And so, after my historical Bayern Munich 2007-08 jersey (which by the way, won “Best Shirt” in the 2008 Soccerlens Awards) article, the time has come to review yet another fine SoccerPro product.
This time, even more relevant to us Serie A and Calcio fans, I picked an Azzurri-related product: the Puma Italia backpack.
It was a match between football titans, two giants in the history of the beautiful game and one of the most high-profile sporting rivalries of the past century. Between themselves Brazil and Italy represented 9 World Cup titles combined: as the two most succesful national teams in history faced off at the Emirates Stadium Tuesday, one can easily guess this was a match neither of them wanted to lose.
Well, based on the starting line-ups one team more than the other perhaps, and inevitably that is the team that ended up winning.
The mother of all games, or as Lippi and Falcao tagged it, the ‘Derby of the World‘. As yet another week of international friendlies begins, fans everywhere will be eagerly anticipating some of the highest quality international football action in the year. I mean just think about it: Argentina vs. France and Spain vs. England all in the same week?
The most anticipated game of them all of course, will be Tuesday’s fixture at the Emirates Stadium of London, Brazil vs. Italy. These two teams have not faced each other since 1997 (a friendly tournament encounter to prepare for the France ’98 world cup) but boy do they have some serious history together. Who here doesn’t remember the 1970 and 1994 World Cup finals? Of course, we Italians would rather forget those and prefer to remember 1982′s 3-2 win with Paolo Rossi’s hat-trick. So far, previous encounters puth both teams on equal records: 12 matches, five wins a side and only two draws (including 1994′s 0-0 tie which lead to Brazil’s penalty-shootout victory).
For a cute trip down memory lane visit Francesco’s post over at the Italy Offside. In the meantime, let’s preview this epic showdown set to take place on Tuesday.
Fabio Cannavaro, Carlos Tevez, Michael Ballack, Michael Owen, Mark Van Bommel, Fred… these are but a few of the players whose contract is set to expire at the end of the season. And with the january transfer window practically at our doorstep, it is time to give these “old timers” a chance to prove they still are champion material. Time to make that zero-cost buy to win you that elusive trophy, cup, or championship title (or in the worst cases, save you from relegation).
In other words: it’s “Bosman Bonanza” time, with some real bargains to be made…
The big story of Wednesday night’s Greece vs. Italy friendly, which let’s face it had the “boring” stamp written all over it before it even started (especially with Inter vs. Juventus coming up this week-end), is that Marcello Lippi is now officially the best Azzurri coach ever. Sure, winning the 2006 World Cup helped in that sense, but Lippi is now also the manager with the longest streak of games without a loss. Better than Vittorio Pozzo (of 1934 and 1938 World Cup-winning fame) who raked in 30 positive matches, good old Marcello is now leading at 31.
Another good piece of news from Greece? Luca Toni has finally ended his Azzurri goalscoring drought!! His beautiful header Wednesday (receiving a good De Rossi set-piece delivery) put an end to over (believe it or not) 700 minutes of goalless playing time. About time too!
Aside from that, the Italian team didn’t shine a whole lot with their performance. It was nice seeing Camoranesi back to full fitness (the winger even came close to scoring), and while all eyes were pointed towards Giuseppe Rossi (in the starting line-up for the first time), the Villarreal striker didn’t raise too many “oohs” and “aahs” from the crowd. One good scoring chance, and a disciplined game otherwise.
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