Italy marches on in Toulon and Inter-Roma once again tomorrow
By: Francesco | May 23rd, 2008
Yes, tomorrow, Inter and Roma do battle yet again, this time in the Coppa Italia final at the Stadio Olimpico. This is the 4th year in a row that the final will be Roma-Inter, however this year because of the new format the final is only one leg, not two, and is played at a neutral venue. (Well it was supposed to be a neutral venue, but since Roma got to the final they are playing at home). Also, can everybody please send complaints to the Lega Calcio telling them to draw up some new format for next season where Inter and Roma cannot meet in the final? Seriously, once ok, twice alright, three times a little tiring, and now a fourth time is just ridiculous. Although I guess you have to commend Inter and Roma for taking the Coppa Italia seriously every year, as other teams just see it as a great opportunity to make subs happy. More after the jump.
So, for another year, Inter win the Scudetto and Roma try to console themselves with a Coppa Italia consolation victory. If Roma win, they will tie Juventus for most Coppa Italia victories (9), while an Inter win would put them in second place with Fiorentina (6). Mancini has called up 20 players:
Portieri: Julio Cesar, Orlandoni, Toldo
Difensori: Burdisso, Chivu, Fatic, Filippini, Maicon, Maxwell, Zanetti
Centrocampisti: Cesar, Jimenez, Maniche, Pelè, Stankovic, Solari, Vieira
Attaccanti: Balotelli, Crespo, Suazo
Cruz and Materazzi are suspended, and Ibrahimovic will not take part.
Spalletti called up 19 players:
Portieri: Curci, Doni, J. Sergio
Difensori: Antunes, Cassetti, Cicinho, Juan, Mexes, Panucci, Tonetto
Centrocampisti: Aquilani, Brighi, De Rossi, Perrotta, Pizarro
Attaccanti: Esposito, Giuly, Mancini, Vucinic
Taddei is still injured, and we all know about Totti’s injury trouble.
As a neutral, I’m just hoping for an exciting game. Wait, scratch that, I’m a Milanista. Let’s hope Roma humiliate Inter. If you’re an Inter fan, just read the first sentence. If you’re a fan of any other team, read the third sentence.
The game kicks-off at 2:30 PM EST tomorrow, and it will be shown live on RAI Italia (Rai International) and GolTV. For streams, check here and here.
On to Italy news, the Olympic team keeps chugging along at the Toulon Tournament. Today the Azzurrini defeated Turkey 2-1 to clinch a place in the semi-finals. Casiraghi changed the whole starting 11 that defeated the Ivory Coast on Wednesday, leaving hero Sebastian Giovinco on the bench. The Azzurrini were unimpressive in the first half, making many mistakes, however took the lead when a Lorenzo De Silvestri pass caught Turkey’s defense napping and it reached Juventus-owned striker Davide Lanzafame, who dribbled into the box and finished at the near post. Turkey equalized early in the second half after Claudio Marchisio gave the ball away and the Turkish right back ran into the box and placed the ball past Enrico Alfonso in net. The Scottish referee, who was too card-happy, sent off two Turkish players plus Antonio Candreva, making it 9 v. 10. Marchisio made up for his error 3 minutes from time when he received a pass from Lanzafame, took it on the bounce, and unleashed a powerful volley that screamed past the Turkish goalkeeper. “Great goal by Claude Mar-cheese-io” as the Fox Soccer Channel announcers said. (Please if anybody from FSC is reading this, I have 3 demands: (1) Make some kind of option available where I don’t have to listen to the announcers (2) Have the announcers fired (3) Hire me to announce the games.) They also compared Dessena’s dive in the box to “Grossi” in the World Cup, and said Davide Lanzafame doesn’t play in Serie A because he holds onto the ball too long. Oh God I am definitely writing a letter to Fox Soccer Channel. Next up for the Azzurrini is a game vs. the already eliminated USA on Sunday at 12 PM EST (broadcasted on FSC) and the first string line-up will play, so it should be fun to watch, considering how bad this USA team is. I watched them vs. Ivory Coast today and they looked like a U-12 side. Which is good because Giovinco looks like he’s 12. (Zing! that’s my joke for the day. Enjoy it)
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Tags: Azzurri, Calcio, Coppa Italia, football, FSC, Futbol, Giovinco, Inter, Inter Milan, Italy, Olympics, Roma, Serie A, Soccer, Toulon, U-21Subscribe
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Comments
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FSC’s U21 announcers make me uncomfortable when I listen to them. All I imagine is them presenting tapes of these games while trying to get real announcing jobs. These guys have to be interns or something, couldn’t imagine that it would be a high paying position.
Posted from
United States
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I have to say that FSC’s coverage of Italian games (including serie a) is horrendous. And in fact, one day I was so mad after some Fox Football Fone-In and Super Sunday Plus shows (same culprits that sometimes show up as ridiculously biased and ignorant announcers), I did fill out a feedback form on their website. I questioned the logic of having show hosts, announcers etc who demean a league shown on the same channel!
Maybe someone can write an Offside blog entry completely focused on our gripes with FSC– and then make people sign it as comments, and send them the link. I just really hate it that they try to ruin any new interest in Serie A and leagues other than EPL.
Btw, the guys announcing are not interns (we wish!). They are full time hosts on FSC’s other shows too.
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United States -
Yes, the “Grossi” crack was really insufferable… but I guess it’s something you get used to watching the wholly anglophile / borderline racist FSC.
If that ref made a correct call today I must have missed it – that was an atrociously called game.
I’m not looking forward to playing the states in a meaningless game as they will decide to save some face the only way they seem to know how on the intl stage: foul frightfully. Hopefully it’s a good clean game and no-one gets hurt.
Italy’s b-team did ok against a very skilled Turkish side. This should be our tournament… which would be a nice way to set the stage for the summer’s festivities!
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United States -
Forza Roma!!!
Posted from
Italy -
now that u mention it the announcers kinda remind me of that Scottish guy announcing the euro qualifier between italy and scotland. After scotland were apparently robbed of their draw the guy didn’t make one neutral comment
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usually the announcers for the serie a games are alright, but the weekly news shows are a completely different story. First of all, shows like fox football fone in, saturdday matchy day and fox soccer report talk about the EPL for the first 45 minutes, then talk about serie a withoutknowiing shit for 7 minutes, then finish off the show by talking about the EPL again for the remaining time. Im not exaggerating, they really do need to at least have non-biased commentators instead of guys who just seem to love to make fun of or down-talk Italians whenever they get the chance.
Serie A Weekly is a very good show though.
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Serie A Weekly is a good show because it’s not produced by FSC. Any show produced by FSC is terrible.
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Exactly, guys. Serie A Weekly is actually made in Italy and then converted by the same guys who run Channel 4’s Football Italia for British television.
I wish they’d just let us listen to the game and the crowd noises and actually gameplay sounds that come with it, rather than unintelligible idiots rambling on about things they don’t have a clue about.
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It is sad when the FSC people dont even know the names of the players. They try to cover up by complaining that the players look the same – I guess they dont know the player’s numbers either.
Still, as it is my only option aside from streaming – it is better than nothing!
Posted from
United States
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