Posts Tagged ‘Luca Toni’

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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Italian Players Around the World (26/01)

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

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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 12 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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Italian Players Around the World (8/12)

Tuesday, December 9th, 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 14 of them stepped on the field this week-end.

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Golden Ball 2008 – C-Ron Gets B-D’or, Italy Gets Nothing

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008

Chalk up one more trophy for CR7, this one the biggest and most important one of them all.

In a decision that surprised no one given the player’s outstanding performances over the past year (both domestically and in Europe), French magazine France Football has handed its prestigious Ballon d’Or award to Cristiano Ronaldo.

C-Ron was a clear winner, collecting 77 first-place votes from the 96 journalists judging the award (asked to choose their top 5 candidates in order, awarding between 1 and 5 points to each). It must also be noted that Ronaldo was cited by all 96 journalists, collecting a total of 446 points which placed him very far ahead of his rivals. Barcelona hitman Lionel Messi (third last year) finished second this time around with 281 points, followed by Liverpool’s Fernando Torres on 179 to complete the podium.

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Bayern Munich 2007-08 Jersey (REVIEW)

Friday, November 21st, 2008

Ahh Germany. The land of the great Nationalmannschaft, the team with such glorious World Cup and Euro Cup history (six trophies collectively) and who almost increased their collection by one in June, had it not been for the Spanish Armada and a certain Fernando Torres.

Germany is also the homeland of prestigious club teams such as Borussia Dortmund, Schalke 04, and of course, Bayern Munich. Which brings me to talk to you about SoccerPro‘s latest soccer article I’ve had the pleasure to test: the Bayern Munich 2007-08 Jersey.

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