Much of the world considers the opera to be the greatest Italian dramatic form, but recent events in the soccer world there remind us that in addition to the traditional arts losing more and more relevance with each passing decade, they also no longer speak of the things that really get people worked up: like fixing a game owned by billionaires and played by millionaires.

Today's the day for roster announcements, so before I get too far along here are the relevant ones that may be of interest to us Americans:

• Czech Republic: (Bruckner names full-strength squad)
• Italy: (Buffon and Totti picked for Italy)
• Ghana: (Ghana Ring Changes In Squad For Germany)
• Mexico: (Mexico Confirm Squad For Germany)
• Trinidad & Tobago: (Trinidad And Tobago Cuts World Cup Roster Down To 23)
• Costa Rica: (not posted when this was written)

Nothing too surprising to me, but then I don't follow the Italian (or German, Russian, Ukrainian, Dutch, etc.) leagues enough to really have much more than an initial reaction (we're going to have a minimum of 2, maybe 3 very tough games). There is, always, a lot of hullaballoo surrounding the Italian team, although this time around it's not so much about the selections.

There are a number of interesting articles about the gambling and match-fixing scandal that has erupted in Italy, but here are a couple of good introductions: one in the Financial Times: (Italian Football Rocked By Match-Fixing Scandal) and the other by US National Players' resident soccer professor, Ken Pendleton: (Italy's Fatal Conflict Of Interest) . None of what is alleged to have occurred should come as a surprise to anybody who has ever read Joe McGinness's wonderfully well-written "Miracle of Castel di Sangro", McGinness's account of the season he spent living and travelling with a lower-division, middle-of-nowhere Italian team trying to win promotion to the second tier Serie B.

The jaded Italian soccer follower might observe that the only noteworthy aspect of the current scandal is that somebody is actually being publicly investigated. Outside of having the normal curiosity over the kerfluffle, generally I wouldn't care too terribly much for this sort of thing. But this isn't a normal year, so I'm looking at it all through the glasses of "What does this mean about our chances on June 17?" The answer to that is "Who the hell knows?" As I mentioned above, there is always turmoil surrounding the Azzuri, especially in a World Cup year. Maybe this kind of ridiculousness would impact a less soccer-deranged country, but I imagine if anyone other than the English were capable of putting up with it, it's the Italians.

That said, it does involve 4 teams that have sent a combined 13 of the 23 players to the Italian training camp. Two-time defending champions Juventus have 5 players on the roster, including starting goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, and he is apparently at the center of some of the gambling allegations (Buffon Included On Italy's World Cup Squad Despite Betting Allegations) . There are an additional 5 players from ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's AC Milan, 2 from Lazio, plus Fiorentina's goal-scoring machine, Luca Toni. Berlusconi (using typical self-interested logic) has already declared that Milan should be the recipients of the Scudetto at Juventus's expense, even before the results of any investigation have been completed, and despite the fact that Milan is also under the cloud of suspicion.

Another result has been the surprise withdrawal of one of Italy's two referree teams (Italy Withraws World Cup Referee De Santis) . That may open the door to American Kevin Stott's team as an alternate, or one of the other teams from Saudi Arabia, Chile, South Africa or Morocco. Who knows how FIFA thinks about such matters, but my guess would be that all things being equal it might go to South Africa so at least one domestic team will gain some tournament experience before they play hosts.*

We'll see if anything comes of the investigation, or if it brings out the underachieving character of the Italian team that is frequently on display at the top tournaments. I wouldn't count on it in either case.

A couple quickies that are worth a read if you haven't seen them already:

• In case you somehow missed the news like I did, Tim Howard is headed to Everton for at least a season: (Opportunity Excites Howard) .
• Brian Ching has a mom whom he loves and who loves him: (Ching's 'Soccer Mom' Made World Of Difference) . It was Mother's Day, so it's nice to see the soccer-related puff piece for a change.
• Somehow Memphis-native Jonny Walker's success escaped the attention of the Jackson Sun's Bob Heist during his profile of DC United reserve, Andy Metcalf, in which he referred to Metcalf as the first West Tennessee professional soccer player, but it's still good to see a nice native-son-makes-good article about a soccer player (The Making Of Andy: Sometimes Pioneers Come From The Most Unlikely Places) (see above note: maybe sports editors are finally getting the clue about all of those readers who know and play the sport, unlike during the NASL days?)
• An interview with Chris Albright from the training camp: (Albright Trying To Find Place On U.S. Team)
• An interview with Kuno Becker, star of the recently-release "Goal!" soccer flick: (Q & A With Kuno Becker) (maybe I'll manage to see it before it goes to video, but not likely given the norms of new parenthood)
• And finally Marcus Hahnemann's blog entry on what it was like winning promotion at Reading, available on the US Nationals' site: (Hahnemann: Sticking Together)

*Unbelievably, South Africa didn't qualify despite coming from such a weak confederation (the CAF), and actually finished third in their group behind Ghana and Congo DR. Not that you'll hear anyone talk about the CAF as weak ("dynamic" and "un-predictable" seem to be the polite descriptions), unlike our CONCACAF, despite its comparative successes at the international stages compared to African teams, especially since 1990 with our re-emergence on the international stage.

Maybe the Europeans just like the fact that the CAF has chosen to emulate the European qualifying process of divvying the entire continent into randomly-drawn groups, since it guarantees that worthwhile teams will be left at home depending on how unlucky they get during the draw. If you would have taken all 30 teams that made it to the group stage of African qualifying and ranked them 1-30, I doubt Togo and Angola would have made anyone's top 5.

Yes, having underdogs present increases excitement, but a confederation's performance at the cup does help determine how much of the pie they get come draw time for the next tournament, and that worked out in our favor in Germany because of the strong performances the US, Mexico and Costa Rica put in in 2002.

As I'm sure the South Americans will attest, the more games you play, the more likely the better teams will win out. That's why although many of their stars make their living in Europe, they still choose to play a marathon, 2-year campaign of 18 games among all 10 teams, with all of the logistical nightmares that entails. Eventually FIFA will stop just adding numbers to the World Cup field (increased to 32 for France '98), at which point some European teams with big names but no success at the international level will start missing out to surprise teams from un-fashionable federations that can actually advance out of group play.