What Is Italy Doing?! Maldini Resigns & Pirlo’s Out! Plus SJ Earthquakes VS LA Galaxy 1-1 Recap!

Project 90 Soccer: Marco Michael We are live. Welcome to another episode of the Project 90 Podcast. My name is Antonio and I'm here with Mio Fradello, Miramano El Masgrande Numero Uno Marco Munoz Marco, how you doing today, brother?

Marco: Bro, what an introduction. I don't think I deserve an introduction like that, but man, shout out

Project 90 Soccer: Is it good? stop it.

Marco: shout out to my favorite fratello, Antonio. Grazie mille. And comenciamos. There's a lot of stuff to talk about.

Project 90 Soccer: Coming Chamo, and we got this little Italian vibe already going. Got the jersey on. I got the main one of the main subjects sitting right right there, dude. I don't know if you can see it behind me, but can't tell.

Marco: I can't I c I can't really see him.

Project 90 Soccer: But you know, his name's about to come up because what is going on with Italy, Marco? What is this nonsense? I'm trying to figure out who is directing this soap opera of a movie we got going on with what is the Italian. national team. Have you been following this in recent hours, recent days? It's been a wild two weeks for Italy.

Marco: It's a it's truly a travesty what's going on in the Federation. And

Project 90 Soccer: For how it's

Marco: I'm embarrassed for my Italian people,

Project 90 Soccer: Yes.

Marco: for my Italian fans who just wanna make it back on the world stage in the World Cup, just wanna put that badge in Italy at the highest that they can. I'm just embarrassed for you guys the way stuff is going on behind the scenes and ultimately the World Cup is over and this is not a great start for that Surah

Project 90 Soccer: No, dude, coming into a fourth World Cup now, right? We already missed three. If there hasn't been enough embarrassment for us already in the past three World Cups, what's been going on recently with this whole entire technical director finding a new coach? Maldini, Pierlo, Guardiola, all these guys. It's just we don't need any more embarrassment, in my opinion. This is absolutely out of control. The fact that a legendary national team, an iconic national team. It's won the tournament four times. Cannot qualify, cannot put a team together that can win, cannot even figure out who to appoint, who to put in as coach. You got people being hired, they got people resigning. Ridiculous, man. Ridiculous. You know, in the past two weeks we saw, well, let's take it back to let's say qualifying. Didn't qualify under Gatusa. Okay. Again for the third time. Buffon was in there, Bonucci was in there, Gattuzo was head coach. All of them resigned. They all, you know, left left the national team. And they said, All right, it's time to restart. So they appointed Silvio Baldini for interim manager, who was the under 21 coach, came in, won the two games that they had left before the World Cup started, two friendlies. And everything seemed like, okay, you know, we're about to take this serious, we're about to get our shit together. And so what did Italy do? They appointed as technical director someone that we all thought would have but been a great choice is Maldini and Leonardo, right? Both from Milan. And, you know, it was great. That was I was happy with that. I think every Italian was happy with that. It looked like we were going in the right direction. the president of the Federation, Giovanni Malago said, We're gonna bring in Maldini, we'll bring in Leonardo, and we'll try to find this coach, right? So first name that sort of came around was Guardiola, which was like that would be amazing, right? Long shot,

Marco: Long shot, long shot. Yeah.

Project 90 Soccer: but that would be super duper ideal. Then there were talks of Ancelotti, but we already know he's with Brazil. Other names, Mancini coming back, maybe Alegri taking over, but then he took over and said, Yeah again with a new team. Tiago Mota's another name that I've been hearing. And who did they settle on? They settled on Pirlo, which Not too stoked about. I don't think many Italians are stoked about it, but the fact that it was Maldini backing him was kind of, you know, gave us a little comfort. I was a little more excited knowing that it was Maldini who wanted him, so he must see something in Pierlo. So that seemed like that was the that was it. Pirlo was going to be appointed. That was the news coming out. And what happened now all of a sudden there's this news. Of Pirlo being associated or an ambassador of some sort or a brand partner with some Russian gambling company, this betting company. And Malago, the president, said, Nope, I don't want none of that. We cannot be associated with that. I do not want Pirlo to be the head coach. Which, I mean, ridiculous. You're pretty much now involving politics, a political thing with sport, with soccer, with our national team. And Maldini said, Well, if you're not gonna let me pick Pirlo, I'm out. And what do you do? Like six hours ago, eight hours ago, he resigned. Him and Leonardo resigned. Pierlo's no longer gonna be the coach. Now we gotta start all over again. And I am fed up with this embarrassment, bro. It's like we have zero identity. We don't know who we are anymore. We're always reflecting back to two thousand six. We're becoming one of those national teams that looks into the past, say, what we had then Why can't we have that now? This and that. Why can't we qualify? And it's like the problem's way deeper than that. We can't even have a federation that can appoint a coach or a technical director, let alone have the players to now go compete, qualified, and dream about winning at this point. It's embarrassing.

Marco: It's it's one of those things where it's either a serious and unserious or for entertainment purposes only situation. And I hate to say it, but I think it's just for entertainment purposes only, right? Because taking it a little bit back, right? Mancini supposedly they had given him his word, their word that he was gonna be coming back up, right?

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: To take over the squad. So he resigned with the club that he was getting paid five million. per season or per year, whatever the

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: case may be. So now Mancini doesn't get the job, right?

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm.

Marco: Because Mal Maldini goes in another way or gives his word to Pirlo after the Pep Guardiola thing didn't go through. So now you got one guy without a job, right? Because he thought he was he was gonna take charge. And then if I'm hiring a technical director, you gotta be able to give that guy the atomity or whatever you say that word, autonomy.

Project 90 Soccer: Autonomy, yeah.

Marco: Autonomy to do his job. Right? So as a president, you gotta let get those guys and and figure it out. Because if that wasn't the case, if you weren't gonna let him do his job, then you could have hired somebody who you could have been running through things through and ultimately you'd get your guy versus now running a circus and for entertaining purposes only, you get

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm.

Marco: you get what's what's going on right now. And to what you were saying not too long ago, Pirlo, right? He comes in to An all-star group in Juventus and they finish fourth. They qualify for Champions League the very last match day of the season, right?

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: For a team of that caliber, that's not the standard. Maybe right now, yes, where they are at right now. Back then when you had Ronaldo and all these guys on the squad,

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: that's not the standard. You gotta win, win, win. Then Pirlo goes to Seriabet with Sambdoria. Doesn't do too well, right? He's goes to the Turkish League. He is like middle of the table fighting for Actually, not even fighting for a whole lot, fighting to stay in the middle. And then now he yeah,

Project 90 Soccer: To win a game, yeah.

Marco: and now he's in the UAE, right? So what does that tell me about his career? Now it's instead of going up, it's kind of going down. But it was one of those things where Pirlo and Maldini have this relationship, and it could have been one of those things where, like, look, this is my guy, right? He doesn't have the trajectory that other coaches have, but at least we are on the same page on what we need to see with Italy and focusing on our youth, right? Because these guys, they're four three three guys. Right.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: So what does that say? That means th they're they're looking to to bring guys on and and young young talent onto onto the squad. At least that's what I'm seeing.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, and and it it's it's he doesn't have the best resume as a coach. But when I think of a guy like Maldini coming in, he's a lot of history in the game between his dad, who was there before, coached Italy, was part of Italy, involved with Milan, all these teams, you see a guy like Maldini come in, and I feel like his his goal was to create a long term project. It was not to go now to the Euros in two years, if they even qualify at this point, right? Go to the Euros, win the Euros and expect to win the next World Cup. No, Italy's way lower than that at this point. Italy's goal right now is to establish themselves to be consistent qualifiers at this point, to then go compete at the World Cup. If you can't pick a manager or a technical director and give them, like you said, the autonomy to do it, then there's there's a bigger problem here. There's a bigger issue in the Italian Federation. People aren't seeing eye to eye. And you know, one, you know, one group of people say it's the coach or the manager or the federation, then the other group will say it's the players. But in reality, it's both. You know, and yeah, the set I is not the strongest league anymore. That's correct. But when Italy was at their their peak, say in 2006 when they won, 2002 when they had a great team as well, it it wasn't be there were foreigners in the league just like there are now. There were real big names

Marco: Mm-hmm.

Project 90 Soccer: in the set I. Playing for Milan, Juve, Inter, there's Ronaldo, Recoba, all Crespo, all these foreign players that were playing for the big clubs, the difference was the quality of Italian player, like true playmakers. There's Del Piero, there's Stotti, there's all the names you remember from 2006, 2002. You know, true like superstars in a sense, right? And now those players don't exist. They just, they're simply just not there. So the problem isn't foreigners and said, yeah, the problem is we just don't have. The world class, the 40-glass type players like Totti Del Piero, Maldini, Candaro, all these players don't exist anymore. That's the problem with there. You see the U-19s and U-21s having great tournaments, U 17s. Why is it not translating to the first team? I don't know. You know, that's maybe a deeper problem within Italy and the Federation, opportunities, things like that. But for Italy as a national team, if we can't even settle on a coach, settle on a technical director, settle on somebody who's gonna come in long term and sort of revamp and revolutionize the game for Italy, then we're going nowhere fast. And after today seeing Maldini resign, it's just it just adds to the embarrassment of what the national team has become. I mean I I don't even know at this point. You hear names like Baggio being thrown around, you hear names like again Diago Mota, there's Candavaro who's been coaching. He just went to the World Cup. There's Montele, he coaches for Turkey, Ancelotti's with Brazil. So why are all these now players, not only players going abroad to these big clubs like Sanjo Tonali, all these guys playing in England or overseas, but also the coaches. No no one wants to come. It's like they don't want to coach for Italy. And

Marco: Well, especially after what happened the last twenty-four hours, who in the right mind is gonna want to go into that situation, Antho? Because

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: they they know they're gonna have the full backing of the Federation, the presidents, whoever case may be that's that's that's pulling strings over there, they're not gonna have the full the full autonomy to to do what they're supposed to be doing. So now who do

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: they look look to? Baldini again? Like, hey, can you come back and hold this down until you find a a a a solid coach? But even

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: then, even then that's a band date. Do you go back to Manchina, like, hey, Maldini's gone? Manchini come back. Now that guy has a little bit of leverage. now you want me? Okay, I want 5 million a year, right? Or wherever,

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: or whatever the case may be, or I need to call my shots, or need to be able to hire my own people. This sounds a lot like the Mexican Federation. Mexican Federation

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: is a joke a lot of the time because to what's going on right now, the presidents and the owners call the shots because they're running the league. And they they tell the coach to to to call up or play certain players. So unfortunately. Italy is is going through a situation like this, but I mean Anto, who who do they look forward to now?

Project 90 Soccer: Honestly, man, I don't have no idea. At this point, I don't know. Anything can happen, right? I mean, it's been Maldini was there for 16 days. In two weeks, look what has happened. In two weeks, you have people sign on, resign, coach here, no coach, no more, can't do that. Mala goes fine. No, no, yes, maybe. I don't know. So it's like, what are you gonna do? Who who are you gonna get to come in and say, Yeah, I'll take this job, this absolute disaster that Italy is right now? I have no idea, dude. I'm embarrassed. Like it's just like a joke. It's like we couldn't beat Bosnia to qualify. I don't even care about that anymore. Like this is like beyond that. This is like I want to feel and so does every Italian for that matter, wants to feel confident in in the Federation, their coach, their president, all these pla all these people that are involved with bringing Italy back to where they should be. Right? It's so weird watching the World Cup and not seeing the Azzuri in it, not seeing Italy at all even mentioned, not part of it whatsoever. I mean, it's you know, one thing to not qualify for one World Cup, but to do it three times in a row, now this is just getting absolutely out of control. So I don't know, man. It's obviously a developing story at this point, right? They're gonna they're gonna need to figure it out. They're under a lot of pressure now. They're under the microscope. Everybody's tuning in around the world is saying how embarrassing this is. So honestly, man, is it corruption? Is it is it favoritism? Is it what is it? I have no idea. But between the youth, between the coaches between the president, the Federation, they need to figure it the fuck out because the World Cup, it's four years away. You better get it together. If you don't qualify for a fourth World Cup, I mean I'd even I don't even I don't even know what the I don't even know what to say at this point if that were to happen. So you know I look forward to the Euros. I really hope they do qualify. I hope they get it together. I think there's a lot of good talent. But you know what? They need to bring a coach in. They need to have they need to have a unified federation that says, okay, we're all here With the same goal, with the same idea in mind, a long term project to bring Italy back to the top. So we'll see, man.

Marco: Man, hopefully s the they get to work, right? Qu Conte has been a name out there.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: in my opinion, Conte is kinda like a band-aid, right? Not for the long term, but but who knows, right? Maldini's out. I don't know if that long term project is still gonna be going on. It's whatever project gets in place the next couple of weeks. But till then until hopefully we get some good news the next couple of weeks on what's going on with the Federation and they they start stepping in the right direction.

Project 90 Soccer: I agree, man. So that's it for now, man. It's pretty shocking news today coming out of coming out of Italy. But yeah, as this story sort of develops, I'm sure we'll jump back on it. Obviously, I'm very freaking very passionate about that because Italy's my team. in the meantime, though, this is another episode, Project 90. we'll be dropping an episode s pretty soon about a lot of transfers, a lot of talk going on, a lot of transfers have been happening. Between Chelsea, CEA, Real Madrid, all these teams. So I think we're gonna touch on that in the upcoming days. until then though, I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you made it this far, go to Project90Soccer.com, subscribe.

Marco: And some MLS.

Project 90 Soccer: Yes, yes, and MLS. We just saw the earthquakes. Let's touch on that real quick. San Jose Earthquakes, California Classico versus the LA Galaxy. We saw them draw one to one, which Timo Werner, he did have a big opportunity at the end there to win the game. it's unfortunate, obviously, that's not ideal to miss in the n literally the last minute of the game. But overall, from the game we watched, the previous game, right, we saw them Orlando City was a disaster versus them. But they came out against LA. They had a much better game. To me, they were the stronger team for most parts of the game. Reed Roberts, obviously, the young defender getting a goal. I thought everyone was pretty solid. As far as defense though, they do get caught on the break, which we saw them get scored on. But yeah, man, I'm l really looking forward to seeing if they can kind of turn their season back around because they started off super strong. You know what I mean?

Marco: Yeah man, I'll take the point. I'll take the point. I'll take the point.

Project 90 Soccer: Take the point. And Bruce Serena is probably not too stoked about it either. Again, right? He plays it cool, right? He's an experienced guy. He knows what he's doing. But at the same time, man, the point is a point, you know, but it's time to we got we gotta start winning, bro. And I, I personally, I need to see the San Jose Earthquakes win a game this season at home. That is my only hope, my only goal for going to PayPal Park, driving an hour and fifteen hour and a half to that stadium. I need to see a dub, dude. So we're gonna we're gonna catch a dub. We're gonna report back onto the pod. And yeah, man. I'm just I'm excited.

Marco: We we need to get our money's worth of these twenty three dollar Micheladas.

Project 90 Soccer: Dude, it's wild. They're big, they're good size, decent Micheladas, but between parking, between driving, the tickets, look, man, I just want to see a victory. Is that too much to ask? Is that too much to ask, Marco? Am I being ridiculous? San Jose, we are

Marco: On San Jose, do it for us, baby. Come on, do it for us.

Project 90 Soccer: we are true fans of your team, man. You give us something to do.

Marco: Let's go.

Project 90 Soccer: You give us something to look forward to. We come to the games. We love it. I know all the players' names. I've been following the team for years and years. And I've yet to see you guys win a fucking game at PayPal Park. I need to see a win. God, dude. Italy,

Marco: Fired up.

Project 90 Soccer: Italy Earthquake. I'm fired up, dude. Fired up. What?

Marco: And you know what they both got in common? They're both blue.

Project 90 Soccer: What a catch that is. Blue and white, dude.

Marco: But one white

Project 90 Soccer: Blue and white, man. All right, Marco. Let's sign off. It's enough screaming for one day. It's been Project 90, Project 90Soccer.com. Like, subscribe, comment. every subscription helps the channel grow. We're trying to just, you know, get into the ears and to the eyes of soccer fans, man. Drop your comments, join the conversation. Until next time, though, this has been Project 90. Any last words, Marco?

Marco: Peace.

Project 90 Soccer: Peace out.