The Italiano Football Team

Italy soccer team or most commonly known the Azzurri team is one of the best soccer team in FIFA World Cup history. Team members are; Alessandro Costacurta, Alessandro Del Piero, Alessandro Nesta, Christian Vieri,Dino Zoff, Franco Baresi, Francesco Totti, Gianni Rivera, Gianfranco Zola, Giampiero Boniperti, Gianluigi Buffon, Giancinto Facchetti, Giuseppe Bergomi, Giuseppe Meazza, Gigi Riva, Paolo Maldini, Paolo Rossi, Roberto Baggio, Sandro Mazzola, Silvio Piola, and last but not the list Valentino Mazzola.
Azzurri team means "azure" or blue the traditional color of the Italian team. It has a connection to the Italian dynasty since 1861when Italy was unified. Azzurri marked to the people of Italy and used it as nickname of Italian National football team.
Italy Soccer Team built to World Cup history as one the successful football team in the world. They won the title at 1934, 1938, 1982 and the latest was 2006 in World Cup competition. As of latest ranking of FIFA, Italy at 3rd place, Argentina has its constantly on top, Brazil at 2nd and Spain at its 4th place.
In 1970 and 1994 they become the runner-up, third place in 1990 and fourth placer at year 1978 in FIFA World Cup History.
Italian soccer fans show their extreme support to the Azzurri team. They have the Azzurro shirt, they have azzurri clubs and azzurri web pages where you will found out all you want to know about the team.
For 2010 World Cup which will be held at South Africa, Italy is the current World Champions. Italy strongly believes that they will make it again and will give their best to win the Cup.

 taly are second only to Brazil when it comes to success in the FIFA World Cup, and the current side secured qualification to the 2010 tournament in South Africa on October 10th 2009 with a draw against the Irish Republic. They will be defending the crown they won in Germany in 2006.
Italy has won the World Cup four times and has given the entire soccer world some of the finest moments international soccer has ever seen.
Under the leadership of legendary manager Vittorio Pozzo the Italian national side won the first two World Cup competitions in which they competed, 1934 and 1938, so it is not unheard of for a side to successfully defend their World Cup title as the current side hopes to. They also won the tournament in 1982.
The most capped player in the history of the Italian national team is still a member of the current team. Fabio Cannavaro of Juventus will be almost 37 years old in June 2010, and has received a record 132 caps since making his debut on an international level in 1997. He was the captain of the victorious 2006 squad.
In fact many of the players from the victorious 2006 side are expected to return to World Cup action in 2010. The average age for the current Italian team members is higher than many other nations, with just 4 of the 22 players who are regular team members under the age of 25.

After the 2006 World Cup, manager Marcello Lippi decided not to renew his contract and retire from soccer management. However, under the management of his replacement, Roberto Donadini, the side faltered, failing to make it out of the quarterfinals at the 2008 European Championships. After that disappointing result, Donadini was fired and Lippi coaxed out of retirement to rebuild team morale in time for 2010, a feat he seems to have achieved rather well if their qualifying campaign is any result.
For the 2010 Cup, Italy was drawn into Group F with Paraguay, New Zealand and Slovakia. This particular group shapes up to be one of the easiest groups of the eight first-round groups, and Italy clearly has to be the favorite to finish in the top two and advance to the second round.