Sunday January 11th, 2009

9:00am/et LIVE
Fiorentina vs. Lecce
2:30pm/et LIVE
Roma vs. Milan


Fanatics Kickback

Every once in a while it’s good to see a referee have enough humility to ask for help from his assistants and admit to having made a mistake. The situation occurred in the 2nd half of the Reggina-Lecce game today...

Alf De Blasis – Soccer Fanatic



Response to: Let Lippi Restore Pride to Azzurri

Alf your comments as always are insightful and well thought out. I agree the EURO was a disaster for Italy and Donadoni should be replaced with Lippi. They were lucky to even make it to the quarters, Lippi will restore the pride in the Azzuri jersey…

Comment from: Sylvester


That was the Week 17 that was
A bite-size review of the eleventh round of the Serie A season…



The boy was a bit special
Alexandre Pato (Milan)
It’s not been the easiest of campaigns so far for the youngster, but the Brazilian boy wonder was on fire against Udinese. He netted twice, but could have got double that amount in a game where his dribbling ability and pace were on devastating show.

A day to forget for
Mario Balotelli (Inter)
Finally offered an opportunity to prove himself, the Under-21 international was replaced by Hernan Crespo after a not so super 55 minutes of football at Siena. A distant relative of the powerful and confident young man who helped Inter to the Scudetto last season, people are rightly concerned about his future under Jose Mourinho.

Master tactician
Carlo Ancelotti (Milan)
Aptly opted for a Christmas Tree formation against Udinese and was rewarded with an attacking football master class by a team which was deprived of all of its so-called midfield ball winners. He pushed Kaka further forward than in recent times and the Brazilian responded with a performance of true quality.

Golaccio!
Riccardo Montolivo (Fiorentina)
Stylish, elegant, accurate – words which aptly describe not only Riccardo Montolivo, but also his winning goal against Sampdoria. Positioned on the edge of the box, the playmaker of tomorrow opted in favour of placement over power. It was like a pass, a pass into the back of the net.

Mamma mia!
It wasn’t a good weekend for assistant referees. The two most high profile mistakes went in favour of Inter and Juventus. How the linesman failed to flag Douglas Maicon offside when he had the pitch markings to help is a mystery, while Marco Marchionni – who was standing right in front of the official at Bergamo – should never have been allowed to cross for Juve’s opener.

QUOTE... UNQUOTE

Claudio Ranieri gets into the Christmas spirit…
“Alex Del Piero’s goal? Yes, Marco Marchionni was offside."
Atalanta boss Gigi Del Neri doesn’t
“If a linesman can’t see that offside then he shouldn’t be allowed to run the line.”
Cesare Prandelli hails Marmite man Montolivo
“I have to say that I think that’s the best game of football that I’ve ever seen him play.”
Sinisa ‘Mister X’ Mihajlovic
“I thought that we’d win at Lecce even if it isn’t always that easy. In all fairness a draw is the right result.”
Jose Mourinho plays fair, sort of…
“I must say that we did not deserve to beat Siena, but I don't say that because our winning goal was offside – that’s just part of the sport”
Marco Giampaolo on losing to Inter
“I am finding it difficult to accept this defeat, because we were clearly penalized.”
What we learned this week
Calciopoli may be over, but officials still make mistakes in favour of the Italian giants. Jose Mourinho, as witnessed following Douglas Maicon’s winner, is a decent sprinter in suit and shoes. And if Napoli are in the hunt for Champions League football then so are revelation side Genoa.

What’s in a number?
The numbers add up to a crisis for Udinese. The Bianconeri, who were challenging for the top spots earlier this season, have crumbled over recent weeks. The Friuli outfit have drawn one and lost six of their last seven games – that’s one point from 21. In their last five games alone, they’ve conceded a terrifying 16 goals – that’s an average of over three a tie.

* Courtesy of Soccer Italia