World Champion 2010 - ITALY ?

World Champion 2010 - ITALY ?

Every football fan remembers Italy's captain Fabio Cannavaro holding up the FIFA World Cup trophy following Italy's victory over France, won on penalty kicks in July 2006.

4 years later, with 4 months left until the World Cup , will Italy be able to defend their 4th title won in 2006?

Even though the actual team seems old they have the quality and experience to threaten. After a not a very good campaign at Euro 2008 the coach was replaced with Marcelo Lippi the one who led the team to victory in 2006 ( he was born in the same day and month with me and that makes me proud lol ). His mission is not gonna be very easy as he has to pick 23 players from a list of 35-40 players who play at high level.

Early this week Lippi said : "The team is coming together nicely, 17 players are already certainties for the World Cup in South Africa. I need just six more to complete the squad. I have four months left to choose these six players and to insert them into the group of 23."

It would be interesting to see if he will recall the 2006 golden oldies Francesco Totti and Alessandro Nesta or he will leave it to youngsters.

At this moment the first 11 could look like this :

Goalkeeper - Buffon
Defenders - Cannavaro, Grosso, Chiellini, Zambrotta
Midfielders - Pirlo, Cassano, De Rossi, Brighi
Attackers - Rossi, Gilardino

Will Marcelo Lippi become the second coach in the world who wins 2 world cups after Italian Vittorio Pozzo who won the trophy in 1934 and 1938 ?

World Cup record : Champions - 4 times in 1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006

Below you could see a great movie with all the goals scored by Italy in 2006! Awesome live italian commentary! The way Fabio Grosso celebrates his goal in the semifinals against Germany is priceless ( reminding of Tardelli's celebration from 1982 ).