U-20 World Cup starts tomorrow for Italy

By: Francesco | September 24th, 2009

Despite having a strong U-21 side, Italy’s other youth national teams don’t really have a glorious history. All of Italy’s youth focus is directed to the U-21 team, and you never hear anything about the other sides. In addition, besides the U-21 team Italy’s youth sides have never really won anything, despite participating at many tournaments. The Italy U-20 side has never won anything, the Italy U-19’s won the European Championship once in 2003 and then reached the final in 2008, and the Italy U-18’s and U-17’s last won a trophy in the 1980’s. Since the U-19 team surprisingly reached the European Championship final in 2008 (losing to Germany 3-1), they qualified for this edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, being held in Egypt. As I said, the Italy U-20’s do not have a glorious past, and haven’t participated at many U-20 World Cups.

The last time Italy was at a U-20 World Cup was back in 2005, held in the Netherlands. The Italy squad had some names you might recognize today, including Bologna goalkeeper Emiliano Viviano, Cagliari defenders Michele Canini and Lino Marzoratti, Palermo midfielder Antonio Nocerino, Parma midfielder Daniele Galloppa, AZ Alkmaar striker Graziano Pelle, and Chievo midfielder Simone Bentivoglio. So basically, the team was nothing special. Italy didn’t do too well, losing their opening match to Colombia, then losing to Syria, and then defeating Canada, but only qualifying for the knockout phase as one of the best third place teams. In the Round of 16, Italy had to overcome the USA, led by Freddy “The Next Pele” Adu, and woke up, winning 3-1. However in the quarter-finals, they drew Morocco 2-2 in regulation and then lost on penalties. Italy didn’t even qualify for the 2007 edition in Canada, but now they are back for the 2009 World Cup.

Here is the squad Italy has brought to the World Cup:

Goalkeepers: Fiorillo (Sampdoria), Gasparri (Giulianova), Piccolo (Juventus);
Defenders: Albertazzi (Milan), Bini (Piacenza), Bruscagin (Gubbio), Calderoni (Piacenza), Crescenzi (Grosseto), Gentili (Varese), Mazzotta (Lecce), Regini (Sampdoria);
Midfielders: Bonaventura (Atalanta), Della Penna (Roma), Mazzarani (Crotone), Mustacchio (Ancona), Raggio Garibaldi (Genoa), Romizi (Reggiana), Sciacca (Catania);
Strikers: Eusepi (Reggiana), Maritato (Gallipoli), Misuraca (Vicenza).

Don’t recognize many of the names? It’s ok, this isn’t exactly Italy’s best squad. The problem with this U-20 World Cup is that it’s taking place now in September, and many clubs were unwilling to let go of their top youngsters who are first team players. So players like Mario Balotelli, Davide Santon, Andrea Poli, Alberto Paloschi, Stefano Okaka, Fernando Forestieri, Federico Macheda and Guido Marilungo were all eligible for selection, but their clubs didn’t want to let them go. (Balotelli and Santon probably wouldn’t have even been called even if they were allowed to go, but I’m just saying that they were eligible.)

Most of these players are Primavera players, while some are first-teamers. By now we all know who Vincenzo Fiorillo is, the one who has been heralded as the “Next Buffon” but in the games he played for Sampdoria last season made some terrible blunders.

Michele Albertazzi has long been considered one of Italy’s top upcoming defense prospects, yet he still has not made his first-team debut with Milan. He should be the one to look for in defense, along with Roma-owned Alessandro Crescenzi (on loan at Grosseto) and Sampdoria’s Vasco Regini.

The midfield has some talented players. The interesting story is that of Roma’s Claudio Della Penna. The youngster returned from loan this summer and wasn’t sent out on loan again before the transfer window ended, and he’s too old to play for the Primavera, so he just trains with the Giallorossi and sits in the stands on the weekend. Genoa’s Silvano Raggio Garibaldi was part of the 2008 U-19 side and has drawn comparisons to Massimo Ambrosini, while Mattia Mustacchio already made his U-21 debut and provides some talent. The star is Fabio Sciacca of Catania, who made an excellent impression last season when he debuted in Serie A and should be the leader for this side.

Up front, coach Francesco Rocca only called up 3 strikers: Umberto Eusepi, who is owned by Genoa and is a big physical striker; Piergiuseppe Maritato, a Juve-owned player on loan at Gallipoli; and Gianvito Misuraca, a creative seconda punta who led Palermo to the Primavera scudetto last season and has drawn comparisons to Fabrizio Miccoli.

The Azzurrini are in a group with Paraguay, Trinidad & Tobago, and hosts Egypt. They open with Paraguay tomorrow, then take on T&T on Monday, and finish the group on Thursday vs. Egypt. The games will be shown on www.espn360.com in the USA.

Overall, not much is expected of this U-20 side and it probably won’t even get big media coverage in Italy. Just getting out of the group may be considered an excellent achievement.