World Forums

Well, don't forget to utter the magic words next time. "Move your a.ss" might not work again.

Pabs - game was not on RAI Italia. Nice back heel by Gila to Camo to DiNatale.

Falc - Hanna has it's moments. It may pour for 5 minutes with some 20-25mph blustery winds, then nothing. I think the worst now (at 7:15pm) is over.

Pabs - The Cypriots had the international broadcast rights as it was their home match. They sold the North American rights to Setanta Sports, so no RAI.

thanks Falc

Are you watching the US tonight ? Canada vs Honduras starts in about 30 minutes.

they can only foul him to stop him

nice montage of yesterdays U21 game versus Greece. A disappointing 1-1 but you cannot deny that these 2 have some skill. Very very impressed (even though I prefer it if Balotelli did not play for Italy, for reasons I stated before)

(Giovinco & Balotelli -- it takes 2)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfIMiPmhbKY

Dr. Falc Dobson. Guatemala tied T&T in T&T and Mexico is bating the shit out of jamaica 3-0.

Dr. Falc Dobson - LOL - That is the preacher guy, right? Oh boy.

Nice footage on Giovinco and Balotelli. I can't wait to see Giovinco playing for Juve. As for Balotelli, he said that it was the Azzurri and only the Azzurri for him. His roots are from Ghana but that is it. He was born and bred in Italy.

Nice goal play by Gilardino, Camoranesi and DiNatale. I watched some of the match on JustinTV. Midway through the second half, Italia finally got into a good rhythm and controlled the match. Lippi said that he knew going with so many attacking players was risky but he wanted to start that way and then make changes. The injuries to the two defenders changed everything.

I just tuned in to Cuba-USA. Another well lit stadium. The U.S. is up 1-0. How is Canada doing?

Cyprus v. Italy highlights ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4fxyXbmmdE

Canada lost and will lilkely lose in Mexico Wednesday, they may be cooked. Honduras is looking good. They will face Mexico in Honduras with Mexico already qualified to the next round.
BTW, McCain graduated in the bottom 5 of his class. Nice.

... Meanwhile, according to the Washington Post of Sept. 18, 1987,

Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., fighting to salvage his Presidential campaign, today acknowledged "a mistake" in his youth, when he plagiarized a law review article for a paper he wrote in his first year at law school.

Mr. Biden insisted, however, that he had done nothing "malevolent," that he had simply misunderstood the need to cite sources carefully.

And Biden graduated 76th out of 85 students at Syracuse Law School, another middling law school.

We are off thread here but what the heck. So where do we rate the Naval Academy? I had thought about going there. Sometimes I wish I had.

So poor Joe was not the best law student. Looks like he did good for himself. Any mafia types that helped him out when he first got started?

There was an old joke about it....Everyone in the school is liberal, every student and every teacher. Except little Johnny, who's a right-winger. His teacher is so mad at him and says:

- How come you're a right-winger?
- Well, says Johnny, my father's a right-winger, my mom's a right-winger, all my friends are right-wingers.

- So, says the teach. What if your father was a junkie, your mother a whore and your friends were pederasts?

- Then I would have been a liberal, says Johnny.

Falc

you know, Canada started the game like gang-busters. Took a 1-0 lead in the first few minutes. Then had a chance to make it 2-0 but hit the post (FFS). But just like Italy today, they had an injury (Tomazs Radzinski) and once the substitution was made, they play like crap. Actually now, they didn't play like crap. They just stopped playing altogether. The rest of the game was ALL Honduras. Hounduras FLAT OUT deserved to win based on the play from the 20th minute onwards. Simply out, Canada stopped playing. Only Honduras touched the ball.

When Honduras went ahead the guy doing colour commentary (who's an ex Canadian International who's played in the EPL) said that as far as he's concerned Canada is done. He was genuinely upset. 2 home games and only 1 point against fellow minnows of the group was simply not good enough. He said that he's played in WCQ'fiers in CONCACAF and as far as he's concerned, Guatemala, Honduras, & Mexico are the most difficult places to get points. He flat out said that CANADA'S WC IS OVER.

4 games remaining and 3 of which are on the road. I too think it's over. Canada is suffering from second half meltdowns that are costing them hard. For a modest team like Canada, it's simply not doable. To me this group was always going to be: 1) Mexico 2) winner of Canada vs Honduras. Jamaica never stood a chance.

Even after 2 games the standing reflect the correct level of the group 1) Mexico 2) Honduras
3) Canada 4) Jamaica

It will end this way.

This team isn't half bad and in my heart I know that they are good for the 0.5 spot but their lack of killer instict is ruining them (twice now they've held leads going into the 2nd Half and messed up)

ps: that Interista di MERDACCIA David Suazo is a diving cunt that deserves to get shot. I swear I hate all Inter players. Even on NT duty I felt like spitting on the TV.

The Naval academy has fairly low academic standards. They let in lots of Legacies.

I think the low end is a 3.0 GPA but they countin all kinds of other crap.
Still, even at the Naval Academy, John McCain III ended up in the bottom 5 of 795 students. That's pretty low o matter how you spin it. Curve it and he still at at the lowest 1 percent. Even lower considering that 3 8 would be at the 1 percentile.


Here's Johnny!!

Well, I caught most of the game.

A draw would have been more just. Some could even argue that we deserved to lose. LOL@Cyprus.

But we have the September excuse...

September excuse? It has to be better than the September curse (as in CUBS: Completely Useless By September)….

A win is a win. At least we've avoided the inevitable hand wringing. Ireland (@Georgia in Germany) is the only other team to take 3 points in our group on the first match day.

Hey we could be France. OUCH.

Ireland is coached by Giovanni Trapattoni. How did Capello do? Are Italian coaches at 100%?

Speaking of coaches, Zdenek Zeman was sacked by Serbian side Red Star 3 games into the season. They have only collected one point and were eliminated in the UEFA Cup.

Andora--England 0-2

speaking of foreign NT managers

Georgia's manager is non other than Hector Cuper (ex Inter)

Oh God, I hope we take 3 points on Wednesday. For once I want to make it simple and not have to sweat it out.

BTW: Romania, a team that played us equally just a few months ago at EC'08, got skull-fucked by Lithuania on the weekend.

Injured players

has anybody been called up to replace Grosso & Gamberini ?

Nocerino was called up for Gatusso. That is it. No one on defense.

Gattuso got hurt too ?

interesting that Juve let Nocerino go to Palermo, yet is capped by Lippi. (in other word I think Juve are wrong, Lippi right)

To a point I agree that a win is a win. But this is group play and goal differential is a tie breaker (or is it goals scored?). For pete's sake, we got to smoke teams like Cyprus. That said, we have to smoke Georgia on Wednesday.

Pabs - Gatusso got hurt in a freak accident. The team had a friendly with a youth side as part of their training. Gatusso slipped in the dugout area and broke his wrist. He will be out for a month.

I wish Juve had kept Nocerino. He was part of the Amauri deal. Palermo would not deal Amauri without some young players. If you recall, they had the audacity to ask for Giovinco. So Nocerino was transferred to Palermo and a co-ownership deal for Lanzafame. Nocerino went with the move as he will get more playing time.

Finally a voice of reason....
Zoff To Lippi: Drop Toni, Pick Amauri And Balotelli
Former Italy coach Dino Zoff believes La Nazionale would be so much stronger if Marcello Lippi picked Amauri and Mario Balotelli. The former Lazio tactician has criticised Luca Toni and believes the Bayern Munich striker is no longer up to the national job.
Italy have not been too convincing since Lippi’s return to the helm and the Alberto Gilardino – Luca Toni partnership just doesn’t seem to be working.

Zoff, who coached the Azzurri between 1998 and 2000, has offered his advice on the Italian situation starting with the strikers.

“Toni is not up to his levels, I think he is feeling a bit sad. He was mediocre during the Euro’s and I don’t know what the problem is,” Zoff told Il Quotidiano.

“I think Lippi needs Amauri. I like him a lot. He pushes the team higher up the pitch, he’s a great athlete, can score any goal and he knows how to hit the net.

“Balotelli is also untouchable and I think he would be a champion with Italy, he has great qualities.”

The former Juventus goalkeeper also had a few words on Georgia, Italy’s opponents on Wednesday night as well as the impact Lippi's return may have on the side's fortunes.

“Italy cannot be scared of Georgia, if they are then we might as well go and try to sweep the sea,” added Zoff.

“Lippi has come back to the side he lead to World Cup glory and he knows it well.

“If he came back, it means he believes in doing well again. He could win it again even without the C factor.”

The Azzurri clash with Hector Cuper’s men tomorrow night and they will be hoping for maximum points as they look to take firm control of Group 8.

WTH is the "C factor"?

Neither is ready. Both show promise but let them get some real experience on the world stage first. Balotelli belongs with the Azzurrini and will get his chance there. No need for his head to get too big. Let him earn his spot. Let him become a regular at Inter and play CL. Let Amauri prove himself with Juve. He has been a bit of a selfish player so far. It is different than Palermo, where he does not need to carry the load all by himself. And he needs to profess his want to play for Italia. He still seems to be up in the air.

Amauri had said that he wanted to play for Brazil..


Lippi should take a look at Rossina.
He should drop Toni.

agreed... he should also consider Cassano and Rossi

lol

Balotelli has played all of about 10 games in the top flight and Dino Zoff is already saying that he is the #1 striker. Fucking guy is going senile.

Amauri, for starters is not Italian. Second, he would rather play for Brazil.

U21 Team

1-1 in Croatia today

We win the group and advance to the Playoff next year.

the big suprise was Holland missing out after having won the last 2 tournaments. France also misses out.

So what do you think Lippi is thinking?

say what you will about Gattuso but he must be a great teammate.

Bineaz

as I took it, the "C Factor" is Hector Cuper. Zoff's way of paying Cuper a compliment, I guess.

I guess it gets lost in the Italian-to-English translation.

Hector Cuper has an axe to grind with Lippi with all those Inter-Juve battles from 2001 through 2003. I still think that Cuper will fail today but he would love to stick it to Lippi.

Pabs wrote:lol

Balotelli has played all of about 10 games in the top flight and Dino Zoff is already saying that he is the #1 striker. Fucking guy is going senile.

Amauri, for starters is not Italian. Second, he would rather play for Brazil.

I'll take that 10 games and all of the potential that comes with it over what Luca Toni provides.


Yet Another Italy Injury, Now Legrottaglie
The Azzurri’s bizarre injury curse has continued as Nicola Legrottaglie is a doubt to play tonight’s World Cup qualifier against Georgia after sustaining a muscular injury. Italy may now go into the game with just two available centre backs, and one defender on the bench.

Italy have been struck down by a whole host of injury problems over the past few days. With Giorgio Chiellini and Marco Materazzi not originally included due to fitness problems, deputy goalkeeper Marco Amelia last week had to withdraw because of a back problem, with Gianluca Curci coming in as a replacement.

During Saturday night’s 2-1 win over Cyprus, both Fabio Grosso and Alessandro Gamberini were forced off injured in the first 15 minutes. The pair have now left the Italian camp, as has Milan hardman Rino Gattuso, who suffered a dislocated hand during a bizarre training ground accident on Sunday.

If the injury curse could not get any worse, Nicola Legrottaglie is now a doubt for tonight’s game against Georgia after picking up a muscular injury to his right leg in training.

Legrottaglie, who was set to partner Fabio Cannavaro in the centre of defence, will undergo a medical examination this morning, before having a fitness test this afternoon to see whether or not he can play.

Although the injury is not said to be serious, it seems likely at this stage that Andrea Barzagli, who had a shocker against Cyprus, will start alongside Cannavaro.

Worse still, it also means that Marcello Lippi’s refusal to call up any defensive replacements may have backfired, as Italy face the prospect of going into tonight’s game with just two available centre backs, and with just one defender on the bench - fullback Marco Cassetti.

Cap an Udinese player

although it's a messed up way of doing things, Lippi can always cap up a Udinese player, can't he ?

If anything, to just be on the bench just in case. Although not ideal, Luigi Sala would likely be available and he has NT eperience. Even Coda could get capped.

What, traveling through Italy is like going across the U.S. or Canada? Lippi should be able to call anyone within the peninsula.

A bigger problem is going to be the pitch. There was some concert this week and supposedly it messed things up. I hope that does not come back to bite us in the culo.

No loss with Legrotaglie

Can't believe Lippi capped this girly-man. He just sucks.