Azzurrini getting Ready for Beijing !

By: Marco | February 5th, 2008

The U21 Squad is facing Holland, in their first test since qualifying for the Beijing Olympics with their Penalty shoot out win against Portugal. The team will be facing the U21 Euro Champions, so Pierluigi Casiraghi has the perfect chance to work out some kinks before the Summer Trip to China.

Speaking of Mao Zedong’s favourite country, what about those 3 non- U21 players you can add to the Olympic Squad ?

C’ancora molto tempo per pensare ai fuoriquota. Una cosa¬ certa, anch’io voglio andare alle Olimpiadi con la migliore squadra possibile, ma proprio per questo dovraspettare, capire in quali ruoli avrpibisogno di rinforzi, anche tenendo presente l’estrema esiguitdella rosa consentita

conoscere le convocazioni di Donadoni per le finali europee di giugno. Solo allora avrun quadro completo per decidere su questo o quell’altro nome. La querelle con il Coni stata frutto di una tempistica sbagliata di un’intervista, in realtnon ci sono problemi, ma la scelta non puessere fatta adesso .

So Pierluigi says he has a lot of time left and anyways he needs to see who gets picked for the Euro2008 squad. He’ll be picking up the left-overs i guess

Pierluigi Casiraghi won’t be able to count on miniature phenom Sebastian Giovinco for the clash, but gets to welcome Beppe Rossi and Ricardo Montolivo back. The U21 coach lashed out at Serie A clubs this week saying how the Italian Youngen don’t get a fair chance in Italia :

“I am sure that if Cesc Fabregas, Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo were in Serie A, they’d play regularly as well, although they certainly would not have been given their debuts in these big clubs at 17. They would’ve had to wait a few more years.

“Before his injury, Giuseppe Rossi had scored the same number of goals as Messi. Sebastian Giovinco, Claudio Marchisio and Luca Cigarini will have a great future, while Alberto Aquilani and Riccardo Montolivo have already grown up and found their place.”

Here’s the rest of his rant

Squads:

Pierluigi Casiraghi hasn’t called up Mario Balotelli : Intanto aspettiamo che il ragazzo diventi calcisticamente italiano a tutti gli effetti. E poi diamogli tempo di crescere. Certo, il talento c’ed cristallino .

So we need to wait for the boy to be completely Italian ?

Let’s break this down : He was born in Palermo and was adopted by Italian parents, if he eats Pasta, he’s Italian, Basta

I can’t wait to see him and Okaka Chuka shine for the U21’s soon…

Half of Empoli’s team made the squad, while Roman boys Galloppa and Cerci made the squad. I can’t believe Villareal is one of the teams providing a player to the Italian U21?

Portieri: Consigli (Rimini), Viviano (Brescia).

Difensori: Coda (Udinese), Domenico Criscito (Genoa), Paolo De Ceglie (Siena), Luca Marzoratti (Empoli), Marco Motta (Torino), Rossettini (Siena), Rossi Marco (Parma).

Centrocampisti: Luca Cigarini (Parma), Daniele Galloppa (Siena), Ignazio Abbate (Empoli), Ricardo Montolivo (Fiorentina), Morosini (Vicenza), Antonio Nocerino (Juventus), Andrea Russotto (Treviso)

Attaccanti: Alessio Cerci (Pisa), Osvaldo (Fiorentina), Nicola Pozzi (Empoli), Beppe Rossi (Villarreal).

Netherlands :

As for the Netherlands, I haven’t been able to come up with the squad so here’s what WIKI thinks about it

Probable formations :

Holland :

4-3-3

Vermeer
Zuirveloon, Pieters, Donk, Jong-A-Pin
Luijckx, Brama, Nigel De Jong
Sno, Elia, Drenthe

To be honest, the 2 only players i know are De Jong and Drenthe, but this is pretty much the same squad that won that EuroU21 of 2007 event, so the Azzurri will get some excellent opposition.

Italia

4-3-3 ; The offensive version

Viviano
Motta, Coda , Criscito , De Ceglie
Nocerino , Cigarini , Montolivo,
Cerci ,Pozzi, Giuseppe Rossi
I can’t wait to see what Rossi and Cerci will do from those wonderful Cigarini/Montolivo passes

Prediction :

Who cares, it’s a friendly game !

Forza Azzurrini !