⚽️🇮🇹 Christian Pulisic is "loving life" in Italy
⚽️🇮🇹 Christian Pulisic is "loving life" in Italy
In this week's digest of Italian soccer, we also look at the national team's successful U.S. tour, Thiago Motta's recipe for success in Bologna, and much more!
🇺🇸 Pulisic in Italy: “I’m loving it”
Christian Pulisic’s excellent season continued during the international break, when he helped guide the USMNT to victory in the CONCACAF Nations League alongside Milan teammate Yunus Musah and Juventus compatriots Weston McKennie and Tim Weah…
🗣️ Speaking with Radio Rossonera, Musah was full of praise for his teammate Pulisic, who has notched nine goals and six assists in league play this season:
“I’m really really happy with the way I see Christian playing at the moment. He’s scoring a lot of goals, affecting the play a lot in our team. I’d say he’s been our best attacking player this season at Milan, so I’m really happy for him […] So yeah, I’m really happy to see a fellow American do such a thing.”
👏 While on international duty, Pulisic told reporters how much he is enjoying his time in Milan: “I’m loving the Italian culture. I’m trying to soak it all in. I’m doing the best I can to learn the language so I feel pretty good with all that stuff and I’m just loving it so far.”
🇮🇹 Pulisic gave us a glimpse of his Italian language skills on the CBS broadcast of the CONCACAF Nations League Final.
👉 Up next for Pulisic and Milan: The Rossoneri return to action this Saturday with a trip to Fiorentina (3.45pm ET on Paramount+). The host team has won this fixture on the last five occasions.
🙌 Italy completes U.S. tour with two victories
The Italy national team’s first games on American soil for 19 years were a success, with Luciano Spalletti’s side recording a 2-1 win over Venezuela in Miami and a 2-0 victory over Ecuador in New Jersey.
🇮🇹 Spalletti experimented with a new 3-4-2-1 formation and started each match with an entirely different XI, in order to maximize the potential player pool before this summer’s Euro 2024 tournament in Germany.
👏 Mateo Retegui staked his claim for the coveted No.9 shirt by scoring twice against Venezuela, to make it four goals in five Italy games.
🤯 The 24-year-old is the first Genoa player in 96 years to score a brace for the Azzurri.
👉 Up next for Italy: The national team has two more tune-up friendlies in June — against Turkey in Bologna and Bosnia in Empoli — before the European Championships, which start June 14th. Italy will face Spain, Albania and Croatia in their Euro 2024 group.
⚽️ Serie A’s “Keep Racism Out” Junior Coppa Italia hits the road in Verona and Udine
The 11th edition of the Junior TIM Cup | Keep Racism Out brings a 7-a-side tournament for boys and girls together with activities and initiatives aimed at combating racism and discrimination.
⚽️ Since its inception in 2013, the Junior TIM Cup has included over 90,000 young players in around 35,000 matches, and more than 6,650 speakers who highlight the values of sport and the importance of standing against expressions of hatred and intolerance.
⚽️ This week, the tournament visited Udinese and Hellas Verona.
⚽️ The Italian football federation (FIGC) has cleared Inter’s Francesco Acerbi of a potential racism charge as the "minimum level of reasonable certainty" had not been met in relation to an incident involving Napoli’s Juan Jesus. Acerbi has repeatedly denied he used an offensive term.
👏 Social Post of the Week: Weston McKennie is living his best life
Juventus star Weston McKennie celebrated the USMNT’s CONCACAF Nations League “threepeat” with a pair of ski goggles that wouldn’t look out of place in the Alpine areas surrounding his adopted home city of Turin…
😎 Never change, Wes.
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🇮🇹 Perr Schuurs tours Turin
In the latest episode of our Champions of Made in Italy series, Torino’s Dutch center back Perr Schuurs discusses the journey that brought him to Serie A, while exploring his new home city of Turin.
🇮🇹 Serie A is partnering with the Italian government for the Champions of Made in Italy documentary series, which is bringing insight into the cities and cultures that surround every club in the league. More episodes below…
😲 ICYMI: Frosinone’s Matías Soulé scores a peach for Argentina U23s
Argentina’s U23 side played a two-game series during the international break, the first game of which saw a beautiful strike from the Albiceleste’s Matías Soulé.
🇦🇷 The precocious 20-year-old Argentine forward is currently on loan from Juventus at Frosinone, where he has notched 10 goals and two assists this season.
💬 Calcio Conversations
During the international break, you may have heard the word “oriundo” being used.
🤷♂️ What does it mean? Oriundo essentially means “of foreign origin” and is the term given to Italy national team players of foreign nationality, but whose Italian roots make them eligible.
The latest example is the aforementioned Mateo Retegui, who was born and raised in Argentina, but is now an Azzurri star.
Jorginho, who was born in Brazil, is also an oriundo, while other famous examples from the past include World Cup winners Mauro Camoranesi and Raimundo Orsi, both of whom were born in Argentina.
📈 How Thiago Motta is taking Bologna to the top
Bologna’s superb campaign currently sees the club sitting in fourth place and well within contention for Champions League qualification. Much of the credit falls at the feet of their oriundo coach Thiago Motta.
🗳️ Motta, who won the treble as a midfielder in Jose Mourinho’s 2009-10 Inter side, has been identified as one of soccer’s “most innovative up-and-coming managers” by The Athletic in a feature published this week (read it here, paywalled content).
🤓 The feature discusses Motta’s admiration of highly-influential South American coach Marcelo Bielsa and the ways in which his tactical style has transformed Bologna’s fortunes. “I count the goalkeeper as one of the seven players in the middle of the pitch,” the March Coach of the Month says, in reference to his style of build-up play. “For me, the striker is the first defender and the goalkeeper the first attacker. The goalkeeper starts the play with his feet and the attackers are the first to put pressure to recover the ball.”
🇪🇺 Bologna is on the cusp of reaching Europe’s premier continental competition for the first time in 60 years.
🇧🇷 Brazilian-born Motta represented Genoa, PSG and Barcelona during his playing career, and was part of the Italy National team that reached the final of Euro 2012.
😎 According to Footmercato, Motta sits high on the respective managerial wish lists of Juventus, Milan and Napoli. However, it is reported that the 41-year-old would stay with the Rossoblu if they earn a Champions League campaign for next season.
📺 This weekend on CBS Sports and Paramount+
Saturday March 30th
Napoli v Atalanta (7.30am ET)
Genoa v Frosinone (10am ET)
Torino v Monza (10am ET)
Lazio v Juventus (1pm ET)
Fiorentina v Milan (3.45pm ET)
Monday April 1st
Bologna v Salernitana (6.30am ET)
Cagliari v Verona (9am ET)
Sassuolo v Udinese (9am ET)
Lecce v Roma (12pm ET)
Inter v Empoli (2.45pm ET)
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