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<blockquote data-quote="johnsemlak" data-source="post: 2870026" data-attributes="member: 7233">Hmm, maybe, I actually don't follow Italy or Serie A carefully, but from what I read, they've got&nbsp; possibly the tourney's best goalkeeper, a solid defence as usual, and an array of established strikers all playing for big name clubs.They thumped Germany 4-1 IIRC in one of the more impressive results in WC warm up matches.There are other good European teams for sure.&nbsp; But nearly all have glaring weaknesses.&nbsp; Plus, I haven't read of any injury probelms on the Italian side (EDIT--wrong,<a href="http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/060604/6/730m.html" target="_blank">here's</a> some news on a key injury) while there''ve been probelms affecting players like Rooney, Owen, Jan Koeller (who's apparenlty healthy now but the Czechs also have other injury problems not to mention an aging team).Now, I&quot;m not taking into account the possble effect of the football scandals going on in Italy right now.&nbsp; My gut instinct is to assume they won't affect things much, but who knows.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="johnsemlak, post: 2870026, member: 7233"] Hmm, maybe, I actually don't follow Italy or Serie A carefully, but from what I read, they've got possibly the tourney's best goalkeeper, a solid defence as usual, and an array of established strikers all playing for big name clubs. They thumped Germany 4-1 IIRC in one of the more impressive results in WC warm up matches. There are other good European teams for sure. But nearly all have glaring weaknesses. Plus, I haven't read of any injury probelms on the Italian side (EDIT--wrong,[url=http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/060604/6/730m.html]here's[/url] some news on a key injury) while there''ve been probelms affecting players like Rooney, Owen, Jan Koeller (who's apparenlty healthy now but the Czechs also have other injury problems not to mention an aging team). Now, I"m not taking into account the possble effect of the football scandals going on in Italy right now. My gut instinct is to assume they won't affect things much, but who knows. [/QUOTE]

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