire on a Sinking Ship’?

Friday, February 6th, 2009

With a new round of Serie A coming up, the juiciest piece of footy action this week-end is probably the tie between Fiorentina and Lazio.  The home side have come through a rough period but are back to winning ways after two convincing victories vs. Napoli and Bologna.  Lazio on the other hand go into this game on the back of three straight defeats, and desperately need the win if they are to hold any aspirations of qualifying for Europe this season.

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Bologna 1-3 Fiorentina: Adrian Mutu Caps a Milestone Week-End (Serie A Matchday 22)

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

Without a doubt, the last couple of days have been “milestone time“. Raúl scored his 307th goal for Real Madrid on Saturday (equalling Alfredo Di Stefano all-time topscoring record). The following day, Lionel Messi put his name on Barcelona’s 5000th league tally, and today in Serie A’s postponed match between Bologna and Fiorentina, Adrian Mutu increased his Italian personal count to 100. “Records are meant to be broken” indeed.

But speaking of Mutu, his double does not only give Fiorentina three very valuable points; it also confirms La Viola’s position at the 5th spot of Serie A standings. Just to prove that whenever the Romanian striker’s around, Prandelli’s boys are really capable of reaching the heavens.

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AC Milan vs. Fiorentina Preview: The Battle for UCL

Friday, January 16th, 2009

AC Milan vs. Fiorentina

Without a doubt, the biggest fixture of the upcoming Serie A weekend is Saturday’s tie between AC Milan and Fiorentina. Milan may be three places above La Viola, but only two points separate these two sides and the San Siro showdown is a very important match in terms of Champions League qualification.

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