Using former players as managers is certainly not a new trend. Vicente del Bosque made 445 appearances for Real Madrid from 1968 to 1984. The Spaniard the returned with a managerial stint that yielded two league titles and two Champions Leagues. Johan Cruyff established himself as one of the world's greatest players on the […]

Celtic are facing a win-or-go-home scenario when they host AC Milan in Tuesday evening’s Champions League group stage match. A win could see Celtic catapulted into second place; a loss would effectively eliminate the Hoops from this season’s European competition. For those who haven’t seen a Champions League match from Celtic Park, you may only […]

Yesterday was a bad day for Serie A in the Champions League.  Roma lost 3-1 at home to FC Basel to fall into last place in Group E, but level on points with Basel and Cluj.  But the big story of the night was AC Milan's first trip back to the Bernabeu since their shock […]

As the new Serie A season pauses this weekend for national teams to begin their qualifying for Euro 2012, Italian soccer fans may feel lost not being able to watch their favorite club.  To be honest, the Italy-Estonia qualifier looks less than tantalizing only two months after the exciting World Cup match-ups and high-level play.  […]

In July, I wrote a post for this site asking AC Milan fans for calm.  The club had been quiet on the transfer market and Silvio Berlusconi had gone public in saying he intended to build his youth academy to help the team.  I said at the time that if the club did not acquire […]

Despite Italy's lackluster performance in their first two group stage matches, the Azzurri have the chance to advance into the next round of the World Cup with a win or a tie plus help.  Some excellent analyses of the Italian team's weaknesses have been published over the last few days, and the negatives about this Italian […]

By now you have undoubtedly heard about the injury to Gigi Buffon and his questionable status for the remainder of the World Cup.  Reading between the lines of the statements coming out of the Italian camp it looks like possibly the best keeper in the world could actually miss the entire World Cup.  And in […]

An ESPN interview with some of the Italian national team players shows that not even the squad seems to know who will be on the pitch on Sunday when they kick off versus Paraguay.  Marcello Lippi has been tight-lipped about who will start and what formation the Azzurri will play, even noting that the formation […]

After 10 games, one might think that Frank Lampard, the engine and inspiration behind most of Chelsea's offensive production over the past 5 seasons, has run into a torrid patch of form.  This is mostly due to his low goal return – one in the Premiership and one in the Community Shield.  Most fans expect […]

To fans of Calcio it's still as vivid as ever: The vision of Fabio Cannavaro lifting the World Cup aloft remains the proudest of Italian memories in a difficult recent history. But with one year to go before the 19th World Cup Final, Cannavaro and his Azzurri have a lot of hard work to do […]

AC Milan 5 – 1 Udinese, what a welcome at the San Siro for David Beckham. Watching a brused, battered and make-shift lineup, no Gattuso, Borriello or Nesta (yet star-studded anyway with the likes of Kaka, Ronaldiho, Pirlo) the Rossoneri performed brilliantly in front of the newcomer, besting visitors Udinese all over the pitch, in […]

Nike's "Take It To The Next Level" is back this time with Andrea Pirlo.  When is a wall not a wall? When it's made up of more people than would normally take to the pitch during any one game. But Italian playmaker Andrea Pirlo doesn't see walls, he sees goals.

Portugal manager Luiz Felipe Scolari stirred the footballing pot when Chelsea announced an agreement with him to become their next manager, at the termination of his Portugal contract after Euro 2008. Throwing even more chum into the water, are the ever truthful transfer magicians, who now have just about everyone available linked to Chelsea.Big Phil […]