Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season
yeah that surprised me aswell.
anyway, the usual disgraceful stuff by roma\lazio ultras after the match... what a shame. they should send those criminals in prison and throw away the key... bloody bastards. what a shameful way to ruin the beautiful show the crowd offer before and during the game.
as for totti's gesture, the "thumbs down" doesn't just mean "u're going down". it's the gesture the emperor used to do to order the gladiator to show no mercy and kill the defeated rival (back in the roman empire days). it's traditional ancient (very ancient) roman folklore.... it was not a really classy thing to do, but folklore has nothing to do with class afterall. the thing is it wasn't a very clever thing to do, coz lazio's ultras are very bad sports and went mad because of that mocking gesture.
francesco is a good guy.... but he's never been a clever man. and certainly he's far from being classy.
anyhow, the man of the week is definitely Claudio Ranieri!
check out the balls on this man!!!! calling off de rossi and totti at halftime??!! sure both were playing very bad.... actually they weren't playing at all. i've never seen de rossi and totti playing like this in their entire careers. being romani and romanisti they obviously feel the derby against lazio way too much.... but this time it was even worse, as this derby was also a key match for the scudetto race... too much tension, too much pressure. they just couldn't deliver.
but still, i can guarrantee (and every journalist, commentator, coach who was interviewed yesterday said the same) NO ONE would have ever subbed totti and de rossi in a derby. it doesn't matter how bad they were playing, u just can't do that.... it's like swearing in church or drinking wine in a mosque.. it's like going for a trip in texas wearing a turban and with a nice arab-style beard or like going in india wearing a pakistan cricket team jersey... u just don't do that, no matter what.
u see, if ranieri would have left things the way they were, if he wouldn't have changed the whole line up and subbed de rossi and totti, then he would have certainly lost the game.... but no one would have blamed him for that.
but this man is so confident and has such a grip on his players that he could afford to do something no one else would have even thought. as ranieri himself admitted after the game "
when i decided to call de rossi and totti off the game, i knew that if i wouldn't have won the game, my coaching carreer would have been pretty much over"..... and yet he did it. now THIS IS CONFIDENCE guys! risking to destroy your reputation for a single move, going "all in" knowing u don't even have such a good hand. jeopardazing an entire season to follow your instinct and guts. that was great. and the most impressive thing is that the team followed him. totti and de rossi didn't go have a shower. they both sit on the bench cheering like they were normal fans.... and their teammates showed their total trust in their coach by coming up with an impressive second half (wich was the only good thing of a pretty disappointing and boring match, to be honest).
at this point we can say that this team is not anymore the former spalletti's roma. this is officially ranieri's roma. and if roma will actually manage to win this scudetto (wich, given the circumstances, would be the most impressive achievement and the greatest comeback in the history of serie a), then ranieri will have to get all the credits for this MIRACLE!
there would be many other things to talk about. napoli came out with an impressive performance in bari. genoa had very important win against this fantastic parma. samp beated milan and got the 4th spot, while palermo (luckily) managed to get an unexpected (at least by me) draw at cagliari. but i don't have enought time and i thought ranieri deserved the "head line" this week.
that's how the table looks right now
So, sina, tom, stef, leo, rfu, abou, everybody... any thoughts on this weekend games? which one did u watch? i'm actually quite curious about how the samp-milan game unfolded.
