World Forums

Wrong board, dumbass.

who's playing today?

The Buyers of championships. La Vieja Transa señora.

RE: Juve

more dropped points against a smaller team but at least we remain undefeated for the year.

Fiorentina win and again Gilardino is the catalyst. I just knew this was going to be a perfect fit for him. Gila is the type of player that for him to be successful they need to be the star of the team (as it was at Parma). At Milan he was just another name, but at a team like Fiorentina he is making the team his.

In Spain, Giuseppe Rossi scores the only goal of the game as Villarreal beat Sporting Gijon 1-0

Blueprint to beat Inter

Entertaining derby just now. May have come a bit too early in the season but that's OK. Milan deserved to win but it looked like Inter was going to equalise but that red card killed them. Still had half-chances though.

Both teams are beatable and I expect Juve to do just that when we play them.

What did Materazzi say from the bench this time? "I slept with your brother"? -

Congratulations to AC Milan. Berlusco was all smiles.

lol, I lip read him say "gomito" was is "elbowing"

He was complaining of the elbow that Flamini threw at Adriano. Nevermind that he threw one to Kaka in the First Half.

Falc

what's pathetic about it all is that when people give off every indication that their gay and people call them on it, liberal idiots say "just because he acts like that doesn't mean he's gay"

Uhm. Yes. It does. And what a message he sends. He's gay but yet he has a baby. And 'People' magazine PURPOSELY use a pix of him holding his baby. They could have used any other one but nooooo, they PURPOSELY had to use that particular one. More ammo to the gay rights groups. Look at this EMO crap. I swear I've never seen men being feminised as they are right now.

We'll take it to the Gen Chat thread if you have a reply.

Yeah, that murderer should talk about elbowing. Every time he does that, I suppose his target players thank God he didn't go after their balls.

F*ck yeah... Thank you Ronaldinho for putting one in the back of the net. Good game.

I'm surprised but I shouldn't be surprised with Milan's 1-0 win over Inter. I didn't see the game but I caught the highlights. It appears that Milan did a good job.

Serie B

Brescia 0 - Parma 0

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080930/ap_on_re_eu/eu_italy_mafia_arrests

See this is why you've proven time and time again to be a LOSER. You think I'm not happy about this ?

I think it's great news that more murderers are off the street. Did I ever say otherwise, dickweed ?

Having said that this is just a band-aid solution. Until people get educated that drugs are bad then the scum will still sell it. either that or the mafia gets removed entirely. And IMO, in a democracy it is impossible.

CL

A draw on the road is not a bad result but this team was probably beatable. Not the end of the world. We'll get them at home. Would have liked to have seem RM draw as well, but to no avail.

We get RM next at the Bernabeu. This has got to be a game where we go out and make a statement.

Guidolin hired as Parma's new coach

(30 settembre) - Parma FC SpA comunica di avere sottoscritto, in data odierna, un accordo con l'allenatore Francesco GUIDOLIN per la conduzione tecnica della prima squadra.
Il nuovo allenatore sarà presentato oggi pomeriggio, alle ore 16.30 al Centro Sportivo di Collecchio

I obviously missed this earlier this week. Good move on Parma's part. Guidolin has Serie A experience, although he never coached any of the big boys (Inter, Milan, Juve, Roma, Lazio). He's better than what's been there for the last 16 months.

That's a solid move. As long as Guidolin keeps his wanderlust under control and sticks around, he has the experence to bring Parma back up to Serie A.

bineaz

Well... should Parma make it back to Serie A, great. But we also realize that chances are they wouldn't last very long. When the owner states that all he has to play with the team is 30 million Euros it becomes quite a challenge to keep a team in A let alone compete with the Inters & Milans of the league who are spending well over 100 million Euros.

Forza Inter!

Is it just me or does Mourinho look like he's been up for 48 hours straight at every Inter game?

What the hell... Ancelotti just proved once again that his Christmas Tree formation doesn't work against small teams... It leaves Pato too isolated to do anything and leaves Dinho and Kaka few options up front. When he switched to the 4-4-2 with the Diamond Midfield in the Serie A we started getting results.. now look at this shit. The Christmas Tree formation gets good results in Europe, and Inter.

First hiccup of the season by Juve. I heard Ranieri was blaming the poor pitch

what happened, Falc ? I've been busy as hell the last few days and didn't see it.

CONVOCATI

Portieri: Buffon (Juventus), Amelia (Palermo), De Sanctis (Galatasaray)

Difensori: Bonera (Milan), Cannavaro (Real Madrid), Chiellini (Juventus), Dossena (Liverpool), Gamberini (Fiorentina), Santacroce (Napoli), Zambrotta (Milan).

Centrocampisti: Aquilani (Roma), Camoranesi (Juventus), De Rossi (Roma), Gattuso (Milan), Maggio (Napoli), Montolivo (Fiorentina), Nocerino (Palermo), Perrotta (Roma)

Attaccanti: Di Natale (Udinese), Gilardino (Fiorentina), Pepe (Udinese), Rossi G. (Villarreal), Toni (Bayern Monaco)

My Comments: good to see Lippi insert younger guys like Rossi, Pepe, Nocerino. Absolutely delighted to see Maggio being capped. He should have been capped about 6 games ago as far as I'm concerned. I completely DISAGREE with bringing back Perrotta. WTF is this all about ? I thought he would have been done for sure. I wasn't suprised that Gattuso is called but he could have done without this callup. Don't agree with the Santacroce cap either as you may have guessed.

Busy as hell? Cross-burnings keeping you busy? Or Minutemen meetings?

I forgot to mention Juve finished paying Palermo for the Amauri transfer--not with Euros but with three points.

My Lineup for Saturday:

Toni Gilardino

? DeRossi Aquilani Camoranesi

Zambrotta Cannavaro Chiellini Dossena

Buffon

Left Wing: of these callups, who the heck plays on the left side. I sure as hell hope it's not Perrotta

I want to see Maggio sub Camoranesi for the Second Half. And I want to see Rossi make an appearance.

for next Wednesday's game, why did they pick to have the game played in Lecce ? You just know Mirko Vicinic of Montenegro (ex-Lecce) is going to be up for the game.

They try to spread the NT around and it's been a while since they played in the heel. It does make it easy for Montegrenans to cross over for the match.

UEFA Cup Draw:

I GIRONI

GRUPPO A: Schalke 04, Paris Saint Germain, Manchester City, Racing Santander, Fc Twente.

GRUPPO B: Benfica, Olympiakos, Galatasaray, Hertha Berlino, Metalist Kharkiv.

GRUPPO C: Siviglia, Stoccarda, Sampdoria, Partizan, Standard Liegi.

GRUPPO D: Tottenham, Spartak Mosca, Udinese, Dinamo Zagabria, Nec Nijmegen.

GRUPPO E: Milan, Heerenveen, Braga, Portsmouth, Wolfsburg.

GRUPPO F: Amburgo, Ajax, Slavia Praga, Aston Villa, Zilina.

GRUPPO G: Valencia, Brugge, Rosenborg, Copenaghen, Saint-Etienne.

GRUPPO H: Cska Mosca, Deportivo, Feyenoord, Nancy, Poznan.

IL CALENDARIO DELLE ITALIANE

23 ottobre: Partizan-Sampdoria
6 novembre: Sampdoria riposa
27 novembre: Sampdoria-Stoccarda
3 dicembre: Standard Liegi-Sampdoria
18 dicembre: Sampdoria-Siviglia

Gruppo D
23 ottobre: Udinese-Tottenham
6 novembre: Spartak Mosca-Udinese
27 novembre: Udinese riposa
3 dicembre: Udinese-Dinamo Zagabria
18 dicembre: Nijmegen-Udinese

GRUPPO E
23 ottobre: Heerenven-Milan
6 novembre: Milan-Braga
27 novembre: Portsmouth-Milan
4 dicembre: Milan riposa
17 dicembre: Milan-Wolfsburg

____________
Samp seems to have the toughest group of the Italian clubs.

Top Clubs' Attendances Hit New Lows
According to latest figures, Italian clubs' attendances in the Champions League are on the slide, while Serie A also has a meager average of around 24.000 so far this season.

"Why do you leave me all alone on Sundays to go watch a football match," bellowed renowned Italian singer Rita Pavone in the early 60's.

La Partita di Pallone was a smashing hit in the peninsula and was frequently quoted to describe Italians' insane passion for Calcio.

The song voiced the frustrations of girlfriends and spouses forced to stay in and sit through hours of insipid Sunday TV shows, while their partners went berserk watching their idols.

The trend continued well into the 70's and reached its pinnacle in the 80's and 90's, when legends such as Diego Armando Maradona, Michel Platini, Paulo Roberto Falcão, Lothar Mattheus, Zico and Zinedine Zidane graced Italian pitches.

Football grounds were constantly packed to the rafters during that period, and Serie A quickly became a worldwide brand.

And then it happened. The passion slowly evaporated and attendances started tumbling down, falling to a new low of 20.726 in the 2006/07 season.

At its peak, Calcio attendances averaged 38.872 in the 1984/85 campaign and an average of 31.161 still marked the 1997/98 championship.

The average for the current season is hovering around 24.000, but it has now emerged that not even the sparkling lights of the premier European competition hold any appeal for Italian fans these days.

Roma's opener against Cluj in the Champions League was watched by a scant crowd of 25.382, while José Mourinho's Inter debut with Werder Bremen at San Siro attracted just 32.965.

Juventus also failed to get a full house for the game against Zenit St Petersburg (23.000), and so did Fiorentina (26.000) for the match with Steaua Bucharest, despite an 8-year absence from the competition.

Inter and Roma are amongst the four teams that have failed to fill at least half the ground thus far in the tournament.

Taking into account venues' capacities and attendances, Juve sit in 15th place, thanks to their relative small Stadio Olimpico, but the Viola are 26th, the Nerazzurri are 30th and the Giallorossi have narrowly edged out Sporting Lisbon, who prop the standings.

It is particularly odd that Italian champions Inter have registered such low turnouts, despite their four consecutive domestic titles, the high-profile summer acquisitions and the Special One factor.

"Inter-Werder was broadcasted on three different TV channels," read a statement from the Pinetina.

"Considering the financial crisis and economic crunch gripping Italy and the whole world, it is only natural that people shun the stadiums."

Maybe if clubs were not so short-sighted and lowered ticket prices, fans would ultimately flock back to watch live football in the peninsula, instead of shooting pay-TV operators' revenues through the roof.

"Why should I spend mad money to sit in dilapidated and unsafe grounds, when I can pay a few euros to watch all the games in the comfort of my own living room," bemoans a disillusioned fan on an Italian football forum.

In that concise sentence, you can find listed the three main reasons that have originated this dramatic decline in attendances.

Most Italian grounds are very old and have not undergone major renovations ever since Italia '90.

Several Serie A sides were hoping to secure large subsidies to renovate or build new venues, but Italy lost out to Poland and Ukraine in the race to host Euro 2012 and the plans were shelved.

Furthermore, there is the still unresolved issue of calcio-related violence: two deaths have shaken Italian football over the past two years, but the myopic politicians have only decreed to set up turnstiles and issue individual tickets in order to tackle the problem.

Troubles may indeed be decreasing inside the stadia, but scuffles between rival fans constantly broke out in the adjacent areas or on the routes to the venues.

Napoli fans devastated a train while travelling to Rome on the first weekend of the season, before clashing with the police and Roma supporters nearby the Stadio Olimpico.

Three Romans and two Neapolitans were apprehended, but remained in police custody for less than 24 hours.

Under these circumstances, how can people feel safe enough to attend matches?

Without certainty of punishment, without serious deterrents, there is no way out of this tunnel.

There are many reasons why attendance is down in Serie A. But to be fair, what is the comparison with which season?

Calcio attendances averaged 38.872 in the 1984/85 campaign and an average of 31.161 still marked the 1997/98 championship.

In all fairness, in 1984/85 there were absolutely no live games on TV. You wanted to hear live action, guess what? You tuned into the radio and listen to Enrico Ameri and Sadro Ciotti on Tutto il Calcio Minuto per Minuto. By 1997/98 there were matches available on TV thanks to the satellite dish. By now, you can get basically any match on satellite.

So where's the incentive to go to the stadium where you have to pay for your ticket, get to the stadium (and get home), deal with the hastle of the crowds and deal with the possibility of getting in the middle of ultras brawling? Once or twice a season fine but otherwise....

It's a no brainer quite frankly.

Oh Shit

Injury woes hit Italy & Juve

Buffon out for 30 days. Camoranesi out for 20

Curci has been called up in place of Buffon (though I imagine Amelia will start). No callup in place of Camoranesi. Now I really hope Maggio gets his chance and lights it up these next 2 games. Time for this guy to prove his worth.

As for Juve, Manniger is going to have to carry the load in net. Marchionni and Giovinco for Camoranesi. Tough schedule coming up with Napoli & Real Madrid.

Go away loser, nobody here wants you anymore/ Love don't live here anymore.

as if I care what a Indio like you thinks...

Lippi spices up Italy mix(FIFA.com) Wednesday 8 October 2008

Ahead of his side's forthcoming 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ qualifying matches against Group 8 rivals Bulgaria and Montenegro, Italy coach Marcello Lippi has continued his overhaul of the national squad by calling up no fewer than four new faces.

Compared with the Azzurra squad that travelled to UEFA EURO 2008, the world champions have incorporated ten changes without breaking their stride. Indeed, Italy got off to a 100 per cent start to South Africa 2010 qualifying with wins over Cyprus and Georgia.

Even if a spate of injuries has undoubtedly speeded up the integration process, with defenders Marco Materazzi, Nicola Legrottaglie, Marco Cassetti, Fabio Grosso, midfielder Andrea Pirlo and forwards Vincenzo Iaquinta and Marco Borriello all unavailable, Lippi has shown a great deal of faith in a new generation of gifted Italians. So much so, in fact, that the former Juventus and Inter Milan supremo feels he can do without the services of centre-back Andrea Barzagli, attacking livewire Antonio Cassano and an in-form Alessandro Del Piero.

Lippi has claimed that "the heroes of Berlin won't receive any special treatment", but he has stuck his neck out in calling up Juve pair Gianluigi Buffon and Mauro Camoranesi - both of whom are injury doubts for the Bulgaria match.

Five expats on the list
Another curious feature of the latest Italy squad list is the number of players currently playing their club football abroad. Just a few years ago, it was rare to see current Azzurri internationals leaving Italian shores. Now the squad includes Luca Toni (Bayern Munich), Fabio Cannavaro (Real Madrid), Andrea Dossena (Liverpool), Giuseppe Rossi (Villarreal) and substitute keeper Morgan De Sanctis (Galatasaray).

The four Nazionale new boys are forwards Simone Pepe of Udinese, the aforementioned Giuseppe Rossi, Napoli's attacking midfielder Christian Maggio and club-mate and defender Fabiano Santacroce. This exciting quartet will rub shoulders with the likes of striker Alberto Gilardino (Fiorentina), defenders Daniele Bonera (AC Milan), Marco Cassetti (Rome) and Andrea Dossena (Liverpool) and midfield man Angelo Palombo (Sampdoria), all of whom were forced to watch EURO 2008 from afar.

The case of 21-year-old front-runner Rossi is particularly intriguing. Born in the United States to Italian parents, but having received his footballing education in the Parma youth system, Rossi is a lively second striker capable of tremendous bursts with the ball at his feet and the ability to unhinge defences in a flash.

The Villarreal star, who had spells in English football with Manchester United and Newcastle, is blessed with a powerful and accurate shot and has progressed through every stage of the Italian national youth set-up, scoring five goals in 16 appearances for the U-21s and three in three for the Olympic side. Since joining the so-called Yellow Submarine in June 2007, Rossi has already grabbed 13 goals in 37 matches and would appear well-placed to slot into Del Piero's favoured role behind a conventional central striker like Toni or Gilardino.

Udinese's 25-year-old front man Simone Pepe, for his part, had already worn the colours of no fewer than six clubs before finding his feet in Friuli. A tireless worker most at home on the right flank, Pepe tends to drop deep to receive the ball before launching his forward forays.

Montolivo, one for the future?
Fabiano Santacroce, 22, born in Brazil to an Italian father and Brazilian mother, is a solid defender sometimes prone to an overly physical approach - which could explain why he missed the Olympic Football Tournament Beijing 2008 through suspension. Napoli team-mate Maggio, meanwhile, is busy establishing himself as a consistent top-flight performer after grabbing nine goals for Sampdoria last season in a wide-right role.

But perhaps the brightest hope for this new wave of young talents, along with Rossi, is Fiorentina's playmaker Riccardo Montolivo. The 23-year-old has all the right ingredients to develop into La Nazionale Azzurra's key deep-lying midfield string-puller: exceptional technique, an impressive work ethic, an eye for a defence-splitting pass and a commitment to always putting the team first. And once he has more experience under his belt, he should start taking more risks going forward and become an even more dangerous opponent.

Montolivo, originally from Milan, made his senior national-team debut in a 2-0 win against South Africa on 17 October 2007. He was also included in previous coach Roberto Donadoni's provisional squad for EURO 2008, though he eventually missed out on a place in the final 23.

Thus Italy would appear to have an embarrassment of riches at their disposal as they set off on the road to defending their world title at South Africa 2010. Coach Lippi, meanwhile, has now gone 28 matches without defeat, a run that dates back to his previous spell as Azzurri coach. Should his side avoid a reverse in their next two qualifiers, Lippi would move level with the legendary Vittorio Pozzo, whose Nazionale squad went unbeaten for 30 games (24 wins and 6 draws) between 24 November 1935 and 20 July 1939.