[whoarethepatriot...]

This thread was originally going to be U21 thread however with the Olympics and Toulon tournament in mind i decided to change it to U23

So, some of you may know that the annual Toulon tournament will run from 20-29th May. It is being held in Toulon in France. Matches are 80 minutes not 90

The teams are Italy, Ivory Coast, Turkey, USA, France, Japan, Chile and Holland

Italy's squad has been announced;

Guarente (Atalanta); Pelle' (AZ Alkmaar); Lanzafame (Bari); Acquafresca e Canini (Cagliari); Abate, Bassi, Giovinco, Marchisio e Marzoratti (Empoli); Osvaldo (Fiorentina); Bocchetti (Frosinone); Nocerino (Juventus); De Silvestri (Lazio); Cigarini e Dessena (Parma); Dellafiore e Motta (Torino); De Ceglie e Galloppa (Siena); Coda (Udinese); Alfonso (Venezia).

(bolded players have some kind of connection to Milan)

We have been linked with Canini, so this will be a good way to see his abilities first hand. I will watch all of Italy's matches and update this thread, but i cant give guarantees on the other teams

Relevant fixtures

Wednesday, May 21 - 12:00 p.m. ET Italy vs. Ivory Coast


Friday, May 23 - 2:30 p.m. ET Italy vs. Turkey


Sunday, May 25 - 12:00 p.m. ET Italy vs. United States


Tuesday, May 27 - 12:00 p.m. ET Semifinals
Tuesday, May 27 - 2:30 p.m. ET Semifinals
Thursday, May 29 - 12:00 p.m. ET Third Place Match
Thursday, May 29 - 2:30 p.m. ET Final

Good luck to the Azzurini!

This post has been edited by whoarethepatriots: May 20 2008, 08:39 PM

[whoarethepatriot...]

Here are my thoughts of the match.

Firstly Casiraghi (and Zola) made plenty of changes from the side that beat Ivory Coast and they were mostly better off for it. There were two Rossoneri related players playing and they were Abete and Marzoratti (will go more indepth about their performance later.

Final score was Italy 2 - Turkey with goals from Lanzafame and Marchiso for Italy with Yilmaz (!?!) scoring for Turkey.

The match was hyped up as a highy entertaining match and for roughly 50 minutes it was a brilliant contest, both teams were fairly equal, the match was played at a lightening fast pace and there were chances aplenty. The referee went a bit trigger happy with yellow cards in the first half which would detrimentally affect the second half. Turkey made arguably a better start but it was Italy who took the lead, De Silverstre threaded a pass for Pelle and Lanzafame but it was Lanza who recieved the pass (with suspicions of offside) and placed a precise drive into the top corner from a difficult angle. Perhaps the keeper should have saved it, but thats a debate for another day

The second half is where things got surreal and that was only what was happening on the pitch. Italy seemed to be in control of the tie and the players let their guard drop, Marchiso played a lazy blind pass to the defence which was intercepted by Yilmaz (?) who took the ball to a tight angle and placed it past Alfonso. Game on it appeared. Both teams were now going for the kill with Turkey slightly edging out Italy in terms of balance of play. At around the 60 minute mark things got out of control. The referee who had previously booked four players in the first half gave a second yellow to a Turkish defender, the players understandbly upset argued with the referee and a few more yellows came out to both sides. Shortly after before Guarente (i think) was fouled by a turkish player who was also on a yellow card and promptly sent off, Candreva - who had just come on in place of Dessena - in an act of pure stupidity poked/pushed the dismissed Turkey player and was also sent off. It became 10 against 9 and we were robbed of a true footballing spectacle from that moment forth. Even with 9 players Turkey pushed and at certain times looked like they could snatch a winner. Casiraghi sensing a wounded Turkey threw on Giovinco and immediately went for the kill. Wentworth Miller, i mean Giovinco had an instant impact and looked like he could make the difference. Time was running out for Italy, but then something bizzare happened in the 80th Minute, the fans started brawling, the stadium perplexed at what was going on ignored the match and at that moment a brilliant turn and pass from Lanzafame, led to Marchiso recieving the ball, taking one touch and slamming an unstoppable shot past the helpless goalkeeper. Italy led 2-1 and instead of wasting time and running out the clock like a Serie A team kept posession and pushed for a third. By know things had calmed down off the pitch. Italy won 2-1

I will post my player analysis and will try look for goals in a littlw while