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!

The other teams are, Holland, Japan, Chile and France of course.

Japan beat Netherlands 1-0

Goal was scored by Tadanari Lee

Fox Soccer Channel is showing all the games, I believe. Not sure if Max 'I'm so bad the puke face is too good for me' Bretos will be doing commentary though.

Acquafresca has pulled out due to injury, Udinese's Candreva has been called up to replace him. That is a real blow for the Azzurini, but hopefully Pelle can step up and deputise

France were beaten 3-5 by Chile. Ricardo Faty was sent off

At the end of Matchday one for group A standings are

Chile
Japan
Netherlands
France

The French were leading 3-1 before Faty gets sent off

The 4th and 5th goals were scored at the 89th and 91th minute.

Unlucky

Azzurini play Ivory Coast tomorrow at 17:00 or near that time

Turkey are currently demolishing USA. Score now is 2-0 approaching HT

I finally have seen Sahin (Turkey) play and he is quite a talent. Finished off a brilliant team goal for Turkey with an extremely cool placed finish

Chile's No 10 has also impressed me. I think he is called Morales. Good passing and Vision and an eye for goal

The game ended 3-2 for the Turkish. The U.S. second goal was quite good.

I liked their number 8, was very good technically

Italy-Ivory coast is on.

HT Italy 0-0 Ivory Coast.

The Italians are playing like sh!t (defending and waiting), Bassi saved a PK (not very well taken though!) after the PK they went a little up front but couldn't test the Ivory keeper (only one save made, from a FK). Hope the second half will be better.

Italy beat CIV 2-0, will post detailed analysis later, one thing i must say is that i can see why Lanzafame is so highly rated, also Giovinco is Italy's true gamebreaker

Giovinco scored both goals (from 1 and a half chance ) the second was a 30m FK (GK to blame fo it though). The best players for me were Nocerino, Cigarini, De Silvestri and Giovinco. Unfortunatly none of them is a Milan player (wonder if we have any player in the squad at all!), but I don't think Giovinco will make it into the highest level mostly because he has a 12 years old kid body, seriously his official height is 164cm but I think he's about 150cm

We don't have anyone in this group who's /technically/ one of ours (couple of co-ownerships, though). We do, however, have 3 kids at the U19 (Paloschi, Darmian, and Bruscagin) and a couple more in the U18 (Albertazzi and...argh, can't remember his name, but he's a goalie).

^^

Offredi?

No, not Offredi (though he's fairly good). The one who plays for the team Evani's coaching so....U17s, I guess. Perucchini is the one, I think.

Same age as Albertazzi, but Albertazzi's already playing for the Primavera. (HE is supposed to be quite good).

I know who you are talking about but forgot his name too!

He is very highly rated and i remember reading some time ago when he moved as a 15-16 year old that the bosses were happy they have a potential no 1 for such little money

On another note there were Juve Ultra/s at the match. I saw the Drughi flag (dead giveaway) Commentator spotted a Sampdoria flag but personally i didnt see it

I have a bit of time so i will post my comments about the Azzurini match

The players were not always playing in positions for which they play in for their clubs. De Silverstre for example was playing as a LB/LM

In the first half the team managed to pass the ball well but lacked the killer pass, Pelle wasnt helping much by being slow and fairly static. That said Cigarini did display a nice array of passes but i already knew that. The RB (Motta i believe) had a good game but the rest of the defence was kinda shaky at times. They did eventually regain composure. Canini did not play so i cant comment on him yet

The Siena midfielder (Galloppa) had a good game, nice touches and runs. Cigarini played okay not his finest game, but not the worst i have seen either. Nocerino had a good game. He is a box to box midfielder who is very energetic. Sometimes i see shades of Gattuso in him, Juve will do well to keep him. Giovinco apart from looking like Wentworth Miller (which the commentator commented on too!) is the real difference. He is pretty short and isnt that strong, but can sometimes hold off challenges. Still not a physical presence. Udinese's Candreva while not playing too long did look good.

Attack i am not too convinced with Pelle did not play too good. He is a target man but never really excelled, Lanzafame when substituted on for Osvaldo (who was practically invisible) made an immediate difference. Initally he looks slow as he is fairly tall and strong however he has deceptive pace. Some very nice touches and unlucky not to score. Juve have a potential gem in him and i can see why he is rated highly

Overall not a brilliant performance, but potential is there. They started to gel at around the 60-70 minute mark. Italy are traditionally slow starters, so thats fine

I was dissapointed not seeing Canini play, buts that mainly because we have been linked with him. Coda - penalty aside - played well. I also wanted to see Alfonso play but Bassi did good especially with the penalty stop. I also would liked to see Dessena play but Nocerino seems to have more importance and rightly so, him being captain and all. They also play in similar positions so that was a problem. Galloppa could have given way for him, but im sure Casiraghi knows what he is doing

Next up for Italy are Turkey who played very well today, it will be an interesting duel



Wentowrth Miller and Giovinco, but which one is which?

I'm watching the replay of game now -- Fox has their better commentators doing the game (Miles & Richards) so it's palatable.

I hadn't realized just how tiny Giovinco is. He's extremely good, though, despite his lack of height. The Azzurini really are missing a good striker, though, with Pozzi and Acquafresca hurt, Pazzini graduated, and Pelle just not convincing. Osvaldo is surprisingly anonymous in this one; I'd expected better.

Italy tend to grow slowly in tournaments, i am sure by next match (against Turkey who will be a real threat) or the one after (against USA) they will start hitting their stride

France lost to Japan 2-1. They missed a lot of incredible chances and now the 4 times winner (in a row) are out of the tournament!

Japan are stronger than they look, first Holland now France

They're good but they also have 2 years more than the other teams all of them are 21 I think. Any way France missed too much and played like sh!t, they don't deserve, meanwhile Chile beat Holland 2-0 (Holland ended the game with red cards ). I think that Holland is the weakest of the 4 sides, Chile in the other hand are really talented, they play the true south american football

Chile do indeed play beautiful football

Standings for Group A after matchday two:

Chile 6
Japan 6
France 0
Netherlands 0

(Chile have greater GD)

Azzurrini are playing tomorrow against Turkey, it should be a good match and an interesting duel between Sahin and Giovinco

Watching France-Japan now. The second Japanese goal was scored by Catania's Morimoto. They do look a good team. The French...are just all over the place. I'm surprised.

U.S. 0-1 Ivory Coast.

I thought the Dutch was a bad team but the U.S. are even worst

Yeah, it was a pretty bad display by the US team. That said, the good US kids (ie, Adu and Altidore) weren't in the team. They generally play with the NT now, not the U21/U23 team.

Italy-Turkey just started, there's two former youth Milan player on the pitch Marzoratti and Abate, and the Turkish are coached by a former Milan player Umit Davala

Well well, Italy Turkey was full of drama. I will post detailed analysis later but final score was 2-1 to Italy with a late winner from Marchiso and three red cards (two to Turkey) Also Abate (Ex Primavera) impressed me alot today

Italy had a half of an occasion and scored twice

The first two goals could have been saved by the keepers. Marchisio who gave the ball away stupidly when Turkey scored netted the winner with a beautiful striker from the 20m, so far all Italy goals have been scored by zebra players, Giovinco (2), Lanzafame and Marchisio

whoearthepatriots does much better game reports than I do, but I'll add that Turkey-Italy was a scrappy game, with 3 players sent off (2 Turks, 1 Italian). Marzoratti and Abate both played fairly well. Marzoratti was in the centre of defense and Abate made some good runs and decent enough crosses -- should probably have had a shot or two on goal himself.

Here are mediaset's player ratings for the azzurrini for this game:
Alfonso 6, De Silvestri 6,5, Marzoratti 6, Bocchetti 6, Dellafiore 5,5, Dessena 6 (24' Nocerino sv), Marchisio 6, Guarente 5,5 (17' st Candreva 4), Abate 6,5 (30 st Giovinco sv), Pellè 5, Lanzafame 7.

Italian ratings always seem very.. low. Is 5.5/6 usually given for a average, normal performance or something? Or are the papers just mean!

6 is generally considered a 'decent' performance. Anything below is subpar. Anything above is 'good'. Keepers and defenders generally stay in the 6 range unless they're particularly good or particularly poor. It's the mids and strikers whose ratings tend to be higher. 7 is quite good in general terms.

(by way of comparison, to show what ratings for an exceptionally good game can be like, here are the Gazzetta ratings from Milan 3 - 0 MU last year: Dida 6.5, Oddo 6.5, Nesta 7, Kaladze 7.5, Jankulovski 7, Gattuso 8, Pirlo 8, Ambrosini 8.5, Kaka 8, Seedorf 8 Inzaghi 6, Gilardino 7)

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

Goals

1-0 Lanzafame

1-1 Yilmaz

2-1 Marchisio

Thanks for the updates whoarethepatriots!

My Player Analysis

Overall it was a decent performance, much improved over the CIV one. Turkey were the most diffucult opponents so the team to play USA will likely be weakened.

The goalkeeper Alfonso did his job without too much fuss, perhaps he could have saved the Turkey goal, but what happened happened.

The defence in general was shaky at times. There seems to be a lack of concentration at times, and possibly lack of communication. Marzoratti had a good game as did Bocchetti. Solid if unspectacular. Lino's passing was pretty good i must say, so if he was ever recalled i can see him slotting into RB as comfortably as CB. Dellafiore was invisible for most of the match, he made a few runs down his flank but nothing overly impressive or negative from his end. De Silvestre had a decent game, his assist was pretty nice and he was foraging forward whenever possible. Its nice to see he has some form of restraint, and isnt a glorified winger. There were no real surprises in the defence, but it was nice to see Lino play.

Defence Rating 7/10

The midfield looked quite impressive with lots of movement and great technical and physical ability being shown. I think Casirahi intentionally changed the lineup so much because of the anticapted physical and it payed off. Initially i was surprised too see Nocerino and Giovinco taken off. Both had excellent games and both were rested for future games. I suspect Giovinco was taken off due to his weak physical presence. Dessena was playing which i was happy about (and the commentator also loves Dessena so im not the only one!) I was slightly surprised to see Marchisio there, but Cigarini didnt have an exceptional game and Marchisio is better defensively so it appears to be justified. Abate (ex primavera) was playing and since he was an unknown quality i had my reservations, however he had a brilliant game, with blistering pace, accurate passing and crossing and intelligent movement. Him and Giovinco in future games would completely bamboozle plenty of defences. Back to Marchisio and Dessena, Marchisio i though for most of the match was pretty poor, his passing was lazy and didnt seem up for the game, however near the end he started exploiting his passing and scored a brilliant goal. Dessena i thought played well and gave me another reason to want him at our club, split the defence open on ocassion and played a good game in general. Guarente was the only real dissapointment, i expected more from him - there were one or two nice moves - and his replacement Candreva who was sent off very quickly. Nocerino was bought on for Dessena to add more solidity and physial presence. He is an outstanding player, natural leader, box to box ability, and good physical and technical attributes. Giovinco came on late and didnt make too much of an impact.

Midfield Rating - 8/10

Italy's forwards for this game are hit and miss. One one hand there is Lanzafame who is riduclously good, while Pelle - a couple of nice flicks and passes asside - has been pretty dissapointing. I suspect Acquafresca was supposed to be in place, so the tactics may not suit the slower taller Pelle. G.Rossi wasnt called up for whatever reason which has also weakened Italy. Nevertheless Lanzafame scored a beautiful goal and is a real talent, his direct running and tall build unsettled Turkey and he is quite skillful to back that up. He is a real talent for the future and - again - i can see why he is so highly rated.

Forward Rating - 7.5/10

On another note i am very envious of the homegrown talent Juve have at their disposal. Giovinco, Lanzafame, Marchisio, De Cegile, Nocerino and many more not represented here (Palladino, Paro, Chiellini - called up to Seniors - etc). This is the only thing that i am envious of about Juve.

Next match is against USA on sunday. I will give feedback on that match in a similar approach to this one (Match Report, Player Analysis and something else if i deem it significant)

Hahaha. So I'm watching the France-Netherlands game (on replay). The two English guys are doing commentary - one does the 'Fox Football Phone In' show. He's a complete numpty. Part of me wishes I could tape this so you guys can see just how horrible this guy is. He knows nothing about football outside England. Nothing.

Group A finished yesterday, the results were Chile 2 - 0 Japan (Morales and Carmona) and Netherlands 1 - 0 France. France therefore have the dubious honour of winning exactly zero points. Chile collected the maximum available.

Group A final standings

Chile...............9
Japan..............6
Netherlands.....3
France............0

Chile will play the runner up of Group A (unknown who it could be at the moment but most likely Turkey or CIV) and Japan will play the winner of Group B (Most likely Italy)

Italy match is at 19:45GMT but Turkey match is slightly earlier (17:00GMT i think)

I will be posting updates (not live) for anyone interested

Watching the Italy-US game now. Abate scored a very lovely goal from just outside the area. He's been extremely impressive today. (BRING HIM BACK!)

HT Italy 2 - 0 USA

Goals from Abate (Yes, our Abate) and Dessena (Yes, My Dessena)

Osvaldo without doing much somehow managed to get two assists

CIV thrashed Turkey 4-0 which is a real shock

Final Group B standings

Italy..........9
CIV...........6
Turkey......3
USA..........0

Semi Finals

Chile vs CIV
Japan vs Italy

The semi's are on tuesday

Sorry my updates have been slow, been a little busy

My match report for todays game vs Japan will also be delayed. I dont think i will be able to watch all of the match but i will try to watch a repeat at a later time

Match Report Vs USA

Italy never really had to get out of first gear, there were a few scares here and there from USA but one or two long shots aside they never really threatend to score.

The lineups were; Alfonso;Bochetti,Marzoratti,Coda,Motta;Galloppa,Cigarini,Dessena,Abate,Giovinco;
Osvaldo

Formation wise i am not sure if it was a 4-3-3 or if it was Carlo's Beloved xmas tree formation. There seemed to be hints of both. In a way it was vaguely similar to the senior formation in which it dynamically switched from 4-3-3 (Abate and Giovinco wide and Osvaldo in the middle) 4-4-2 Gio and Osv upfront with Galloppa going on the left and Abate on the right) and even 4-5-1 depending on the context.

Selection wise i was very pleased with the line up. The defence would have been more stable if Dellafiore and De Silverstre were there, but both were rested for later matches which is a logical thing to do. Midfield is where Casiraghi nailed it. Perhaps Nocerino could have played in place of Dessena but its minor. All of the central midfielders have brilliant passing. Generally speaking Galloppa was playing LCM with Cigarini and Dessena both interchanging places on RCM and CM. Cigarini's passing constantly unsettled the USA defence and they were scarily accurate and very reminiscent of Pirlo. After the Turkey match i made a comment about wanting to see Abate and Giovinco play, and they were both selected. They did not dissapoint. Both are quick (Abate is quicker) and both are have good technical skills (Giovinco is more technical) They both combined extremely well and kept the USA defence on their knees. Passing was very precise in the midfield and overall the midfield dominated the procedures

In attack Osvaldo was very dissapointing. As has been the case throughout the tournament (Lanzafame aside) the strikers have been very dissapointing. I never really saw Osv play for Fio but he was really terrible here. His decision making most of the time was very poor. He wanted the glory for himself and never really passed to teammates in better positions. He was most effective when laying off teammates as evidenced in both goals. Pelle eventually came on and was not much better. Lazfame was bought on at halftime for Gio and was pretty good without doing a terrible amount of work.

Overall it was a good performance and Casiraghi should be pleased. My only major concern is the defence, however i am sympathetic as Cheillini was called up for the seniors, Santacroce is/was injured, and Criscito is a ?

I would give the defence a 7/10 the midfield gets 8.5/10 and the strikers get 6.5/10, who are only saved by Osvaldo's two assists and Lanzafame's outrageous flick



I cant find Lanzafame's outrageous flick sorry

Thanks again, whoearethepatriots!!

Chile beat Cote d'Ivoire 2-1 in the first of today's semifinals. Italy play Japan in the second, starting in about half an hour.

watchin the italy japan game. theres a few italian players iv noticed who are really good. di silvestre, giovinco,osvaldo, and others.

Giovinco is just wow......

Osvaldo's looking good? He's been dreadful in the other games.

(Am at work and following text play by play en francais).

He's doing really well now, as I was typing this he had 2 brilliant shots on goal.
Now Abate is coming on

Is Abate in any club or something?

Abate is a Milan-owned player. He was on loan to Empoli during 2007-2008. Not sure where he's going next year. I thought he was rather good in the last two games.

WONDERFUL RUN BY ABATE !!!! just lacked finishing! This guy is really fast and really good with his crosses.