Veteran Juventus winger Mauro Camoranesi was also named to squad despite injuring his knee during training on Tuesday.

Italy begin their World Cup defense June 16th against Paraguay.

Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus), Morgan De Sanctis (Napoli), Federico Marchetti (Cagliari)

Defenders: Salvatore Bocchetti (Genoa), Leonardo Bonucci (Bari), Fabio Cannavaro (Juventus), Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus), Domenico Criscito (Genoa), Christian Maggio (Napoli), Gianluca Zambrotta (AC Milan)

Midfielders: Mauro Camoranesi (Juventus), Daniele De Rossi (AS Roma), Gennaro Gattuso (AC Milan), Claudio Marchisio (Juventus), Riccardo Montolivo (Fiorentina), Angelo Palombo (Sampdoria), Simone Pepe (Udinese), Andrea Pirlo (AC Milan)

Forwards: Antonio Di Natale (Udinese), Alberto Gilardino (Fiorentina), Vincenzo Iaquinta (Juventus), Giampaolo Pazzini (Sampdoria), Fabio Quagliarella (Napoli)

What do you think of the squad?

It took Giuseppe Rossi all of two minutes to make his presence know against his former country.

Under the lights of a cool South African night, Rossi lead the Italians in a second-half comeback win over the U.S. Rossi tallied two goals, and Daniele De Rossi added one of his own in a 3-1 victory in the first match of the FIFA Confederations Cup for both teams.

After a questionable red card to Ricardo Clark in the 33^rd minute, the U.S. found itself forced to play a man down versus the world champions.

As he has done in the last three matches for the U.S., Landon Donovan converted a penalty kick; this one coming in the 41^st minute, after Jozy Altidore was taken down in the box.

The Americans were able to contain the Italian attack in the first half, spreading the field and slowing the game down. After Clark’s foul on Gennaro Gattuso, resulting in his dismissal, the U.S. still displayed the kind of pressure and pace that it will need to succeed in South Africa.

While the Italians were able to test Tim Howard minimally, misplayed chances from Michael Bradley and Altidore in the first half could have changed the whole flow of the match, but both were unable to finish.

Jonathan Bornstein gave his side a scare in the 40^th minute as his pass back to Howard in defense of a De Rossi pass for Mauro Camoranesi, rolled passed his goalkeeper for what appeared to be an own goal. Cameranesi was the ruled offsides, disallowing the goal.

Altidore did make up for earlier his missed opportunity, earning a foul in the box as Giorgio Chiellini pulled him down.  The foul resulted in a penalty kick for the U.S. and Donovan beat Gianluigi Buffon to his left, just before the teams went to half with the U.S. leading 1-0.

Although down a man, coach Bob Bradley declined to make any halftime substitutions as the second half began.

Marcello Lippi did not hesitate to empty his talented bench, bringing on Rossi and Riccardo Montolivo for Gattuso and Camoranesi respectively in the 57^th minute.

Rossi, a dual citizen of the United States and Italy, was born in Teaneck, NJ; has long been criticized by American supporters for his decision to play for Italy over the U.S.  It was the same kid from New Jersey, who in the 59^th minute, then took the ball from Benny Feilhaber at midfield, in route to an impressive strike from 30-yards out that beat Howard to bring the match to 1-1.

De Rossi would give the Italians the lead for good in the 71^st minute as he drove a low-lying shot from 30-yards plus, into the far corner giving his team a 2-1 lead.

The Americans were able to muster a few chances that gave Buffon a little trouble, but the draw was unreachable.

Rossi struck home the final goal of the night after a cross from Andrea Pirlo beat Howard near post in the fourth minute of stoppage time.

Italy now sits atop group B with Brazil who beat Egypt in the early game, 4-3.

The U.S. will now have three days to prepare for Brazil on Thursday, in their second match of Confederations Cup.

Whether it’s an aging line-up, a lack of cohesiveness among the players, or absence of a dominant scoring threat, every fan has their one scapegoat which they deem responsible for the lack of better results. With the U.S. Men’s national team, it seems to be the starting left back position and a more consistent scoring threat.

Most of the U.S. supporters would be outraged to know that these missing pieces could have easily been solved with something as simple as a single phone call.Is the U.S. doing everything it can do to continue to develop the kind of talent worthy of challenging the world?

The debate about the success of the U-17 residency program continues on, but what about the few who got away? What if that missing defender was once a member of the development program? What if that consistent scoring threat was once enrolled in one of this country’s universities and was merely waiting for a simple phone call?

In the situation of possible impact players choosing to play elsewhere than the U.S., many people will point to the situation of Giuseppe Rossi. The New Jersey-born forward, who now plays for Villarreal in Spain, chose to play for the Italian national team instead of the U.S. That situation looked helpless from the start as Rossi declined an invitation to the pre-World Cup training camp from then coach Bruce Arena. Rossi stated from the beginning his desire to play for Italy, as he had played for them from the U-16 level through the U-21 level already.

Then consider the story of Neven Subotic, a Serbian born defender who was once enrolled in the residency program in Bradenton, Florida. Subotic moved to America with his family as a young child and would eventually make 12 appearances for the U.S. between the U-17 and U-20 national teams. Subotic now plays for Borussia Dortmund in Germany and appears ready for stardom in Europe. At the young age of 20, Subotic is already a very talented defender and presents himself as a legitimate scoring threat from the backline with six goals on the season for Dortmund.

Subotic’s Interview with US Soccer in November 2006(Click to listen)

In December of 2008, Subotic informed the U.S. Soccer Federation that he would be playing in International soccer with his native country of Serbia. There was much debate leading up to his decision which he called an “entirely professional decision” in an interview with Sports Illustrated.

After making only two appearances with the U.S. U-20 team, Subotic was left off of the U-20 World Cup roster back in 2007 by coach Thomas Rongen. Supporters can only wonder how much that affected Subotic’s decision. In the end the allure of playing on the big stage that is Europe and the proximity to which he grew up in Germany appear to be the deciding factor in Subotic’s decision.

Then Vedad Ibisevic, born in Bosnia, eventually ended up in the Saint Louis area. He played his high school soccer in the U.S. and starred at Saint Louis University for one year before returning to Europe to play professionally. Ibisevic earned NCAA Freshman of the Year honors while at Saint Louis University as well was a first team All-American player that year.

Here are two of the more extreme examples of players with dual citizenship capabilities that chose not to play for the U.S. Is the U.S. still viewed as second-rate on the international stage that players want to play for a traditionally more talented country? First thought is no because countries like Serbia and Bosnia are not on the level of an Italy or Germany squad.

 clip?id=3811694

During an ESPN interview with Janusz Michallik(shown above), Ibisevic said, “…looking back I really had fun playing at SLU (Saint Louis University) and I would imagine if the contact came at the time, when I was still living here and playing here, it would be an option for me, definitely.”

In the same interview Ibisevic said that the only contact from the U.S. Soccer Federation came after he had already debuted for the Bosnian national team. A single phone call could have made the difference in one of the Bundesliga’s newest rising stars choosing the U.S. over Bosnia. Ibisevic scored 18 goals and recorded six assists during the first 17 games of the season for TSG 1899 Hoffenheim before a knee injury ended his season.

Questions about this remain unanswered so far, but there are still situations in which these decisions have gone in favor of the U.S. In October of 2008, Jose Francisco Torres chose to don the colors of the U.S. over Mexico, where he has been playing his club soccer with Pachuca since 2006.

So the situation has not always gone against the Americans, but supporters must be left to wonder what their team would look like had some young men made a different decision. How strong would the U.S. line-up look with Subotic in the backline and Ibisevic up top?