Italy & Spain Squads for Friendlies
Saturday, 07 February 09, 11:38 AM
Italy Squad for Brazil Friendly
Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Marco Amelia (Palermo), Morgan De Sanctis (Galatasaray/TUR)
Defenders: Daniele Bonera (AC Milan), Fabio Cannavaro (Real Madrid/ESP), Andrea Dossena (Liverpool/ENG), Alessandro Gamberini (Fiorentina), Fabio Grosso (Lyon/FRA), Nicola Legrottaglie
(Juventus), Gianluca Zambrotta (AC Milan)
Midfielders: Alberto Aquilani (AS Roma), Mauro Camoranesi (Juventus), Daniele De Rossi (AS Roma), Riccardo Montolivo (Fiorentina), Simone Pepe (Udinese), Simone Perrotta (AS Roma), Andrea Pirlo
(AC Milan)
Forwards: Antonio Di Natale (Udinese), Alberto Gilardino (Fiorentina), Vincenzo Iaquinta (Juventus), Fabio Quagliarella (Udinese), Giuseppe Rossi (Villareal/ESP), Luca Toni (Bayern
Munich/GER)
Spain Squad for England Friendly
Goalkeepers: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid) and José Manuel Reina (Liverpool/ING)
Defenders: Raúl Albiol, Carlos Marchena (Valencia), Álvaro Arbeloa (Liverpool), Joan Capdevila (Villarreal), Juanito (Real Betis), Gerard Piqué, Carles Puyol (Barcelona) and Sergio Ramos (Real
Madrid).
Midfielders: Xabi Alonso, Albert Riera (Liverpool), Sergi Busquets, Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta (Barcelona), Santiago Cazorla, Marcos Senna (Villarreal) and David Silva (Valencia).
Forwards: Daniel Güiza (Fenerbahce), Fernando Llorente (Athletic), Fernando Torres (Liverpool) and David Villa (Valencia).
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Forza Futbol 49: Andy Mitten
Friday, 06 February 09, 09:09 PM
Forza Futbol’s Mando talks to Andy Mitten author of Mad For It. Get the whole episode here, direct download here or subscribe in iTunes.
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RCD Espanyol: Their Sporting Director Resigns
Friday, 06 February 09, 11:55 AM
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So, we found out today that Espanyol Sporting Director Paco Herrera can't continue living off the glory of helping Rafa Benitez win the Champions League trophy anymore. Instead he
leaves the club he joined
from Liverpool with a bunch of failed negotiations and an inability to close the deal when any deal would have helped the cause. Sure he was faced with an unbalanced lineup, the result of being forced to sell key players in the Summer, and yes with the arrival of a new coach in Pochettino, he was faced with changing his transfer policy on the fly, from bringing in a defensive midfielder to shore up the defense under former coach Mane to bringing in help for their puny strike force, but in the end many of the deals he had proposed in general simply vanished as quickly as they became known. Mateja Kezman was looking for another club in Europe and he would have been a decent short term replacement for Tamudo. Never materialized. Hernan Crespo who we spent considerable time and energy trying to convince to come to Barcelona was never going to leave his beloved adopted country to come to Spain. In the end, for the failure of the squad, and the failed experiment with hiring not only Mane but also Tintin Marquez at the beginning of the year after the squad imploded under Ernesto Valverde, someone up top had to pay and unfortunately it was Paco Herrera who had to pay. A nice man with great principles is what his immediate supervisor described him as, in one of the Barcelona dailies, but if you read between the lines like I did, all that means is that he was never ruthless enough or forceful enough to close the deal. I hope his successor does. Forza Futbol |
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Headlines, Numancia - Real Madrid and Sunday's Serie A Action
Sunday, 01 February 09, 11:26 PM
Gol TV strikes again ladies and gentlemen. Rather than getting a bit of Spanish classicism from the best league in the world, I get stuck watching U-20 South American kids; which I’ll say is perfectly good if you like living in that head space where you watch a player and wonder whether he’ll be any good in 4 years, when you barely remember him, but right here right now you just wonder why you’re bothering to watch sub standard football.
So rather than watch Real Madrid at a decent hour, I’m watching it at 1 in the morning right before bed. Some reflections early on:
- Soria is a very small venue to watch a first division game. I wonder if they can build a sustainable model of top flight football at Numancia with that small stadium?
- Fernando Gago continues to be late reacting to the ball and continues to come in late for tackles. He’s no Fernando Redondo, no matter what people say about resemblances.
- I don’t like to criticize people covering games, but Phil Schoen on Gol TV made me laugh when he mentioned the great players that Real Madrid have in their “cantina”. No wonder they all play sluggishly.
- Wesley Snejder is a great talent but there’s something wrong with him still. He should have waited to make his comeback. He’s great on the set pieces but he’s lost a step in the run of play.
- Numancia don’t play like a promoted side looking for a break. They dominated possession in the first half and should have scored off the header by Javier del Pino.
- The first goal, the record breaking one by Raul, was set-up by a darting inside run by Robben who layed it off to Higuain who shot, it was blocked and Raul poached it. Nice form for a guy who doesn’t have the skill anymore of a quality support striker but isn’t physical enough to really handle the #9 role all by himself. The forgotten man though was Lass. It was he who won the ball for Robben, who I assume realizes that if he stays by Lass, he’ll get the ball soon enough.
- The second goal was typical Robben. He may not be Lionel Messi but he’s the only player they have that can break a man down all by himself and he showed it. Higuain comes close, but this is the real failure of Pedja Mijatovich, he continues to bring in players that have no business wearing the classic white shirt.
The story of the match was Raul’s reaching for Alfredo DiStefano’s club record for goals. “It is a beautiful thing”, he remarked to himself primarily, as DiStefano was nowhere to be found. I realize he’s getting on in years but Don Alfredo’s been a constant presence there for decades. I wonder if there’s a bit of crankiness there for a man known for his crankiness. Wouldn’t surprise me. That's Real Madrid.
Aupa: La Liga
On Sunday the surprise of all the games were 2 of them, Firstly Inter was held to a 1-1 draw, and actually trailed 1-0 at home on a goal by Roalndo Bianchi in the 47th minute. But Inter being Inter they came back to tie on a goal by Nicolas Bordisso about 15 minutes later. It was only Burdisso's 4th goal in serie A in almost 5 seasons. But it was enough to give Inter the point they needed to keep a 6-point advantage over their cross-city rivals Ac Milan who went to the Olimpico in Rome and demolished Lazio by a 3-0 final on goals by Massimo Ambrosini, Alexandre Pato and the newly rejuvenated Ricardo Kaka. I guess not going to Manchester City has done wonders for Ricky and the fans of AC Milan throughout the world. As my co-blogger Hannah would say, Thank you Silvio Berlusconi. Juve's home loss to Cagliari on Saturday dropped them to 3rd place in the table. and Moved Cagliari even with Napoli for 7th place. Genoa solidified their Champions League position, with an 85th minute goal by Neapolitan born Mimmo Criscito Roma was held to a tie in Reggio Calabria after trailing 1-0 on a penalty converted by Corradi. but Pizzaro scored twice for Roma the second of which, he scored on a rebound of a save off his own penalty kick giving AS Roma a 2-1 lead which held until the 81st minute when Francesco Cozza scored to draw even at 2-2.in mid table Atalanta beat Catania 1-0 on a goal by Guarente and in the relegation zone Lecce took a big step towards safety by Beating Sienna 2-1 on goals by Tiribocchi and Castillo in Sienna. While Chievo held Sampdoria to a draw giving them 8 points in the last 4 matches.
Next weeks big match is Roma-Genoa, I'll be watching, hopefully so will you. Oh and don't forget Juve-Napoli in Coppa Italia on Gol-Tv on Wednesday.
- Messi with a brace but Marquez and Piqué red carded.
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Inter draw 1-1 with Torino.
- Deportivo La Coruna sink Villarreal's yellow submarines 3-0
- Zanetti and Chiellini are going to miss more playing time as they both reinjured themselves in yesterdays loss to Torino. Early estimates have Zanetti out two months and Chiellini for around a month. Both injuries are at a bad time for I bianconeri as Champions League is just around the corner.
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Forza Futbol 47
Wednesday, 28 January 09, 10:21 AM
This week Hannah, Mando talk about the happenings in Spain and look at the games from the weekend. Kevin joined us to talk about the weekend's action in Italy. Get the whole episode here, direct download here or subscribe in iTunes. Check out our new site ForzaFutbol.com and follow us on Twitter.
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Forza Futbol 45
Friday, 23 January 09, 12:13 PM
This week Hannah and Armando talk about Kaka to Manchester City, trouble at Real Madrid and trouble at Espanyol. Get the whole episode here, direct download here or subscribe in iTunes.
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Forza Futbol Episode 44
Saturday, 17 January 09, 11:01 AM
This week’s episode of Forza Futbol we talk about last weeks action. We also bring you an interview with Tim Vickery. Get the whole episode here, direct download here or subscribe in iTunes.
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Calderon, Gone Gone?
Friday, 16 January 09, 05:06 PM
After a contentious two years in control, headlined by two league titles and two disgraced coaches, as of this morning the Ramon Calderon era at Real Madrid is over. In a meeting in December, he was able to survive a vote of no-confidence at the Club Assembly on December 7th, but it has come out this week that he used "bused-in" ultra groups to intimidate members and used non-members to rig the vote in his favor. Now everyone is calling on the club to move forward and call a general election to find his successor, and that's all well and good but the fact remains that regardless of the fact that he failed to meet his campaign promises of bringing Cesc Fabregas, Kaka' and Cristiano Ronaldo to the Bernabeu there are some embarrassing allegations coming from Madrid and it has shamed a club that just 8 months ago were celebrating a second consecutive La Liga title at the Cibeles.
Frankly, no one should have been surprised. There were signs even from the beginning. During the election there were reports that whole blocks of mailed-in votes were ignored. From then on he was constantly on the defensive. He hired an experienced coach in Capello who had already had a tempestuous reign a decade earlier in Madrid, gave him an inexperienced Sporting Director in Peja Mijatovic, and walked around with the wide-eyed look of a deer in headlights. When the transfer windows opened his response was usually, "We have tons to spend, let's have it on then!" and he was usually surprised why other clubs negotiated higher with Madrid than any other club. His transfers were haphazard, poorly thought-out, and often lacked coordination with the needs of the squad, the availability of players for all competitions, let alone for reasonable financial terms. Other clubs disrespected Real Madrid's leadership and never took them seriously.
Calderon was surprised that Capello, noted for his no-nonsense approach to club management and often dour tactics, brought a similar mentality to the capital and almost immediately wanted him gone calling for excitement to return to the Bernabeu. Capello, rather than taking the bait and leaving back to Italy, circled the wagons and won the League again for los blancos stopping only to flip a bird at club leadership. The fiasco of Bernt Schuster's hiring and firing, well I won't even get into that. Anyone who expected anything less of the German doesn't remember him as a player. There were financial problems despite a profit over the last two years and in the end he showed what an honorable President he had been for Madrid by stepping down, but only after trying to deflect the blame to two of his most trusted advisors.
Some would ask how Calderon's term would be remembered, I'd say think of his trip to New York last year when was detained for hours by the authorities who mistook him for a criminal. Right now there isn't much of a difference.
Make sure to check out our new site at ForzaFutbol.com
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Forza Futbol Episode 42
Saturday, 03 January 09, 06:27 PM
This week on Forza Futbol Mando and Hannah review the latest from Serie A and La Liga. We hope everyone had a good holiday season!
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Questions of the week
Tuesday, 16 December 08, 03:28 PM
1. Vicente del Bosque, new Spain coach does not rule out the return of Real Madrid's Raul to NT. Do you think, on current form that he deserves the role instead of Villa or Torres on their current form?
2. Should Amauri play for Italy or Brazil?
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Mando said:I think you can get 3 for the price of what you'd pay for Kaka and Ronaldo. Aul...
trooper said:here is my squad list:
GK - iker casillas & codina
DEFENCE: maicon,ramo...
Keftbubpoet said:I don't like the colour.
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forzafutbol
Los Angeles, US
A better lens into the World's Game. We talk about UEFA Cup, Champions League and International matches, especially when they intersect with teams in Spain and Italy, we talk transfer rumours, gossip and everything else that revolves around the world's greatest game.
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