One of the players playing extremely well at the moment is Genoa fantasista Raffaele Palladino. Palladino has always been a player that could do things with the ball that others could only dream of doing, but he never had the consistency to show that talent at a high level. Palladino is now an important part of Gian Piero Gasperini’s Genoa side, and he’s the one that can make the difference up front for the Rossoblu. It looks like now at the age of 25 he has finally reached the point where he can be consistent enough to show his incredible skill.

Palladino grew up in the Juventus youth system, and in 2004 was sent on loan first to Salernitana, where he had an excellent season in Serie B, and then the following year to Livorno, where he had a decent season in Serie A. He immediately became an important part of the Italy U-21 side, first under Claudio Gentile and then under Pierluigi Casiraghi. With Juventus’ relegation to Serie B, he was taken back to the home base and played a role in Didier Deschamps’ Juve side that won promotion. At first he didn’t play as much, but his versatility led him to play many games, as he could play as a second punta, a winger, or as a trequartista. The following season he stayed with the Bianconeri on their return to Serie A, but with the purchase of Vincenzo Iaquinta, Palladino was essentially the 4th striker. When he did play he showed good things, and Roberto Donadoni even gave him a shot in two national team games. He even earned the nickname “Raf Alladino” (Raf Aladdin, because of the magic tricks he worked with the ball) from fans. However, Palladino needed to play, and so in the summer of 2008 his old Juventus youth team manager, Gian Piero Gasperini, brought him to Genoa on a co-ownership deal, and gave him a chance to show his stuff.

His 2008-2009 didn’t start well, as a bad knee injury kept him out for most of the first part of the season, but upon his return he worked himself back into the side and played a very important part towards the end of the season, scoring a crucial winning goal vs. Juventus and then making some nice assists for his teammates. This past summer, Genoa decided to renew the co-ownership deal and keep him for one more season. The start of this season was also injury troubled, as a bad virus kept him out until mid-September. But Palladino was back with a bang. He immediately started playing really well, and against Fiorentina scored an amazing back-heeled goal against Sebastian Frey. Palladino has continued to play well, and now that he is healthy and motivated he seems to be finally showing his talent.

If he can continue, a return to the national team is a possibility. Palladino’s mix of speed, technique, and ability to do whatever he wants with the ball at any instant can be of great use to a national team lacking in creativity. However, we’ll have to see if he can keep it up all season, as consistency has always been his problem.

Fabrizio Miccoli has really become the undisputed leader of Palermo. The diminutive fantasista, or il Romario del Salento as he is so aptly nicknamed, has been putting in great performances this season and had a great year last season, and it looks like he has finally found a place to show all of his talent. When he returned to Italy with Palermo back in the summer of 2007 nobody knew what to expect of Miccoli. He had just spent two years playing for Benfica in Portugal and he seemed to be lost as a player, another one of those players that never live up to their potential. Perhaps staying at Juve in 2003 when he had Del Piero, Trezeguet, and Di Vaio all in front of him in the pecking order impeded his explosion. But luckily, Miccoli’s talent shone through, and he is now showing calcio fans everywhere what he’s made of. His play right now deserves a national team look, but Lippi will never call him, and that’s a whole different story. We’re focused on how Miccoli is a giant killer.

Miccoli has scored crucial goals against all the big clubs while at Palermo. Juventus? Check. Milan? Check. Roma? Check. Fiorentina? Check. Lazio? Check. Inter? Well that didn’t come until yesterday. Miccoli had never scored vs. Inter, but yesterday he crossed the Nerazzurri off his list with a superb 2 goal performance.

Miccoli has shown that he likes to show off his skills in the big games. Although yesterday’s goals were in a losing effort, Miccoli has now scored vs. every big club in Serie A. Hopefully he continues to play like this, because players like Miccoli are always a joy to watch.

Here is a Miccoli compilation, and a theme song dedicated to Miccoli by Palermo fans (with lyrics!):

After the international break, the man of the moment is undoubtedly Alberto Gilardino. The Fiorentina striker scored 4 goals in 2 matches with the Azzurri, including the impressive hat trick in 14 minutes vs. Cyprus. He now has 16 goals in 38 appearances (now level with Gianluca Vialli and Luca Toni) for the Azzurri and looks to be the headline striker heading into South Africa this June. His time at Milan may have hurt his reputation, with many fans saying he was just a one hit wonder, he could only score for small clubs, he couldn’t handle the pressure of a big team, he can’t score in Europe, he was a diving cheat, etc. However now at Fiorentina he is pretty much silencing all those critics, as he is one of the top goalscorers in Serie A and scores in the Champions League as well. Scoring goals for Fiorentina isn’t easy, and Gila is showing that he truly is one of Italy’s greatest goalscorers. Let’s hope he continues to shine, because the Nazionale needs a reliable striker. Gila video after the jump.

I always like to watch videos of bloopers, and this time I’ve found a Serie A blooper video from the early 2000’s. Always entertaining, and it includes a mistake from Buffon!! (how often do you see those?)

Video after the jump.

And since we’re on the topic of Buffon mistakes, here’s another one I remember from a couple of years ago:

In July I had already posted a video of the week with some Italian amateur calcio bloopers from the mid-90’s. Well, I found even more Italian amateur calcio bloopers from the mid-90’s for our viewing pleasure. Video after the jump.

It’s the summer, and that means summer friendlies. And most Italian clubs (the ones that don’t go abroad and play in makeshift tournaments vs other big sides) stay in a remote town up in northern Italy or even another country like Austria. So, to gain match fitness, they play summer friendlies, and these summer friendlies are most of the time vs whatever local side the club can find, usually made up of the town butcher, a construction worker, some bricklayers, and a few office workers. That’s why you read your team’s preseason news and see scores of 14-0, 10-0, 9-1, and sometimes an embarrassing 1-0 or 2-0 win. So just how bad are these Italian local sides? Well luckily there’s a video on youtube that shows us! Bloopers from the Italian amateur leagues after the jump.

Videos after jump.

The new season is quickly approaching (many teams have started pre-season training) and I realized that I never put up a best goals post for last season. So I searched the internet for videos of that showed the “top 10 goals” but I realized that I didn’t agree with any of the videos because I felt that so many good goals were being left out. Therefore went for a better method. Here are two videos, the first shows the best goals from the first half of the season and the second shows the best goals from the second half of the season. Videos after the jump.

In Italy, if you want to watch all things calcio, you watch Sky. Sky shows every Serie A game plus analysis shows and other shows about calcio. They also make some clever commercials, and some are like the “This is Sportscenter” commercials in the USA on ESPN. Commercials after the jump.

Tomorrow is a big day for Lazio and Sampdoria. Two sides who have performed under expectations throughout the season have a chance to salvage their season by winning a trophy, and more importantly, a place in the Europa League (I think the new name is so stupid) next season. Both sides have not won the Coppa in a long time (Lazio haven’t lifted it since 2004, Sampdoria since 1994; both sides have won it 4 times in their history).

The pre-match press conferences have been pretty much the same. Both Walter Mazzarri and Delio Rossi have stated that since it is a one leg final both sides will have to concentrate and nerves will play a big part. Both also have said that Lazio has a slight advantage since the game is being played at the Stadio Olimpico, however there will be around 20,000 Sampdoria fans in attendance. Also, a win will be the first ever trophy for both of these managers.

It would also be the first trophy for either club under the regime of their current owners. Claudio Lotito took over Lazio in the summer of 2004 right after their Coppa Italia victory and therefore has not experienced a trophy in his 5 years in charge. Riccardo Garrone took over Sampdoria in 2002 when they fell down to Serie B and led them back to the promised land. He has not seen any victories either, although the Primavera side did win the Primavera Scudetto and Coppa Italia last season.

Then there is the economic factor. The prize money for winning the Coppa Italia is around 3 million euro, while the winner will also participate in this August’s SuperCoppa in Beijing and that will net them another 2 million euro. And then there is the qualification to the Europa League, which will net you 10 million euro if you make it all the way but will also guarantee you around 5 million euro just for playing in the group phase. So both sides would love to put that money towards this summer’s transfer market. And of course, a lot of the Lazio and Sampdoria players have never won anything in their career to date, which makes it a lot more interesting and more special.

The game should be very interesting (and let’s not forget a game is always made interesting when Antonio Cassano is on the pitch) and everyone should be watching tomorrow.

The game kicks off at 2:45 PM EST and will be shown in the USA live on GolTV, and Rai Uno in Italy.

Here are some Coppa Italia promo videos for Sampdoria and Lazio showing their roads to the final: