Italy draws with the Swiss in a warm up friendly...may be banged up a little like the Czech's...remember nobody thought we had a prayer against Portugal in 2002.
Italy held by Swiss in Geneva
31 May 2006
by Reuters
FIFA World Cup™ finalists Italy and Switzerland shared a scrappy 1-1 draw in a warm-up match on Wednesday.
Starting with playmaker Francesco Totti for the first time in over three months, Italy took a deserved lead in the 11th minute when Alberto Gilardino fired in from close range after a quickly-executed break down the left.
Switzerland seemed to wake up after that setback and were rewarded in the 32nd minute when midfielder Daniel Gygax sent a powerful shot past Gianluigi Buffon from the edge of the area.
As the first half drew to a close, the Swiss almost took a surprise lead when left-back Ludovic Magnin headed a Tranquillo Barnetta free-kick over the bar.
Both sides made six substitutions in the second half and there were few scoring chances, though substitute Swiss keeper Fabio Coltorti had to twice deal with threatening surges from fellow sub Vincenzo Iaquinta.
In an increasingly physical encounter, Italy were presented with plenty of dead-ball opportunities but failed to come close with any of them. "We came here for a friendly but we met a team who wanted something more," Italy coach Marcello Lippi told reporters.
"We wanted to verify the condition of a few players but found a different kind of atmosphere and had to adapt. Unfortunately we received a few knocks and a few injuries that forced me into substitutions I didn't want to make."
Swiss coach Kobi Kuhn was in a more upbeat mood, four days after holding fellow FIFA World Cup contenders Ivory Coast to a 1-1 draw. "We've given ourselves a very hard week, with China still to play this Saturday, but I am very satisfied with tonight's performance," said Kuhn.
"Compared to the game against Ivory Coast, I thought the players had improved in all the areas I asked them to. They were more concentrated and lost the ball a lot less, even though they were playing against a stronger side."
Kuhn has moulded Switzerland's FIFA World Cup preparations with his team's group stage opponents in mind, picking Ivory Coast, Italy and China as sparring partners in preparation for their Group G rivals Togo, France and Korea Republic.
Italy, who continue the countdown with a friendly against Ukraine in the Swiss city of Lausanne on Friday, will square off against Czech Republic, USA and Ghana in Group E.
Italy held by Swiss in Geneva
31 May 2006
by Reuters
FIFA World Cup™ finalists Italy and Switzerland shared a scrappy 1-1 draw in a warm-up match on Wednesday.
Starting with playmaker Francesco Totti for the first time in over three months, Italy took a deserved lead in the 11th minute when Alberto Gilardino fired in from close range after a quickly-executed break down the left.
Switzerland seemed to wake up after that setback and were rewarded in the 32nd minute when midfielder Daniel Gygax sent a powerful shot past Gianluigi Buffon from the edge of the area.
As the first half drew to a close, the Swiss almost took a surprise lead when left-back Ludovic Magnin headed a Tranquillo Barnetta free-kick over the bar.
Both sides made six substitutions in the second half and there were few scoring chances, though substitute Swiss keeper Fabio Coltorti had to twice deal with threatening surges from fellow sub Vincenzo Iaquinta.
In an increasingly physical encounter, Italy were presented with plenty of dead-ball opportunities but failed to come close with any of them. "We came here for a friendly but we met a team who wanted something more," Italy coach Marcello Lippi told reporters.
"We wanted to verify the condition of a few players but found a different kind of atmosphere and had to adapt. Unfortunately we received a few knocks and a few injuries that forced me into substitutions I didn't want to make."
Swiss coach Kobi Kuhn was in a more upbeat mood, four days after holding fellow FIFA World Cup contenders Ivory Coast to a 1-1 draw. "We've given ourselves a very hard week, with China still to play this Saturday, but I am very satisfied with tonight's performance," said Kuhn.
"Compared to the game against Ivory Coast, I thought the players had improved in all the areas I asked them to. They were more concentrated and lost the ball a lot less, even though they were playing against a stronger side."
Kuhn has moulded Switzerland's FIFA World Cup preparations with his team's group stage opponents in mind, picking Ivory Coast, Italy and China as sparring partners in preparation for their Group G rivals Togo, France and Korea Republic.
Italy, who continue the countdown with a friendly against Ukraine in the Swiss city of Lausanne on Friday, will square off against Czech Republic, USA and Ghana in Group E.
2 WC's ago we played well in friendlies & had high expectations-- then were quickly & emphatically brought back down to reality re those meaningless games.
We play in THE inferior qualifying group of the whole world-- & we are NOT better than the last WC-- key players are now slowed down by 4 extra years of age and/or nagging ailments...we are thin in spots, we have no set / organized / structured / play...our attack consists of slammng the ball forward and expecting one or two Peter Pans too thin to be jockeys to outrun everyone for the ball & then somehow make a play while surrounded & outnumbered worse than Custer-- while suffering a similar fate--reinforcements(trailing teammates) either arrive too late or never even bother to set out to the 'rescue'.
Even worse, being ranked as one of the best teams in the world-- & on the heels of the last WC, our fellow countrymen have undue expectations: so we patriots now have to swallow undervalue.
We may beat an overrated, selfish & overconfident Italian team-- but don't hold your breath for even a tie against the other two teams.
¡Ché disastro!
We play in THE inferior qualifying group of the whole world-- & we are NOT better than the last WC-- key players are now slowed down by 4 extra years of age and/or nagging ailments...we are thin in spots, we have no set / organized / structured / play...our attack consists of slammng the ball forward and expecting one or two Peter Pans too thin to be jockeys to outrun everyone for the ball & then somehow make a play while surrounded & outnumbered worse than Custer-- while suffering a similar fate--reinforcements(trailing teammates) either arrive too late or never even bother to set out to the 'rescue'.
Even worse, being ranked as one of the best teams in the world-- & on the heels of the last WC, our fellow countrymen have undue expectations: so we patriots now have to swallow undervalue.
We may beat an overrated, selfish & overconfident Italian team-- but don't hold your breath for even a tie against the other two teams.
¡Ché disastro!
WildBill said:The ESPN/ESPN2/ABC schedule has long been set and won't change. Every game will be shown, all in HD as long as your provider provides all 3 in HD. The coverage of the WC has never really been bad, with at worst having to watch games in Spanish instead of English, don't know what you were watching in the past 12 years.
Wildbill you are mostly correct...But what i mean is that if we exit early that ambience of the world cup will totally sink!!! If you have watched the world cup in another country outside of the USA then you understand what i am talking about..
The whole world is going to be literrally on fire during this contest, with all night parties, crazy soccer madness and football talk 24 hours a day for the entire contest..Doesnt matter if you qualified or not..If you are Irish, well you will root for the Brits to lose, If you are french, well then you are eyeing those war mongering Americans and so on!!!! For crying out loud, people get shot and killed for losing games for their teams in some countries!!!
Simply slapping the game on tv and forgetting the whole thing after we lose isnt what i am talking about.. Its the back stories, the hooligans from England, the fanatics (and babes--oooh the babes) from brazil, the dull ho-hum germans etc etc..
BTW..i really hope you guys arent basing your bets of performances in friendlies..
If you are then you have you probably have forgotten what the world cup is...This is not the superbowl!!!! This thing happens only once every 4 years!!! These kids have dreamed their entire lives of this event.. There is no way in hell that what you saw in a friendly will remotely resemble what you will see in the real thing!!!
