The Lost Italian Jewel

No, this post is not about some unsolved caper that's in the news. Trust me, it's about Italian soccer. But before you read the rest of the post, you MUST watch this first:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgH6ffGgXzw

That was Antonio Cassano. For those of you that don't know about Antonio Cassano, here's the story: Cassano was born in the old, poor section of the Southern Italian city of Bari. He was very poor and only lived with his mom. He played soccer in the streets every day and one day a Bari scout took notice of his talent and he signed for the Bari youth team. His talent was so great that in 1999 Bari manager Eugenio Fascetti decided to give him his first appearance in Serie A at the age of 17 against rivals Lecce. Fascetti said of Cassano, "He's one of the players that only comes around every 30 years or so." Fascetti had a lot of faith in the young talent and the next week gave him a run out against powerhouse Inter. That video that I linked is the great goal he scored in that game to make all of Italy notice the little talent. The next day the Italian newspapers raved, the most famous Gazzetta dello Sport printing the headline - "Tutti Pazzi per il Genio!" (Everyone's crazy for the Genious). He was tracked by all the big clubs in Italy- Milan, Inter, Juventus, and Roma. He stayed on for the 2000-2001 season and still impressed everyone, showing immense talent for an 18 year old. In the summer of 2001 Juventus and Roma decided to fight it out for him. Roma ultimately won the battle, spending 60 million of the old lira for Cassano. Juventus officials said he was a great talent but not for that price. At Roma he realized one of his dreams: To play alongside Francesco Totti. Him and Totti had this telekenetic connection on the field. They knew exactly where they were on the pitch and could find each other with one flick of the ball- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzkVS64uggA - He was nicknamed Il Gioello di Bari Vecchia (the jewel of Old Bari), Fantantonio, El Pibe di Bari (Bari's Maradona), and Peter Pan (because he could work magic).
The problem was Cassano had a bit of a temper problem. He always wanted to play no matter what, and in the early years when he was subbed off he would curse out coach Fabio Capello as he walked off the pitch and would go into the locker room. Capello would usually ignore him and let him be. There were also stories of how Cassano would get mad at training and just leave. But Capello knew how to handle him, and he turned Cassano into a great player. The 2003/2004 season was his breakout year as a 22 year old. He dazzled Italian fans and he earned a call-up to the National team. He was then called into the squad for Euro 2004, and he was easily Italy's best player at the tournament. After Capello left he had problems with all the coaches that were brought in, and he refused to renew his contract. In January of 2006 Roma had enough and sold him to Real Madrid for a cut down price of 4.5 million euro. At Real he arrived overwieght and really didn't play much of a role. He worked all summer to get back into shape and try to get back into form, and the arrival of Capello at Madrid motivated him even more. He showed flashes of his old self in the beginning of the season, even earning a re-call to the Italian National Team. But then Capello benched him, and he hasn't figured all season, only playing recently in a Copa Del Rey match. He finally has become frustrated and blasted Capello in the media, earning him a suspension from the squad, so now he will train alone and rumors are Real want to sell him as soon as possible. Cassano can be a great player, but his career is going nowhere. He may just end up another immensely talented player that does nothing with his career (example Domenico Morfeo of Parma). He needs to come back to Italy and get back on track. The Italian fans need their jewel back, but right now it may be difficult...

Don't Bow to the Red & Black Devil - Part 2

Well, one of the best derbies ever just finished at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in Milan. Inter defeated Milan 4-3. Inter pulled ahead with a header from Hernan Crespo (terrible marking from Milan), and then added a second on a nice goal by Dejan Stankovic (no one pressured him). Milan were abysmal in the first 45 minutes, failing to create any good chance. After the second half, Carlo Ancelotti realized the 4-3-2-1 wasn't working and made all 3 substitutions, putting in Alberto Gilardino for a poor Filippo Inzaghi, Paolo Maldini for the invisible Marek Jankulovski, and Ricardo Oliviera for Massimo Ambrosini, changing the formation from a 4-3-2-1 to a 4-1-2-1-2. But the second half didn't start to well. Inter suddenly went on the counterattack, with Stankovic laying off a pass for Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who slipped past Nesta and volleyed past an unimpressive Dida. The score was 3-0 and Milan looked done. They got a goal back however, Gilardino made himself useful and layed a pass back for Clarence Seedorf who scored, with a little help from a Materazzi deflection. This brought the game to 3-1 and gave Milan life. But before you could say "Forza Milan!" World Cup hero Marco Materazzi headed home off of a free kick to put Inter 4-1 up (bad marking once again), and then stupidly got himself a second yellow card for taking his shirt off during the celebration. So against 10 men Milan regrouped, and Alberto Gilardino finally put a ball into the back of the net on a looping header. Milan really felt like they had a chance, and as the game was in the closing minutes, Inter goalkeeper Julio Cesar came out badly for a cross, leaving Kaka' with a gift. For the final 2 minutes Milan pressed for the tying goal, but it didn't come, and Milan lost 4-3. Despite the good comeback, Milan were terrible. In the first 45 minutes I didn't know if I was watching AC Milan or AC Milan's youth team. The defense is still leaky and nobody can create anything upfront. The only positive is that Gilardino finally scored, and hopefully that gives him some much needed motivation. Milan are now 14 points behind Inter and realistically are out of the Scudetto race. Once again, do not bow to the Red and Black devil, atleast for this season...

Fabio Quagliarella - From Nobody to Somebody!

I know, most people who will read this will say "Who's Fabio Quagliarella?". Well, I'll tell you who he is. Fabio Quagliarella plays for Sampdoria, in the Italian Serie A. He was born on January 31, 1983 and started his career at Torino. He even played on the re-born Fiorentina (Florentia Viola) when they were in Serie C2 because of financial difficulties. He was at Ascoli last season, but didn't really make a mark, only scoring 3 goals in 33 appearances. This season Sampdoria bought half of his ownership (Udinese owns the other half), and they intended to use him as a bench player. Obviously Sampdoria's first-choice striking pair is big target man Emiliano Bonazzoli and the ever present Francesco Flachi. Quagliarella was supposed to be a bench player. But, Francesco Flachi has been suspended for 4 months for betting on games, leaving head coach Walter Novellino to have no other options but to parter Bonazzoli with Quagliarella. This has turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Quagliarella has scored 4 goals since taking over Flachi's job and 2 were world class goals scored against Atalanta (www.channel4.com/sport/football_italia/videogoals1.html click on "Week 7 Goals" and watch goals 2 and 3). Quagliarella has already scored more goals this season in 7 appearances than he did last season in 33 appearances. There are some questions though- Will his hot streak continue, or will he start to fade? What happens when Flachi comes back from suspension?, we'll have to wait and see what happens. He's an exciting little player, and maybe this will be his breakout year. Mr. Donadoni, are you watching?

Bow to the red and black Devil! Or should we?

The fans of Serie A's AC Milan use the phrase "Inchinati al Diavolo" ("Bow to the Devil", the devil being the nickname for the Milan-based team) to put on banners and flags that they bring to the San Siro stadium on gameday. In the past few seasons, Italian soccer fans have had to bow down to the Rossoneri for their splendid play, but this year, please remain upright when in their presence. With Juventus relegated to the second division (Serie B), everyone expected a three-horse race this season in Serie A for the championship (called the "Scudetto", or 'shield', because the champions of Italy get to wear an Italian flag shield on their jerseys the following season) between Inter FC of Milan, AS Roma, and AC Milan. Even though Milan were handed a -8 point defecit to begin the season for their part in the whole Italian scandal, with their squad everyone expected them to quickly wipe away the defecit and jump into the Scudetto chase. This has not been the case. Milan's squad consists of very successful players, boasting 8 players who have won the World Cup (Brazilians Dida, Cafu, and Kaka won in 2002, and Nesta, Gattuso, Pirlo, Gilardino, and Inzaghi in 2006). Other than those players, the only players who do not play for their respective national teams are Costacurta, Maldini (those two are retired from international play), Favalli (too old), Serginho (too old), Seedorf (out of favor with the Dutch coach), Brocchi (never called up, but it might be too late), and Borriello (not an outstanding player). The squad is loaded with experienced players with talent. But where do they sit in the 2006/2007 Serie A table? Fourteenth place, with only 4 points, 3 wins, 3 ties, and 1 loss. Last season they scored 85 goals in 38 games, and this season they only have 6 goals in 7 games. Not to mention, superstar Ukranian striker Andriiy Shevchenko, who had been with the club 7 years and was one of the leading scorers in European play and 2nd alltime on the list of Milan goalscorers, jumped ship to Chelsea of the English Premier Leage for 50 million euros. He claims his American wife forced him to go there so their kids could grow up with English in their environment. A likely story. And what did Milan do with the 50 million euro they received? God only knows. They spent 17 million of it plus Swiss midfielder Johann Vogel on unproven Brazilian striker Ricardo Oliviera, who has never played in the Serie A before and is just coming back from a serious inury. That's it. The fans were expecting a replacement for Shevchenko of equal or greater value, like a Carlos Tevez, or a Fernando Torres. Instead, we got Oliviera, who is a above average striker at best. For those of you who aren't familiar with Milan, they are owned by former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who hasn't been quiet about his admiration for Ronaldinho and the Brazilian style of play (there are 5 Brazilians on the squad already). The vice-president of the club is Adriano Galliani, a bald, ugly man who is quite the character himself and is famous for going to the stadium every Sunday and making hilarious facial expressions when Milan miss a goal or make a good chance. Why did I bring up the management? Because they are stubborn. The squad is old. Unlike other teams that have promising youngsters on the bench and in their ranks, Milan has old players rotting on the bench. Their is only one defender born after 1980, Daniele Bonera, bought this summer. The defense has been leaking goals ever since the start of last season, and it's no longer Milan's strong point. This past weekend against Palermo you could see the defense was weak, leaking 2 goals that shouldn't have been scored. In the midfield, there is one young 20 year old talent named Yoann Gourcuff; he's been dubbed the "New Zidane" in his native France. Let's hope that refers to skill and not heatbutting ability. Of course there are big names like Andrea Pirlo, Gennaro Gattuso, and Brazilian star Kaka'. But besides Gourcuff there is no young midfielder coming up. Milan had 23 year old Pasquale Foggia come back from a loan from Ascoli this summer, but they loaned him out to Lazio for this season. Foggia is an exciting winger with flashy skills that could've been a good option to come off the bench and provide a spark. Upfront, Milan has Filippo Inzaghi, the famous forward who can't seem to stop scoring goals, young talent Alberto Gilardino, the aforementioned Oliviera, and 4th striker Marco Borriello, who is just there as a squad player. The main problem upfront is the 20+ million euro spent on Gilardino has not been worth it, yet. At Parma he showed such superstar quality, scoring goals like this - (www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GCkP6TeZtU) - but he hasn't scored a goal like that since arriving in Milan. If he could replicate his Parma form at Milan, the Rossoneri wouldn't have a problem scoring. I also forgot to mention that Berlusconi demanded that coach Carlo Ancelotti always plays with two strikers up front every game or else he may be fired. So if two strikers are off form (like in the present time), they won't get anything done playing together. And Milan has always played best using a 4-3-2-1 formation, with two creative players supporting a lone target man striker (one of Gilardino or Inzaghi). Back to the original point, the duo of Berlusconi and Galliani are stubborn and never seem to want to rejuvenate the squad. They never go buy a promising youngster and if they do, they send him on loan for a couple seasons and he dies out (Borriello is an example). The team is currently 11 points behind Serie A leaders Inter and Palermo, and it doesn't look like anyone will be bowing to the devil anytime soon. This summer Milan needs a major makeover, and one buy won't fix it (Berlusconi is planning on swooping for Ronaldinho this summer). Milan is sort of like a house that needs to be fixed in many areas, the owners are complaining the carpenters are too slow, and Berlusconi (the carpenter) is trying to buy a 70 inch plasma screen TV to keep the people quiet for a while. It won't work that way, and maybe Milan fans (like myself) will have to wait until summer 2008 for something drastic to finally happen.

My blog

This will be a blog to discuss Italian calcio, which I've had a passion for since being born. Enjoy, and feel free to comment on anything I write.