The Youth

A county's U-21 squad is usually pretty indicative of how good a country's national team is. The U-20 squad is totally different. They can range from anywhere between 16 and 22 years old, and they haven't really fleshed out their careers. The 20-23 year olds in the U-21 squad have a much better sense of where they're going, because they tend to be the feeders to their national teams. Look for the following nations to do wonderfully in the next 2 World Cups.

The top 5 U-21 squads as I see them:

1. Italy

2. Germany

3. Brazil

4. Spain

5. England

Interestingly enough, 4 out of these five nations' senior national teams will probably go quite far in the 2010 WC. The odd man out? Italy, with its completely moronic call-up style that hampers the squad by denying it a single player with any pace at all. For that matter, how about a player under 29 years old? I guess Chiellini and Rossi fit the bill, but come on... Cannavaro is 36 and while he can still cut it in the tactical Serie A, don't expect Robbie Keane to do him any favors in the upcoming qualifiers. He'll dance around the poor guy.

We need to see Giovinco, Marchisio, Santon, and ANTONIO CASSANO on this fucking squad already. Without the trequartista role filled by Cassano and/or Giovinco, the team is lost. Marchisio can patrol the midfield in a way that Ambrosini and Gattuso no longer can, and Santon adds some much needed cover for the (badly) aging Zambrotta. Fabio Grosso still has the class to keep him at the highest level; Zambro doesn't. Lippi, it's time for a change or two. Or ten. I love Italy, but without at least a few of these players in the squad, Italy goes down in the first knockout round. You heard it here first.