National team caps

By: Joe | September 13th, 2007

All of Napoli’s national team call ups have returned to Castelvolturno. I refuse to complain about players being called to international duty as playing for your country should be the highest honor for a footballer. To be fair, Napoli hasn’t had to deal with the issue very much as of late. The current international break saw four of Napoli’s players get called away.

Gyorgy Garics: The former U-21 Austrian captain was extremely busy during the break. Garics played all 90 minutes of Austria’s two friendlies during the International break. Austria and Switzerland both receive automatic births to EURO 2008 as they are the host countries. Austria will be very hard pressed to get out of the group phase based on their recent form. Austria drew 0-0 against Japan (they won on PK’s) and were beaten soundly by Chile 2-0. Garics played at right back and from all accounts did a great job fending off wave after wave of attacks during the two matches.

Ruben Maldonado: The center back was called in by the Paraguayan national team for a pair of friendlies. The matches are a warm up before CONMEBOL’s World Cup qualifying campaign which begins on October 13. Maldonado rode the bench and didn’t see the pitch for the 3-2 upset loss against the CONMEBOL minnows. Paraguay also dropped a 1-0 match to Colombia. I’ve been unable to determine if Ruben played in that match at all. World Cup qualifying begins on October 13/14 and October 16/17 where Paraguay will play Peru and Uruguay. Can someone explain why a region which only has 10 squads needs to start WC qualifying almost three years before the tournament? Can’t they throw in the 145th edition of the Copa America which seemingly is played every year, two years or three years based on whichever way the wind is blowing. The CONMEBOL region will send four teams to World Cup 2010 with the fifth place team playing a home and away playoff with the 4th place team from CONCACAF to determine the last WC team.

Marek Hamsyk: Napoli’s brightest Eastern European star played all 90 minutes of Slovakia’s two EURO 2008 qualfiers. Slovakia had mixed results with a draw against the Republic of Ireland on September 8th and a 5-2 pounding at the hands of Craig Bellamy and Wales on September 12. Slovakia sit fourth in Group D behind Ireland, Czech Republic and Germany. Hamsyk had a few shots on net in both matches but was unable to score his first International goal. That may change, however, as an October 13 date with punching bag extraordinaire San Marino lies ahead.

Walter Gargano: Defensive midfielder, and Napoli’s version of Rino Gattuso, played the entire 90 in Johannesburg for Uruguay in their 0-0 draw against South Africa. Gargano displayed his usual ball winning skills and grit and determination as Uruguay heads into WC qualifying next month.

Perhaps Maurizio Domizzi can earn a call up for gli Azzurri next month with Cannavaro out for one match due to yellow card accumulations. Any chance Donadoni would actually call up a Napoli player? Didn’t think so.