Lippi makes Confederations Cup/Friendly call-ups and he officially hates Cassano

By: Francesco | May 28th, 2009

Today the list of 35 players was announced that will play in a friendly on June 6th in Pisa vs. Northern Ireland and the upcoming FIFA Confederations Cup. 22 players were called up for the Northern Ireland game, while 13 will skip that match and go straight to South Africa. Lippi said in recent weeks that the roster for the Northern Ireland match would be mainly experimental and would give national team experience to the players that merited a call-up based on their play throughout the Serie A season. So who did Lippi call “based on merit”? Let’s see after the jump.

First, here is the list of 13 players already going to the Confederations Cup:

Goalkeepers: Buffon (Juventus), Amelia (Palermo);
Defenders: Cannavaro (Real Madrid), Chiellini (Juventus), Zambrotta (Milan);
Midfielders: Camoranesi (Juventus), De Rossi (Roma), Pepe (Udinese), Pirlo (Milan);
Strikers: Gilardino (Fiorentina), Iaquinta (Juventus), Quagliarella (Udinese), Toni (Bayern Monaco).

No real surprises, as this is basically Lippi’s core group. Funny how Simone Pepe has now become one of the national team’s untouchables. (Yes, it’s ok if you feel sick to your stomach like I did after I read that phrase.)

Here is the roster for the Northern Ireland friendly. 10 of these players will be added to the Confederations Cup roster:

Goalkeepers: De Sanctis (Galatasaray), Marchetti (Cagliari);
Defenders: Cassani (Palermo), Dossena (Liverpool), Gamberini (Fiorentina), Grosso (Olympique Lione), Esposito (Lecce), Legrottaglie (Juventus), Santon (Inter);
Midfielders: Biagianti (Catania), Brighi (Roma), D’Agostino (Udinese), Galloppa (Siena), Gattuso (Milan), Montolivo (Fiorentina), Palombo (Sampdoria);
Strikers: Foggia (Lazio), Mascara (Catania), Pazzini (Sampdoria), Pellissier (Chievo), Rossi Giuseppe (Villarreal).

1) First things first, if I have to make predictions on who will go to the Confederations Cup from this group I would have to say De Sanctis will go as the third keeper; Dossena, Gamberini, Grosso, and Legrottaglie will be added to the defense; Pazzini and Giuseppe Rossi will be added to the strikers; and the tricky predictions are in midfield. Currently Lippi has 4 midfielders on the Confederations Cup roster, which leaves room for 3 players. I’m pretty sure Biagianti and Galloppa won’t be in South Africa this June, so that leaves Brighi, D’Agostino, Gattuso, Montolivo, and Palombo fighting for three spots.

2) So this is supposedly a list of the 35 best players in Italy this season. (long pause) NOT!!!!! It is obvious from these call-ups that Lippi has something against certain players, or just doesn’t want to include them in his team. And yes, you all know where this is going:

ANTONIO CASSANO

Cassano was one of the top players of Serie A this season. He scored 12 goals and countless assists (last time I checked he was at 12 or 13). He only received 2 yellow cards all season. And if Lippi was making call-ups “based on merit” as he said, surely Cassano did more than enough to “merit” a call-up. Does anyone else realize that Sergio Pellissier is on the national team and Cassano isn’t? That’s right, Sergio Pellissier. I mean ok, Pellissier is a good player, he played really well for Chievo this season, but why does he get a call-up over Cassano? Because he scored a hat-trick against Lippi’s beloved Juventus? Can Lippi just come out and say that Cassano doesn’t fit into his plans instead of saying the same line (”Every player aged 18 to 40 has a chance to play for the national team“) everytime he is asked about him? Well, I could go on and on about the Cassano situation but I’ll stop my rant now.

3) Giuseppe Mascara aka “The King of Scoring Goals from 40 yards out” has received his first-ever national team call-up. Mascara is a very good player with good technical ability but not national team material in my mind. In fact, if Lippi had to call up a fantasista from Sicily, he should of called Palermo’s Fabrizio Miccoli. Anyone watching Serie A this season knows that Miccoli had an awesome season and deserved a national team call-up. He’s also much more talented then Mascara. But you know, this is Lippi, and probably when Miccoli played for Juventus the Italian Romario probably said something Mr. Lippi didn’t like and now he holds a grudge.

4) Marco Biagianti and Daniele Galloppa are not national team material and have no future with the national team. Good players for mid-table clubs, but that’s it. But then again, I said the same thing about Simone Pepe. And we all know how that’s going.

5) Mattia Cassani is a very good player and Lippi actually made a good choice calling him up, especially since besides Zambrotta and Grosso the only other fullback we really have is Andrea Dossena, who didn’t play much for Liverpool this season. Cassani had an excellent year in Sicily. However I also feel Giandomenico Mesto of Genoa deserved a call-up as well, as he played just as good if not a little better then Cassani this season.

6) Davide Santon. Awesome for the first few months, but understandably suffered a drop in form in the later parts of the season. We can’t blame him, he is only 18 years of age. It’s good for him to get a feel for international play, especially since after the World Cup he’ll probably be one of our starting fullbacks.

So the Nazionale will begin training on June 2nd in Florence for next Saturday’s friendly and on June 4th Lippi will announce the 10 other players that will join the first 13 for the Confederations Cup.