posted Mar 29, 2007

I am big Italy's supporter and although I've seen them playing better I still believe it was a very good performance against a team that has proven to be very competitive.
Kudos to Scotland for their performance, I really hope they can keep it up and throw the whinging french team out of the european cup.
It is really a pity you we have met in such a difficult group and I really hope that our next match will see us progress both.
Having the scottish fans around is always a pleasure, for the passion and fairplay they give as an added value to the game; and let's always remember that the population os Sctoland is equal to the amount of italians that are part of the football federation!!!

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posted Mar 29, 2007

Hey,

I like scotish and irish supporter...they are so fun and friendly!

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posted Mar 29, 2007

I reckon alot of positives. The number of players in the 22-25 years group is awesome. Gordon (with McGregor coming through also), McManus, Brown, Fletcher, Faddy, Burke, Maloney, Boyd, Beattie. They can be one of the best Scotland teams for years if they want to be.

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posted Mar 29, 2007

It wasn't too bad. After the first goal the Italians dropped off and gave our midfield space to play which made us look better. I don't know why they did this as it allowed us more into the game, whereas when they pressed us we didnt have a sniff. The goals were pretty soft which is the most disappointing thing.

I appreciate the effort of teale, Mcculloch and hartley but all three are incapable of playing at this level. Hartley cannot take decent corners and constantly gave the ball away. The close control of those three is simply not good enough as we can't keep possession. Ok on saturday Tea;e provided the cross for Boyd's goal, but he had so much space, whenever he is under a bit of pressure he can't deliver. He is not good enough. The same for Mcculloch, he tries but he provides us with nothing in the final third.

Brown looked good, you could tell it was his starting debut on occasion but he looked confident on the ball and his ability to beat players could be seen. Mcmanus was quite good but occasionally made the mistakes that are typical of a player new to this level.

Maloney was also quite impressive when he came on but it was too little too late. Not many teams could come back from 2-0 down against the most adept side at defending leads, especially as it was in Italy.

Also we badly missed Fletcher and Mcfadden so its not the end of the world. I don't know why everyone was so positive about our chances. We beat the three diddy teams and France at home but we lost our two away games to our serious rivals and we still have france away, georgia away, italy and ukraine at home so i don't think we have a prayer. Having said that we are in by far the toughest group so its no shame to finish third or fourth

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posted Mar 29, 2007

Well played last night Scotland. At least they went to Italy and actually tried to play football, which is much more than a lot of other sides generally do.
However, the entire BBC coverage of the match was spoiled by the atypical hairbrained, idiotic comments of the generic English football pundit. I mean, all these guys come out with the same drivel - be they Lawro, Wright, Shearer, Lineker etc etc.
This, time it was the turn of Mr LEE 'I wouldn't know a good footballing nation if it slapped in the face with a kipper' DIXON who said (and i quote):
"For Me Italy didnt do much in the World Cup"
I mean, what has this guy been sniffing??!!!
No, ok, they didnt do much for you Lee, but they did a heck of a lot for themselves by WINNING THE WORLD CUP (how many World cup finals have England got to recently?). What did you expect, them to come around your house and build your new garden wall whilst laying your new patio paving slabs perhaps? No thats right Lee, they were in the world cup for their country, to represent Italy - not to represent you.

No offence Lee but why would they try and do stuff for you? Oh I know where they went wrong, they should have worn the england top and played for england "3 lions on a shirt waheyyy". I suppose after all italian midfieder Simone Perotta is English - then again as Alan Shearer back in the World Cup said, he wouldnt get in the England team as everyone in the England squad are far better!!! (oh yes excellent midfield performances against Israel and Andorra)

Come on BBC get some pundits who actually have an ounce of objectivity in them. Is it any wonder why England is so vilified by the rest of the nations in the British Isles??

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posted Mar 29, 2007

I know what you mean about the English commentators, but I would have taken any commentator just to see or hear the game. It was not available anywhere here in my part of Canada on television or broadband. Well, that's not quite right--it was on the Italian channel RAI, but you can't subscribe to that channel just for one game, and you wouldn't want it unless you were Italian. I don't understand why the BBC online is not allowed even to broadcast the sound here in Canada. It's not as if they are competing with any local broadcast here, as there in none.

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posted Mar 29, 2007

Can't believe the number of positive comments as regards Scotland's performance. I'm Scottish-Italian and was hoping Scotland would get a result last night but within 10 minutes it was patently obvious that was never going to happen.

Squad selection was shocking. Teale and Wier playing but Maloney on the bench? If McLeish's intention was to play some football why include players who are incapable of basic control and passing?

Tactically Scotland started too open, didn't press Italy when they were on the ball and offered nothing up the flanks.

At no point during the 90 minutes did Scotland look likely of getting a draw let alone a win yet McLeish hasn't received any real criticism.

If McLeish doesn't learn to adapt his tactics for away fixtures we'll have no chance of qualifying.

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posted Mar 29, 2007

CAN'T AGREE,LITHUANIA GOT A DRAW IN ITALY.WE WERE TOO TIMID AND NEVER LOOKED LIKE WE THOUGHT WE COULD WIN.NEVR MIND HOW THEY SAY WE PLAYED, IT WAS A ROUTINE 2-0 WIN FOR ITALY,WITH NO ALARMS, TENSION OR SCARES. WE WERE PEDESTRIAN, TENTATIVE AND GOT WHAT WE DESERVED. NOTHING FROM HARTLEY, AND EVEN LESS FROM McCULLOCH AND TEALE. ALEXANDER IS ON THE DOWNHILL SLIDE, AND THE ONLY BRIGHT SPOTS WERE SCOTT BROWN'S DEBUT, A LONG-AWAITED DECENT BAZZA PERFORMANCE,AND SOME REAL INVENTION FROM MALONEY....THE REAL GUBBING IS AWAITING US IN PARIS, AND I FEAR WE HAVE BEEN MENTALLY DENTED ENOUGH FOR US TO TOIL AGAINST UKRAINE AT HOME AND GEORGIA AWAY....UNLESS WE ACTUALLY PLAY AS THOUGH WE MEAN TO WIN....GRIM STUFF.

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posted Mar 29, 2007

What was McLeish doing? Poor starting line up and we let them walk all over us
Poor passing, crossing to no one if we were going to play that style then play boyd an not miller or both!
Boyd has to be on the pitch hes playin well allround
Beattie, Maloney, Brown and Gordon impressed but apart from that we were downright rubbish

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posted Mar 29, 2007

i thought the scots started off all wrong! they hoofed the ball straight back to the italians too much early on, and should have tried to hold the ball and play amongst themselves a bit. the first goal was a farce, too. naive defending to give the free kick away to that bunch of cheats in that position, and the defending of the set-piece was woeful.
but then, when they started 'playing' i thought they were decent. if only they'd started off like that, maybe things might have been a wee bit different. let's face it-italy are different class, and 2-0 was a good result for a team like scotland, but i can't get rid of the nagging feeling that scotland could've got more from the game. the keeper was excellent and kept them in it. they had some chances and half chances that could've got a goal on another day. they should have had a penalty when the lad miller, was it?, was too honest and got up when maybe he ought to have stayed down. much better second half alltogether, boyd made a big difference when he came on-they looked more like scoring. they'd probably still have lost, but it would have done more for the spirit of the team, and the country, if they'd given it a bit more of a go.
i'd still love them to qualify, but i think they'll get nowhere, by trying to hang on for 90 minutes-they've got to have a go!

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