First Post-Nesta, Totti Azzurri Called Up

By: Martha | August 18th, 2007

Doh! Roberto Donadoni today announced his call-ups for Wednesday’s friendly against Hungary, a match that everyone with two brain cells to rub together is seeing as a crucial warm-up for the France war on September 8 and the subsequent game in Ukraine.

Most of the usual suspects are in place: The regular backs are all there, and the strikers — including the suddenly indispensable Fabio Quagliarella — are as you would expect, up to and including the infuriating Pippo Inzaghi, who sealed his spot with the brace he scored last night before the Don’s watchful eyes.

In the the midfield and in goal, however, there are a few surprises. Former U-21 keeper Gianluca Curci scored his first senior cap (clearly just for the experience of being around the team), and his club and U-21 teammate Alberto Aquilani also gets the call, marking his second camp as a full international. Also in the midfield is Donadoni’s desperate mancrush, Sampdoria’s Angelo Palombo, whose presence in the side can perhaps logically be explained by the fact that Samp have already played competitive matches, and are therefore more fit than other more obvious call-ups.

Like, for example, one Daniele De Rossi. If the excuse is a lack of fitness, fine, but don’t call in his teammate Aquilani if that’s the problem. I’ll let Chris rant on this one (I’m hoping for a conspiracy theory or two) but, particularly if Donadoni plans to call up this same team for the France match, the midfield is more than a little weird.

(Full team after the jump.)

Goalkeepers: Marco Amelia (Livorno), Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Gianluca Curci (AS Roma)

Defenders: Andrea Barzagli (Palermo), Fabio Cannavaro (Real Madrid), Fabio Grosso (Olympique Lyon), Marco Materazzi (Inter Milan), Massimo Oddo (AC Milan), Cristian Zaccardo (Palermo), Gianluca Zambrotta (Barcelona)

Midfielders: Massimo Ambrosini (AC Milan), Alberto Aquilani (AS Roma), Aimo Diana (Palermo), Gennaro Gattuso (AC Milan), Angelo Palombo (Sampdoria), Andrea Pirlo (AC Milan)

Forwards: Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus), Antonio Di Natale (Udinese), Filippo Inzaghi (AC Milan), Fabio Quagliarella (Udinese), Luca Toni (Bayern Munich).

Some Related Serie A Posts:

Category: Azzurri, Rumors & News, Serie A

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Bib

Actually as it turns out I think Quags is starting in place of Del Piero along with Inzaghi and Toni. I will be very interested to see how Quags and Toni play together. Inzaghi I couldn't care less about but I guess every team needs a good goal poacher. How many offside calls against Inzaghi today? Anyone?
Marco

Joe, you obviously haven't been following Juve's preseason friendlies at all. Del Piero's been one of the players most in form in Ranieri's team, and there's every reason to believe he might actually start against Hungary on Wednesday.
patcook

"he is a Milan homer" - Chris

Good! Milan are Italy's best European club and therefore it follows that their players would be most likely to make the step up (or down, depending on your point of view) to international football.

Ambro was great for Milan at the end of last season.

This is by no means the squad i would have picked but i hate the Donadoni bashing. If he fails to qualify for EURO 2008 then have a go at him. I think he has done a reasonable job considering all the knives pressed against his back ready to pierce him ASAP.
Joe

Domenech has been able to get good results in spite of his being a moron. How do the French do it? They win a World Cup with that idiot Barthez in goal and last year's run with this tool at the helm? I don't know, seems awful strange.

Yeah, De Rossi exclusion is a surprise. I'd also like to state, for the 100th time, that I don't know why ADP keeps getting called up. Christ, we have better options. Really, we do. His inclusion gets me more than anything. I fully admit my anti-Juve bias may have something to do with vitriol.
Dom

The France match (and the Ukraine one too) is potentially SOOOO important, that I would think that a couch would want to take EVERY oppurtunity to have his A team play together, even in a meaningless friendly.
Avoiding injuries, fine. Resting key players, fine. But questi Azzurri are not the Azzurri of 2006. I don't think this team has had enough time to gel.
The one thing that gives me hope is that Domenech has three copies of chromosome 21.
Marco

Frankly, I see no need to make a federal case out of De Rossi. Hungary is simply a test match before the big one against France. Donadoni might want to try out a few things before the real deal, that's all.

And given that Serie A hasn't even started yet, it's fairly normal to see certain players at perhaps a more advanced stage of preparation than others.
chris

And if he starts anyone but Quags/Toni in the first match that matters he should be fired ASAP. They'd play spectacularly well off each other and they're both on fire at the moment. He currently has Quags to thank for even having a job in the first place, anyways.
chris

Alright, it's not so much a conspiracy theory as it is that The Dopn Doni is a freaking moron. I'm going to somewhat reserve judgment until the squad for France is announced, but all things point to this being that squad.

The inclusion of Curci is questionable at best. We know he's the future, but he got injured at the U-21's and has pretty much played like Swiss cheese this summer. He needs to play at the U-21 level (they also have a game) because he's not going to get many shots outside of the Coppa games this year since he isn't going out on loan.

De Rossi should at least be there to be a part of the team, because we know all those guys won't all play. I'm believing more and more that he is a Milan homer. Ambrosini? Really? How long has Milan been training? 7 hours? And the games I've seen him play he has mostly disappeared.

Aquilani isn't so much a question as to why he's on the team, but moreso why he's there over DDR (even if he isn't 100% fit). I think AA's time has come and he'll soon be making his way to a regular spot on the Azzurri. But come on. No DDR to at least go through the motions in anticipation of France? Puhlease.

Oh, and after I emailed you now I can't get into my account. Can get into my other Yahoo account, but not that one. I send you nice things and you destroy my email? I see how it is.