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After a pretty rough week of group stage games (resolved in extremis only on the last matchday), the Italian team was given a day of rest today. Time for Roberto Donadoni, Alessandro Del Piero, and Mauro Camoranesi to practice their swings. :]

Donadoni played in a threesome with goalkeeping coach Ivano Bordon and team physician Andrea Ferretti, while Alessandro Del Piero and Mauro Camoranesi played in another group at Fontana Golf Club, site of the recent Austria Open and just down the road from Italy’s hotel.
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Cue another disappointing performance by Italy. Cue more doubts being cast on the Azzurri’s Euro 2008 chances. Cue waiting one more day to finally see Alessandro Del Piero take the reins of this team and put in the ball in the net (”alla Del Piero” hopefully).

The Juve forward was (confirming expectations from the match’s eve) selected as the Azzurri’s “man with the armband” on Friday, a recognition for ADP’s true leadership qualities and international experience (with Fabio Cannavaro out injured, Del Piero is currently the player with most caps on Italy’s roster). All that was not enough however, as Italy struggled to get their first points at Euro 2008 and could only muster a draw against a tough Romanian side.

In truth, this match could have taken a whole other turn had Luca Toni’s first half goal not been disallowed for an inexistent offside. Italy would have gone to break with a 1-0 lead but luck doesn’t seem to be helping Italy lately, and in the second half a dangerous backpass from Gianluca Zambrotta was intercepted by Adrian Mutu, who hit it one time to beat Buffon and put Romania in the lead. A few minutes later, Italy tied the game as a Pirlo corner-kick was redirected by Giorgio Chiellini towards Christian Panucci, and the Roma man tapped in for 1-1. Alessandro Del Piero was trying whichever way he could to make an impact (obtaining but missing a free-kick from good position), but the attentive defensive work of Tamas and Goian kept Pinturicchio’s creativity in check. After a tiring game, he left his place to Fabio Quagliarella in minute 77.

Things could have gone from bad to worse for Italy, when an 80^th-minute shirt-tug by Panucci on D.Niculae inside the box gave Romania the chance to clinch the victory and send the Azzurri home. Super Gigi Buffon made a monster save on Adrian Mutu’s spot-kick however, keeping the hopes of an entire nation alive. France vs. Italy on Wednesday will be decisive for Group C but it may not be enough for the Azzurri, as they look to the other match hoping Romania will not beat Netherlands.

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Final statistics for ADP:
1 shot on target
2 shots wide
1 foul committed
3 fouls suffered
2 offsides

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Here’s what Del Piero had to say after the match (Channel4):

Euro 2008 Zurich – Letzigrund Stadium
June, 13th 2008
Italy 1-1 Romania

Alessandro Del Piero has faith Italy can still qualify, as they have rediscovered the attitude that was lacking against Holland. The 1-1 draw with Romania may not have garnered full points, but it was a considerably stronger performance than the 3-0 debut thrashing.

“We have decidedly changed mentality compared to the Holland game and that goes for all of my teammates, not just those who came in for this match,” said the captain. “We were missing something in our opener, but have rediscovered it now. Unfortunately we were a little exposed to counter-attacks and shots from distance, so at the end of the day we could have even lost. We tried to impose our style of play and push them back into their own half, so nobody can complain about that.”

“I hope the penalty save can be a positive sign for the future of our European Championship campaign” concluded Del Piero.

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Odds are that for their decisive match vs. France, Azzurri coach Roberto Donadoni will field Antonio Cassano from the start. Whether it is Del Piero that makes way for him still has to be seen, but I have a strong feeling we’ll see the much anticipated Del Piero-Toni-Cassano “tridente” on Wednesday.
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You can read my full review of Italy vs. Romania in the following post:
Euro 2008: Italy 1-1 Romania – Azzurri Hopes Now Hanging by a Thread…

To find out what results would favor Italy on matchday 3, read:
Euro 2008: Group C Qualification Scenarios

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	ITALY-ROMANIA 1-1 [Match Highlights]
GOALSCORERS: 10’ Mutu (R), 56’ Panucci (I)
ITALY (4-3-1-2): Buffon – Zambrotta, Panucci, Chiellini, Grosso – Pirlo, De Rossi, Perrotta (58’ Cassano) – Camoranesi (85’ Ambrosini) – Toni, Del Piero (77’ Quagliarella). (bench: Amelia, De Sanctis, Gamberini, Barzagli, Materazzi, Gattuso, Aquilani, Borriello, Di Natale). Coach: Donadoni
ROMANIA (4-4-1-1): Lobont – Contra, Tamas, Goian, Rat – Radoi (25’ Dica), Petre (60’ Nicolita), Codrea, Chivu – Mutu (88’ Cocis) – D.Niculae. (bench: Popa, Stancioiu, Marica, Sapunaru, Ghinea, Moti, M.Niculae, Cristea, Dica, Radu). Coach: Piturca.

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Boy, that was a rough Monday for everyone huh? Well… not everyone… not anyone wearing orange certainly. For the people wearing blue though… ouch!

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ADP came on in minute 64, replacing Antonio Di Natale at a time during which Italy were 2-0 down, with their morale and play down the gutter. He immediately got into the match and re-invigorated the Azzurri’s spirit with his technique & dribbling skills, getting a good shot on target (saved by van der Sar) and hitting a curling shot narrowly wide of the right post. However, it wasn’t enough and Italy suffered yet another goal to lose the game 3-0.

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Final statistics for ADP: 1 shot on target, 1 shot wide, 2 fouls suffered, 2 offsides.
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Here’s what Del Piero had to say after the match (from alessandrodelpiero.com):

Euro 2008 Bern – Stade de Suisse Wankdorf
June, 9th 2008
Netherlands 3-0 Italy

Bern. It was a bad start, a match which we played negatively under many aspects. However, just like we stick together to celebrate our victories, we must also be united in times of defeat.

Maintaining this fighting spirit, we have to gather energy and concentration to do our best in the match on Friday, wich we must win at all costs.

See you soon,

Alessandro

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Based on the extent of the damage (coupled with Di Natale’s poor performance), it wouldn’t be too big a surprise to see ADP get a start vs. Romania on Friday. Forza Capitano!!!

You can read my full review of Netherlands vs. Italy in the following post:
Euro 2008: Netherlands 3-0 Italy – Azzurri Crushed in their Tournament Opener, Or: Cannavaro Where Art Thou?

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	NETHERLANDS-ITALY 3-0 [Match Highlights]
GOALSCORERS: 26’ Van Nistelrooy (N), 31’ Sneijder (N), 79’ van Bronckhorst (N)
NETHERLANDS (4-2-3-1): Van der Sar – Ooijer, Boulahrouz (77’ Heitinga), Mathijsen, van Bronckhorst – de Jong, Engelaar – Kuyt (91’ Afellay), van der Vaart, Sneijder – van Nistelrooy (70’ van Persie). (bench: Timmer, Stekelemburg, de Zeeuw, Robben, Melchiot, Bouma, de Cler, Huntelaar, Vennegoor). Coach: Marco van Basten
ITALY (4-3-3): Buffon – Panucci, Barzagli, Materazzi (54’ Grosso), Zambrotta – Gattuso, Pirlo, Ambrosini – Camoranesi (75’ Cassano), Toni, Di Natale (64’ Del Piero) (bench: De Sanctis, Amelia, Chiellini, Gamberini, De Rossi, Perrotta, Aquilani, Quagliarella, Borriello). Coach: Roberto Donadoni.

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Tuesday morning in a press conference in Rome, the Azzurri coach announced his pre-selection for Euro 2008: 24 players (4 less than what everyone anticipated, and 1 to be trimmed down before May 28) which will be representing Italy in this Summer’s great European tournament:

Goalkeepers:	Club:
Marco Amelia	Livorno
Gianluigi Buffon	Juventus
Morgan De Sanctis	Sevilla
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Defenders:
Andrea Barzagli	Palermo
Fabio Cannavaro	Real Madrid
Giorgio Chiellini	Juventus
Fabio Grosso	Lyon
Marco Materazzi	Inter
Christian Panucci	Roma
Gianluca Zambrotta	Barcelona
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Midfielders:
Massimo Ambrosini	Milan
Alberto Aquilani	Roma
Mauro Camoranesi	Juventus
Daniele De Rossi	Roma
Gennaro Gattuso	Milan
Riccardo Montolivo	Fiorentina
Simone Perrotta	Roma
Andrea Pirlo	Milan
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Forwards:
Marco Borriello	Genoa
Antonio Cassano	Sampdoria
Alessandro Del Piero	Juventus
Antonio Di Natale	Udinese
Fabio Quagliarella	Udinese
Luca Toni	Bayern Munich

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ADP is going to Euro 2008!!! ;D

So yeah, as you can see the never-ending “Del Piero vs. Cassano, which one to pick?” issue ended with the Don… selecting both. For Italy, I guess that can only be a positive thing: more talent to spare. We can only hope that the Sampdoria forward will keep the potential “Cassanata” locked in a drawer.
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Here’s what Roberto Donadoni had to say in his press conference (source: Gazzetta):

“Ale hasn’t surprised me. I already know the abilities of each individual player. Del Piero had a period of physical problems, and once these were overcome he was back to displaying the qualities he has.“

Discuss Donadoni’s picks on the Italy blog here.
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D-Day is rapidly approaching for all Azzurri hopefuls (KwSport is reporting that Italy’s ‘Roster of 23′ will be revealed next Tuesday May 20 at 15:00 CET, by FIGC president Giancarlo Abete), and there’s not many days left to convince Roberto Donadoni. Of course, here at the ADP blog we’re all convinced that our beloved nº10 will make the trip to SwissAustria in June, but you’ll be glad to know that we’re not the only ones.

Indeed, several important people from the world of soccer have officially and unofficially “sponsored” Del Piero in the past few weeks, and they have all been bestowed with our official “I Heart ADP” pin. If you want to sponsor Del Piero and receive your pin too, feel free to drop me a line. ;P

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Diego Armando Maradona (Gazzetta)

“By tradition and force, Italy is a team that can’t even think of placing third: they must go to a competition to win, and only to win. Del Piero? I would bring him to Euro 2008. I would always want a player like him on my team.”

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Arrigo Sacchi (Gazzetta)

“Today Del Piero deserves everything. I had him on my team when he was still a kid, and appreciated his technical and human qualities. But I understand Donadoni, in the sense that using Del Piero would mean a modification of Italy’s playing scheme.”

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Fabio Cannavaro (KwSport)

“I think Del Piero has had an exceptional season, and did what he needed to do in order to earn his call-up.”

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Claudio Ranieri (KwSport)

“I think Del Piero has convinced Donadoni. Alessandro didn’t do well against France but then again, who did well in that circumstance? Besides he was still chasing his best form. (…) At the beginning I wasn’t playing him every game, and he must have felt like all players feel when they are ‘relegated’ to the bench or the stands. The difference is that while many give up, champions don’t. Del Piero has enormous character and there are very few professionals like him.”

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Andrea Pirlo (Corriere)

“Del Piero has always been part of this [Azzurri] group, so it’s normal that me and the rest of the players would like him with us. Ultimately, it will be up to the coach though.”

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Francesco Totti (Corriere)

“Statistics and form are speaking for Del Piero right now. He’s demonstrating to be a great champion, and leaving a player in such great form at home would be very difficult.”

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Angelo Peruzzi (Corriere)

“It’s the right thing to do: a player like him must go to the Euro cup. (…) He’s always been a player from another world, the problem is that one always expects Del Piero to do fantastic things. He had pauses in his career just like all great champions, but he is demonstrating his true value now, at 34 years of age.”

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What about you? Do you heart ADP?

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Now I know what you’ll say… as the author an Alessandro Del Piero blog, I am probably not the best person to answer this question objectively, right? Agreed. However, I’d like to think that despite my ADP-fandom I am smart enough to make an intelligent argument on the issue, present you with the facts, possibly even argue the case both ways, and then let you draw your own conclusions. Here goes.

In true dissertation style (as I was gracefully taught during my high school years in France i.e. “thèse, antithèse, synthèse“), but not forgetting how much net readers love bulleted lists, here are the “ADP in Azzurro” PROs and CONs (by the way, feel free to add to the list in the comments section):

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PROs:

1) He’s had a phenomenal season with Juve. 40 matches (36 in Serie A, 4 in Coppa Italia), 22 goals (19 and 3): his second-best goalscoring total in top-flight Italian football since the 1997-98 season (which probably was his best season ever). He is currently leading Serie A’s topscorers list, tied with teammate David Trezeguet and Genoa’s Marco Borriello.

2) He’s a born leader on and off the field. He’s been Juve’s captain for several years now (since the departure of Antonio Conte) and has been an example in behaviour for youngsters all across Italy. He always puts the team effort before personal glory, and almost always respects his manager’s decisions (case in point: his last season with Fabio Capello when he was constantly benched in favor of Trezeguet and Ibrahimovic, but kept his mouth shut despite he had plenty to say -and did, but only after Capello left). Don Fabio tagged him as a “professionista modello” (model professional) and in that sense, he will accept being second choice for Antonio Di Natale (100% sure to be a starter in Donadoni’s 4-3-3 formation) without any problems.

3) He brings an extremely high level of playing experience to the squad. 14 years of Serie A, almost as many of European competitions, and 3 Euro championships (1996, 2000, 2004) and World Cups (1998, 2002, 2006). During the last World Cup in particular, he returned home triumphantly as World Champion, scoring in the Semi-Final vs. Germany and taking one of the decisive kicks in the Final penalty shoot-out vs. France. Experience, but also nerves of steel.

4) Aside from the goalscoring part, the 2007-08 season has highlighted that despite his old age ADP has maintained his technical abilities at the highest level, slowing the game down with his ball control when needed, and skilfully assisting his teammates with pinpoint passing. In this year’s Serie A matches, even when defenders were faster and more agile than him ADP was still dribbling circles around them, using ball control intelligently to make up for his lack of speed.

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CONs:

1) He’s old. At 33 years of age he’s not as quick, not as agile, not as reactive as during his prime years.

2) Bringing Del Piero means leaving other talented alternatives at home, above all a certain Antonio Cassano. Despite his volatile character (what I call “a time bomb waiting to explode”), Il Talento di Bari Vecchia has all the technical qualities of Del Piero plus the speed & agility of a 26 year-old. Cassano is, undeniably, the best position-by-position replacement of Antonio Di Natale.

3) One of the risks at bringing Del Piero to Euro, would be the potentially detrimental effect on the team with regards to the press. As long as Italy are doing well, Donadoni will have no problems (whether ADP plays or not). However, should things start to go sour (especially during the group stage, remember Italy are in the “Group of Death”) the Don would inevitably have to face questions of the type “What about ADP?”, “Why didn’t you bring ADP in?“, or “Since Di Natale didn’t play very well last match, are you going to start ADP for the next match?“. A hassle. And much like World Cups 1998 (with Baggio) and 2006 (with Totti, although back then, the problem was incredibly well-contained by the thick psychological barrier & great team spirit built by Marcello Lippi ), this could create a damaging Di Natale-Del Piero rivalry in the team.

4) The 4-3-3 formation used by Roberto Donadoni (with Luca Toni the lone striker supported by Di Natale and Camoranesi on the wings) virtually excludes the participation of ADP in any kind of form. Del Piero said so himself, in a public declaration to the press back in September: “I will not play as a left midfielder” (which prompted The Don to drop him from the roster the following match). Now, that notion might have changed recently and maybe (just maybe) ADP might be willing to “sacrifice” himself in an unfamiliar (and unwanted) role for the good of the team (as he has often done in the past decade). However, one can only agree with Del Piero here in the sense that as a left winger, he is not used to his full potential. To play ADP efficiently, Donadoni would have to revert his formation to a 4-4-2 and use Del Piero as a second striker (alongside Toni). Unfortunately, evidence from the past Euro qualifying campaign suggests the Don is absolutely unwilling to change tactics, not even if his life depended on it.
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Now, the above two lists are undoubtedly non-exhaustive, but I think we have sufficient material to come to a conclusion. I’ll start by addressing some of the CONs I outlined.

Firstly, it must be said that despite his old age and his apparent lack of pace, ADP has made up for it particularly well by adapting his playing style accordingly (see PROs #4). Just like many other slow (and younger) strikers, Del Piero doesn’t need to be fast to play well.

Secondly, with regards to Antonio Cassano well… I think my “time bomb waiting to explode” part said it all. We all wanted to give Cassano another chance early in the season, and it seemed that everthing was going well: he was playing, losing weight, everything was honky dory… Then came the crying incident (as he received the yellow card which suspended him for the Roma match), and his post-red card hysterics vs. Torino a few months later (for which he served a 5-match ban). That, effectively, was the last straw for many of Cassano’s supporters: bringing a player with such a fragile psychological state to Euro 2008 would be like committing hara-kiri. It’s just not worth the risk.

Finally, the risk for an “ADN vs. ADP” rivalry is about the same as that of an “ADN vs. insert name here of whoever gets called instead of Del Piero”. If the team underperforms, all the starters will likely be called into question. Besides, with Del Piero this risk is trumped by the formation problem: ADN and ADP aren’t exactly interchangeable (position-wise), so if Donadoni were to drop ADN from the starting eleven, he just might have to change his formation a tiny bit. And despite the Don’s incredible stubborness in that regard, there’s no telling what compromises he might be willing to make if (God forbid!!) Italy were on the brink of elimination.
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The Verdict

In conclusion, my answer to the question “Should Alessandro Del Piero be going to Euro 2008?” is (would you have guessed otherwise?) a resounding YES!!! Based on his performance this season (and last 3 months in particular) he has more than earned his return to the Azzurri.  Should he be a starter over Antonio Di Natale? No. As I mentioned before, ADN’s position is somewhat different and besides, the Udinese striker has done more than enough to deserve his place on the team, no debate on that one.

However, even as a substitute, Alessandro Del Piero can bring undeniable quality to the Azzurri roster (through his technical baggage, his experience, and his qualities as a leader), and provide coach Roberto Donadoni with alternative solutions to his current playing scheme. The Don would be a fool to leave a player in such great form at home, and Italy would lose one of his greatest assets. In my opinion, it really doesn’t get any clearer than this…