Lombardo's a glutton for punishment

By John F. Molinaro, CBCSports.ca

Oh, to be young and in prime physical shape.

Take the case of Andrea Lombardo, who last month demonstrated unbelievable stamina and conditioning by playing in two games within a 24-hour period.

The tall and powerful forward played the full 90 minutes of an exhibition contest between Canada and Argentina at BMO Field on the evening of May 11. Lombardo, a 20-year-old native of Toronto, was repeatedly kicked and harassed by Argentina's defenders, and even though he didn't score, he did cause plenty of problems and was recognized for his strong performance when he was named man of the match.

The following afternoon Lombardo showed no signs of fatigue when he made his debut for Toronto FC. Five minutes after coming into the game as a substitute, Lombardo chipped a perfect pass inside the penalty area to teammate Maurice Edu who scored to seal a 3-1 win for Toronto over the Chicago Fire, the first-ever victory for the Major League Soccer expansion franchise.

Canadian fans can expect the same level of commitment from Lombardo during the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. A veteran of the under-20 team, Lombardo is a physical forward who uses his size and strength to fight off defenders, but he's also very dangerous around the penalty area.

Canadian forward Andrea Lombardo is a glutton for punishment. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)

"I'm just a hard worker. I work for the team. I'm a striker and most of my goals come off of hard work and dedication. I'm not the most skilful trickster, but everything comes from hard work," Lombardo told CBCSports.ca.

It was through "hard work and dedication" that Lombardo landed his first pro contract.

As a teenager, Lombardo contacted Italian side Atalanta, a club renowned for developing young players, and convinced the team to give him a tryout. There was one catch: he had to pay his own way to the club's training facility just outside of Milan.

Lombardo only trained with Atalanta for a week but he clearly made an impression as the team quickly penned the Canadian to a contract.

Lombardo's Italian sojourn was far from smooth, though. He mostly played in Atalanta's reserve team and after only making one appearance for the senior roster, the club sent the Canadian out on loan to Perugia and Rieti.

"The Italian system, I wasn't too crazy about it. The reserves in Italy, when you are 19, it's a process of going out on loan to the third division, and the fourth division, which is really not a good competitive league. It's just older guys winding down their careers or younger guys trying to make a name for themselves," Lombardo explained.

After bouncing around in Italy's lower leagues for a couple of years, Lombardo called it quits and decided to return home, signing a contract with Toronto FC's developmental roster, the MLS' equivalent of the Italian reserve system.

Unlike in Italy, the forward's time in the reserves was short. It took only a month and a half of the MLS season before Toronto coach Mo Johnston promoted Lombardo to the club's senior team.

Lombardo will be looking to make an impression before the home fans after he was kept off the score-sheet at the 2005 World Youth Championship in the Netherlands when Canada meekly bowed out in the first round.

"The 2005 team was inexperienced. This time around we have six returning players from that team, and we had a really hard group in the Netherlands and we kind of stumbled out of the blocks against Syria in the first game," Lombardo said.

"We started slow and it was hard to catch up in the next two games against two powerhouses like Colombia and Italy."

Lombardo believes the team has made great strides since the 2005 championship and will contend this summer.

"We have a good group of guys. We have a good team and we're confident in what we can do, so we're realistically looking to get out of the first round. And then from there on, the knockout phase is one game, so anything can happen in 90 minutes," Lombardo said.

"In the past two years, we've beaten Brazil, Scotland and the Czech Republic, which are three teams in the top 15 rankings in the world, so if we can beat them why can't we beat anyone else?"