If Del Piero goes to Euro 2008, he’ll equal a record
By: Francesco |
36 Comments
Interesting article today from goal.com. It says that if Alex Del Piero’s name is on Donadoni’s 23 man final roster this May, he will equal a record. What is this record? The number of final tournaments played by an Italian player. Of course, it’s no surprise that the man that holds the record right now is none other than Paolo Maldini. Maldini played for Italy seven times at final tournaments: Euro ‘88, World Cup 1990, World Cup 1994, Euro ‘96, World Cup 1998, Euro 2000, and World Cup 2002. It could’ve been 8 if Italy had qualified for Euro ‘92.
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Category: AzzurriFiorentina fall to the lottery of penalty kicks
By: Francesco | 12 Comments
After hearing news that Zenit St. Petersburg had demolished Bayern Munich 4-0, La Viola had to like their chances if they reached the final. However, they could not surpass the final hurdle. Fiorentina quite simply dominated the game (15 shots on goal), but they could not finish for anything. Rangers sat back for 120 minutes and absorbed the Fiorentina pressure, but La Viola could not get the ball past goalkeeper Neil Alexander.
Here’s the game summary:
First Half: Fiorentina dominates, can’t finish. Rangers sit back and defend.
Second Half: Fiorentina dominates, can’t finish. Bobo Vieri comes on, he can’t finish. Rangers sit back and defend.
Extra Time: Fiorentina dominates, can’t finish. Bobo Vieri still can’t finish. Rangers sit back and defend, Cousin gets a red card for headbutting (it was more of a “head-touch”) Liverani.
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Sampdoria fan hit with ball, wants to be reimbursed
By: Francesco | 5 Comments
Funny (and peculiar) story out of Genoa today. A Sampdoria fan has asked for 280 euro from Sampdoria midfielder and captain Angelo Palombo (pictured) for an injury he suffered to his finger after a ball struck by Palombo landed in the stands. Most of the time you hear these stories, and then you see the player apologize to the fan and give him an autographed jersey or ball or something. Not this fan, he wants money. This particular fan said the injury happened during Sampdoria-Catania, played on March 16th, when a Palombo shot (Palombo is known to have a cannon of a shot) went over the bar and into the stands, where it sprained the fan’s finger. So why 280 euro you ask? Well the fan wants 40 euro for every day the finger was injured, which was 7 days, so that’s 280 euro. Apparently he has also gotten a lawyer to seek legal action. Seriously, it took the guy more than a month to do something about it? Was he resting his finger at home all this time? Someone is just money hungry. We’ll have to see what happens (most probably nothing will happen).
Daily Calcio News and Notes: 4/30/2008
By: Francesco | 6 Comments
Here’s the news that passed the filter test for today:
- Let’s start with the man pictured to the left, Sebastian Giovinco. He has for the 187,786th time this season reiterated that he wants to return to Juventus at the end of the season. Talking about his similarity to Gianfranco Zola, he also said it would be fantastic if he could have the career that Gianfranco Zola had (but I bet he hopes to have more luck with the Nazionale than Zola did.)
- Roma and Inter are duking it out at the top of the table (although the duking looks pretty much done), but they are also duking it out on the transfer market according to the French media. The player in question is Chelsea’s left winger and French international Florent Malouda. The 27 year old hasn’t fit in the EPL at all and is looking for a move away from London. Roma would use him as a substitute for Mancini, who looks all but gone. Inter would just add him to their 45 man roster.
Daily Calcio News and Notes
By: Francesco | 10 Comments
Everyday I search literally every Italian calcio news site and read the news and rumors of the day. Here are the most interesting things I found today from my scrounging around:
- The Intertoto Cup, which only a few seasons ago was considered a waste of time by most Italian clubs because it ruined pre-season training, has now become objective for some clubs this season. Udinese coach Pasquale Marino said, “It would be good to have games in the summer where we could get into condition”. Genoa coach Giampiero Gasperini said, “I would be enthusiastic about playing the Intertoto, it’s a great tournament.” A few days ago Palermo coach Stefano Colantuono said the Intertoto spot is the objective for the Rosanero in this final part of the season.
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The Events of 5 Maggio that nobody talks about
By: Francesco | 8 Comments
Hey, everyone, it’s Francesco from the Parma Offside. Since Chris has been busy and hasn’t been able to update the Italy Offside, I will now handle the duties and hope to give you guys news about Calcio every day. Here’s my first post, it’s about the Events of 5 Maggio that Nobody Talks about:
The Events of 5 Maggio that nobody talked about
If you bring up the term “5 Maggio” to an Inter fan, they will know what it means, and will most probably curse or cry or do something along those lines because they would be upset. For those of you that don’t know, 5 Maggio refers to May 5, 2002. It was the 2001/2002 season, and Inter were one win away from winning their first Scudetto since 1989. Argentine disciplinarian Hector Cuper led the Nerazzurri to the top of the table throughout the year, and had to deal with numerous injury problems and the likes, but still managed to have Inter at the top of the table on the last day. So, on the May 5, 2002, the last day of the season, Inter traveled to the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, where they had to get 3 points vs. Lazio. Lazio were really playing for nothing at that point of the season, as other teams were ahead of them in the European spots. Inter made the mistake of thinking it would be an easy win, and lost 4-2, losing the Scudetto to Juventus and making Christian Vieri and Ronaldo cry.
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Coppa, Tiago & Make Up Lovin’
By: chris | 19 Comments
Coppa Stuffs
Roma 1 - Catania 0
Inter 0 - Lazio 0
Having watched the Roma - Catania match and simply judging by the scoreline of the Inter - Lazio game I’ve come to one conclusion: meh. Coppa first legs have never done much for me beforehand (afterwards can be a different story), and this was no exception. One goal scored in total isn’t ideal when you’re looking forward to second rate defenses and massive goal-scoring explosions*. Unfortunately, both Roma and Catania looked like they were performing a pregame walkthrough. The Inter - Lazio highlights provided some pretty good chances - appearing more exciting than the other semi - and a nice save from Grandpa Ballotta, but not a 12 goal explosion.
They’ll do it all again in a few weeks. We want some goals, dammit.
* - One look at the bracket and you’ll see what I mean.
Juventus 3 - Parma 0
(This was the makeup game from a few weeks back due to the death of the Parma fan.)
Juve managed to seal up a Champions League spot next year with a victory over Parma, who failed to use that game in hand to their advantage and move a bit away from the zone. The opening and closing goals were far from typical, with Tiago scoring the luckiest goal of his life, so just have a look-see:
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Juventus Is Sucking The Fun Out Of The Silly Season
By: chris | 14 Comments
Come on. Who likes a big transfer during the month of April? Nobody, that’s who. It’s no fun for the fans, who get to spend countless hours cycling through sketchy web sites with questionable sources (I’m looking at you goal, tribal and c4) while going completely bananas over the latest message board rumor from a guy whose cousin through marriage had a waiter whose mailman delivers to [Insert big name Serie A player here] and he was wearing a rival team’s bathroom while picking up his mail and flashing the neighborhood one morning. In 2002. Good times to be had for all. (Unless you’re a fan of Torino, at which point you can pray for Rosinaldo not to be sold and wait for Urbano to cherry pick whatever players Palermo has deemed to be “surplus to requirements” and/or thisclose to death.)
There’s a very, very good chance the biggest name to go from one Serie A club to another this summer will be none other than Amauri Carvalho de Oliveira of the pink peoples in Sicily. Well now he’s pretty much off the list, and our summer of speculating just dimmed a bit. Zampa, crazy as he is, usually doesn’t make stuff up about selling players and has given a pretty crystal clear indication of what’s going to happen next summer:
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WAG of the Week: Alessia Merz
By: chris | 4 Comments
Who says you need to play in Serie A to land a living, breathing WAG?
Here’s the deal with Ms. Merz, who is actually Mrs. Bazzani: If google images is any indication, I’m not even sure she wears clothes. Or maybe she’s just allergic to all types of clothing materials - which, I guess, isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Aside from being topless all the time, Merz is/was an actress of sorts, with a less than bustling IMDb page - though she did play “Fair Woman” in an Italian TV reproduction of Dracula, which will surely jump off the page of any resume. But she got her start as a model (no way!) and worked her way onto the WAG circuit by doing TV dramas and the WAGgish things. Plus she did a calendar. You know, standard stuff.
Now she’s employed by having hubby Fabio Bazzani’s babies (two of ‘em so far, one just last month) and being all motherly and that type of stuff. Bazzani being, of course, former striker for like 12,000 teams in Lega Calcio, with Sampdoria being his longest run until last year, and plying his trade in Serie B with Brescia now. Plus he’s got a few Azzurri caps to his name. (Rumor has it she was the girl to console Francesco Totti’s heart after his breakup with Maria Mazza.)
If you like stuff less safe for work, google images is the place, or her calendar - she’s not shy by any means.
Jump’s thataway. Read the rest of this entry »
Category: WAGsFuture Phenoms; A Collective Ode. Part 2.
By: chris | 6 Comments
This comes from Marco at the Italy World Cup Blog, a nice two-parter on future phenoms the boot has to offer.
Part 1
6. Giuseppe Rossi
21 year old Jersey-born second striker for Villareal (Parma/Man U homegrown)
Has the potential to be the next : Antonio Cassano 2.0 with that special anti-crazyness plugin , the next Beppe Signori
Rossi has been displaying his talent all over Europe. The 21 year old has shined in Italy, England and now Spain. Not to mention all the beautiful European cities that saw the Azzurrini come spank their respective home teams. Beppe Rossi’s name’s definitely the most renowned on this list. Is it because of his crazy talent or does the Sensational English media have a little to do with this? No one’s deniying Rossi’s immense talent but he needs to work a little on his decision-making. Other than that he has a lethal shot, impressive pace and a knack for goal, sky’s the limit with this one. It’s only a matter of time before he shines with the Big Boys in Blue.
Francè ’s Parma has one of the sexiest Vivaio of all Italy, so he adds this :
Category: Serie A
Tags: Fernando Forestieri, Davide Lanzafame, Stefano Okaka Chuka and Mario Ballotelli, Daniele Dessena, Marco Rossi, Umberto Eusepi, Alessio Cerci, Francesco Bolzoni, Fabiano Santacroce, Gabriele Paonessa, Emiliano Viviano, Graziano Pellè, Gianluca Curci, Marco Andreolli, Euro 2008, Italy, Serie A, Tag Index
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