tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25118533466965285072024-03-12T22:29:14.972-04:00not even oriundo- calcio without citizenshipcalcio without citizenshipUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger121125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2511853346696528507.post-79686723421051224642021-07-14T15:23:00.021-04:002021-07-14T17:31:02.348-04:00Forza Azzurri: From Rotterdam to Wembley<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-En87N4g1Yfo/YO84ih_UbpI/AAAAAAAABB4/iWw8iiDPMlwHCp3RWziMVDzk0U1qoCPXQCNcBGAsYHQ/s770/eurotriumphitaly.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="513" data-original-width="770" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-En87N4g1Yfo/YO84ih_UbpI/AAAAAAAABB4/iWw8iiDPMlwHCp3RWziMVDzk0U1qoCPXQCNcBGAsYHQ/w640-h426/eurotriumphitaly.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Even after Bukayo Saka buried his head in his shirt, I didn't realize what had happened. Gianluigi Donnarumma picked himself up and walked away slowly, as if nothing had. It was only when I saw Roberto Mancini embrace his staff that the enormity of the moment started to wash over me. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Somewhere, somehow, in the eternity between Jorginho's and Saka's miss, I had lost count of Italy's most important penalty shoot-out since the World Cup Final of July 9, 2006.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">The one count I had faithfully kept, throughout the tournament, throughout the Final, only stopping just before the liquid images of Italy's Wembley triumph started to unfold on television before me, was of twenty-one years. More than two decades had passed since my most excruciating football memory: Italy's Euro2000 Final defeat to France.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Since then, I have witnessed the thespian range of Italy in South Korea (2002), Milan in Deportivo (2004), Milan in Istanbul (2005), Italy in Kyiv (2012), and Italy in Milan failing to qualify for the World Cup (2018), but none of these farces and tragedies have the jabbing edges that Euro2000 Final has, those barbed images of abysmal dejection. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">It was how Italy lost. They could sniff the trophy's silver. Journalists in the press box were practically proofreading their final copy. The Italy bench was almost spilling onto the field in anticipation.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">What happened with less than ninety seconds remaining was unimaginable given how Italy had defended that tournament, and how they had edited out Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry from the Final's storyline. But deep in injury time, Fabien Barethez's long clearance eluded Fabio Cannavaro, whose desperate attempt to head the ball away only helped it onto the path of Sylvain Wiltord, who snuck the ball under Francesco Toldo from an angle.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">That was the moment Italy lost. David Trezeguet's golden goal in extra time had the inevitability of the next day's tired headlines. Best team of the tournament won! French football reigns supreme!</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gKFBjQZqtc4/YO82pMiJ7zI/AAAAAAAABBs/_sY1zzlTM3MQ9VFpFFwDylUlCen97cCtgCNcBGAsYHQ/s360/delpieroeuro2000.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="360" height="267" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gKFBjQZqtc4/YO82pMiJ7zI/AAAAAAAABBs/_sY1zzlTM3MQ9VFpFFwDylUlCen97cCtgCNcBGAsYHQ/w320-h267/delpieroeuro2000.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Del Piero (left) contemplates defeat in Euro2000</td></tr></tbody></table>While Alessandro Del Piero (who missed two convertible<br /> chances) stared off into that unredemptive Rotterdam night of July 2, 2000, the silver medal an albatross around his neck, I knew that seeing Italy win the European Championship and right this wrong would become an obsession of mine in the following years.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">And during those years, I have witnessed Zlatan Ibrahimovic's backheel at Euro2004, a penalty shootout loss that started Spain's domination of international football (Euro2008 quarter-final) and a 4-0 pasting that marked its pause (Euro2012 Final), and, yes, that Simone Zaza penalty against Germany in Euro2016. Yes, Italy won the World Cup in 2006, but that was to cancel out my pain of 1990 and 1994; the European Championship was the precise antidote for 2000.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Italy's triumph on Sunday at Wembley needed to shift the trauma of heartbreaking defeats to the genre's most brilliant method actor: England. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">That is the story of possible redemption that I told myself before and on Sunday, but reading the previews leading up to the Final, little space was granted to any Italian perspective in the English media. Talking about 55 joyless years is a story that subsumes all, even for the neutral, and yet moving that colossal narrative rock only slightly reveals teeming particularities, nuances, missed narratives of big men like <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/may/16/gianluca-vialli-interview-donald-mcrae-italy-chelsea-sampdoria-juventus-cremonese" target="_blank">Gianluca Vialli and his battle with cancer</a>, of big football countries like Italy standing on the cusp of becoming even bigger. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">I am one of those who believes that winning the European Championship is a higher achievement than winning the World Cup. Not more significant in national memory, but more of a rigorous test of credentials. The fact that the last four World Cups have been won by European nations only strengthens my conviction. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">But alongside the football question, Italy also needed to answer the spiritual one, the one that lingered for more than twenty years. They did. Nothing will ever erase the pain of that night in Rotterdam, but this helps. A lot.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Forza Azzurri!</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2511853346696528507.post-9419614351814215192021-06-05T12:41:00.006-04:002021-06-05T15:06:35.044-04:00On Milan's Return To The Champions League<div><span style="font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hFioaIQx6OA/YLumoyO8KBI/AAAAAAAABAY/wYbpTAHK7uESdbxHagijWQwTfjgsYKLggCNcBGAsYHQ/s1200/acmilancl.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hFioaIQx6OA/YLumoyO8KBI/AAAAAAAABAY/wYbpTAHK7uESdbxHagijWQwTfjgsYKLggCNcBGAsYHQ/w640-h360/acmilancl.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>I'm the type who twins his life's course with his football team's. Doing so is a tacit acceptance that your daily rituals are inadequate to shape an amorphous sense of time, especially during this pandemic. You look to the structure of the football week, the rounded edges of rote formations, the clockwork of kick-offs, as your team plays out your life in parallel, on another exhilarating plane above you.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">There can then never be a moment without significance this way. You score any personal success as your team's, and your team's failure as your own. Just as certain songs comprise your life's soundtrack, your football team's successes constellate your memory, like glowing hooks on which you hang summers.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">As Franck Kessie converted the second penalty against Atalanta on Sunday, May 23, he not only booked Milan's ticket to the Champions League after seven years of suffering, but he also opened up my summer to a possibility. That is all I needed: to be on the cusp of something better.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Nothing focuses your club's rank and relevance in the football world like a Champions League Final. D</span><span style="font-size: large;"><span>espite the thinly peopled stands, t</span><span>he dreamscape of Chelsea vs Manchester City--its stakes, its sheen, the exquisite shades of blue-- felt removed many times from my football possibility. The last time Milan played the Champions League Final was in 2007, a triumph filtered through standard definition, calibrated necessarily by the mind's eye into speckless brilliance. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">It was as if I need to be roused to be able to register last week's Final, as if the absence of my own team from the competition has cob-webbed my faculties. In February, I had written of the Scudetto dream; that fell away definitively by March. What was left was not just the original goal of Champions League qualification, but also a more fundamental question of survival. Financial health. The ability to plan on a tight but at least not moneyless budget. Sporting Director Paolo Maldini materialized whenever my fears would, whenever the league table started to look dicey, grim, reassuring in every interview that even without Champions League football, the project would continue.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">But you knew you couldn't be satisfied with another disappointing season spun as success. More pragmatically, you knew that renewals and loan options hinged on qualifying for UEFA's showpiece event. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">In the end, Milan finished second. They managed to beat every team in their peer group (Inter, Napoli, Atalanta, Juventus, Roma, and Lazio) at least once, including a thumping 3-0 win over the defending champions in Turin. They managed 16 out of a possible 19 away wins, which is a league record. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">There are so many players, so many numbers, so many people to consider when discussing how a team with the youngest average age in Europe, assembled through bruising negotiations and pennies (relatively speaking), comprised of loanees, an almost 40-year-old Ibrahimovic, managed to do what it did this season. The fanboy in me wants to answer with one name as being responsible for it all, Maldini; others will say, Ibra. But there was much more to it.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">For me, it was not crucial to write about each element that contributed to the success, but only the crescendo of success itself. To know that if my team is headed in the right direction, so am I.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Somehow.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div> </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2511853346696528507.post-89099535755056276362021-02-02T09:23:00.022-05:002021-02-02T13:19:09.746-05:00Dreams Of A Milanista Past The Half<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: x-large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mrcZ6nlPgKU/YBlckl1d33I/AAAAAAAAA-U/M0XMnOTjQWk4_M-3isO-MVz-bxTIL_hhwCNcBGAsYHQ/s480/milan3.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="480" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mrcZ6nlPgKU/YBlckl1d33I/AAAAAAAAA-U/M0XMnOTjQWk4_M-3isO-MVz-bxTIL_hhwCNcBGAsYHQ/w640-h426/milan3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;">There comes a time when you have no choice but to share your dream. After twenty rounds, Milan still sit, somehow, at the top. They did so after nineteen rounds as well, at the halfway point of the season, but I daren't have written this then, even though I had dared to dream much earlier. The podium for the Winter Champions is laid down only in discourse, and after a bruising 3-0 defeat to Atalanta in the nineteenth round the title felt emptier than usual.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I had been anxious before the game against Bologna this past Saturday. I feared it would defy what was on paper, all of Milan's work so far would falter in front of the heaving beast that is The Narrative, which has maintained that Milan are, at best, a third-wheel: Inter and Juventus have the better squads and over time it will tell. The twentieth game, the start of the return fixtures, would show that the first half of the season had been a dream, a madman's dream, and in the second half Milan would find themselves in someone else's, walled out as the familiar Juventus cavalcade moved triumphantly ahead in the distance.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">In these times, dreams compensate more than usual. This Serie A season will be unwitnessed by fans in the flesh. It will be asterisked for posterity as a perversion. The noise of fans in stadia has been replaced by howls of players clipped in flight, the pantomime of a coach's protest by his bellowing--and it is on this stage that Milan have emerged as contenders. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">In a way it's fitting. Milan's owners Elliott are used to surveying carnage before finding a position of advantage. As the pandemic rages, Milan inoculates itself against financial and sporting ruin. The wage bill has been slashed, players surplus to requirements have been moved on, there is no debt owed to banks, the fanatical line of buying only young players has been moderated to include old hands like Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Simon Kjaer, and a whole department dedicated to precise statistical analysis offers directors Paolo Maldini and Frederic Massara profiles that they then pursue in the market.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The result is that a team with one of the youngest average ages in Europe sits on top of a league that has always been suspicious of too much youth. Now, though, the suspicions have been momentarily diverted. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">If this had been a normal season, Milan's young players would have disintegrated under the pressure of a packed San Siro, some say. If they hadn't been awarded all of their penalties, they would sit third at best, often the same people say.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The first can't be proven; the second is tenuous, not even taken seriously by honest Inter or Juventus supporting journalists. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">No one can argue with the math, so they argue with the method. Coach Stefano Pioli faces the snide line of questioning with customary grace, swatting away questions of penalties, reminding them that a team which has been sweeping almost all before them since July of last year isn't here by chance. They have earned the points and the penalties (note: all but maybe two of Milan's fourteen penalties were blatant).</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Supporting Milan isn't exactly a martyr's fate. The fanbase of a club that has won the European Cup seven times and the league almost three times that forfeits the right to complain of lean years. But in the interregnum between 2014 and now, when Milan didn't have the towering leadership of Ibrahimovic or the business stability, there was almost nothing to surrender at the halfway point. Milan were almost always realistically out of contention for a Champions League spot after nineteen rounds, let alone the Scudetto. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">It feels strange as a Milan fan to have something at stake this far in the season. To ease the pressure, the line publicly remains that finishing in the top four is the season's goal, but the editorial lines have already converged across Italian media. Papers and podcasts of all political colour agree that Milan are among the favourites.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">What you fear as a fan is the dream, preferring to defer it. We'll see where we are after ten rounds, you said at the start of the season. At round ten, you said fifteen. At fifteen, nineteen.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">You fear something ghostly, which periodically assumes contours: a disproportionate amount of injuries, COVID-19 cases that have reduced your key players to posting Instagram videos of themselves on stationary bikes at home, and the recent spat between Inter's Romelo Lukaku and Ibrahimovic during the Coppa Italia. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">At first glance the spat had all the hallmarks of how footballers square up--like rams they touch heads, sometimes falling, sometimes keeping their balance and at least some dignity, as was the case here. But without the noise of the fans drowning out the verbal exchange you heard everything.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">No need to rehash it further, but the (non) issue has been typically exaggerated in the Italian media, and the talk of a ban on both (possibly extending into the league) strikes at that part of you that has started to believe.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">That belief has been steadily building, collapsing, rebuilding, resurrecting itself again and again. For every slip, there is a wonder Rafael Leao goal (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gRM5GM0lhw&ab_channel=SerieA">one of which was the fastest to have ever been scored across Europe's top five leagues</a>); for every story that heaps doubt on the club, there is one that heaps praise. Milan's season has bloomed during a time of disease, and it therefore feels like a full-blooded rebirth.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Davide Calabria, Theo Hernandez, Franck Kessie, Ismael Bennacer, Ante Rebic, and the man who always supplies the key, Hakan Calhanoglu--there is so much to look forward to at last. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">For now, you tell yourself what they tell you: finish in the Champions League places. But the January window that added a player like Mario Mandzukic (among others) tells you something else.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Hopeful, you look towards May, still a flicker in the distance.</span></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2511853346696528507.post-32818720216675789212019-08-23T11:12:00.001-04:002019-08-23T11:22:43.593-04:00Serie A Season Preview: More To It Than Juventus<div style="text-align: right;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">Before a ball is kicked to start a season, the league table reads like a perfect democracy. Everyone equal, facing discrimination only on the basis of alphabetical order. Sere A kicks off this weekend, but Atalanta are already champions of Italy after 0 games played.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Put aside your partisanship and enjoy the pristine table while you can. Teams and fans, delude yourselves with visions of triumph now because the illusion will begin to lift after a dozen matchdays.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">By then, the table will start to tell familiar stories of the haves and have-nots and the tundra that yawns between them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Maybe it will be different this time. Maybe Juventus will not have sown up the title by Christmas; maybe the teams that look like relegation candidates right now (Verona, Lecce) will be flirting with mid-table bliss.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">After the last eight seasons, I have learned to enjoy Serie A's subplots more than the hackneyed main one. The fight for European spots or salvation. The surprise players or teams. A near-decade of black-and-white Juventus dominance has bestowed upon me nuance, a shade of gray through which I can appreciate the undeniable progress Serie A has made as a whole and teams like Atalanta and Torino have made in particular.</span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s8Y_gQusa2s/XWABxTmJe3I/AAAAAAAAA54/VfgqV8LPNDIdkB9Q-9j5R5HqueDmudgzQCLcBGAs/s1600/conte.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="960" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s8Y_gQusa2s/XWABxTmJe3I/AAAAAAAAA54/VfgqV8LPNDIdkB9Q-9j5R5HqueDmudgzQCLcBGAs/s400/conte.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ready for battle: Antonio Conte</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This season, the prevailing opinion is that Inter are the new anti-Juve. Both teams have new coaches, but there is a palpable belief that while Juventus coach Maurizio Sarri fiddles and fine-tunes, Antonio Conte's knuckle-down approach at Inter will yield results quicker. And maybe that will be enough for Inter to steal a start on Juve that will prove unassailable in the end.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">You go through the well-rehearsed arguments all the time. How Romelo Lukaku will be the missing piece for Inter on the field, how Cristiano Ronaldo will <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVYeHf8x5AU">"SIUUUU" </a>himself and his team to glory, how Napoli coach Carlo Ancelotti will finally steer Napoli to the Scudetto because of continuity. All of this matters, of course, and I am invested in the league's denouement, but so much like the following compels me even more.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Decreto Crescita Law: Italy's Rientro dei Cervelli</b></span><br />
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Former Milan CEO Adriano Galliani never missed the opportunity to lower everyone's expectations near the end of his tenure. When pressed upon Milan's relatively low-key mercato or Italy's inability to attract the top talent, he would list off a variety of reasons, and one of them was the country's unfavourable tax law.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Those laws will change in 2020. Italy has passed a new law, Decreto Crescita (or Growth Decree), in a bid to attract talent from overseas into various sectors of the economy--and football will also benefit. I won't go through the finer points, but in a nutshell Italian teams will have to pay significantly lower taxes on the salaries of players who have not lived in Italy for the last 2 years (Italian or foreign). It is a bid to bring back to Italy the brains (Rientro dei Cervelli literally translates to return of the brains) it has been missing and losing for years. </span><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Purple Ribery</span></b><br />
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The benefits of the law are already being seen. Fiorentina signed Franck Ribery from Bayern Munich on a free transfer and are going to pay him <a href="https://www.calcioefinanza.it/2019/08/21/ribery-stipendio-fiorentina-le-cifre/">4 million euros net</a>, capitalizing on the new legislation to land a high-profile signing like the Frenchman.</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eBFUQQhJlMw/XWACBqe0zVI/AAAAAAAAA6A/gJyNtaOtyZAacNw5-O0A1VHycNA4wZZzgCLcBGAs/s1600/Ribery.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="416" data-original-width="624" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eBFUQQhJlMw/XWACBqe0zVI/AAAAAAAAA6A/gJyNtaOtyZAacNw5-O0A1VHycNA4wZZzgCLcBGAs/s400/Ribery.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ribery laps up the adulation in Florence</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">While the media speculated all summer about Federico Chiesa's departure to Juventus, Fiorentina's new Calabrian-born American billionaire owner Rocco Commisso had other ideas. Ribery, even at 36, is a statement signing for Fiorentina, a type of signing their fans had craved for years but never saw under the previous owners, the Della Valle family.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">The Thinking Man's Coach: Marco Giampaolo</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">New Milan coach Marco Giampaolo is nothing if not cerebral. Arrigo Sacchi gushes over him. Journalists have so far given him a deferential respect. Unkempt and disarmingly calm in most pre-season press conferences, Giampaolo has given the impression of a man who prefers to toil within as he finds the formula that can make Milan tick. He is the first coach since Massimiliano Allegri, who left in 2014, who is not an ex-Milan player. Already that represents a bright point for a club that has seen little or no success with experiments like Filippo Inzaghi, Clarence Seedorf, and Gennaro Gattuso on the bench. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Giampaolo is a man driven by his methods, always ready to point out to journalists that he will throw in new signings like Ismael Bennacer and Rafael Leao when they have learned the movements of the new team. Milan finally have a bonafide coach. And the Champions League is a must after having missed out on it by one point last season.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Balotelli returns to Brescia</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Mario Balotelli is back. This time to represent Brescia, the city where he also grew up from the age of 2. It is remarkable that while Balotelli negotiated life in France's Ligue 1, he was still a vexed topic in Italy, finding himself as part of discussions around the national team and still referred to as a cautionary tale. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Balotelli will always be the locus of all Italian football's desires and anxieties it seems. He is variously saviour and scapegoat, but never forgotten. Balo's partnership with Alfredo Donnarumma up front at Brescia will make for an intriguing season.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">In short, there is more to it than what's at the top. Serie A, after a long time, looks competitive, compelling top to bottom. The Scudetto struggle is merely a sideshow.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Whatever happens at the end of the season, enjoy the ride. Even if you feel Juventus winning the title is a foregone conclusion.</span><br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2511853346696528507.post-74147229259822054942019-04-13T05:58:00.002-04:002019-04-13T06:02:09.593-04:00Genoa and Samp Must Rise<span style="font-size: large;">Check out my latest piece on football-italia:</span><br />
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<a href="https://www.football-italia.net/136920/genoa-and-samp-must-rise"><span style="font-size: large;">https://www.football-italia.net/136920/genoa-and-samp-must-rise</span></a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2511853346696528507.post-31693581726373778532018-12-28T11:35:00.002-05:002018-12-29T09:25:26.547-05:00Some Thoughts on Milan...<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bbRwmSVxk6c/XCZQtS7GLzI/AAAAAAAAA3g/fAXXJ7AnsFIhI26Nc6T857NCc-hkBaZTQCLcBGAs/s1600/conte.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="477" data-original-width="696" height="272" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bbRwmSVxk6c/XCZQtS7GLzI/AAAAAAAAA3g/fAXXJ7AnsFIhI26Nc6T857NCc-hkBaZTQCLcBGAs/s400/conte.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Unrealistic: Antonio Conte</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">You have to go back to the summer of 2015 to understand the predicament. Then Milan president Silvio Berlusconi and his CEO Adriano Galliani laid out a project in front of former coach Carlo Ancelotti. Ancelotti deliberated, or respectfully pretended to, and said no. Milan ended up with Sinisa Mihajlovic as coach, who did not make the impact that his tenure at Sampdoria had promised.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">More than three years later, after a string of disappointing results, seemingly everyone around Milan is asking the question, "why don't we hire a big coach like Antonio Conte." But they are likely to be disappointed like they were in 2015. The fans who want Conte in place of current Milan coach and former club legend, Gennaro Gattuso, live in a parallel universe in which a) Conte would want to come coach Milan currently and b) UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules don't exist. To land a big name you need to have the ability to pay both for the name and the players he wants, when he wants. Not when you break even or reach the promised land of financial bliss. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The January market will be telling and decisive. In my view, we’ll see Milan's financial restrictions laid bare. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"When we bought Paqueta, UEFA sent us a warning letter," said Milan DS Leonardo today. "It will be a market of opportunities."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The road is still long, in other words. The timing is unfortunate. Juventus resurrected themselves post-Calciopoli when FFP was basically a rumour. PSG/Manchester City when it was yet to be refined.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Milan have filed an appeal to TAS (the Court of Arbitration in Lausanne that also overturned their Europa League ban) against UEFA's verdict for breaching FFP rules. The club's owners Elliott are litigious, bullish, but it depends how much they want to push UEFA. Milan have two options: 1) flout the rules and litigate 2) fall in line and shrewdly move on the market.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In these circumstances, a coach like Conte will never come. He started his career at Arezzo and has subsequently coached Juventus, Chelsea, and Italy; he doesn't need to cut his teeth anymore.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Until a Conte becomes a realistic target, Milan will stick to company men like Gattuso. They don’t ask for much, first of all. They also have the backing of the fans for a decent amount of time. If they manage results all the better. If they don’t, you look around and see alternatives like Roberto Donadoni, and hesitate. Rightly. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Gattuso isn't Milan's best bet; he is practically Milan's only one. It's clear that apart from the coaching names being circulated in fantasy land, any other coach would simply be a lateral move--and in some cases worse. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">(As an aside, Gattuso also provokes the worst elements online and elsewhere not only to put their neuroses on display, but also their prejudice. The bad patch had barely started, and people started to take shots at his Calabrianness. Gattuso was offered a long term contract by Massimiliano Mirabelli, the director of sport who left with the former Chinese ownership. He was also Calabrian. This is license, you see. People ridicule Gattuso for his cliche-laden press conferences during which his linguistic shortcomings become plainly evident, for phrases like <i>si tocca con mano</i> (you can feel it), which features almost every time.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"Gattuso is not under discussion, even if he knows we expect more," Paolo Maldini said today. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">If there were viable alternatives, I, too, would replace Gattuso. But not with, with all due respect, Francesco Guidolin or Paulo Sousa. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">That failed attempt to land Ancelotti in 2015 is precisely the issue still: Milan needs a big-time coach but can't attract one. Until it can, it is best to support who we have. <i>Forza Milan!</i></span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2511853346696528507.post-31285492381583684322018-11-26T17:05:00.001-05:002018-11-26T17:06:59.870-05:00No Thank You, Prime Minister<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-81ZuMdJSCEo/W_xt8oLwx9I/AAAAAAAAA3I/i1EuxTeH2PcGWw7OPVTdNnEVjrtupOplQCLcBGAs/s1600/salvini_gattuso.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="323" data-original-width="457" height="282" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-81ZuMdJSCEo/W_xt8oLwx9I/AAAAAAAAA3I/i1EuxTeH2PcGWw7OPVTdNnEVjrtupOplQCLcBGAs/s400/salvini_gattuso.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Salvini (left) and Gattuso</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">"Dino Zoff behaved like an amateur," former PM Silvio Berlusconi said of the former coach after Italy's soul-crushing Euro2000 Final defeat to France. "He left Zinedine Zidane completely open."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The word <i>dilettante </i>(amateur) stung Zoff so much so that he resigned as coach a few days later, saying that he didn't need to "take lessons in dignity from Berlusconi."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">He needn't have taken footballing lessons from the man either. Zidane was cancelled out by an excellent Italy. The goal came in the last few seconds of the game when French goalkeeper Fabian Barthes launched a hopeful ball that bounced off Fabio Cannavaro's head and into the path of Sylvain Wiltord, who put it past Francesco Toldo from a tight angle. Either Berlusconi didn't watch the game, or he felt compelled to say anything, something, to be part of the conversation.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Throughout his Milan presidency, Berlusconi offered unsolicited advice to his coaches and players, some so ludicrous that you could almost hear the journalists chuckling when asking the various Milan coaches their opinion of the president's umpteenth formation advice. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It wasn't as if Berlusconi was always wrong, and it wasn't as if he didn't deserve any deference. But it was the timing, the simplicity, the, well, amateur nature of his advice that at once rankled and amused.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Why does this matter after eighteen years? Well, Italy's deputy PM, Matteo Salvini, once an ally of Berlusconi, is, unfortunately, a Milan fan. He has no formal association with the team, but he airs his opinions on it and Milan coach, Gennaro Gattuso, seemingly every week.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The final straw seemed to have arrived after Milan's ultimately valuable 1-1 draw with Lazio in Rome. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"Why didn't Gattuso make substitutions?" asked Salvini. "You could see our players were spent."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Lazio's equalizer came in the 94th minute. Salvini's opinion in the 96th. It was the kind of facile criticism that the twitterati subsist on. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Gattuso finally had had enough. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"As an Italian I could say a lot to Salvini and all the problems in our country," he said. "This isn't the first time, he seems to talk about Milan a lot."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Salvini retreated, and praised Gattuso, saying "he had only spoken as a fan." The self-deprecation arrived too late.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Political figures weighing in on sporting matters isn't peculiar to Italy, but the significance given to them in the media is rarer to find in other countries. Salvini's and Berlusconi's comments are a provocation, an overreach. Would Salvini tolerate a public figure like Gattuso giving a potentially unflattering verdict of his leadership? Given Salvini's tendencies in general, I'd hazard a guess that he would not.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">What irritates the common fan who suffers with the team, who agonizes over formations is not that Salvini or Berlusconi gives their opinion; it's more that those opinions are crude and unsophisticated. The ordinary fan expects something extraordinary. In short, something more than what an amateur could manage. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2511853346696528507.post-35517058193859543552018-10-09T11:24:00.001-04:002018-10-09T11:40:39.841-04:00On France Football's Recognition of Cutrone & Donna<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2ZHfTC5jkyQ/W7zGw4S4phI/AAAAAAAAA2w/Iwx3e3RQ6qwX0blGo50xT6H-x63adM2dgCLcBGAs/s1600/cutro-donna.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="775" height="386" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2ZHfTC5jkyQ/W7zGw4S4phI/AAAAAAAAA2w/Iwx3e3RQ6qwX0blGo50xT6H-x63adM2dgCLcBGAs/s400/cutro-donna.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Patrick Cutrone (left) and Gianluigi Donnarumma of Milan</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">If you don't look hard enough, you may miss it. But it's there. Palpable. Even empirical.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In a year during which the Italian national team failed to qualify for the World Cup, the Italian league flourishes, providing spectacle and competitiveness. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The numbers support the talk of resurgence. For a brief twenty-four hours last week, Serie A overtook the Premier League in the UEFA ranking to sit in second behind Spain. The lead evaporated when Lazio lost to Eintracht Frankfurt the next day, but the gauntlet for now matters more than the math. Inter had dispatched Tottenham on the first matchday, and, on the second, Napoli nibbled at Liverpool until they made a hole big enough for Lorenzo Insigne to flit through in the last minute and score. Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk described it as the only deserved result for his club so far this season. Coach Jurgen Klopp concurred.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But results and ranking can be fleeting. Serie A still has a self-esteem problem, a kind of weird inferiority complex, where foreign is good, and domestic bad. Nowhere is this more evident than how quickly commentators and fans berate up-and-coming youngsters for mistakes. Foibles quickly become character flaws in Serie A; a misstep a pathology. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The journey from <i>predestinato </i>(predestined) to <i>sopravvalutato</i> (overrated) can be brutally swift. To emerge from this crucible the way Cutrone and Donnarumma have is a Herculean task.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">France Football released the Kopa Trophy list of the ten best players under the age of twenty-one yesterday, and three players from Serie A are on it, making it the most well-represented league. The presence of Roma's Justin Kluivert is noteworthy, but not as remarkable as the fact that Milan are the only club to contribute more than one player: goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and striker Patrick Cutrone. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Donnarumma is 19 and Cutrone 20. Both have risen to stardom in front of an exacting San Siro public, and both are emblematic of former president Silvio Berlusconi's credo liberally quoted and requoted at the tail-end of his reign as club president--a Milan, young and Italian. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Now, it would be an absolute scandal if France's and PSG's Kylian Mbappe didn't win in December. He will, of course, but the presence of Cutrone and Donnarumma is a rejoinder to critics both in Italy and abroad. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Cutrone is averaging an astonishing 0.40 goals per game--higher than Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo managed at the same age. Donnarumma has already inherited the number 1 spot from Gianluigi Buffon for the Italian national team. Both players commit errors. Donnarumma can be clumsy when playing the ball with his feet; Cutrone can sometimes take the wrong option in front of goal. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But these nominations remind us that growing pains and pure quality are not mutually exclusive, and we need to have a more nuanced and layered understanding of player development. Despite of all the refinement he lacked on the field, Milan coach Gennaro Gattuso has treated the fragile egos and psychology of both players expertly, standing sentinel between the media and his charges. Cutrone and Donnarumma are not his inventions, but they are his and Italian football's <i>patrimonio </i>(heritage). They are here, and they should be loved, protected, and, yes, celebrated.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">List in full:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> 1. Houssem Aouar (Lyon and France)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> 2. Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool and England)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> 3. Patrick Cutrone (AC Milan and Italy)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> 4. Ritsu Doan (Groningen and Japan)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> 5. Gianluigi Donnarumma (AC Milan and Italy)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> 6. Amadou Haidara (RB Salzburg and Mali)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> 7. Justin Kluivert (AS Roma and Netherlands)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> 8. Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain and France)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> 9. Christian Pulisic (Borussia Dortmund and USA)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">10. Rodrygo (Santos and Brazil)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2511853346696528507.post-75637123049981555022018-08-07T14:55:00.000-04:002018-08-07T15:16:50.467-04:00Cristiano Ronaldo, Balconies, and Parma: Why Everyone Should Watch Serie A <a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6BKDIS3s9Jc/W2ni1LQWlnI/AAAAAAAAA2U/MdxvqClIlRYCst1ldLaSXJICRp5U71XFwCEwYBhgL/s1600/seriea_signings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6BKDIS3s9Jc/W2ni1LQWlnI/AAAAAAAAA2U/MdxvqClIlRYCst1ldLaSXJICRp5U71XFwCEwYBhgL/s400/seriea_signings.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">The name was almost whispered at first. Cristiano Ronaldo. One source reported it, and then slowly others started falling in line. It was possible. Ronaldo could play for Juventus. Somehow, the directors would shuffle salaries and players around to bring from Madrid the most recognizable and marketable athlete in any sport to Turin.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">When Ronaldo finally did arrive at the Allianz Stadium, bronze from the Greek sun, a model of sartorial perfection, to face the media, you knew this was big. You always did, but he made absolutely sure.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"I am not like other players my age," the 33-year-old Ronaldo said, and the body fat level test later confirmed. "Many in my stage of their career go to China or somewhere else to play."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Ronaldo chose Italy after unparalleled success in Spain. This isn't a player on the wane, a superstar who wants to ease himself into a life of poolside indolence. No, Ronaldo wants to win in Italy, Juventus, and Serie A.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It is a coup for the league. That's how non-Juventus fans consoled themselves, but it's true. Ronaldo's arrival raises the bar. For everyone. For his teammate Paulo Dybala. For the league's top defenders like Roma's Kostas Manolas and Milan's Alessio Romagnoli. Even for Frosinone defender Emanuele Terranova, against whom Ronaldo will be facing off 80 kms outside of Rome at least once this upcoming season.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I have enjoyed experts on EPL-centric panels trying to figure out how it all happened. Why Juventus? Why Italy? How can it be that Ronaldo spurned the chance to go back to Manchester United?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I love it. I love hate-watching the parochialism, the toe-curling comments from so-called experts who still think Roma fluked a semifinal appearance in the Champions League. It warms my heart. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">If they had been paying attention the signs of Italy's ascent have been there. During the 2014-15 season, the more thoughtful English journalists took note of Juventus's run to the Champions League Final, of the huge success of Italian clubs in the Europa League. In the past few years, Napoli's fluent play has made an impact to the extent that Maurizio Sarri is now coach of Chelsea.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It's a paradox that while EPL partisans dismiss if not bash Italian football, the top English clubs yearn for Italian coaches. Ranieri, Ancelotti, Conte, Allegri are all coaches that EPL teams have either employed or have come very close to employing. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Still not convinced?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Fine, you must be a numbers person. <a href="https://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/data/method5/crank2018.html">Look at the UEFA coefficient ranking for countries</a>--Serie A has surpassed the Bundesliga and is closing in on England, who sit uncomfortably in second place.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Ronaldo's arrival is a culmination of the "good things" that Serie A has been doing, a living,</span><span style="font-size: large;">breathing, grinning exclamation point, a player that could finally help Juventus take that one final step and win the Champions League.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Juventus fans claim the signing as their own, and so they should. It is a testament to Juventus's superb business acumen and vision that Ronaldo was ever possible. To outsiders, the Portuguese star's signing is the only thing worth talking about this summer in Serie A. But Milan, Inter and Napoli have all been at work as well.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Napoli brought in Carlo Ancelotti as coach after Sarri left to Chelsea. A Champions League winning coach, Ancelotti is a star signing; Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis will be even more smug next year. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Then there is Inter, who pounced on Roma's Radja Nainggolan <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s5tZh7qUUTE/W2nj9oqOqaI/AAAAAAAAA2c/pwo0aUZDQuoCav4yZ0RiEVutHuP0Bbp0wCEwYBhgL/s1600/ancelotti-laurentiis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s5tZh7qUUTE/W2nj9oqOqaI/AAAAAAAAA2c/pwo0aUZDQuoCav4yZ0RiEVutHuP0Bbp0wCEwYBhgL/s400/ancelotti-laurentiis.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Carlo Anceotti (left) and Aurelio De Laurentiis</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
among others to bolster their midfield, and who are rumoured to be after Real Madrid's Luka Modric. Yes, you read that right--Modric.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Milan have woken up from the nightmare of their Chinese ownership and now have former player Leonardo and former legend Paolo Maldini in the management. Oh, and the best striker in the league, Gonzalo Higuain, will lead the attack. He came in alongside Mattia Caldara in a swap deal that saw Leonardo Bonucci return to Juventus.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">To ratchet up the nostalgia, Higuain and Caldara waved to the fans from a balcony in the Piazza Duomo in Milan. To me, it recalled Milan's signing of Alessandro Nesta in 2002, or Ronaldo's presentation at Inter in 1997.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Other clubs have been making the headlines as well. Parma have returned to Serie A after fighting off their second bankruptcy. Not romantic enough to have one of the <i>sette sorelle </i>(the seven sisters of Italian football, Milan, Juventus, Inter, Roma, Lazio, Fiorentina, Napoli, and Parma) back in Serie A? Consider that defender Alessandro Lucarelli, 41, stuck with the club through the trials of Serie D and administration, retiring just this past season. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">A little further south, newly promoted Frosinone will play in their newly built stadium, Stadio Benito Stirpe, and, at the time of writing, Lazio and Fiorentina have managed to keep hold of their star players like Ciro Immobile and Federico Chiesa.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It has been a glorious summer in Italy. It is almost as if the league decided to compensate for the national team's failure to qualify for the World Cup. A lot is happening apart from Ronaldo. This will be the most exciting Serie A season in a long, long time. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">If you're tired of the familiar villainy of Manchester United coach Jose Mourinho, the same old faces that he pulls in press conferences, the painfully false modesty of Manchester city coach Pep Guardiola, the duopoly of Real Madrid and Barcelona in Spain, the predictability of a Bayern Munich triumph in Germany, give Serie A a try. Sure, Juventus have won the last seven <i>Scudetti</i>, but Serie A was the only top league that still had more than one team fighting for the championship two rounds from the end last year (Napoli and Juventus). This year, it feels maybe, despite Ronaldo, Juventus's hegemony just may be at risk.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">You can whisper it for now, and let's see if it becomes reality.</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2511853346696528507.post-5635855755432551582018-07-16T15:04:00.000-04:002018-07-16T16:56:43.753-04:00World Cup 2018 Review: Italy and The Dangerous Safety of Nostalgia<div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JJBzBsaJ49Y/W0zq5ybmRDI/AAAAAAAAA10/KlRkI50rrtUiDi_fKmgmmjrZ2zQLkx-yQCLcBGAs/s1600/itafra.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="555" data-original-width="559" height="396" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JJBzBsaJ49Y/W0zq5ybmRDI/AAAAAAAAA10/KlRkI50rrtUiDi_fKmgmmjrZ2zQLkx-yQCLcBGAs/s400/itafra.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Despair and triumph: Baggio 1994 and Mbappe 2018</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">So, after twenty years, France are champions of the world again, and Croatia have played in their first Final. What's not to be happy about? Well, the handball decision on Ivan Perisic for one, but let's put that aside for now.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">I have enjoyed this absorbing World Cup, but throughout its course I have also looked for refuge in memories of past Italian campaigns. It's a coping mechanism, an attempt to find a footing in the discourse and the events so inexorably not about the team I support. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">But is it harmless to retire every now and then from a reality that is unfolding without you, that is indifferent to your yearnings? The refuge of nostalgia is a tenuous one, a dangerous one, a hovel always on the brink of collapse. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Tomorrow will mark twenty-four years since Roberto Baggio skied the decisive penalty against Brazil in the World Cup Final. It was, at that time, a moment that reduced me to tears. Now, it 's a memory that marks in my mind not Italian defeat, but supremacy dashed only by bad luck. It was <i>only </i>penalties that kept Italy from beating Brazil on that sweltering Pasadena day. I can explain that defeat away, identify it as a comforting counterpoint to what is the current state of <i>Gli Azzurri</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">A World Cup has just finished without Italy in it, a World Cup that was by any standard one of the most compelling ones in recent memory. What value does nostalgia have in the face of this sneering, teeth-baring reality? I would argue that it's placebo more than antidote, a vial of pills that comes without direction and takes you in no particular one either. You cast your mind back to glory, linger for a moment, only to be jolted back to face reality: Kylian Mbappe and not Patrick Cutrone, Paul Pogba and not Marco Verratti. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The French football system has won in Russia, and the Italian system was only to be found in faint traces, in the boots of Croats like Marcelo Brozovic of Inter and Mario Mandzukic of Juventus. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clairefontaine_(football)">Clairefontaine</a> has outstripped <a href="http://www.figc.it/en/229/2090/Impianti.shtml">Coverciano</a>: that should be the tearful point of departure from which coach Roberto Mancini can begin to fashion the raw material at his disposal to something approaching an Italian team worthy of the name. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">France has now played five major finals in the last twenty years, winning three of them. Italy has played three in that same period, winning just one. These two nations are not poles apart, but the question at the heart of all of this is what qualities will Italian football rely on to compensate for a lack of an outstanding generation? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In February of this year, Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini accused former Barcelona and current Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola of ruining Italian football because all Italian coaches try to imitate him. It was a stretch, but he was broadly correct. It has come to the point where Napoli are content with being considered Barcelona-lite, the ones who pass the ball around beautifully only to lose valiantly. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">France have turned the page because they can. They have the quality. But consider that only when they played with Olivier Giroud up front this World Cup were they able to strike a balance, so that other more talented individuals on their team could express themselves. It was a tweak, a ploy that coach Didier Deschamps persisted with after the first group game despite Giroud managing zero shots on target all tournament. Deschamps didn't solve the lack of output with more quality, but less.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It is this ability to flirt with paradox that Italian football lacks currently, an ability it cheerfully flaunted in the past. On the eve of Euro2000, everyone lamented the lack of quality Italy had. They reached the Final. Similarly, the 2006 team was arguably less equipped than the 2002 one, but they won the World Cup with Palermo's Fabio Grosso (who? casual fans asked at the time) winning the semi-final and converting <i>that</i> penalty in the Final.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I take Chiellini's point. Imitation of others is not the way ahead, but neither is trying to imitate a past version of yourself. Former coach Antonio Conte worked with the constraints of the current generation and brought Italy to the cusp of qualifying for the Euro2016 semi-finals. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We can look back longingly to the blurry-edged <i>Azzurri</i> memories, but this French generation agitated against precisely that. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/15/how-would-world-cup-glory-speak-to-a-new-generation-of-french-fans">As Andrew Hussey writes in the Guardian, they didn't want middle-aged white males telling them about the 1998 victory anymore. </a> They wanted their own memories; to create their own experiences. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">So did Croatia. Their defender Dejan Lovren said that this Croatia team can eclipse the vaunted one of 1998 that reached the semi-finals--and they did.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Nostalgia can at once motivate and paralyze. It can clarify and distort. In a world where politicians and pundits profit from people's selective memories, from vignettes about how things used to be before <i>these </i>people arrived, nostalgia should be handled responsibly. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I sign off, then, with a <i>Forza Azzurri! </i>and a <i>Andiamo avanti! </i>Let's Go Azzurri! We go ahead!<i> </i>We must.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2511853346696528507.post-53670047967187555902018-07-11T12:41:00.001-04:002019-03-01T11:05:18.005-05:00Manufacturing Calcio Memories<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jXu199Y5Oms/W0YxmSezGeI/AAAAAAAAA1M/ulpKWFDyXtsxRHsvzTakfmX8fbovx1oZwCLcBGAs/s1600/tardelli.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="976" height="225" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jXu199Y5Oms/W0YxmSezGeI/AAAAAAAAA1M/ulpKWFDyXtsxRHsvzTakfmX8fbovx1oZwCLcBGAs/s400/tardelli.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marco Tardelli unleashes after scoring in the 1982 Final</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">What if a memory that you cherish, a memory that you remember with stunning clarity, is not really </span><span style="font-size: large;">yours? What if you never made it? I have a few of these calcio memories tucked away in the bank. They are like false currency, but only upon closer inspection do they reveal themselves to be counterfeit.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />I was three when Italy won the 1982 World Cup in Spain, when Marco Tardelli roared with abandon in the final against West Germany, when coach Enzo Bearzot played cards with the then Italian president Alessando Pertini, Dino Zoff, a moustachioed Franco Causio, and, of course, the World Cup itself--gold, impassive, self-satisfied.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">By all accounts, I was more interested then in Ernie's antics on Sesame Street, or Scooby Doo's sleuth work that seemed just like antics to me, or not disgracing myself during a meal. I had different priorities back then positioned as I was in that painfully irrecoverable space between consciousness and lucidity (I don't drink).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Why then do I remember the 1982 World Cup? What right do I have to Tardelli's facial contortions, to Pertini raising his arms in glee after Italy's third goal in the Final? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The answer reprimands you: you consumed the images later and you stole them for yourself. They are now part of an iconography that you have internalized and fabricated in parts. You have swallowed falsehoods along with truth. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">My writing here often deals with memory. In the <a href="http://www.notevenoriundo.com/p/about.html">About</a> section I write about how I became an Italian football fan:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<i><span style="font-size: large;">"For many years, one of my indelible memories of Italian football was, in fact, mis-remembered.</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-size: large;">Italia'90 had many moments that could lodge in a young football fan's mind. There was Roberto Baggio's flight through the hapless team of what was then Czechoslovakia, or Salvatore Schillaci's bug-eyed celebrations after scoring a goal. But the most enduring memory I have is of a tearful Aldo Serena sinking to his knees after missing a penalty against Argentina in the semi-final. </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-size: large;">The only problem is the man doing the sinking was Milan's Roberto Donadoni, who had missed a penalty before Serena. I had, as I recently found out, unwittingly conflated Donadoni's dejection with Serena's; or, perhaps my Rossonero disposition had led me over the years to ascribe the most defeated gesture of that bitter penalty shoot-out loss to Serena, who was then at Inter and who had enjoyed his best years there as well. Whatever and whomever, the net effect of Italia'90 and its pains and tears was that I was an Italy fan for life."</span></i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uJt7VwitXNw/W0YyuolnsxI/AAAAAAAAA1U/9i5XbVrVa5MCotjv-ov5FJHvLdMNgA0WwCLcBGAs/s1600/italy1982cards.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="401" data-original-width="610" height="262" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uJt7VwitXNw/W0YyuolnsxI/AAAAAAAAA1U/9i5XbVrVa5MCotjv-ov5FJHvLdMNgA0WwCLcBGAs/s400/italy1982cards.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From left to right: Zoff, Causio, Pertini, Bearzot</td></tr>
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<i><span style="font-size: large;"></span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;"></span></i>
<span style="font-size: large;">Mis-remembering rewarded me with calcio, a life-long gift. But when does mis-remembering dangerously shade into manufacturing? Each flicker of an image or footage from 1982 that has insinuated itself into my memory now passes itself off as lived or seen experience.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I was merely alive in 1982, but that seems to have given me license. I have seen Gianni Rivera help Italy to the 1970 Final on video, but that Italy was older than I am. I have seen black and white pictures of the Italian squads of 1934 and 1938, but that Italy was older than my father. The one from 1982 though sticks, and not just because Italy won, but because it happened around the same time I did.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This seems like vanity that I can't apologize for. I am richer because of these memories, and it is only when I hold them up to the light of the 1990 World Cup, the 1994 one, the 1998 one, and the 2006 one do I realize that something about them is different--perhaps counterfeit, but, somehow, not devalued. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">So, when I say to my friends, "I don't really remember the 1982 World Cup, so 2006 was something special" it is at once a lie and the truth.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On this day, thirty-six years ago, Italy won its third World Cup, a triumph that I at once remember and don't.</span><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2511853346696528507.post-81987838606840091742018-07-09T11:21:00.000-04:002018-07-09T11:26:00.314-04:00Il Cielo e Azzurro Sopra Berlino. Siamo Campioni Del Mondo!<span style="font-size: large;">said Marco Civoli, on this day, 12 years ago...</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2511853346696528507.post-91715750902427615942018-07-07T08:15:00.000-04:002018-07-07T08:20:17.792-04:00When Third Place Meant Something to Me: Italy vs England<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zoc9nn5y2N4/W0CvcdfupeI/AAAAAAAAA0E/y1KW8qYABmkGZg12zlyGAtmGXZNltDUYgCLcBGAs/s1600/italy-england1990.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="594" height="265" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zoc9nn5y2N4/W0CvcdfupeI/AAAAAAAAA0E/y1KW8qYABmkGZg12zlyGAtmGXZNltDUYgCLcBGAs/s400/italy-england1990.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The World Cup's most pointless exercise is the third place game. Italy and England had both experienced heartbreaking defeats to Argentina and Germany in the semi-finals of the 1990 World Cup.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Nonetheless, this was the first World Cup that I can say I watched knowing what was going on (I was too young for 1986). I had already shed tears in the semi-final, and I wanted a measure of redemption by watching Italy beat England.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Seventy minutes passed in Bari before Italy broke through. England goalkeeper Peter Shilton, playing in his last international game, fumbled a ball in the penalty box, and Roberto Baggio pounced on it. The ball rolled to Salvatore Schillaci, who evaded a challenge and passed for Baggio to shoot high into the net.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">David Platt equalized for England moments later with a towering header, but Baggio and Schillaci combined again to give Italy the victory. Baggio went on an irresistible run through the field, and passed for Schillaci, who was fouled in the box. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Schillaci got up and stroked the ball past Shilton to end as the tournament's top scorer with six goals. It was a victory that I celebrated with some enthusiasm, as I watched my heroes deservedly take Italy to a high finish in the tournament.</span><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2511853346696528507.post-91436529483075182712018-07-05T14:18:00.003-04:002018-07-05T14:52:02.855-04:00Baggio, Mussi and Benarrivo Jolt Italy Into Life<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uTHN432DpHw/Wz5f6H_GEAI/AAAAAAAAAzs/BiWIoJiVATwguvAaO28t-hwIw397iB-UACLcBGAs/s1600/baggio-nigeria.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="318" data-original-width="527" height="241" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uTHN432DpHw/Wz5f6H_GEAI/AAAAAAAAAzs/BiWIoJiVATwguvAaO28t-hwIw397iB-UACLcBGAs/s400/baggio-nigeria.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Somehow, you kept believing. It couldn't end like this, could it?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Ten-man Italy were wilting at the Foxboro stadium in Boston against Nigeria. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The drama had been perfectly Italian, replete with controversy, fluffed lines, and stage fright. Nigeria had taken a lead in the 26th minute from a nothing corner. Birthday boy Gianfranco Zola had been sent off for a nothing foul in the 76th (the tiny Sardinian had made faces, had held himself, had dropped down to his knees at the red card decision; in short, he had behaved as any kid would have after a spoiled party). The Italians were doing nothing really except disintegrating. Going nowhere except for the second round exit at the 1994 World Cup. 1-0 down with time running out.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But Roberto Baggio was still there. It was all still possible. Somehow, you kept believing.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Then in the 89th minute, it happened</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Torino defender Roberto Mussi found himself but, more crucially, Baggio in the box. He made a quick pass, and Baggio stroked the ball right into the bottom corner of the goal. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It was 1-1. The psychology of the game had shifted.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In extra-time, Parma's Antonio Benarrivo won a penalty that Baggio scored off the post. Italy had scraped by.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Another remarkable detail about the victory was that aside from Baggio, two defenders had made the difference. First, Mussi's enterprising movement had found Baggio in the penalty area, and secondly, Bennarivo's threat had forced a penalty.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Italy would march on thanks to those two as well.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On this day, twenty-four years ago. </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2511853346696528507.post-77467561724645972332018-07-04T13:14:00.004-04:002018-07-04T13:21:12.998-04:00Andiamo a Berlino (Beppe): Grosso. Del Piero. Final.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Uert43xKgHk/Wzz_wBV4e0I/AAAAAAAAAzU/eENhiGq1QKMq9-NEwVXtSIhG62AZU_q7wCLcBGAs/s1600/dp_ita.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="462" data-original-width="738" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Uert43xKgHk/Wzz_wBV4e0I/AAAAAAAAAzU/eENhiGq1QKMq9-NEwVXtSIhG62AZU_q7wCLcBGAs/s640/dp_ita.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Fabio Grosso was crying as he wheeled away. He whizzed past teammates trying to get a hold of </span><span style="font-size: large;">him; he wagged his finger in total incredulity, as if to say<i> no, no, it can't be</i>. Finally, he was reined in, a heap of Italian players exulting with him.</span><br />
<div>
<br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;">That</span> </i><span style="font-size: large;">goal ended Germany and put Italy in the Final. <i>That</i> unlikely Grosso strike of perfect geometry finished off the World Cup hosts in Dortmund.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">But Alessandro Del Piero made absolutely sure. People will most likely remember Grosso's goal over Del Piero's. But not me.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">In my calculations, both goals had equal weight. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Sure, Grosso's was technically the winner, but Del Piero's goal was six years in the making. In the Euro2000 Final against France, he found himself twice in a position to finish the game off. Twice he failed, and France eventually went on to win.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">This time he didn't. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Fabio Cannavaro intercepted the ball, passing to Francesco Totti, who found Alberto Gilardino, who provided a quick pass for a Del Piero surging into the penalty box.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">What would he do with the ball? The finish looked difficult, but Del Piero managed it, curling the ball past a defeated, exasperated Jens Lehmann in the German goal.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />It was 2-0. Del Piero unleashed in celebration. This time Del Piero didn't miss.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">It is those moments of redemption that stick out for me. I remember Roberto Baggio's penalty against France in the 1998 World Cup quarterfinal shootout not because it was an exceptional penalty, but because of what Baggio did after scoring it. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">He looked at the crowd then lowered his eyes while raising his finger to his lips, as if to silence the voices that blared inside of him. He was having a word with himself. He had redeemed himself partially for the miss in the Final against Brazil four years earlier. Things made a little more sense again. He still knew how to kick a ball in the right direction.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">And so it was with Del Piero. Maybe the Euro2000 Final was just a bitter, insignificant counterpoint in his mind as he celebrated, but the catharsis owed its intensity to the failure of six years earlier. Del Piero was red with ecstatic rage.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Fabio Caressa yelled, "ANDIAMO A BERLINO Beppe!" to his co-commentator Giuseppe Bergomi. We are going to Berlin, Beppe!</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">And so <i>Gli Azzurri </i>were.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">On this day, twelve years ago.</span></div>
<div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2511853346696528507.post-60376451861847018542018-06-30T09:36:00.000-04:002018-06-30T12:34:02.299-04:00Luca Toni Arrives, Zambrotta Shines, and Pessottino Siamo Con Te<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LI8lYoCZyao/WzeG9WZAwpI/AAAAAAAAAy8/olvzdCNStPg0WAV0hOHXafaDyJ2JHTFJgCLcBGAs/s1600/zambrotta.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="750" height="266" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LI8lYoCZyao/WzeG9WZAwpI/AAAAAAAAAy8/olvzdCNStPg0WAV0hOHXafaDyJ2JHTFJgCLcBGAs/s400/zambrotta.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zambrotta celebrates after opening the scoring against Ukraine</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Luca Toni had not yet arrived in Germany. He was hard to miss at 6'5". He was there to be sure. But </span><span style="font-size: large;">he had not yet really justified his position as</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">the</span><i style="font-size: x-large;"> </i><span style="font-size: large;">forward of choice yet.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">There was that shot that he had thumped against the crossbar against Ghana in Italy's opening game of the 2006 World Cup, but precious little else.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It was time. The press was hoping that he would now break out as Paolo Rossi had in 1982. The quarter-finals of the World Cup seemed like the perfect opportunity.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It was June 30, 2006. Italy were facing Andriy Shevchenko's Ukraine. Gianluca Zambrotta's rasping low shot had given them an early lead. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But things were tense.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Somehow Ukraine had failed to score after a scramble in front of Italy's goal. Their coach Oleh Blokhin stood on the sidelines dumbfounded. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Italy had to put the game beyond reach, and what better person to do that than the tallest man on the team?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Toni struck twice in ten minutes. First, in the 59th minute, he headed home a sumptuously weighted cross from Francesco Totti, and secondly, in the 69th minute, he tapped in a pass by Zambrotta, who had done excellently to get past Ukraine's defenders in the box.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It was 3-0. Everyone raved about Toni, but it was also Zambrotta's shining moment in the World Cup. His performance was remarkable. He scored only his second goal for the <i>Azzurri </i>and provided the assist to seal the victory.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">For a moment, just for a moment, you forgot the football scandal, <i>Calciopoli</i>, raging on back in Italy. The proposed penalties, the cost, so far had been administrative. Rumours of relegation for the teams involved. Points deduction.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It wasn't until former Juventus player Gianluca Pessotto jumped from a window in an apparent suicide attempt that the devastating impact of the scandal came into focus. Pessotto survived. On that miserable day, Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro was told to cut a press conference short after the news had began to filter in. It was perhaps the most poignant moment of the World Cup up until that point.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Cannavaro and Zambrotta, who had both been Pessotto's teammates at Juventus during the season that had just ended, held up an Italy flag at the end of the victory against Ukraine with the words <i>Pessottino siamo con te </i>(Pessotto we are with you) written across it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On this day, twelve years ago.</span><br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2511853346696528507.post-85245324145754413742018-06-26T11:20:00.002-04:002018-06-26T11:21:55.067-04:00Enter Francesco Totti<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kNr2hf7Vbh4/WzJWdsc_XBI/AAAAAAAAAyk/w1uUuX-KUWUPL3ZK0g_odtmY4I2XCiBQQCLcBGAs/s1600/totti_aus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="387" data-original-width="530" height="291" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kNr2hf7Vbh4/WzJWdsc_XBI/AAAAAAAAAyk/w1uUuX-KUWUPL3ZK0g_odtmY4I2XCiBQQCLcBGAs/s400/totti_aus.jpg" width="400" /></a><i><span style="font-size: large;">"Io non sono un mezzo giocatore."</span></i><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"I am not half a player."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Seemed like a reasonable thing for Francesco Totti to say after cannoning home the winning goal from the penalty spot in Italy's Round of 16 encounter against Australia.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Totti was there, whole, not a fraction, and not a fraction less, when he stepped up to face Australian goalkeeper Marc Schwarzer. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The problem was the media didn't quite believe the evidence. Just four months previous to June 26, 2006, Empoli's Richard Vanigli had broken Totti's fibula in a Serie A game. Not intentionally, of course, but there Totti was, clutching his ankle, and NOT writhing in agony, which confirmed to me that it was serious. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">When the diagnosis came in later, I anxiously recalled how long it had taken me to recover from a broken fibula a couple of years previously. 6-8 weeks, I thought. But it seemed Totti's ligaments were involved too. But maybe that would be offset by the standard of care he would receive?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Over the ensuing weeks, the Italian media ensured they kept me apprised of Totti's convalescence. The race was on to heal for the World Cup. There Totti was smiling in a picture from the hospital bed. There Totti was wearing a bulky cast in the stands, taking in a Serie A game with partner Ilary Blasi.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">He made it for the World Cup, and Marcello Lippi started him in Italy's 2-0 win against Ghana, but Mauro Camoranesi came on for him in the 56th minute.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The criticism took shape. Was Totti a liability? Was he picked because of his name, and, really, he was still not himself, but only half of what he could be?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Totti had a chance to issue one rejoinder at least--emphatically, decisively--from the penalty spot. It was the third minute of injury time, and 10-man Italy looked to be heading into extra-time against Guus Hiddink's Australia. Guus Hiddink, the man who four years earlier had been the architect of Italian embarrassment. His South Korea had managed extra-time against Italy, and had won. Then, Totti had been sent off to leave Italy playing with ten men. On June 22, 2006 Marco Materazzi had for Italy.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The symmetry of the situation increased the pressure. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The penalty had been won by Fabio Grosso. Generously, the Australians would contend.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It didn't matter to Italy. Totti stepped up. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It took an eternity to set the ball up.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The referee fussed about the placement (correctly, Totti would later admit).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon turned away, not able to look (as he so often does).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The camera honed in on Totti's eyes, slightly squinting in the sun and from the focus.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But what would he do? How would he kick it? This is a man, after all, who at the age of only 23 was audacious enough to fool Edwin Van Der Saar with a panenka or <i>cucchiaio </i>from the penalty spot. And that in a semi-final of the European Championships no less.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"I thought about doing it," Totti later admitted. "But it was hot."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">He looked at the referee once more to see if he had complied with everything.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">And then, he blasted a penalty that gave Schwarzer no chance.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It was 1-0. Italy were through. Totti sucked his thumb in celebration. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Whole again, defiant against the media, ready to show off his knowledge of fractions: "Today, at least for quarter of an hour, I was a complete player."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">You were, Francesco. You were.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On this day, 12 years ago.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2511853346696528507.post-12016625343728993142018-06-25T15:04:00.000-04:002018-06-25T16:17:31.002-04:00What Now, Mr. Li?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SQO7Q6mjOiQ/WzE8CjbnwdI/AAAAAAAAAyM/jrwTOQ8QnOoZhw8ATofal-MgQ8P7cnnfQCLcBGAs/s1600/yonghongli.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="285" data-original-width="380" height="480" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SQO7Q6mjOiQ/WzE8CjbnwdI/AAAAAAAAAyM/jrwTOQ8QnOoZhw8ATofal-MgQ8P7cnnfQCLcBGAs/s640/yonghongli.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><span style="font-size: large;">Milan president Yonghong Li keeps his own counsel. After a year, </span><span style="font-size: large;">it's still difficult to understand who he really is. A <i>prestanome</i>, or figurehead, for a group of investors, the Italian media and Milan fans sometimes speculate. But almost always, the guesses get more and more bizarre from there.</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Perhaps he has a fortune tucked away under a mattress. Perhaps it is his wife who is really wealthy. Perhaps he is backed by the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, the well coiffured Xi Jinping himself, but because of the way the Chinese work, he can't come out in the open. Perhaps he is just washing Silvio Berlusconi's dirty money.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>"Riciclaggio</i> (money-laundering)! <i>Complotto</i> (conspiracy)!" the ones who love a good conspiracy (and there are a lot) scream.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>"Testa di legno </i>(blockhead)!" scream others, others who reckon that Li is a poor schmuck, out to make a buck, in over his head, and probably scared.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Some time in the last year, to spice things up, the New York Times published an article about how the offices registered under Li's name in China are teeming with...nothing. Well, spare a trashcan festering with maggots.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Li, in other words, is a no one. A cipher. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Every prominent Italian with some links to China has said they have never heard of him. Former Italy coach and current manager of the Chinese national team, Marcello Lippi, says, nope, never heard of him. Former Milan and current Jiangsu Suning coach, Fabio Capello? Yeah, no idea.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">I'm paraphrasing, but you get the point.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Li sometimes shows up in Italy wearing a hideous lime green blazer (surely, a cardinal sin in Milan, no?), struts through Milanello with his children and wife, and then leaves. He sometimes simpers next to CEO Marco Fassone. Once he wished Milan fans a Happy Chinese New Year over skype from a dimly lit room, sitting in front of a giant wall-unit.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">The video was bleak, when it was meant to be reassuring. The kind of video captors force captives to do. If so, I guess it worked. It confirmed for me that Li was alive--which is more than I could say about Milan at the time.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">It has been fourteen months since upon becoming president Li delivered a prepared statement in Mandarin at Casa Milan. He read from a card. Tired. Jetlagged. A far cry from the Berlusconi helicopter landing. Then came Franck Kessie. Leonardo Bonucci! An obscene Gianluigi Donnarumma contract renewal. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Fans cut him some slack. It was a joyous time. So what if he had relied on a massive loan from the vulture fund, Elliott, to buy Milan? The president, whoever he was, was maintaining his promises and commitments.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">(And Bonucci!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Li ha sempre mantenuto i suoi impegni </i>(Li has always honoured all his commitments), the fans wrote online on forums. And wrote. And wrote.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Every capital increase was a benediction for his supporters. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"He is rich," some said. "That's why he keeps paying." </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">"He has rich backers, and that's why he keeps paying," said others.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Milanisti</i> in the twittersphere became overnight accountants. Spreadsheets appeared on prominent accounts. People quibbled over numbers, gaining an education in finance under the auspices of their president--absent, taciturn, but real, and worthy of respect.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">The media, meanwhile, continued its inquiries. Li's secrecy supplied them with ample material. The conclusion was almost always the same: Suning, Inter's owners, were real; Li was a fraud. He would lose the club to Elliott unless he found backers. The more charitable quarters of the Italian media still wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">But now, Li has squandered even the faintest trace of goodwill.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Last week, the president didn't make the last 32 million euros capital increase required of him, and Elliott did. If Li doesn't pay them back in ten days, he loses the club. Meanwhile, UEFA, not taken with Li or his methods or Fassone's doubtlessly passionate powerpoint presentations about how Milan's accounts are better, much better, from last year, rejected the club's settlement agreement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">All of this leaves Milan teetering on the brink of uncertainty, and, possibly, irrelevance--even dissolution.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Too much? Perhaps. UEFA's punishment is rumoured to be severe. A two-year exclusion from Europe. At best, one. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Which player would want to stay? Which player would want to come?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">If Milan do end up with Elliott, what will stop the vulture fund from doing whatever it takes to get their money back? Some have said, no, they will put Milan up for auction. Then what? There could be serious buyers, sure, but that is an uncertainty.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">There is hope, however, and it comes from the USA (typical--you can almost see the cocksure suits surveying the carnage, dead confident they can salvage something).</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">The owners of the Chicago Cubs, the Ricketts family, released a statement on Friday saying they were interested in purchasing Milan. They wanted to build something with a city and its fans. They would be in it for the long haul. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Li's right-hand man Han Li was in New York negotiating. But then media said, no, a Mr. X, a man with 4 billion dollars to his name, was ahead and about to close the deal to buy Milan. This man was being pushed by Goldman Sachs. The Ricketts by Morgan Stanley.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Suddenly, Milan fans whitewashed American finance. Goldman Sachs? Morgan Stanley? All part of a legitimate lexicon.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">The 4-billion dollar man was Rocco Commisso. He wanted Milan, and he wanted it all.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Li now finds himself with three options: 1) somehow pay back Elliott the 32 million for the latest capital increase and drag everything to October 2) do nothing and lose the club to Elliott 3) accept an offer where he will either have a minority share or no share at all.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Milan fans wait for that and the UEFA sentence.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Milan being out for 2 years would be catastrophic for the club. One can be tempted to compare the situation to Juventus's after <i>Calciopoli</i>. For sporting irregularity, substitute financial weirdness. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Juventus's descent into Serie B was purgatorial, and so could a European ban prove for Milan. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">But the context is entirely different. The gap between Juventus and other Serie A clubs is now enormous. Juventus's stadium is part of it, but a part that is exaggerated, in my view. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">The real reason behind Juventus's dominance, financial and on the field, is that they're backed by the Agnelli family, a family that is invested in their success, and since 2012 a family that has ensured that no one gets a look-in. Dibs on players. Deep runs in the Champions League. Earning obscene amounts from those deep runs. Selling players at a huge profit and replacing them with quality ones. Coach Massimiliano Allegri.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Success begets success. It will be colossally difficult for Milan to regain ground.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">These are dark, dark times. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Maybe, maybe, if Li accepts an offer quickly, Milan can hope for some clemency from UEFA. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Maybe.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">I am at once relieved and angry.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">On the one hand, I can understand UEFA's decision, and, thankfully, it has forced Li into action (behind the scenes, of course).</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">On the other, I do think UEFA is punishing Milan so harshly because they can. Milan have no clout. Milan is only nominally a big club, currently. Punishing it makes all the sense in the world for UEFA.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the meantime, the system will become even more stratified. The upper-class of Europe will enjoy the Neymars and Ronaldos of the world, and continue to vie for continental trophies.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Milan's stupendous transfer market, a heavily leveraged buyout, and an outstanding debt are things UEFA can't and won't ignore. Fassone can try to separate Li's debt from Milan's but they are linked. Milan's fortunes are linked to Li.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">A man whom we still know almost nothing about.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2511853346696528507.post-71079285003034433822018-06-23T11:36:00.002-04:002018-06-23T11:50:53.473-04:00Dino, The Other Baggio<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_mzxMCOBOgc/Wy5mZ5TBKPI/AAAAAAAAAxo/1_ZP0QK1KIQrl2y2OMY3hN71XvHG1VvywCLcBGAs/s1600/dbaggio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="639" data-original-width="980" height="260" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_mzxMCOBOgc/Wy5mZ5TBKPI/AAAAAAAAAxo/1_ZP0QK1KIQrl2y2OMY3hN71XvHG1VvywCLcBGAs/s400/dbaggio.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">My early memories of <i>Gli Azzurri</i> coalesce around Roberto Baggio. How could they not? During the 1990 World Cup he was 23 and jostling for preeminence; four years later, it seemed that he was doing the same. Absurdly. Criminally.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It was June 23, 1994. Ireland's Ray Houghton had condemned Italy to defeat in the first group game, so they were playing Norway in a must-win encounter.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The early signs were promising. Coach Arrigo Sacchi fiddled with his methods, switching from two forwards that he had used against the Irish to three against Norway: Baggio, Pierluigi Casiraghi, and Giuseppe Signori. He also brought on Inter's Nicola Berti in place of Sampdoria's Alberigo Evani in midfield. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Italy seemed on the verge of a goal until the 21st minute when goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca rushed off his line and fouled a Norwegian player. He was shown a red (later he joked that "at least I entered history"). </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Lazio's Luca Marchegiani stood up to replace Pagliuca. The question was which outfield player would come off. Sacchi opted for Roberto Baggio, the coach slipping seamlessly and callously into the role of anti-hero.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I was livid.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Baggio looked around, scanning his teammates for an answer. "Who me?" he asked them, totally bewildered.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It was to be him. Baggio came off. Sacchi would stand with the weight of his decision on the sidelines for the rest of the game.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It would get even worse. Captain Franco Baresi came off in the 49th minute with a knee problem, the less illustrious Luigi Appolini taking his place in defence. Whatever could go wrong for Italy had. Sacchi had removed the man the press and the fans adored; a suspect knee had removed the defensive stalwart.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Italy toiled for a goal in the Giants Stadium of East Rutherford, New Jersey. It came from Baggio, finally. No, not the one watching from the sidelines, but from one who wasn't even related to him.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It was Dino Baggio, the lanky Juventus midfielder. He rose to meet a Signori free-kick, delivered with sumptuous precision, to smash a header past the Norwegian goalkeeper. There were still more than twenty minutes left to play, but you had the feeling that Italy had done what they needed to. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">And so it proved. Baggio, Dino, not Roberto, ensured the victory. Sacchi's decision to take off Baggio, Roberto, not Dino, didn't prove as costly as feared.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">At the time, I was fifteen. I just remember my joy at Dino scoring, and I remember my anger at Roberto trudging off. I wasn't aware then of the broader debate. English language broadsheets stripped the national significance of the Baggio substitution; they could never capture the recrimination in Italy.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It is only with the benefit (or drawback) of hindsight that I can now put into context all that was going on. Articles. Books. Videos. My ability to speak Italian. All these things at once enrich and dilute my memory of that day.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Even the audio in my head has been replaced by commentator Bruno Pizzul's voice faltering at the substitution, before rising again at the goal. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Sacchi-Baggio subplot now colours almost everything.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But the victory remains unadulterated. The essential Italian victory, on this day, twenty-four years ago.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2511853346696528507.post-58444595035697574812018-06-19T22:30:00.002-04:002018-06-23T11:39:06.808-04:00Baggio, The Man With "Educated Feet"<span style="font-size: large;">Italy is not in this World Cup, but my memory can rival its HD. In it, Roberto Baggio is not frayed at the edges. His memory doesn't yellow or smear. No, in it, Baggio emerges from the grainy fog of a 1990 broadcast a speckless blue, his perm bobbing, his <i>i piedi educati</i>, or educated feet, talking, teaching.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">They dialogue with Giuseppe Giannini in a 1-2. They are at times diplomatic.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">He skips, floats past the Czechoslovakian players. They are at times duplicitous.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">One Czechoslovakian, two, (maybe three)? It's irrelevant.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">What matters is that Baggio spies space. Openings. Percentages.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">He scores.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">And then he collapses, lapping up the adulation.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On this day, 28 years ago.</span><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2511853346696528507.post-48605652593988566172018-04-17T12:20:00.000-04:002018-04-17T13:18:41.627-04:00Udinese's and Italy's Stefano Fiore<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ISXVxHlkfxA/WcUxdgo7ppI/AAAAAAAAAo0/7bQBDsgfT78I4m7lr3lRwgRb0y9P904mgCLcBGAs/s1600/inzaghi-fiore-2000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="324" data-original-width="324" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ISXVxHlkfxA/WcUxdgo7ppI/AAAAAAAAAo0/7bQBDsgfT78I4m7lr3lRwgRb0y9P904mgCLcBGAs/s320/inzaghi-fiore-2000.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inzaghi and Fiore (right) celebrate the goal against Belgium</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Stefano Fiore celebrates his 43rd birthday today. Here is a look back at his career.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">At Euro2000, the usual debate of 'which superstar should play' had followed the Italian national team into the tournament. Was it to be Francesco Totti or Alessandro Del Piero? After the group stage, it seemed coach Dino Zoff preferred a twenty-three-year-old Totti to Del Piero. The Roma man started the first two victorious games for Italy against Turkey and Belgium, scoring in the latter; Juventus's Del Piero started the last meaningless one against Sweden, in which he nonetheless scored a blistering winner in the 88th minute.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">The debate staged the usual regional anxieties and allegiances that the blue of the <i>Azzurri </i>never seems to soothe completely. But while the media quibbled over their preferences, a Cosenza native by the name of Stefano Fiore had announced his arrival on the international stage with a breathtaking goal of his own against Belgium. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Fiore didn't represent any of <i>le sette sorelle </i>(the Seven Sisters)<i>--</i>a now disfigured sisterhood, but once comprised of the ultra-competitive clubs of Parma, Roma, Lazio, Milan, Inter, Fiorentina, and Juventus. He had just finished an outstanding season at unfancied, sensible Udinese in which he scored nine goals playing more of an attacking role in Luigi De Canio's midfield. Zoff deployed him closer to the strikers, but he considered him equally adept at playing a more conventional position in central midfield. Fiore was even deployed on the left flank during his career as well.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">It was a bittersweet versatility. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">"My preferred position has always been to play inside of a 3 or 5 man midfield, but it was where I played less in my career," he recently said in an <a href="https://www.fantagazzetta.com/news/esclusive/14_10_2015/fgcon-stefano-fiore-consiglio-handanovic-dico-grazie-a-dino-zoff-211370">interview to <i>fantagazzetta</i></a>. "I have played as a <i>regista</i> and often as a <i>trequartista, </i>and even on the flank."</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">His goal against Belgium at the Baudouin Stadium that summer night illustrated precisely what Fiore was capable of when played closer to the front, as he exchanged a quick pass with Filippo Inzaghi before releasing an unstoppable shot from near the edge of the area. But it was his celebration that was emblematic of his career: pointing to his name on the back of his jersey as he wheeled away, Fiore was reminding everyone that he still existed, that he still mattered. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">That night he earned his sixth cap for Italy at the age of twenty-five, but only keen followers of Italian football knew who Fiore was. His career wasn't particularly decorated, even if at Parma he had won a UEFA Cup serendipitously at only the age of twenty.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">"I was co-owned by Cosenza and Parma, but I ended up at Parma after they won a bid," <a href="https://www.fantagazzetta.com/news/esclusive/14_10_2015/fgcon-stefano-fiore-consiglio-handanovic-dico-grazie-a-dino-zoff-211370">he recalls</a>. "I was playing for the youth team, but then found a place in the senior side, and won the UEFA Cup."</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1999, he would win the UEFA Cup again with Parma after <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rblnR_8VPvw/WcU3AMkN4HI/AAAAAAAAApE/xo2-rlL6JJgF1aFpg8cEsFWJdc5eCTFbACLcBGAs/s1600/fioreudinese.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="272" data-original-width="250" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rblnR_8VPvw/WcU3AMkN4HI/AAAAAAAAApE/xo2-rlL6JJgF1aFpg8cEsFWJdc5eCTFbACLcBGAs/s1600/fioreudinese.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fiore in action for Udinese</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
playing a much more crucial role in that season, but he only came on as a substitute for Juan Sebastian Veron in the 77th minute of the Final against Marseille. Marginalized, Fiore went to Udinese where he finally earned the recognition that he had sought. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">But his success was transient. After Udinese, came Lazio, Valencia, Fiorentina, and Livorno but Fiore was never able to replicate the success of the years between 1999 and 2001 (it should be noted that he had his moments while playing for Lazio and Fiorentina). That period was his apotheosis as a footballer, and near the end of his career Fiore slowly faded into relative obscurity.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">For Italy, after that game against Belgium, Fiore continued to have a remarkable tournament. He provided an assist for Totti's goal against Romania in the quarter-final, and started the Final against France, which Italy lost to a golden goal. When I watch replays of that Final even now after seventeen years (I make sure to end my viewing right before Wiltord's equalizer, of course), I still allow myself a smile when the panning camera lingers for a second or two on Fiore during the Italian national anthem.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">I read about him in April of 2017 after he was involved in an accident in Rome that killed a 22-year-old man. Fiore was cleared of any culpability in the death. Fittingly, he now works for the youth sector of the club that propelled him into recognition--Udinese. </span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2511853346696528507.post-86725129559559425142018-04-11T13:12:00.000-04:002018-04-11T13:15:19.749-04:00Daje Roma! <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aQ9ciJnGenQ/Ws5AQzeEIpI/AAAAAAAAAw8/JKI-PDt16DIsDjld_bTG3ZBs1Hj3okNpQCLcBGAs/s1600/roma-daje.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="266" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aQ9ciJnGenQ/Ws5AQzeEIpI/AAAAAAAAAw8/JKI-PDt16DIsDjld_bTG3ZBs1Hj3okNpQCLcBGAs/s400/roma-daje.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Manolas scores and sparks a frenzy of Roma celebration</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">For once, Italian football was not a spectator to someone else's resurgence, <i>remontada, </i>or, more fittingly after the last twenty-four hours, someone else's <i>rimonta</i>, the Italian and not the Spanish word for come-back.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Overturning 4-1 deficits, 3-0 deficits, is the preserve of the Spanish and English. Think Deportivo and Milan. Think Milan and Liverpool in Istanbul. Think back to just last year when Barcelona did to PSG what Roma did to them last night at the Stadio Olimpico.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Italian clubs are known for negotiating ties more than upturning them. But after last night, that reputation may start to change.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Roma had to do the unthinkable: score three at home against Barcelona and keep Lionel Messi and Suarez from scoring. They did both, but it was the latter they did with supreme distinction. Barcelona were nowhere. Roma had accounted for every blade of grass on the Stadio Olimpico's pitch; everything was in their purview.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">3-0 is what they had to achieve, and they did, stubbornly picking away at Barcelona until the Catalan club disintegrated.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">When Edin Dzeko scored, you thought, well, it's a matter of time until Barcelona would; when Daniele De Rossi smashed the penalty home, you thought now Barcelona would steal a goal; but when Kostas Manolas headed home for 3-0, the sought-after result, you knew Roma were going to achieve what almost no one thought they could. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There are times when language betrays you because you have betrayed it in the past; you are out of superlatives, you are out of adjectives because you have squandered them in the service of less deserving occasions. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">At the final whistle yesterday, you thought to yourself, how do you describe something so utterly absurd? That is not to say that the result was a case of anything resembling fluke; no, what makes the 3-0 even more stupefying is that Eusebio Di Francesco legislated for Barcelona in every possible way.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">You saw the design. You saw the organization, but you still asked yourself, how could this happen?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Roma players, hoarse from celebrations, told you how in post-match interviews, almost reprimanding you for not believing.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">They believed. They always had, they said. Juan Jesus. De Rossi. Radja Nainggolan, all of them had, and all of them had planned for this score. They had laboured for the miracle: this was no bolt from the blue. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">When Manolas ran to the bench after scoring Roma's 3rd in the 82nd minute, his eyes were open wide, unblinking, the spectacle washing over him, as he tried to take in every blur of flying limbs and screaming fans he could see. After the final whistle he walked around bare-chested, completely straight, shoulders pegged back. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">His celebration was emblematic of the win: Roma were colossal. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Now, I hope for a repeat of the 1984 European Cup Final between Roma and Liverpool--and I hope for a different result.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<i><span style="font-size: large;">Daje Roma!</span></i><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2511853346696528507.post-71007028295754997602018-03-27T11:00:00.000-04:002018-03-27T11:21:00.308-04:00Italy's Familiar Unfamiliarity With England<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Daniele De Rossi takes the questions before Italy vs England</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>Ahead of the friendly between Italy and England tonight at Wembley, looking back at the build-up to the Euro 2012 quarter-final reminds us of the complicated footballing history between the two nations. </i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Italy's Daniele De Rossi, amid the battery of Mario Balotelli questions, gave perhaps the most telling response to how Italy felt going into their quarter-final match against England in Kiev on Sunday: <span style="background-color: white;">"It would have been better to have played Ukraine, but it's okay like this as well."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br />That Italy would have preferred, with all due respect, Ukraine to have gotten through is obvious, but I think they would have preferred playing France to England as well, and this despite </span><i>Les Bleus</i><span style="background-color: white;"> having brought so much pain to Italy in World Cup 1998 and acutely in Euro2000. Even if De Rossi had been all bravado in front of the media, it would have been a hollow performance, beyond the tiring platitude of press conference in football. Unmistakably, Italy are distinctly uneasy about playing England. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"><br />While English opinion has, for not an insignificant part, been impervious to Italy's successes, operating in an obsolete currency that still circulates notions like Italy play defensive and cynical football, Italian opinion of English football can be frayed at times by the pressure of the occasion, but at the core is built on an almost fearful respect.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Sure, Paolo Di Canio may have said that Roy Hodgson's men remind him of an "Italian team of the 80s," but he was not suggesting that England have regressed. If anything, Italy know that this England team has teeth: Hodgson has predicated a revival of spirit and self-belief on Fabio Capello's organization. At times this organizational form has threatened to disintegrate in this tournament, most notably against Sweden, but it remains intact.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But quite apart from how England "set out" in a game, there exists in traces a cultural deference in Italy for English football and its players. "[Steven] Gerrard remains my idol," said De Rossi. Considering De Rossi is only three years Gerrard's junior and a World Cup winner, I found the praise a bit exaggerated. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There is a historical precedent for this kind of flattery, a precedent that was rooted in a clear dislike for the English as well. In the 1930s, Italy were crowned World Champions twice under the <a href="http://dictionary.reverso.net/italian-english/vittorio">aptly named</a> Vittorio Pozzo. However, there remained a need to vanquish the creators of the sport, the team who were considered superior despite having not entered any of the World Cups during the 1930s. England were still seen by the English themselves, and to be fair, by many others, as the best team in the world. And of course, politically this need to vanquish the English was also rooted in Fascist ideology that depicted them as "imperialists and gluttons" (Foot, <i>Calcio</i>, 479).</span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8a0i0x1yg3g/T-cfWTSS4SI/AAAAAAAAAPs/jgtmsXiVD8k/s1600/pozzo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8a0i0x1yg3g/T-cfWTSS4SI/AAAAAAAAAPs/jgtmsXiVD8k/s320/pozzo.jpg" width="210" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vittorio Pozzo </td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">One of the most high-profile matches between Italy and England during this time took place on November 14, 1934. Italy were the reigning World Champions but the game was seen, in the words of John Foot, as being the proper "deciding play-off": "The winner of the game would be declared--unofficially--as the best team on the planet" (Foot, <i>Calcio, </i>479).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Italy lost the game 3-2, but it hardly matters now in the broader calculus of superiority, in which there is absolutely no contest: Italy have won four World Cups to England's one, and one European Championship to England's zero. At club level too, despite the bellowing of Liverpool and Manchester United fans, not one English club has seized Europe the way <i>Il Grande Milan </i>did in the late 80s and early 90s.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Yet, currently, the Premier League remains the pinnacle of modernity, with only the German Bundesliga rivalling it for commercial power. Serie A, on the other hand, has been plagued by scandal, financial mismanagement, dilapidated stadia, and racism. On the field, however, notwithstanding the fragmentation around it, Italian football remains singularly clear on the importance of success. English clubs, though, have always presented huge troubles for Italy in Europe--not just on the field either.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Heysel Tragedy of 1985 remains a plaintive and infuriating chapter for Italian football fans, specifically those of Juventus. The thirty-three Juventus and six Liverpool fans who were smothered to their death as a result of English hooligans inundating a section containing Juve fans always tartly contributes to the narrative of Italy and England.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On the field, there is of course the heartbreak of Roma and Milan losing to Liverpool in the European Cup finals of 1984 and 2005, and, most recently, Milan having trouble with English opposition between 2008 and 2011, during which time they were eliminated from the Champions League by Manchester United, Arsenal, and Tottenham. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">While Italian clubs have indeed recorded memorable victories over English ones in Europe (Milan defeating Manchester United and Liverpool to 2007 glory, and Napoli, most recently, gliding past Manchester City), there is a tendency to believe that English football has the requisite antidote to the Italian game: an athleticism, a sense of width that troubles Italian teams.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GfM7Hsthn6k/T-XlgOcqPCI/AAAAAAAAAPg/ph59OOR92UA/s1600/tardelli_england.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GfM7Hsthn6k/T-XlgOcqPCI/AAAAAAAAAPg/ph59OOR92UA/s1600/tardelli_england.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tardelli gives Italy victory over England</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">But international football is not the cumulative expression of club football. Success in it depends on psychology and many tactical choices based on pressures of time, and both Italy and England have had a frenzied build-up to the tournament. England had a managerial reshuffle with Capello making room for Hodgson, while Italy had to deal with the scandal that saw their valued left-back Domenico Criscito sent home. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The <i>Azzurri</i> may have some apprehension going into the game tomorrow, but they know they have what it takes, in theory, to beat England in a proper tournament. <a href="http://www.notevenoriundo.com/2012/06/memory-italy-vs-england-world-cup-1990.html">The third-placed play-off in World Cup 1990</a>, while memorable, was an afterthought, and Italy's last victory over England in a tournament before that came thirty-two years ago in the 1980 European Championships when Marco Tardelli gave them a 1-0 victory. Italy and England have only played twice in major tournaments, which lends a mystique to the quarter-final on Sunday.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Given the success Italy have had over England internationally, their apprehension may seem misplaced. Sunday will be a psychological tussle between two teams who have a lot of history around them, but only a bit of competitive history between them, directly on the field. It is this familiar unfamiliarity that colours this contest unpredictably. Ludicrously, despite their high-profile, England remain a bit of an unknown quantity for Italy, and vice-versa, but I get the feeling, based not on empirical reality but my own unscientific hunch, that England can accommodate that unfamiliarity by the strength of their own conviction (I still don't believe that this accommodation will lead to an English victory by any means).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I have read, on more than one occasion, that Italy are not a <i>real </i>threat to this English team, and the fact that Spain were avoided is a cause for understated celebration. Certainly, on paper, Italy appear to be a more manageable opponent than the reigning World and European Champions, but it is precisely paper that cannot contain or define this game. To me, Italy and England on Sunday is still an unknown, which makes it intriguing, but also frightening. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<i><span style="font-size: large;">Forza Azzurri!</span></i><br />
<i><br /></i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2511853346696528507.post-51304696281608284092018-03-06T12:53:00.002-05:002018-03-06T13:09:39.092-05:00The Latest Iteration of Napoli's Failure<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4Qo8G1ffjIo/Wp7U13_nwlI/AAAAAAAAAwQ/Rwgou0oZccwsk6lXJxBS7ftRxd2hLkevACLcBGAs/s1600/napoliroma.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1195" data-original-width="1600" height="238" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4Qo8G1ffjIo/Wp7U13_nwlI/AAAAAAAAAwQ/Rwgou0oZccwsk6lXJxBS7ftRxd2hLkevACLcBGAs/s320/napoliroma.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A familiar dejection: Napoli</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">After Roma squashed Napoli 4-2 over the weekend, I couldn't help but think we've been here before. The contours of Napoli's capitulation were familiar.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Napoli's defeat, coupled with Juventus's last-gasp win over Lazio, felt pivotal, even decisive in the title race. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">And, I can sort of predict the aftermath as well.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I expect that soon Napoli president Aurelio di Laurentiis will remind everyone of the club's extraordinary achievement despite not being as rich as Juventus. Then he will call the Stadio San Paolo a toilet, and reiterate that the Napoli mayor, Luigi de Magistris, has stymied his efforts for a new stadium. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">(Perhaps he will spare us <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/wags/3811655/English-women-dont-wash-their-genitalia-claims-Napoli-president.html">musings on more outlandish topics</a> like the hygiene standards of English women).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Add a bit of bluster and shots at the power brokers in northern Italy, and a reminder that the Champions League is the only tournament Napoli should be playing in.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Then, next year Napoli will exit the Champions League group stage. Everyone will laud them for failing so so gallantly. Coach Maurizio Sarri (assuming he's still there) will moan about how ludicrous the Europa league is. At some point, they will rush back at least three key players from hideous injuries (like they did with Faouzi Ghoulam and Arkadiusz Milik)</span><span style="font-size: large;"> and two of them will snap some more ligaments.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It seems to me that this club hasn't understood that winning engenders winning. They scorned the Europa League--<a href="https://www.football-italia.net/117181/sarri-%E2%80%98europa-league-madness%E2%80%99">openly, brazenly</a>--only to lose (in all probability) the <i>Scudetto</i> two weeks later.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Admittedly, Sarri is a fine coach, whose Napoli team is easy on the eye. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">My gripe is more that whenever they have had to play a key game in recent memory, Napoli have fluffed their lines (Athletic Bilbao, Juventus, Dnipro, Roma etc.). </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">And that is not only Sarri's failing (Benitez was in charge against Bilbao in the 2014 CL qualifier, for example) but also the club's. Di Laurentiis sets the tone when he privileges one tournament over the other, which I think has harmed Napoli more that it has helped them.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But I do have reservations about Sarri the psychologist, motivator, or <i>trascinatore</i>. I am not suggesting that a tub-thumper is what is necessarily required, but Napoli look really unprepared sometimes. The Europa League defeat to Leipzig at the San Paolo was particularly disappointing, albeit predictable.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There was no excuse for Napoli to fold like they did against Roma either, especially when you consider there had been no European exertion a few days earlier. Had they won, they would have gone 7 points ahead of Juve, and the <i>Bianconeri</i> would have had to play their game in hand against Atalanta with a lot more pressure. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Roma's <i>Scudetto</i> in 2001</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_dMtUsj-9rw/Wp7VU7sywKI/AAAAAAAAAwY/qNtq08wSvsECloWNloUc6zIJrRWsuoZjACLcBGAs/s1600/montellabat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="333" data-original-width="449" height="236" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_dMtUsj-9rw/Wp7VU7sywKI/AAAAAAAAAwY/qNtq08wSvsECloWNloUc6zIJrRWsuoZjACLcBGAs/s320/montellabat.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Batistuta and Montella celebrate Roma's equalizer</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">There are some comparisons to be made with the club that brushed aside Napoli at the San Paolo on Saturday. When Roma won the Scudetto last in 2001, Fabio Capello managed all aspects of the team convincingly. You need that type of coach sometimes to break the mould at a club, especially at a club like Napoli or Roma, where the organizational structure and the financial strength have been comparatively inferior to that of Milan and Juventus.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">During the game Saturday, I thought back to Roma's </span><span style="font-size: large;">2-2 draw against Juventus in the 2000/01 season, when Hidetoshi Nakata scored a bullet from long-range and Vincenzo Montella equalized in the 90th minute. Roma were down 2-0 after just six minutes, but they managed to claw their way back at the Stadio Delle Alpi. That victory kept them five points ahead of second-placed Lazio at the time, but, more critically, claiming a draw in Turin preserved their psychological edge in the title race.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There have been no similar moments for Napoli in recent years. Napoli did demolish Lazio 4-1 in February after going a goal down early, but they couldn't overturn Roma.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Sure, it helps when you have players like Gabriel Batistuta, Francesco Totti, Montella etc. like Roma did, but Napoli also have a lot of quality, and some players are playing beyond themselves--I'd be curious to see how Ghoulam and Jose Callejon fare outside of this Napoli, for example.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I am not suggesting Capello is a phenomenal coach, or that Sarri isn't; more, I have doubts about whether Sarri can finish the job.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There are still more than ten games left in the season, but it seems inevitable that Juventus will now win an unprecedented seventh <i>Scudetto </i>in a row.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2511853346696528507.post-57509170547636748432018-03-05T13:12:00.002-05:002018-03-05T13:12:54.144-05:00Rest Easy, Davide. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1