Italy drops 2 strikers, Germany names 6 for WCup

[figo4ever]

LONDON — Germany will bring six strikers to South Africa but Italy dropped two as some of the leading World Cup contenders made late decisions on their teams Tuesday, hours before the roster deadline.

England dropped Theo Walcott but kept injured Gareth Barry, while the host Bafana Bafana left all-time top scorer Benni McCarthy off their teams.

Germany coach Joachim Loew promised to take an attack-minded squad and his only late change was to take out 23-year-old defender Andreas Beck. That meant he retained Bayern Munich strikers Mario Gomez, Miroslav Klose and Thomas Mueller plus Cacau, Stefan Kiessling and Lukas Podolski to give him plenty of goal-scoring options.

Italy coach Marcello Lippi, who guided the team to its fourth World Cup triumph in Berlin four years ago, had to cut five players from its squad and opted to leave out New Jersey native Giuseppe Rossi, who has dual citizenship, and Marco Borriello. That leaves him with five forwards — Antonio Di Natale, Alberto Gilardino, Vincenzo Iaquinta, Giampaolo Pazzini and Fabio Quagliarella — as Italy bids to become the first team to successfully defend the title since Brazil in 1958 and '62.

Nine players remain from the team that won the World Cup four years ago in Germany: Gianluigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluca Zambrotta, Mauro Camoranesi, Daniele De Rossi, Gennaro Gattuso, Andrea Pirlo, Alberto Gilardino and Vincenzo Iaquinta.

Four years after former coach Sven-Goran Eriksson took Walcott to the tournament as a 17-year-old but never used him, Fabio Capello decided not to bring the Arsenal winger to South Africa.

Walcott has struggled with injury and form this season and, even with David Beckham out because of a partially torn Achilles tendon, Capello preferred to summon Joe Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips.

Barry has been sidelined since May 5 with ankle ligament damage and Capello waited until a fitness check on Tuesday before deciding to take the Manchester City midfielder. Barry now has 10 more days to get fit for England's first group game, against the United States.

The other six players to miss out on England selection were Darren Bent, Tom Huddlestone, Adam Johnson, Scott Parker, Michael Dawson and Leighton Baines.

South Africa was widely expected not to include McCarthy.

The 32-year-old striker, who has scored 32 goals in 78 games for his nation, has struggled with fitness and form all season while playing in England for Blackburn then West Ham.

"It was a sad thing to have to split apart our family," coach Carlos Alberto Parreira told a news conference as he announced the six players who will not play in the first World Cup to be staged in Africa.

"But I told them, 'Put your heads up, life goes on. All of you deserve to be here.' Unfortunately we have to obey FIFA rules and we can only name 23."

South Africa kicks off the competition against Mexico on June 11, and then faces former World Cup winners Uruguay and France in its group.

[mdmd]

Good luck for the Italian national team

[kmkm]

i like Italian team so much

[alomda]

ohhh no bed luck

[dway]

This very useful article .. Thank you