Confederations cup 15th-30th june

Amirani

MarkY91 wrote: »

havent watched any of barcas last few games as the league was over so ill take your word for it that he improved. what do you think of torres getting a start? i think he deserves it

Soldado has done more for club and country all season. Deserves it more than Torres if anyone "deserves". Who's a better choice against Italy is another matter.

Pedro has been fantastic for Spain of late.

mike65

Soldado made heavy weather of his game against Nigeria.

Moneymaker

Jernal wrote: »

Pedro got his form back towards the end of the season and has been quality for both Spain and Barca. More so for Spain. Messi, actually leeches a lot of Barca players making it harder for forwards to maintain form. Also think Mata should be starting. Silva's passing all tourney has been terrible for Spain standards. For any other team however. . .

Pedro is one of the factors that allows Messi shine the way he does imo, he creates a lot of space for him with off the ball runs, he has a very good footballing brain.

That Neymar dive is absolutely shameful.

klose

@footballespana_: #Spain team to play #Italy: Casillas, Arbeloa, Piqué, Ramos, Jordi Alba, Busquets, Iniesta, Xavi, Pedro, Silva, Torres

Andersonisgod

Well there goes the Valdes theory. SSN did edit it out of their team news feature, it was there early this morning.

Anyway very strong team. It'll be interesting to see how they combat Pirlo. In the final of Euro 2012 Xavi pushed really high up and pretty much man marked Pirlo and did a sterling job on him. However that approach was partially made possible by Spain playing with two defensive midfielders, Busquets and Alonso, and a second attacking midfielder in Iniesta. Tonight they will play with a 3 man midfield, maybe Iniesta will be the one with the more disciplined role tonight.

Anyway should be a great game, I'd fancy Spain to go through.

Turtwig

Moneymaker wrote: »

Pedro is one of the factors that allows Messi shine the way he does imo, he creates a lot of space for him with off the ball runs, he has a very good footballing brain.

That Neymar dive is absolutely shameful.

Agreed. For a similar reason Tito stuck with a profligate Alexis over David Villa.

Johner

Mata > Silva.

Torres sealed a start scoring with his first touch while Soldado wasted a heap of chances.

Turtwig

Soldado isn't fully fit apparently

G.K.

Buffon; Barzagli, Bonucci, Chiellini; Maggio, Pirlo, De Rossi, Giaccherini; Marchisio, Candreva; Gilardino

aindriu80

Spain to win easy.

aindriu80

sound out of sync again. Typical RTE :rolleyes:

Richard Hillman

The locals are favouring Italy. I don't think they are fond of Spains style of play. What would those Brazilians know about good football

That_Guy

Italy are far too eager to lump the ball forward.

NIMAN

Think the Brazilians are afraid of meeting Spain in the final tbh.

Jax Teller

Italy pretty much playing a 3-6-1 formation . It's working so far but can they keep it up for 90 mins ?

GTR63

Richard Hillman wrote: »

The locals are favouring Italy. I don't think they are fond of Spains style of play. What would those Brazilians know about good football

They'd much rather play Italy. Ugh Gilardinho I gave up on you years ago.

Gbear

That would've been a genius goal.

Great thinking to use the head.

Andersonisgod

Alba did nothing wrong there.

Gbear

Some really clever stuff by Italy at the moment.

Rayne Wooney

Jernal wrote: »

The sooner fifa bring in retrospective punishment for that type of sh*t the better. FIFA being progressive though? Heh, pigs'll fly first!

Not a chance of this IMO. Football is a cash cow and Blatter and any future FIFA president won't want to tip the balance. A significant change like that and a lot of people will complain, believe it or not. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" comes to mind.



Lol at the Brazilians booing Spain, should be good when Spain destroy them in the final.

Italy are going to regret these missed chances.

That_Guy

That_Guy wrote: »

Italy are far too eager to lump the ball forward.

I have spoken too soon. Playing some great stuff right now.

GTR63

Gbear wrote: »

Some really clever stuff by Italy at the moment.

They do play nice stuff. But like Uruguay last nite when your on top you need to show it.

That_Guy

He should've buried it man!!

GTR63

Awful miss by Maggio there. Another header he should of buried.

Kylo Ren

Great play there.

That_Guy

Pirlo's passing is amazing. This isn't new of course.

Moneymaker

Italy are playing some lovely football here.

They'll regret missing all these chances though.

Renn

GTR63 wrote: »

Awful miss by Maggio there. Another header he should of buried.

Should have. Oh and hello Raymond.

nucker

mmm, Spain aren't having all their own in this match, and yet they specifically designed their shirts with that thought in mind...to win everything

GTR63

If Italy had Anybody up top they'd be up by now. Gilardino does make some awful runs. By the way that first time pass by Pirlo was sexually delicious.

Festy

That_Guy wrote: »

Pirlo's passing is amazing. This isn't new of course.

De Rossi's too

quarryman

Italy our completely out-passing Spain.

Who'd have thunk it?

Nolars

what age is pirlo now 52

Seaneh

If Italy had a goal scorer on the pitch this would be over by now.

Gilardino is a good player but he's not a goal scorer.

Johner

No sign of andersonisgod tonight. :pac: Gone a bit quiet. :pac:

roanoke

Italy clearly watched Tahiti v Spain and decided to try the exact opposite of whatever Tahiti did.

Seaneh

Nolars wrote: »

what age is pirlo now 52

He's 34 and an entire 7 months older than Xavi (and seems to be much fitter).

Seaneh

Johner wrote: »

No sign of andersonisgod tonight. :pac: Gone a bit quiet. :pac:

Spain will win and he'll be in with his usual ****e.

Festy

Nolars wrote: »

what age is pirlo now 52

Pirlo is like a fine wine,he gets better with age.....

Johner

Seaneh wrote: »

Spain will win and he'll be in with his usual ****e.

I think Italy will win it 1-0. Been very impressed with them so far and Spain are shaky at the back.

bennyl10

Is Ray Houghton always this.. well horrid, ehrn commentating?.. never really noticed before tonight..

Italy playing some great football though, stiffling Spain very well. Soauns,not using Arbeloa.. cant understand it..

Skylinehead

Festy wrote: »

Pirlo is like a fine wine,he gets better with age.....

Any chance....

Andersonisgod

Italy's group pressing of Arbeloa and Spain's absolute unwillingness to pass to Arbeloa, despite him being in so much space and looking for the ball, have been the most interesting aspects of that half. Silva's refusal to work back has left a 2 vs 1 overload on Alba's side that Italy have created chances from. Spain's pressing hasn't been aggressive enough or consistent enough, I can only assume that's due to the temperature and humidity. Personally I'd like to see Navas come in for Silva, Fabregas has been a big miss.

mike65

When Italy are far more exciting than Spain you know something is................right!

Johner

Silva has been shite every game he's played this tournament.

GTR63

Seaneh wrote: »

He's 34 and an entire 7 months older than Xavi (and seems to be much fitter).

I hate when People talk about his age I remember defending it in 2007 FFS when he was 28.

Festy wrote: »

De Rossi's too

Its De Bossi btw.

SlickRic

Italy have been amazing.

it does remind me of Bayern v Barca. nowadays, it seems that if this generation of Spanish players come up against a compact, hard-working team team, who can keep the ball, as well as pass accurately on the counter, they're in a lot of trouble.

that may be me jumping the gun, but there is some frailty there that wasn't there one upon a time recently.

queue a Spain blitz in the second half.

Festy

GTR63 wrote: »

I hate when People talk about his age I remember doing it in 2007 FFS.



Its De Bossi btw.

You obviously didn't see him this past season for his club.

CSF

SlickRic wrote: »

Italy have been amazing.

it does remind me of Bayern v Barca. nowadays, it seems that if this generation of Spanish players come up against a compact, hard-working team team, who can keep the ball, as well as pass accurately on the counter, they're in a lot of trouble.

that may be me jumping the gun, but there is some frailty there that wasn't there one upon a time recently.

queue a Spain blitz in the second half.

Think you may be jumping the gun with Spain there quite a bit. Spain will still probably win this.

G.K.

I wonder if Spain are trying to tire Italy out, hence the seemingly lacklustre performance. This would precipitate into a Spain domination of the later period, I guess.

But whether this is the case or not Italy have done a sterling job.