If you have been curious to know what the Italian national team will look like when it lines up against the U.S. national team in Monday's Confederations Cup opener for both teams, today is your chance to see the "Azzurri".
Italy will face New Zealand today in a friendly in South Africa (4:40pm, GolTV). The match should provide a glimpse of just what Bob Bradley and his team will be in store for come Monday. If you haven't seen the Italian roster, here it is:
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GOALKEEPERS: Amelia (Palermo), Buffon (Juventus), De Sanctis (Galatasaray).
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DEFENDERS: Cannavaro (Juventus), Chiellini (Juventus), Dossena (Liverpool), Gamberini (Fiorentina), Grosso (Lyon), Legrottaglie (Juventus), Santon (Inter), Zambrotta (Milan).
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MIDFIELDERS: Camoranesi (Juventus), De Rossi (Roma), Gattuso (Milan), Montolivo (Fiorentina), Palombo (Sampdoria), Pirlo (Milan).
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STRIKERS: Gilardino (Fiorentina), Iaquinta (Juventus), Pepe (Udinese), Quagliarella (Napoli), Rossi (Villarreal), Toni (Bayern Munich).
If you won't be able to see today's match, don't worry, SBI will be offering a detailed breakdown of all three of the U.S. team's opponents during the Confederations Cup so stay tuned for that.
Will you be watching today's match? Do you think the U.S. team can take a point or three from its match vs. Italy? Excited about Monday's match, or are you more worried? Waiting to see Italy play before you start thinking about Monday?
Share your thoughts below.
BTW machine, my cousins’ team is Lazio, the fascist team, but the whole “understanding Italian politics” conversation is best left for another forum 😉
Is “Death to Rossi” too Strong?
I’m half Italian btw, and I have cousins and many friends that are Italian. I am AMERICAN first! It is just inconceivable to me to choose Italia over the USA.
Deal with the hate!
Also, Toni is very sneaky for a big man. His game isn’t about muscle. It’s more about timing.
its hard to ignore the fact that italian football fans are some of the worst in the world. they are violent, racist, some even perform facist salutes at games. so i’d like nothing more than for our lads to f*ck them up. add in their style of play (they play a prettier version of mexican football, the whining, dirty play, instigation /materazzi and zidane anyone?/, and all the diving). sadly we’ll probably lose i just hope we keep it respectable. one can hope we win though
Wiley,
We’ll have to agree to disagree; good sparring, and I hope that Gooch doesn’t actually do bad things to Rossi.
For my sins, Rossi will probably light us up for a hat trick. New Zealand getting three on them today gives me hope that we can at least score.
Peace