AW v Defending Champs June 21 @ 2am SS2,

AW v Defending Champs June 21 @ 2am SS2,

Should we bring Brown back into the side if he's fit enough?  Should there be other changes?

McGlinchey for Lochhead maybe? Depends what kind of job we want our wingers doing though.

If Brown's fit, in for Vicelich.

If he's not, Plodder for Vicelich.

Lochy had a truckload of defensive work to do today. I've never heard that Wee Mac is great shakes on defence. Actually, half the blogs I've read say that Lochy had a shocker, and the other half say he was a stand-out player.

I would be tempted to start with Ivan tomorrow, and put on Brownie at half-time if he's fit.

?

Simone Pepe scares me, even if he's not that great a player, he has a lot of pace. Going up against Lochhead just frightens me. Also, if they play Di Natale, he would pose a similar problem.

Good news though, Pirlo and Buffon are fighting to make fitness for this match. Hopefully Marchetti will play like Amelia last time we played them.

brown in for Vicelich, if fit.....if not then Christie to start with Brown coming on as a sub....

I think Brown will be fit. So he comes in for Vicelich. Would even contemplate dropping Bertos for McGlinchey.

Yeah Bertos was pretty average tbf.

Actually I was surprised McGlinchey didn't come on against Slovakia. Thought he might of got a run in the last 15-20.

why doesnt wee mac get any game time?

Cannavaro is still a much better defender than anyone Slovakia has though

Looking forward to the game - not expecting anything, but just enjoying us playing good opposition

Cannavaro is awful these days. Way, way past his best.

Also I think he meant in terms of Slovakia's defenders size.

Yeah i agree. Theres a reason why he's no longer at Juventus and now at Al-Ahli

<!-- google_ad_section_start --> Italy have begun preparations for Sunday's game against New Zealand with coach Marcello Lippi bringing the training session forwards, but there was no Gianluigi Buffon or Andrea Pirlo - both in hospital for check-ups.

La Repubblica and Sky Sport Italia report the Azzurri were out at 11:00 CET this morning and began with some stretching and ball work. Lippi has programmed morning sessions from now until Saturday - the day before the game - because of the cold climate in the evenings.<!-- if (!ord) var ord = Math.round(Math.random() * 100000000); dblClickIndex++; .write('< ="ad160x600" ="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adi/gna.en/level2;tile=' + dblClickIndex + ';sz=160x600;ord=' + ord + '?area=2l&pos=2&ord=' + ord + '" ');.write(' noresize="noresize" scrolling="no" ="0" ="0" border="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" allowTransparency="true" width="160" height="600">');document.write('<scr');.write('ipt ="text/" ="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/');.write('gna.en/level2;tile=' + dblClickIndex + ';sz=160x600;ord=' + ord + '?area=2l&pos=2&ord=' + ord + '">');document.write('</scr');.write('ipt>');document.write('</>'); // -->

The Azzurri will have one session a day and they will have to cram in hard work in preparation for the All Whites who held Slovakia on Tuesday

Buffon and Pirlo were not present in the training because both have gone to hospital for check-ups. The midfielder could be back for Sunday's game, but there are fears the goalkeeper may be forced to miss the tournament because of his sciatic nerve problem.

The 'keeper is set to undergo a scan as the FIGC anxiously await news as to whether he will be able to continue. On Tuesday doctor Enrico Castellacci said he was unable to give a recovery time on Buffon's problem.

Meanwhile, the FIGC are considering asking FIFA to call back Salvatore Sirigu should Buffon miss the tournament, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport. He was the fourth goalkeeper in Sestriere, but was dropped by Lippi when he handed his list of 23.? anth1832010-06-16 22:19:05

Vicelich didn't have a bad game or anything but the midfield was pretty dire, can't really have those two playing together imo. Brownie is just the man for that role... although Ricki is rarely seen changing a successful side.

The way they played against Paraguay, theyre more 'defending chumps' than anything else. We've seen it time and time again, theyre not particularly strong in the air, but we are.

Was very good against Paraguay I thought.

Anyway, easy meat for Fallon

To be honest I was actually quite impressed with Italy even though a lot of people weren't. Pepe especially showed a lot going forward and they didn't look like an old, slow, past it team.valeo2010-06-16 23:08:51

I hope we have something of a Plan B if the long balls into the area aren't working. There didn't seem to be one today. I was very surprised Ricki preferred Christie to McGlinchey when we were chasing the game.

They played a few new(er) faces in the Italy team. Criscito, Montolivo, Marchisio and Pepe have come in to replace Grosso, Pirlo, Gattuso and Camoranesi from previous comps (in Pirlo's case he is just injured at the moment). These changes have made them a younger team.

Also, players like De Rossi, Chiellini have become more key with more experienced players not being there. linds2010-06-16 23:39:48

Agreed. A few times in that game Leo could've easily taken the player on but understandably he's a bit scared of losing it because there would be a huge gap behind him

True, but you alway get one of the three forwards to drop behind him temporary as he surges forward so he wouldn't need to worry about that gap in that particular phase of play. Depends on how Ricki strategizes this to utilized this. Even Lochhead had a few surges for the crosses on the left in the Solvakia game. Bertos seems to revert to the deep crosses, which although they have some merit, a few surges to the goalline and get behind the defence can be done with some decent set ups from the midfield.AllWhitebelievr2010-06-17 04:27:29

Is Leo perhaps gunshy, and every time an opposition back gets in his way he has flashbacks to Grella/Cahill trying to murderize him?

Same starting line up as the Slovakia game.

Agree that Italy didn't play as badly as some have made out, but I actually thought that the two players you mention were among poorer Italian players.

Cannavaro's marking was shoddy (goal his fault), looked a bit slow to react, and generally depended on Chiellini to bail him out. Pepe made some good runs generally, and if he was actually half a footballer he could have done great damage. But he's rubbish, so half the time you don't even need to mark him and just wait for him to kick the ball out.

I predict a Draw. 1 million people to watch match in NZ on TV ??

2am kick off may have something to do with that. I do get the sense we will have a large audience tune in live however. If we had lost i doubt this would be the case.

NOTE TO FORUM ADMINISTRATORS: This thread should also be under the "New Zealand, No Really the All Whites at the World Cup" forum topic as the Slovakia thread was... 

I think we were 28. Was in the paper on Monday.

Average age of the squad = 27.3

Skewed by Elliott being 45 though.

These injuries for Italy, as unfortunate as they are for Italy, are surely going to do us huge favours. Especially considering paraguay have already played them. If we scrape a draw, or god/reid I love you, a win then we should be near on straight through!! Not to get all optimistic and get ahead of myself but.... COME ON ALL WHITES!!!!!

please please please make all those cocky people back home suffer. please please please, a win against italy would be soooo coool.
I'd say Brownie or McGlinchey for Vicelich.

nz to win, i can feel it...

It's crazy... I was living in South Korea during the 2002 WC and that was awesome and although S.Korea was one of the weaker teams you could just sense they would play well (without all that paying the ref nonsense) anyways i can just sense the same thing with new zealand, i can sense that they can get a result against either italy or paraguay and move into the next round. I still beleive people don't take us seriously.. all that effort against Slovaki and we earned ourselves something like a 25 second mention on presspass lastnight. I honestly beleive that there is ALOT more to come from this all whites side, and teams like italy may still underestimate us if we get a decent look.

I can tell yu now that Buffon is extremely unlikely to play against New Zealand. I'm not sure if he has a history of back problems or if this is a new disc herniation, either way, if he has sciatica and a herniation on MRI, at the very least they will rest him for NZ (Why would you risk playing him against us?) If the prolapse is new and significant in terms of nerve impingement it is not going to resolve any time soon and he will probably miss the entire tournament.

I do believe he is officially ruled out.