Italian Serie A 2006/2007

[Fabio]

-28 potentially, damn this is a cold winter!

 

[jen]

I guess I should be happy with the draw, but I'm not..1 point is nothing after the disappointing 0-0 vs Torino last weekend..We haven't improved by any meaning, this team really looks limited atm..We have few players who are in no position to give anything useful to the club anymore and what's even worse, their subs aren't better either..

I don't know what to say about Ancelotti today..What the hell was he waiting for with that late subs??:wth: Ahh, Every time I wait for something to change for the better, but am always left disappointed..:moan:

Forza Milan..

Hey mate, don't be that much disappointed. Yes, the 2-2 doesn't help us in our current situation. But I think it was a least a positive sign that Gila scored twice. Maybe he will now start scoring consistently. Also I think the late second goal from Gila will give us a push.
But I agree, some of our players are really out of form and everytime when the ball comes to Kalac I get a heart attack.
And also you are right on Carlo. All the time I was thinking: Where are the subs. Carlo do something and he just stand their as if he were dead.
However, I take this draw as a positive thing.
Don't lose your hope, better times will come soon.

And always: FORZA MILAN

 

[Diavolo]

well, but he always leaves it late(generally too late) with subs, doesn't he??

Not this season. I remember that I have freaked out 3 times for making the subs too early. That made me worry about injuries. Like Seedorf had during the Derby. He still played after a while but not much.

 

[Khalifa]

Gila had a good finish today..but i still think he's rubbish.....

 

[Pajo]

Gila had a good finish today..but i still think he's rubbish....

Lol, just like ours adri...

 

[cloudq]

I'm not sure either. It looks like that the ball hit his arm (as opposed to his arm hit the ball). But there was another occasion that Simic handled the ball in the box (and the ref didn't see it)

hitting the ball with your arm is still handball

just ask any player who's tried to control a highball with his arm

 

[Diavolo]

hitting the ball with your arm is still handball

just ask any player who's tried to control a highball with his arm

You don't really know what the handball rule says, right?

 

[UhUhOleguer]

Not this season. I remember that I have freaked out 3 times for making the subs too early. That made me worry about injuries. Like Seedorf had during the Derby. He still played after a while but not much.

well, then he simply doesn't know how to sub.

But you are correct...he did 3 subs at halftime during the derby if I remember right.

I like Carlo, but his subs are incredibly weak.

 

[Hasan]

Roma destroyed Palermo 4:0, great goals/moves from Macini&Totti,ice game from Taddei too.

 

[Ziyad]

I guess its us and ROma from now on...They had an impressive display against Palermo and if it werent for Fontana believe it or not it could have easily been 6 at least...

I still say there game against Lyon will be the most entertaining in the CL

 

[M.Adnan]

Roma = divers.

Just like some sissies in Juve and Milan.

What an absurd red card for Simplicio..

 

[Handoyo]

C.Lucarreli is a disgrace and one has to wonder how he stayed on the field after he charged into Pandev like that. :yuck: Great goal by Pandev by the way.

I have to say that Rocchi's sending off, if it was a straight red, was very harsh though. I'm afraid this will add fuel to the fire when it comes to the Milanisti's innuendo on Inter being helped by the powers that be, since Rocchi will be suspended against us.

Great cross by Pasquale on that equalizer though. He also had a nice shot saved superbly by Peruzzi. Any Calcio expert here who can tell me how he's done since he left us?


Handyo

 

[Hasan]

I don't know about you guys but I want old serie A back. When I just started carefull watch this league there was a big 7 who could win scudetto so this situation with us and Roma isn't interessting for me any more.
Inter,Milan,Fiorentina,Parma,Roma,Lazio and Juventus- that was a teams who make it seria A the best league in the world.
Is there any chanse to have that titlle back?

 

[J zanetti]

I don't know about you guys but I want old serie A back. When I just started carefull watch this league there was a big 7 who could win scudetto so this situation with us and Roma isn't interessting for me any more.
Inter,Milan,Fiorentina,Parma,Roma,Lazio and Juventus- that was a teams who make it seria A the best league in the world.
Is there any chanse to have that titlle back?

6-7 teams fighting for it, but we all now know only 2 could have won it. Forget about the 2 scudetti handed out to Roma and Lazio respectively. They only won so because they were allowed to do so in order to change the JuBe-Bbilan pattern so that the average serie A follower somewhere in a third world country didn’t become too suspicious about Berlusconi and specially Moggi’s FT side activities.

Several factors the main one being a corrupt league have made serie A what it is today. Extremely and shockingly low crowds in various stadium and amateurish security at the stadiums are just several elements which all contribute to the downfall of Serie A.

 

[Karim]

Did someone see that amazing kick by Quagiarela in the Reggina Samp match :dazed::dazed:

 

[Fabio]

Lucarelli, he's an Ultra and lets say he really felt it when his biggest rivals scored and celebrated under his Curva. :dielaugh:

 

[SHAPESHIFTER]

I don't know about you guys but I want old serie A back. When I just started carefull watch this league there was a big 7 who could win scudetto so this situation with us and Roma isn't interessting for me any more.
Inter,Milan,Fiorentina,Parma,Roma,Lazio and Juventus- that was a teams who make it seria A the best league in the world.
Is there any chanse to have that titlle back?

i don't mind not seeing juBe in Serie A ever again

 

[J zanetti]

Another great read with Matrix as the main protagonist:

Yesterday's villain becomes today's hero

Despite being Italy's most reviled player last season, domestic and international success has made Marco Materrazi popular again.

James Richardson
December 19, 200601:39 PM

Like Paddington Bear, things just seem to happen to Marco Materazzi. For years this beanpole of a defender was officially his generation's Dirtiest Man in Calcio, thanks to his habit of kicking nine bells out of players the continent over.
Benni McCarthy's knee, Pippo Inzaghi's head, Andriy Shevchenko's testicles - they all felt the loving touch of Marco's studs. There was more to him than just dirty tackles though; there was the eight-game ban he picked up for thumping one of the opposition - in a game he wasn't even playing in - or the time last season when he scored a brilliant last-minute goal with a 50-yard lob over his own keeper.

Marco is a loyal and likeable soul off the field but events like these had made him easily the least respected and most unpopular player in Italy. Last summer, that all changed. His inclusion in Italy's World Cup squad was hailed as "an accident waiting to happen" even by columnists as brilliant as this one, but in Germany, the man they call "Matrix" was practically a one-man World Cup winning outfit. Whose goal paved the way to victory over the CzechRepublic? Materazzi. Who gave away the penalty against France in the final, but then scored the equaliser, got Zinedine Zidane sent off and converted the second of Italy's shoot-out penalties? Big Marco again.

Italian fans haven't forgotten it, either. Fellow centre-back Fabio Cannavaro may be hogging all the silverware but it's Marco who has become the cult figure. "Tutti pazzi per Materazzi" (All mad for Materazzi) as the chant has it.

To this weekend then, which brought another eventful game for Marco, even by his standards. In the first half he was involved in a bizarre sideline scuffle when the manager of visiting side Messina, Bruno Giordano, refused to return the ball for a throw in, hiding it behind his back. Materazzi stretched his long arms around Giordano and managed to retrieve the ball, but got a smack on the back of the head from the manager and, bizarrely, a booking from the referee.

Three minutes into the second half came an even bigger surprise. With the game still goalless, Materazzi saw the ball dropping into the Messina area, leapt into the sky, spun in mid-air and smacked a perfect bicycle-kick into the top corner. It was a masterpiece from Matrix, and a piece of technique that, not to labour the point, Cannavaro could only dream of.

Marco's fellow lanky bad boy Zlatan Ibrahimovic later added a second to complete a 2-0 victory, but the assembled thousands at the San Siro barely noticed, head over heels as they still were from the Matrix revolution. He greeted his feat in typically humble fashion, dedicating the strike to the families of two Juventus youth players who drowned on Friday, and adding "a special thought" for "all those who need affection at Christmas time".

In truth, Materazzi's goal was just one of three stunning bicycle-kicks this weekend in Serie A (Sampdoria youngster Fabio Quagliarella and Lazio's Goran Pandev scored the others, with Pandev receiving a bloody nose from the irate Livorno captain Cristiano Lucarelli for his trouble), but naturally it was the sight of the former hatchet man making like Van Basten that hogged the front page of Monday's Gazzetta dello Sport. "If even Materazzi's now scoring like this ..." ran the headline; the unspoken inference being it really must be Inter's year.

Seven points clear as they are, fresh from nine straight league wins and with an unbeaten run now numbering 18 matches, it's hard to argue with the notion that the most profligate squanderers of talent in the game have finally sobered up. Perhaps even Europe should start taking notice?

In the meantime, the task of chasing the Nerazzurri domestically falls to Roma, whose 11-game winning streak from last season is the next record under threat. Sunday night saw them bounce back from their recent derby defeat with an 4-0 pasting of Palermo to confirm their role as official challengers. This Wednesday they'll be in the curious position of rooting for neighbours Lazio as they become the latest side to try and halt Inter's march to the title. Seven points are a lot to make up (duh), but with four wins themselves in their last five games and Francesco Totti in career-best form, Roma aren't out of it yet. After all, if last weekend taught us anything, it's that anything is possible.

For those keen to see the game and observe the magnificent Matrix in all his splendour I'll be live with Lazio v Inter on Bravo 2 this Wednesday. Otherwise check back here on Thursday for all the details.

 

[SHAPESHIFTER]

great stats right here http://sport.alice.it/it/calcio/serie_a/stats_intro.html

 

[snake]

Like Paddington Bear, things just seem to happen to Marco Materazzi. For years this beanpole of a defender was officially his generation's Dirtiest Man in Calcio, thanks to his habit of kicking nine bells out of players the continent over.

Benni McCarthy's knee, Pippo Inzaghi's head, Andriy Shevchenko's testicles - they all felt the loving touch of Marco's studs. There was more to him than just dirty tackles though; there was the eight-game ban he picked up for thumping one of the opposition - in a game he wasn't even playing in - or the time last season when he scored a brilliant last-minute goal with a 50-yard lob over his own keeper.

the man they call "Matrix" was practically a one-man World Cup winning outfit. Whose goal paved the way to victory over the CzechRepublic? Materazzi. Who gave away the penalty against France in the final, but then scored the equaliser, got Zinedine Zidane sent off and converted the second of Italy's shoot-out penalties? Big Marco again.

Italian fans haven't forgotten it, either. Fellow centre-back Fabio Cannavaro may be hogging all the silverware but it's Marco who has become the cult figure. "Tutti pazzi per Materazzi" (All mad for Materazzi) as the chant has it.

Three minutes into the second half came an even bigger surprise. With the game still goalless, Materazzi saw the ball dropping into the Messina area, leapt into the sky, spun in mid-air and smacked a perfect bicycle-kick into the top corner. It was a masterpiece from Matrix, and a piece of technique that, not to labour the point, Cannavaro could only dream of.

He greeted his feat in typically humble fashion, dedicating the strike to the families of two Juventus youth players who drowned on Friday, and adding "a special thought" for "all those who need affection at Christmas time".

Seven points clear as they are, fresh from nine straight league wins and with an unbeaten run now numbering 18 matches, it's hard to argue with the notion that the most profligate squanderers of talent in the game have finally sobered up. Perhaps even Europe should start taking notice?

Great article, I especially liked the highlgihted bits and the stabs at Scummavaro.