August 30th, 2009
In many ways a new year of Serie A doesn’t truly begin until it features one of thee Big Matches. It is often said that over the course of the season it’s the the “little games”, those against teams battling for relegation, that pave the road for a championship title. Often true, but the “little games” certainly are not those everyone is waiting to see. And thanks to Lega Calcio’s new fixture drawing system, this year we have the opportunity to see two ‘Big Games’ as early as Matchday 2, starting with Saturday’s Derby della Madonnina.
And what a derby it was. With 4 goals against their most bitter rival this match featured a true display of power by Inter Milan, highlighted by the shining performances of Thiago Motta, Eto’o, Diego Milito and with and a clear clear message to their harshest critics: Zlatan who?
As for Milan, to quote Gazzetta Inter were “giants without an adversary”. AC Milan cannot hide behind their good performance of today’s first 15 minutes. A team which completely disintegrates both tactically and psychologically (see Gattuso’s red card) at the first sign of trouble cannot, for lack of a better phrase, call themselves a “team”. At least for the moment. Until Leonardo figures out a solution out of this mess.
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Tags: AC Milan, Dejan Stankovic, Diego Milito, Inter Milan, José Mourinho, Leonardo, Maicon, Serie, Thiago Motta
Posted in Inter, Milan, Serie A | 7 Comments » |
June 26th, 2009
Five days have passed since Italy’s whopping 3-0 defeat at the hands of Brazil, a match which put an an end to Lippi’s South African countryside scouting (one year before the big tournament) and sent the Azzurri home among general shrugs of indifference, frowned eyebrows, and sincere worries in the ranks of Italian supporters.
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Confederations Cup… Confederations schmuck
Something should be established right from the get-go in this article, and that is one has to take the FIFA Confederations Cup for its true value: a tournament of prestige, played to fill the gap between Euro and World Cup Summers and to make a certain FIFA mogul (whose name starts with S and ends with …epp Blatter) happy. Happy at proclaiming his love for the beautiful game, the continued globalization of football, the athletic clashing of cultures, and blah blah blah. All that is great for sports unity, but in terms of true football competition no one (certainly not the big teams) takes this tournament seriously. Certainly not to the extent of a Euro tournament, a Copa America, or the master of them all: the FIFA World Cup.
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Tags: Alberto Gilardino, Azzurri, Brazil, Fabio Cannavaro, FIFA Confederations Cup, Gianluca Zambrotta, Italy, Luca Toni, Marcello Lippi, South Africa, South Africa 2010, World Cup 2010
Posted in Azzurri, World Cup 2010 | 6 Comments » |
June 24th, 2009
When liberty returns, I will return.
Victor Hugo
And so… we return.
Dear mCalcio readers, it has been a rather sad couple of months. As you can see, the latest post before this one is dated 13 April 2009, for it has been more than 60 days that mCalcio.com has been absent from the general public. At first, the homepage subsisted, waiting for an igniting spark of inspiration from its creator. Indeed, it was lack of imagination and motivation which first drove me away from sports blogging, the banality of its routine having substituted itself for the original excitement fuelling my desire to write.
Quite simply dear readers, I had become tired of it. It had become “work”, but work which you do because you’re obligated, not because you take pleasure in it. At some point I realized: “wait a minute! I’m not really obligated at all”. And so I decided to take a break.
Then, events outside of my control (akin to a nuclear explosion, hence the post image) further prolonged this break.
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Tags: Duck & Cover, Fallout, Leonardo Da Vinci, mCalcio, Victor Hugo
Posted in Miscellaneous | 7 Comments » |
April 13th, 2009
In Italy we have a saying that goes “the sadness of one makes the happiness of the other”. One being Juventus and the other being Genoa in this case.
For all extents and purposes, the Bianconeri’s Scudetto dream is over. I know I already said that last week but that was my own personal prediction. This week’s loss, which effectively pushes Inter’s lead to +10, pretty much makes the demise of Ranieri’s team official, limiting the usefulness of next week’s Juve vs. Inter clash only to bragging rights.
From a neutral point of view, Saturday’s evening match was an action-packed, entertaining affair, features which have started to become common with Gian Piero Gasperini‘s side. It’s still fairly early to be talking about “Champions League football” for Genoa, but surely the Rossoblu and their president Enrico Preziosi must be fancying their chances by now: if the team continues to play like they are currently doing, they are sure to feature prominently in next season’s European scene.
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Tags: Alessandro Del Piero, Claudio Ranieri, Genoa, Gian Piero Gasperini, Juventus, Raffaele Palladino, Serie A, Thiago Motta, Vincenzo Iaquinta
Posted in Genoa, Juventus, Serie A | No Comments » |
April 12th, 2009
These are dire days in Italy, as an entire nation mourns the losses from the Abruzzo earthquake earlier this week. Hundreds of casualties and thousands of homeless people in central Italy, but as they say in sporting terms, “the show must go on”.
And what a show it was today at the Stadio Olimpico of Rome, really everything you could desire from a tense, heart-felt Roman derby: goals, drama, and the inevitable yellow/red cards. Yes, we can all hide under a politically-correct façade and claim “no one wants to see those in soccer” but the truth is, sending off offences are a testimony to how much a derby victory represents for these teams. In particular two teams who, let’s be honest, can safely call the 2008-09 season a failure.
Lazio can be doubly satisfied with their victory today. Not only did they reacquire a bit of pride after three consecutive league losses, but they triumphed over their arch-nemesis, Roma, increasing their positive “home” trend in the Derby della Capitale to three (after the 3-0 and 3-2 victories in 2007 and 2008) and effectively nullifying the Giallorossi’s Champions League hopes for next season. Just the right kind of victory Delio Rossi needed to keep his job.
It’ll be a very happy easter in the Biancocelesti manager’s home, no doubt.
Note: Once again, I find myself in the position of having to apologize for the lack of recent updates. I’ve been having a rough time this week on a personal level, and to make matters worse I sustained a sprained ankle Wednesday (playing soccer, what else) which will keep me sidelined for a few weeks. My heart & mind’s just not been “in it”. Hopefully things will get better soon, so thank you for your fidelity and your patience.
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Tags: Aleksandar Kolarov, Daniele De Rossi, Delio Rossi, Goran Pandev, Lazio, Luciano Spalletti, Mauro Zarate, Philippe Mexès, Roma, Serie A, Stephan Lichtsteiner
Posted in Lazio, Roma, Serie A | No Comments » |
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