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Nesta · 01-05-2007, 06:05 PM

Chelsea Football Club:
Chelsea Football Club (also known as The Blues or previously as The Pensioners), founded in 1905, are an English Premier League football team. The club's home ground is the 42,360 capacity Stamford Bridge football ground in Fulham, West London, where they have played since foundation. Despite their name, the club are based just outside the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It is on the Fulham Road, which runs between Fulham and Chelsea. In 2003, the club were bought by Russian oil tycoon, Roman Abramovich.

Chelsea have spent most of their history in the top tier of English football, and have had two broad periods of success: first during the 1960s and early 1970s, and then again from the late 1990s to the present day. In total, they have won three league titles, three FA Cups, three League Cups and two UEFA Cup Winners' Cups. During the 2005-06 season, they became Premier League champions for the second consecutive year.

Club records
Chelsea hold numerous records in English and European football. They hold the record for the highest points total for a league season (95), the fewest goals conceded during a league season (15), the most consecutive clean sheets during a league season (10), the highest number of Premier League victories in a season (29), the highest number of clean sheets overall in a Premier League season (25) (all set during the 2004-05 season),[33] and the most consecutive clean sheets from the start of a league season (6) (2005-06). Their 21–0 aggregate victory over Jeunesse Hautcharage in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1971 remains a record in European competition.[34] Chelsea may also hold the British transfer record, but the fee for Andriy Shevchenko, estimated at around £30m, remains unconfirmed.[35]

Players
First-team squad
No. Position Player
1 GK Petr Čech
3 DF Ashley Cole
4 MF Claude Makélélé
5 MF Michael Essien
6 DF Ricardo Carvalho
7 FW Andriy Shevchenko
8 MF Frank Lampard (vice-captain)
9 DF Khalid Boulahrouz
10 MF Joe Cole
11 FW Didier Drogba
12 MF John Obi Mikel
13 MF Michael Ballack
14 DF Geremi Njitap
16 MF Arjen Robben
18 DF Wayne Bridge
19 MF Lassana Diarra
20 DF Paulo Ferreira
21 FW Salomon Kalou
22 GK Magnus Hedman
23 GK Carlo Cudicini
24 MF Shaun Wright-Phillips
26 DF John Terry (captain)
40 GK Henrique Hilário
41 GK Yves Ma-Makalambay

Players out on loan
No. Position Player
2 DF Glen Johnson (at Portsmouth, until May 2007)
-- MF Juan Sebastián Verón (at Estudiantes, until August 2007)
-- FW Hernán Crespo (at Internazionale, until August 2008)

Italian National Football Team:
The Italian national football team is the national association football team of Italy and is governed by the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio ("Italian Football Federation"). They are the current World Champions, having won the most recent FIFA World Cup.

Italy is among the top teams in international football and the second most successful national team in World Cup play, having won four World Cups (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006), just one fewer than Brazil. To this tally they can add one European championship (1968), and one Olympic Gold Medal (1936).
The traditional colour of the national team (as well as of all Italian teams and athletes but in motor sports) is light blue[1] (azzurro, in Italian), and therefore national team members are nicknamed Azzurri.

Italy's campaign in the 2006 World Cup, held in Germany, was followed by open pessimism[9], caused by the controversies following clamorous 2006 Serie A scandal. But these predictions were then going to be refuted, since Azzurri eventually won their fourth World Cup.

Italy won their opening game against Ghana 2-0, with goals coming from Andrea Pirlo (40') and Vincenzo Iaquinta (83'). The team performance was judged the best among the opening games by FIFA president Sepp Blatter[10].

The second match was a much less convincing 1-1 draw with USA, with the opening goal by Alberto Gilardino equalized by a Cristian Zaccardo own goal. After the equalizing goal, Daniele De Rossi and two American players were sent off, leaving only nineteen men on the field for nearly the entire the second half, but the score remained the same. De Rossi was suspended for four matches for elbowing American player Brian McBride and could only return for the eventual final match.

Italy finished on top of Group E with a neat 2-0 win against the Czech Republic, with goals from Marco Materazzi (26') and Filippo Inzaghi (87'), advancing to the Round of 16 in the knockout stages, where Australia was beaten 1-0. In this match, Materazzi was controversially sent off early in the second half, but in the end the Azzurri won with a controversial penalty kick, won by Fabio Grosso and converted in the 95th minute by Totti.

The quarter-final match was a 3-0 victory against Ukraine, with Gianluca Zambrotta opening the scoring (6') and Luca Toni scoring twice (59' and 69'). Manager Marcello Lippi dedicated the victory to former Italian international Gianluca Pessotto, who was recovering from an alleged suicide attempt.[9]
In the semi-final, Italy beat hosts Germany 2-0, with the two goals coming in the last two minutes of extra-time. Fabio Grosso scored the first goal in the 119th minute, after a disguised Pirlo pass found him open in the penalty area, and Del Piero sealed the victory, completing a counter-attack with a chip moments later.

Within the crowd in Circus Maximus in Rome, after the Italian team scored against FranceThe Azzurri won their fourth World Cup, defeating France in Berlin, on July 9, 5-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw at the end of extra time. French captain Zinedine Zidane opened the scoring in the 7th minute with a tricky penalty spot kick, controversially awarded for a foul by Materazzi. Twelve minutes later, a header by Materazzi, from a perfectly placed corner by Pirlo, scored the equalizer. A short time after, a header goal by Toni was nullified for an offside. At 110', Zidane was sent off after a head butt, provoked by a insult directed at him by Materazzi; the two players were eventually fined by the FIFA, this is still a controversial matter considering that, even if Materazzi is a very rude player, nobody except the two players heard the so called insults. Italy then won the penalty shoot-out 5-3, after David Trézéguet's attempt hit the crossbar and Italy going perfect on all five attempts, Grosso converting the final penalty past French keeper Barthez.

It's generally recognised that Italy victory was obtained thanks to excellent teamwork, traditional Italian team compactness and outstanding defense play. Ten different players scored for Italy and five goals out of twelve were scored by substitutes, while four goals were scored by defenders. Seven players - Gianluigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro, Zambrotta, Pirlo, Gennaro Gattuso, Totti and Toni - were named to the 23-man tournament All Star Team.[10] Buffon also won the Lev Yashin Award, given to the best goalkeeper of the tournament; he conceded only two goals in the tournament, the first an own goal by Zaccardo and the second from Zidane's penalty, and remained unbeaten for 460 consecutive minutes.[11]

Honours
This is a list of honours for all of the senior Italian national teams, including Olympic and Military teams

FIFA World Cup: 4
1934, 1938, 1982, 2006

European Championship: 1
1968

Summer Olympics Gold medal: 1
1936

Dr. Gerõ Cup: 2
1927-30, 1933-35

World Military Cup : 8
1950, 1951, 1956, 1959, 1973, 1987, 1989, 1991

Players
World Cup squad
Head coach: Marcello Lippi
No. Pos. Player DoB/Age Caps Club
1 GK Gianluigi Buffon 28 January 1978 60 Juventus
2 DF Cristian Zaccardo 21 December 1981 12 Palermo
3 DF Fabio Grosso 28 November 1977 17 Palermo
4 MF Daniele De Rossi 24 July 1983 17 Roma
5 DF Fabio Cannavaro(c) 13 September 1973 93 Juventus
6 DF Andrea Barzagli 8 May 1981 8 Palermo
7 FW Alessandro Del Piero 9 November 1974 74 Juventus
8 MF Gennaro Gattuso 9 January 1978 43 Milan
9 FW Luca Toni 26 May 1977 18 Fiorentina
10 FW Francesco Totti 27 September 1976 51 Roma
11 FW Alberto Gilardino 5 July 1982 15 Milan
12 GK Angelo Peruzzi 16 February 1970 31 Lazio
13 DF Alessandro Nesta 19 March 1976 74 Milan
14 GK Marco Amelia 2 April 1982 1 Livorno
15 FW Vincenzo Iaquinta 29 November 1979 12 Udinese
16 MF Mauro Camoranesi 4 October 1976 21 Juventus
17 MF Simone Barone 30 April 1978 13 Palermo
18 FW Filippo Inzaghi 9 August 1973 49 Milan
19 DF Gianluca Zambrotta 19 February 1977 52 Juventus
20 MF Simone Perrotta 17 September 1977 24 A.S. Roma
21 MF Andrea Pirlo 19 May 1979 24 Milan
22 DF Massimo Oddo 14 June 1976 20 Lazio
23 DF Marco Materazzi 19 August 1973 28 Internazionale

Ive been following Chelsea since 2001 and the Italian National Team since 1994 ...And i love to watch them play

***** · 01-07-2007, 03:47 AM

Ty nesta for bringin the whole italian team here

i mean for ur indepth view n info about the team ,, hmm these days m learning alot thanks to u guys

hulky · 01-15-2007, 06:02 AM

chealsea was a good team when there were no shevchenko and ballack soo chelsea not gooooddddd this timeee....MAn is great n best

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