Posts Tagged ‘Luca Toni’

Greece 1-1 Italy: Toni Wakes Up, Lippi Makes it 31 (International Friendly)

Wednesday, November 19th, 2008

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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Italian Players Around the World (17/11)

Wednesday, November 19th, 2008

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Our weekly Italian Players Around the World segment is back!!

Inspired by Gazzetta dello Sport, here are the performances of all Italian soccer players operating in foreign European leagues (top divisions only). There are currently 32 Italians playing in first divisions abroad, and 17 of them stepped on the field this week-end.

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Italian Players Around the World (10/11)

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

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Our weekly Italian Players Around the World segment is back!!

Inspired by Gazzetta dello Sport, here are the performances of all Italian soccer players operating in foreign European leagues (top divisions only). There are currently 32 Italians playing in first divisions abroad, and 17 of them stepped on the field this week-end.

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Bayern Running Out of Wins, Not Out of Beer…

Monday, October 6th, 2008

Things are NOT going well for Bayern Munich lately. The team has been winless in a serious competition (I’m not counting the DFB Cup) since September 17, and this week-end’s 3-3 draw vs. Bochum at the Allianz Arena certainly didn’t improve things with the supporters.

Fortunately however, Die Roten can drown their sorrows at the Oktoberfest.

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Italian Players Around the World (22/09)

Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008

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Our weekly Italian Players Around the World segment is back!!

Inspired by Gazzetta dello Sport, here are the performances of all Italian soccer players operating in foreign European leagues (top divisions only). There are currently 31 Italians playing in first divisions abroad, and 18 of them stepped on the field this week-end.

The table below includes the team of the player, their opponents for this week, the time in minutes they played, their match contribution in goal(s) or assist(s), and the final score of the game.

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ENGLAND
Player Team Opp.
Time
Contrib.
Score
Carlo Cudicini Chelsea Man Utd
(bench)
/
1-1
David Di Michele West Ham Newcastle
90
2 GL, 1 AST
3-1
Andrea Dossena Liverpool Stoke
90
/
0-0
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SCOTLAND
Massimo Donati Celtic @ Kilmarnock
(stands)
/
3-1
Manuel Pascali Kilmarnock Celtic
90
/
1-3
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GERMANY
Andrea Barzagli Wolfsburg Hamburg
90
/
3-0
Cristian Zaccardo Wolfsburg Hamburg
8
/
3-0
Massimo Oddo Bayern M. Werder B.
45
1 AST
2-5
Luca Toni Bayern M. Werder B.
90
1 AST
2-5
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SPAIN
Fabio Cannavaro Real Madrid @Racing
90
/
2-0
Enzo Maresca Sevilla @Betis
34
/
0-0
Emiliano Moretti Valencia Osasuna
90
/
1-0
Giuseppe Rossi Villareal @Numancia
(injd.)
/
2-1
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FRANCE
Fabio Grosso Lyon @Le Havre
(injd.)
/
1-0
Elia Legati Monaco @Marseille
/
/
0-0
Flavio Roma Monaco @Marseille
(bench)
/
0-0
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HOLLAND
Graziano Pellè AZ Alkmaar PSV
(bench)
/
1-0
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BELGIUM
Francesco Migliore Mons Kortrijk
(bench)
/
0-1
Roberto Mirri Mons Kortrijk
90
/
0-1
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SWITZERLAND
Andrea Guatelli FC Zürich @Widnau (CUP)
90
/
6-0
Davide Belotti Bellinzona @Oerlikon (CUP)
90
1 GOAL
5-1
Lorenzo Bucchi Bellinzona @Oerlikon (CUP)
90
/
5-1
Paolo Carbone Bellinzona @Oerlikon (CUP)
/
/
5-1
Andrea Conti Bellinzona @Oerlikon (CUP)
90
/
5-1
Alessio Ferrazza Bellinzona @Oerlikon (CUP)
/
/
5-1
Matteo Gritti Bellinzona @Oerlikon (CUP)
(bench)
/
5-1
Iacopo La Rocca Bellinzona @Oerlikon (CUP)
(bench)
/
5-1
Giuseppe Miccolis Bellinzona @Oerlikon (CUP)
90
/
5-1
Angelo Raso Bellinzona @Oerlikon (CUP)
90
/
5-1
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TURKEY
Morgan De Sanctis Galatasaray @Kocaelispor
90
/
4-1
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RUSSIA
Ivan Pelizzoli Lok. Moscow @Luch Ener.
(bench)
/
3-2

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Heroes of the week

The first “Heroes of the Week” segment last week took us to Germany and Spain. There’s no doubt that Toni & friends will be a regular destination for us this year, however this week we are going to cross the Channel to little old UK.

David Di Michele, age 32Indeed, it didn’t take very long for David Di Michele to make his name heard at Upton Park. West Ham were hosting Newcastle for this one, in Gianfranco Zola’s first appearance on the Hammers’ bench, and not only did “Magic Box” get his first win as new manager of the club, but he really hit jackpot by inserting Di Michele in the starting eleven. The on-loan Torino player was the main man of the night, scoring two beautiful goals (the second one a great example of ice-cold nerves) and providing an assist for Etherington’s third.

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Luca Toni, age 30Massimo Oddo, age 32In other news, this was one week-end to quickly forget for Luca Toni and Massimo Oddo. Bayern Munich were hosting Werder Bremen on Saturday, and coach Jürgen Klinsmann suffered the first big defeat in charge of the German giants. By the time our two Italian ex-pats got in an assist for Tim Borowski, Bayern were already down… 0-5. Ouch! Kinda reminds me of the 0-4 UEFA Cup disaster vs. FC Zenit last season.

Finally, the big Italian colony of Bellinzona got plenty of playing time vs. Oerlikon in the Swiss Cup, with Davide Bellotti even getting on the scoreboard in the large 5-1 victory.