Catenaccio N/A

Sebastian Giovinco's announcement to the MLS isn't a "Bloody Big Deal" like his predecessor Jermain Defoe's. It's bigger. The passage of a talented professional the calibre of Giovinco in North America - in the prime of his career - has turned heads. Mostly, Italian soccer players' heads. With the exception of Di Vaio and Nesta, very few Serie A stars considered Major League Soccer as a destination, and no one did so in the prime of their careers. The waters chartered by Di Vaio and Nesta helped Andrea D'Amico and his client Giovinco consider the MLS as a destination to consider his future. In his interviews with Anthony Totera on NextStarSports and with Paolo Canciani on Toronto's CHIN Radio D'Amico specified that Giovinco was not simply looking at the economic considerations (as hard as it can be not to look at $7 million/year) but was looking for a new challenge, a "project" in D'Amico's words. The Giovinco tra...

Walk into any bar of any Italian town, and you'll see a copy of the local newspaper, one or two sports dailies, and a gentleman speaking to the bar owner about the officiating injustice that is condemning his favourite team. It seems everyone, except top sporting brass - including Blatter - are against ending this scene. Except Italian FA's top boss, Carlo Tavecchio. In October, he wrote an open letter to FIFA asking them to use the Italian top flight as a testing ground for new technology.  Today, Tavecchio took cue from yesterday's goal-line clearance at the San Siro to restate his case: "the debate that has arisen on the in-field use of technology shows how appropriate our request to FIFA was on October 9" . "On that day, we stated our availability to use goal-line technology and to experiment instruments that indicate with certainty and immediacy the positioning of the football in boarderline fouls near the big box" , reports t...

With election of a new president of the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (FIGC, Italian football federation), there is great opportunity for much needed reforms in Italian football. I’ll spare you a long preamble which would enlist the myriad of problems with Italian football - be it a failed national team showing at the past two world cups, apathy toward the Italian Cup, a spiralling UEFA club coefficient, poorer stadium attendance, shrinking percentage of Italian footballers in the league, increase in violence and of racist and territorial discrimination - we will present ten practical reforms (some small, some big) that would improve Italian football’s current state and brand, in particular Italy’s foremost football division, Serie A. 1. Build New, Club-Owned Stadia Not hard to propose “club-owned stadia” as one of the much needed changes. The “how” is as - if not more - important than the “what”. Italian government will not gift Serie A club’s brand new stadia and th...

With the World Cup just days away some of you may have already purchased your team's official jersey, are preparing to host a party, just attend one, take in the random pub scene, or are practicing your happy dance ahead of street celebrations. But how does one survive this period , maximizing the excitement, riding the hype, and getting through the disappointments? If you're young or old, a novice or an expert, here is my guide to the FIFA World Cup, based on the 6 tournaments I have survived. 1) Pick a Team Decorated Italian coach Giovanni Trapattoni is once said "there is no such thing as an [Italian] national team fan" . Ok Trap, Italy is seldom the neutral fan's darling, but with only 32 teams making the World Cup, someone's bound to get left out. Bottom line: even if your nation did not qualify pick ONE team that you support fully , from the start and make it public. Tell your friends, put a twibbon  on your twitter profile, get a small fl...

As anticipated yesterday, Giuseppe Rossi held a press conference this afternoon in Florence. "The past few months have been tough for me, of hard work and with the support of my family, my team mates and Luke Bongiorno. Now I'm well, and I must thank all of those who helped me ", remarked the 27 year old from New Jersey. On his return to the scoresheet, Rossi said " Yesterday's goal was truly beautiful , alas it was only our second versus the four that Sassuolo scored. I dedicate it to my father, but also to my girlfriend and my sister who flew over just to see me play, and to Fiorentina fans, who've always supported me". What interests Serie A lovers and those who hold dear the fate of the Italian national team, however, is Pepito 's return to la Nazionale: "All I have to do is play and demonstrate that I'm in good physical form and am able to lend a hand to the azzurri . I never thought about not going to the World Cup. I want to...

Giuseppe Rossi returned to Serie A action in style today, against US Sassuolo. The 27 year-old, sidelined due to injury since January, picked up where he left off by scoring Fiorentina's second goal, his 15th in Serie A this season .  This was perhaps the only good news for the viola as they fell to a very motivated US Sassuolo, who was battling relegation. Pepito   led the Serie A scoring charts when he picked up a serious injury on January 5th, with 14 goals in 18 games. His goal today is quite timely, as Rossi will hold a press conference tomorrow at 15:00 CET . CatenaccioNA, the blog for the Italian soccer movement in North America, wishes our North American hero continued success for the remaining games this season and in projection for representing Italy at the upcoming World Cup in Brazil.

UEFA club competitions have not been kind to Italian clubs recently as victims were made of Lazio and Milan, ousted in style by Ludogorets and Atlético Madrid. European exits are never taken lightly in Italian football, newspapers typically lambaste coach and club choices and fans urge the club president to multiply spending in the transfer market. As of late, however, these premature exits offer opportunities and challenges for the Italian football movement (CONI, FIGC, Lega di Serie A) to reflect on its course. Italian football is on a downward trajectory. Once the Mecca of club football, Serie A was the envy of the footballing world. To play in Serie A alongside Riva, Rivera, Antognoni, Platini, Socrates, Maradona, Van Basten, or Baggio was the dream of any child kicking a ragball in a dusty street. Italy boasted an astronomical UEFA Club Coefficient with an advantage of hundreds of points over chasers Spain and England. Despite the rise in aggregate financial debt, Se...

Few Canadians have ever bent grass blades of Italian soccer fields, and even fewer were born in Canada. Robert Stillo , a 23 year old Mississauga native is living the dream of so many Italian-Canadian Serie A enthusiasts: to play soccer in Italy. Robert is a self-declared "crazy Canuck goalie", currently plying his trade at AC Perugia Calcio . The Grifoni,  once a hotbed of soccer featuring Japanese superstar Hidetoschi Nakata and South Korean Jung-Hwan Ahn , is currently looking to revive past glory and is fighting for promotion in the Lega Pro. Stillo is currently on loan to Perugia, a city he says he's in love with, from none other than Serie A's Parma FC . Robert granted me an interview, in which we talked about his soccer background, his present and his prospects for the future. Tell me about your career in Canada. Which soccer clubs did you play for there and for how long? "Growing up in Mississauga I played for my local club Erin Mi...

Last week I went to Italy to fulfill a childhood dream of watching Juventus play live, in their home stadium.  Truthfully, this wasn't my first Juventus game in the most absolute sense, since I saw the bianconeri - then featuring Schillaci, Baggio and led by Maifredi - lose in Bari against the home side 2-0 on November 25, 1990. I'll never forget that there was a "welcoming party" of my friends (all anti-juventini) who readily derided me upon setting foot outside my father's car. Upon landing in Turin, I typically went to the closest pizzeria , sat down and enjoyed some of Italy's most popular and prostituted food item along with a 660 cl of Moretti.  After all, the trip wasn't only about watching Juventus: it was also about enjoying every cultural aspect Turin offered. View of the Occidental Alps from my hotel's balcony After a short rest I headed to Juventus Stadium early to take in the atmosphere ahead of the Europa League match ...

Giuseppe Rossi’s agent Andrea Pastorello spoke about his clients possible return today. “Rossi’s knee continues to heal well, and we haven’t seen any problem that may typically arise in this phase of rehabilitation. Beyond that, Giuseppe is in great spirits, which helps in the work that is being done to bring him back” he intimated to Firenzeviola.it . “Giuseppe’s rehabilitation is dependent on daily responses to tests. According to the schedule that we have fashioned with [world-renowned physical therapist] Luke Bongiorno and based on progress made thus far his return to practice is projected for March 20, thus, 10 days earlier than predicted”, he said happily.  From that point, Rossi will need about a month of preparation in order to get up to speed. With respect to Rossi’s chances of making the World Cup, Pastorello said: “ACF Fiorentina’s medical staff is in contact with their counterparts in the national team. I have become personally involved in this upon ...

News coming from Sky Italy's Gianluca Di Marzio today has Alberto Gilardino dusting off Toronto FC's 3-year offer of $12M (that's $4M/year), who seems to have lifted his doubts about the Reds. Di Marzio broke the news in English through his right-hand-man David Amoyal : On November 6, we revealed that TFC was in the hunt for a designated player in the Red's attack , and Gilardino was their number 1 target.  However, things cooled off just a week later, with the same Di Marzio informing his followers that Gilardino was not fully convinced of Toronto as a destination. Today's update confirmed that Gilardino is very likely to come to Toronto, but only in the summer 2014  (not at season's start in March) as he wants to finish his season with Genoa, and hopefully, feature in next summer's World Cup. At Catenaccio, we continue to hold that the 2006 World champion's his main concern is to maintain a fertile environment for productivity in his ...

Italian national soccer team coach, Cesare Prandelli called up the followin g 28 players for Italy's friendlies against Germany (November 15, in Milan), and Nigeria (November 19, in London): The call ups feature the return of Marco Parolo (looking for his second cap) and  Domenico Criscito . The latter featured last in the 2012 squad but was expelled from the team upon being questioned by police in connection with the Operation Last Bet. Criscito was later excused and never charged.

   Picture courtesy of News.Com.Au

Catenaccio,  Italian for "door bolt", is a tactical approach which focuses on defending. It is the only Italian word that has entered English-language soccer lexicon. This blog originated as one about the Serie A experience in North America (NA), which is why the name of this blog was CatenaccioNA. Over the course of time, my experiences that blogging gifted me through various online publications brought me to expand my view to soccer (or football, if you will) more generally. My experience that began as a "little blog that could" took me to Turin where I covered Juventus-Frosinone  and, after that, Toronto FC for several MLS seasons (including two MLS Cup finals) and CONCACAF Champions League matches, as well as the Canadian national men's team . For this reason, the blog has undergone a metamorphosis: it's now known as Catenaccio Not Applicable, as a "tip of the hat" to Italian football's evolving game play from one that was primarily ...