Archive for February 20th, 2009

Football Italiano Blog Review

Friday, February 20th, 2009

A few months ago during the forced absence from my Serie A-reporting “duties”, I thought I’d finally have the opportunity to get a few affairs in order. Namely on the delivery of promises I made a while back and kept from fulfilling for a little too long. One of these was to write a website review of my friend Tim Doel’s Football Italiano. Unfortunately as has often been the case lately, holiday festivities / my own laziness / family drama / global recession / Juventus losses stuff got in the way.

Until NOW!! This is the time to right the wrongs of my past for frak’s sake (notice the not-too-subtle BSG reference here), so after a very long wait, here goes.

Presenting to you: Football Italiano.
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Football Italiano

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Serie A: The Battle for Champions League Qualification

Friday, February 20th, 2009

Serie A: The Battle for Champions League

In a league with its fair share of last-day title deciders, Serie A has still plenty to say with 14 league matches left on the calendar. Even though Inter Milan‘s victory over cousins AC Milan last week may have strongly nudged this season’s Scudetto towards the Nerazzurri, Juventus could still catch Internazionale and at a push the Rossoneri still have an outside shot and a glimmer of hope. With both sides having relatively old squads however, I just can’t see them picking up enough points to topple Mourinho’s men.

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Fiorentina 0-1 Ajax: Van Basten Conquers Firenze (UEFA Cup Round of 32, 1st Leg)

Friday, February 20th, 2009

Fiorentina's Adrian Mutu reacts during their UEFA Cup soccer match against Ajax Amsterdam at the A. Franchi stadium in Florence February 19, 2009.

To say that Marco Van Basten shares a special bond with Italy would be like the understatement of the century: his biggest achievements as a player (including the 3 Ballon d’Or and 2 Champions League titles) came during the years spent in the peninsula (as I’m sure AC Milan fans remember fondly). However, since he hung up his boots and donned a sleek Giorgio Armani manager jacket (dunno if it’s Armani actually, but I’m sure he likes to keep it classy) Van Basten seems to take some sort of perverse pleasure at tormenting Italian teams. I don’t have to remind anyone about recent Euro 2008 history, right?

Well yesterday marked yet another notch in MVB’s belt. Like the creepy & mysterious uncle you never like to invite at weddings, the Dutch manager’s Ajax made a trip to the banquet (Stadio Artemio Franchi) on Thursday, blocked traffic (La Viola’s forwards) in the parking lot, ate all the hors d’oeuvres & drank all the booze (their midfield), took a big dump in the wedding cake (their defense), then proceeded to made dirty jokes about the bride (Prandelli) and left the ceremony. But not before unleashing a mean left hook right into the groom’s (Fiorentina) face.

Yeah sounds about right.

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Lech Poznań 2-2 Udinese: Wasteful Show in Poland for Quags & Co. (UEFA Cup Round of 32, 1st Leg)

Friday, February 20th, 2009

Udinese's Alexis Sanchez (R) fights for the ball against Lech Poznan's Grzegorz Wojtkowiak during their UEFA Cup soccer match at the Stadium in Poznan February 19, 2009. Fabio Quagliarella (L) looks on. (REUTERS)

Three minutes of craziness. That’s all it took Udinese to blow out their 2-0 lead vs. Lech Poznań. Three minutes of defensive hara-kiri in the last quarter which, as many times this year, cast a shadow on all the good work done by the strikers and is keeping this UEFA Cup qualification in the balance.

And such a shame too, because the Bianconeri had found the perfect way to warm up their (low number of) supporters at Stadion Miejski: two goals early into the second half which would make even the most frigid of fans excited in sub-zero Polish weather. The upside is that a 2-2 away draw is still a pretty good result for Marino’s boys, who will simply have to avoid any more disasters in the return leg at Stadio Friuli.

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