After tonight’s display between Juventus and Palermo, the (Bianconero) cynic in me has this to say: at least we didn’t tie. Indeed, after three consecutive draws against Catania, Sampdoria, and Bate Borisov, Claudio Ranieri can finally get rid of the “Mr. X” tag that was bestowed upon him this past week. This time, Juventus lost.
The Italian call-ups for their upcoming World Cup 2010 Qualifying matches vs. Bulgaria (October 11) and Montenegro (October 15) have been revealed. Italy coach Marcello Lippi just submitted the list of 23 players to FIFA, a list which as usual contains notable absentees and a few surprises.
| Goalkeepers: Buffon (Juventus), Amelia (Palermo), De Sanctis (Galatasaray) |
| Defenders: Bonera (Milan), F.Cannavaro (Real Madrid), Chiellini (Juventus), Dossena (Liverpool), Gamberini (Fiorentina), Santacroce (Napoli), Zambrotta (Milan) |
| Midfielders: Aquilani (Roma), Camoranesi (Juventus), De Rossi (Roma), Gattuso (Milan), Maggio (Napoli), Montolivo (Fiorentina), Nocerino (Palermo), Perrotta (Roma) |
| Forwards: Di Natale (Udinese), Gilardino (Fiorentina), Pepe (Udinese), G.Rossi (Villareal), Toni (Bayern) |
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Let’s start with the surprises. There’s about 4 new faces in Lippi’s Azzurri , namely defender Fabiano Santacroce and midfielder Christian Maggio from Napoli, striker Simone Pepe from Udinese, and striker Giuseppe Rossi from Villareal. Yup, Joe Red’s big day with the Azzurri senior team has finally come, which should put all those “play with us Joe” USA pleas to rest once and for all.
Also returning to the senior team are Fiorentina midfielder Riccardo Montolivo, as well as Antonio Nocerino and Giorgio Chiellini (previously absent due to injury).
Finally, the list of non-calls includes some prestigious names, some due to injury (Legrottaglie, Materazzi, Cassetti, Grosso, Pirlo, Palombo, Iaquinta just to name a few), and some due to technical choice (Barzagli, Ambrosini, Maresca, Quagliarella). In the latter category, the biggest absentees are of course Alessandro Del Piero (not going through a great moment of form recently) and Antonio Cassano (evidently not a big Marcello-favorite).
The Azzurri will play away on Saturday October 11 against Bulgaria (in Sofia), and then host Montenegro on Wednesday October 15 (in Lecce).
Ibrahimovic has many nicknames… among the self-explanatory “Ibrahimagic” and “Ibracadabra”, even “Zlatan!” seems like something a magician would say before he pulled a rabbit out of a top hat (kinda like “Shazam!”). Inter first goal vs. Bologna Saturday night, illustrates just how appropriate the Ibrahimovic-Magic association can be: a marvelous mid-air backheel execution that few players would attempt, and that even fewer would get right. Until tonight, the last one among the elected greats was a certain Roberto Mancini…
More important than Ibra’s magic, was the way Inter played on Saturday. To quote Gazzetta, “Inter are back winning and winning convincingly.” The final 2-1 result over Bologna wasn’t a true reflection of how well Inter played, certainly improving on their recent bleak peformances against AC Milan and Werder Bremen.
Well… this was certainly unexpected. Who would have thought, that almost five years since his last goal from open play, Simone Inzaghi would return to provide such a vital goal to the Biancocelesti? But more importantly who would have thought this Lazio team, who marvelled Serie A enthusiasts since the season started, could have had so much trouble against a modest team like Lecce?
Lecce which today were anything but modest, cynically prepared by their coach Mario Beretta.
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