- 05:39 AM
- 11/05/24
From the Guardian article:
But the one thing that Maldini has never done is kowtow to fan opinion, and it is for this alone that a more selfish element resent him. When Milan supporters caused a game between the Rossoneri and Parma to be suspended for more than five minutes by throwing oranges and other objects on to the field during their miserable 199798 season, Maldini was publicly critical of their behaviour. After Milan won the league the following year, he retired quickly to the dressing room to celebrate with Alessandro Costacurta instead of staying out to thank the fans.That was not the only occasion on which he refused to condone supporter protests, but the fact that such instances are remembered at all reflects only on the pettiness of such fans...
So yes, a small group* of idiot fans who think holding petty grudges is the ne plus ultra of being a fan.
*as in small percentage of the total amount of Milan fans.
posted by romakimmy at 12:32 PM on May 26, 2009
The two signs against Maldini were:
Grazie capitano: sul campo campione infinito, ma hai mancato di rispetto a chi ti ha arricchito! Thank you captain: on the pitch champion without end, but you disrepected those who made you rich!
Per i tuoi 25 anni di gloriosa carriera sentiti ringraziamenti da coloro che hai definito mercenari e pezzenti For your 25 years of glorious career listen to the thanks from those who you defined as mercenary and tramps.
I totally didn't understand the motive behind this, but from this article (sorry, in Italian), it seems the ultras' ire stems from a comment in 2005 when Maldini said he was proud not to be one of them (I'm guessing there might be more comments he made as well). Dumb. I totally agree with Spalletti's sentiment.
There were about 4 other signs against Berlusconi as well, which will always tickle my funnybone, especially in the current political climate, which frankly sucks.
posted by romakimmy at 05:45 AM on May 25, 2009
I can profess my admiration for him much more easily now that he's not in English football.
Hmm, is that what it takes? Since day one of him stepping foot in Italy, I've found him to be a boorish prick. Maybe I'll be able to appreciate his specialness after he leaves Italy. :D
posted by romakimmy at 02:01 PM on March 13, 2009
especially taking off the shirt, because that's considered unsportsmanlike. Which totally sucks, as my oogling time is reduced to the post game shirt swap. :P
posted by romakimmy at 05:13 AM on June 30, 2008
What everyone else has already said. Super talented player, but the outright arrogance & wah-wah bullshit makes me uncharacteristically wish someone would do him bodily harm so he'd actually have something to cry over. However, I'd be thrilled if Match of the Day spent ten minutes at the end of every show running through all the planks that dived that weekend, possibly over some amusing music, with Lawrenson doing his horrible puns throughout. Every Monday on a satirical news program, there's a segment called Striscia lo striscione which highlights the more amusing fan banners & takes the piss out of various incidents in Serie A. The last minute or so is always dedicated to Tutti giù per terra (Everybody hit the ground), 'awards' for the dumbest dives of the weekend, usually accompanied with a girly, fake sounding "OOOH!" in the slo-mo replay (and snarky commentary as well, for anyone who speaks Italian).
posted by romakimmy at 08:58 AM on April 26, 2008
Man, I've been wanting to see Capello coach on a national level ever since Lippi left. Pity it's the wrong nation...(In the sense that Italy's currently stuck with Donadoni, a coach who was fired from Livorno for feck's sake. I've been praying that he'd get sacked and replaced with Capello. God doesn't like me, apparently ;) As a side note, Capello's been doing color commentary during this post-Real Madrid/pre-England national downtime, and I've really enjoyed it. He's fairly blunt, yet diplomatic, usually couching criticisms in the 'if it was me' caveat.
posted by romakimmy at 08:25 AM on December 15, 2007
I doubt that the Highway restaurant clash was a matter of coincidence. I do. If you read my recap above, the purported clash was between Juve & Lazio fans. Lazio fans were heading to Milan for Inter-Lazio. Juve fans would have been heading presumably to Parma. The purported fight happened in Arezzo, which is near Florence. Care to tell me how an Autogrill near Florence is a 'local Inter Milan hangout'? And I beg to differ that by following a club one must support the whole kit n' kaboodle, such as dumb political undercurrents. I'll also beg to differ that by going on a roadtrip with some friends to see an important away game, making a stop for petrol, panini, or a piss means that you were an Ultra looking for trouble. If the cop had accidentally shot a driver on the 6 lanes of traffic that separated the two Autogrills, I'd give even odds that footie wouldn't have been invoked by the media. Please note this is not in defense of the idiots who ran amok Sunday; but the powers that be fell down on the job Sunday and the Ultras took the resulting opportunity to do what they do best - be assholes.
posted by romakimmy at 11:42 AM on November 13, 2007
The completely surreal situation on Sunday was thanks to a whole slew of fuck-ups on all sides. The inital story that broke was that a Lazio fan was killed around 9am Sunday morning by a cop during a fight between Lazio & Juve fans at a highway restaraunt stop. And of course the media jumped on the violent hooligans story straight away without getting all the facts first, with headlines that read along the lines of "Hooligan Highway Fights; 1 Dead". By all accounts of eyewitnesses and manager/employees of the diner, there was some minor scuffles going on in the parking lot, but by the time the police on the other side of the highway reacted, all parties involved were calmed down and driving off or about to be. There is also some discussion about whether or not Gabrielle was involved; he's a popular DJ in the discoteques here in Rome, had been working until 6am, and left for Milan at 7am. Also, he was passionate about footie, but not a part of the hooligan Ultras and only followed the away games when it was a major game (ie Inter-Lazio). In any case, he was sitting in the back of the car when the shots were fired. As seen on the news before they wrapped the car up in plastic and carted it off, the hole in the car window is an almost perfectly clean bullet shaped hole at about chest/neck level; no spidering of cracked glass around the entry point. Suss. The cop in question claims he shot one warning shot in the air and while he was running to cross the highway, another shot accidentially went off. There is an eyewitness report that says the cop assumed shooting stance and fired off two rounds. In either case, the cop's badge should be taken away. In the former, a supposed expert cop (as claimed by the Arezzo commissioner) let off an errant shot in a populated parking lot while running towards a busy 6 lane highway. Even the warning shot is suss; what the hell was it for? "Hi, my partner and I are now going to play SuperCop and run across six lanes of traffic to subdue a group of young men fighting.*" In the latter case, lock the bastard up; what if he had instead hit a father driving on the highway, possibly causing a huge accident? At this point in the day (noonish), Inter-Lazio is cancelled, the other games are unsure, and the media are still playing up the Footie Fan aspect even though the details are begining to trickle in. In a few cities, spontaneous demonstrations uniting fans/Ultras from opposite sides of the field decry the police and call for a suspension of all games, in line with the suspension of all games after the death of Officer Raciti last February. So you have a tragic incident conflated with footie thanks to the media, and demonstrating fans/Ultras calling for all games to be suspended. Of course the Football Commissioner decides to let the other daytime games go on. In Bergamo, police are recalled from the the stadium, allowing Ultras to bring a sewer cover into the stadium & smash the protective glass barrier, leading to the desired suspension of the game. Everyone's nerves are on a trip wire; fans, police, refs, players. The games that did go on were not pretty and there were a slew of red cards. At 6pm, only two hours before game time, was it announced that the Roma-Cagliari game would be suspended "for security reasons". Brilliant move there. You've now given pissed off Ultras of both Lazio & Roma time to conviene at the stadium and an 'excuse' to cause mayhem. And now it's turned political as well: The Right have called for the Minister of Internal Security to step down, while the Left claim that the Ultras are largel controlled by extreme Right groups. There's been a spate of police brutality incidents that have gone undereported lately, such as a man arrested for growing marijuana in his house dying in isolation after being severly beaten by officers. Instead of that issue getting the attention it deserves, the media's initial sensationalism of "Ooga Booga Hooligans" allowed the incident to be purloined by Ultras and politicans alike for their own uses. Until Sunday, this year there had been no outbreaks of violence at the stadiums - one idiot who threw a petard during a Juve game was subdued by surrounding fans until security managed to haul him off. But the combined mistakes in handling this incident by police, media, and the Football Commission managed to pour the petrol and light the match. /my take * because it wasn't clear from that distance that the young men were footie fans. Also the inital line from the commissioner was 2 warning shots fired in the air.
posted by romakimmy at 09:06 AM on November 13, 2007
Will they enter the World Cup? become members of UEFA? Who gets be eligible - any Catholic? I had assumed that they would start out in a lower league like C1 or C2 and work their way up. Again, I heard this during said charity game and assumed that the squad playing (Swiss Guards) was the target of the hearsay. Digging slightly deeper, the Vatican has had an internal competition for years, the Vatican Cup, which is one of those little pieces of trivia I had forgotten about. And a second tournament I wasn't aware of, the Clericus Cup, sprung up earlier this year. The former is for Vatican workers (ie aforementioned Swiss Guards, Vatican museum curators) and the latter is teams from seminaries & pontifical colleges.
posted by romakimmy at 07:33 AM on October 17, 2007
Huh. I had heard that Vatican would be fielding a pro squad soon, but I thought that it would be the surprisingly good Swiss guards/priest team I saw at an annual charity game.
posted by romakimmy at 04:24 AM on October 15, 2007
AS Roma played like absolute shit last night. I haven't seen an Italian team fall apart like that ever1. My romanista SO was despondent at 2-0, changing to flippant by the pitifull 7-1 ending. "It's worse when there is a small chance that you could have won." Unfortunately for Spalletti, Taddei was benched at the last minute with an injury and he (Spalletti) had 17 year old primavera players on the bench as substitution possibilities. Might have done a sight better than Totti et co., though. 1All 9 years since I've started following calcio. And while using one man's sorrow for another's gain is not something I usually condone, I at least have some retaliation ammo for the next time I becomes target pratice for being a Juventina.
posted by romakimmy at 09:00 AM on April 11, 2007
Addendum: If they were really serious about taking extra security measures, they should have moved the game to a neutral (read: outside Sicily) stadium. Usually they do this as a penalty for prior incidents, but with all the hype I saw on the news about moving the game to Friday in the interests of public order, I have to conclude that they didn't do this because both sets of fans would have thrown a hissy fit. And maybe due to tickets having been sold already; right now I can't find a good article on exactly when they decided to move the game.
posted by romakimmy at 09:28 AM on February 03, 2007
I can't say that I've personally seen an increase in hostile atmosphere as Fence says, but I haven't been going to the stadium as often as I used to, mainly due to increased ticket prices, the fact that I couldn't drag my Romanista S.O. to a non-derby Lazio game even under penalty of death, and my beloved Juve currently residing in B. However, I have to wonder just how stupid whoever drew up the year's schedule really is. Apparently, they realised at the last minute that they had scheduled the Catania-Palermo derby (always a hotly contested game) on a Saturday night of a major Sicilian holiday weekend. Fucking brilliant, boys. And thus the game was moved to Friday night for 'security reasons', which in my opinion was a pretty useless move. It's a Friday night, eve of a major regional holiday. A large majority probably probably did the whole fare il ponte, meaning they took off Friday to extend their holiday weekend to four days instead of three. Yeah, moving it to Friday did a whole lotta good fellas. On top of this, your police escorted bus of Palermo fans (away team) arrives to the game late because the driver got lost. This means they and their police escort are sitting ducks for the idiot 'Ultras' who hang out around the outside of the stadium and whose main interest is looking to start a fight. Hopefully, when deciding on new measures they'll include a pinch more common sense to avoid giving these types of idiots another excuse to go hog wild.
posted by romakimmy at 07:34 AM on February 03, 2007
Pity about Davids; I was hoping to see him play again when I make the trek back to D-Town. Ronaldo is getting roasted in the (Italian) media for his pudginess. It's a bit head scratching that Milan bought him. He's not the Shevchenko they need right now. If this can be done over a soccer game, then by bully I'll make the drive. *snort* Might be possible. I took him and the youngest uncle to Lazio-Juve in 2003. Highlights from the two of them included:
posted by romakimmy at 12:11 PM on February 02, 2007
One poor girl I went to school with had the last name Massengill. Already enough for eternal teasing, n'est pas? But apparently the parents were smoking quality stuff, as her first and middle names were Summer Eve. Last I heard, she changed it the minute she hit 18.
posted by romakimmy at 08:57 AM on October 09, 2006
waddaya mean former Serie A, kdrisck? /razz
posted by romakimmy at 08:49 AM on September 30, 2006
At the time, lip readers noted quite a bit more than Materazzi is letting on. I think the "son of a terrorist whore" thing seemed to be the popular assessment. And Zidane himself cleared that one up in his French interview - no terrar! slurs. And IIRC, the lipreaders who threw that rumour about were Brazilian. Whether or not Materazzi is an ass, as far as I'm concerned FIFA set a fantastically crappy precedent for penalizing the shit-talking player. Are they really going to throw penalties about like candy just because a player says "My grandmomma plays better than you & she dead."?! Really now... FYI Comments about one's sister (whether or not you know they have one) are the last stop before fisticuffs in Italian. It's a borderline thing where you might have a punch thrown at you, but more likely than not the other party will just reply with an insult to your sister. If you are looking for a real fight, though, that's when you bring in the mamma insults. The only other insult that I can think of that is almost equally offensive is saying someone is cornuto (cuckhold): the head banger's/Hook 'em Horns hand symbol (index & pinky finger up, other fingers in a fist) denotes cornuto and is a million times worse that flipping the bird. Strangely, the same hand gesture upside down with pinky & index resting on a flat surface wards off the evil eye. /random Italian insult info
posted by romakimmy at 08:22 AM on September 06, 2006
do the Italian FA get to choose who to send into the competition? I think so. IIRC, the main problem in the current situation is teams like Empoli who, not having anticipated being in the UEFA cup, don't have the proper license(??? I'm translating a newscast several weeks back from memory - licenza per l'UEFA???). This gives Milan more arguing power (as if they bloody need it) regarding playing the CL. And outsidemid4, I beg to differ with your begging to differ. Tim Parks followed Hellas Verona Ultras in A Season with Verona and detailed antics such as racist chanting, substance abuse, violence and thuggery in general. Using your method of extrapolating, all past, present and future Italian footie fans are therefore racist, substance abusing, violent thugs. Because what holds true for a small sample size must hold true eternally for the entirety, correct? Following that, then chico's Black Sox example means that all baseball players are equally corrupt? Or am I missing the boat completely and Italians are guilty until proved innocent because you read it in a bookwhere you come from?
posted by romakimmy at 09:05 AM on July 27, 2006
Isn't it an unwritten (or formal) requirement that players for the Italian national team play for an Italian club side? No. In fact the new coach Donadoni has specifically said that he doesn't give a rat's ass if a player palys in Serie B or outside Italia. (Ok, rat's ass is my paraphrasing). And chico darlin', i was not singling out you nor anyone in particiular. I'm just a bit tired of the greasy Italian schtick that has been overplayed since the World Cup, mainly in the media but parroted back by some with irriatating frequency. I don't neccessarily agree that owners/manager have such awesome power over the game, despite the scandal. The biggest joke here in Rome is that despite Lotito's involvement, Lazio ended up behind a decimated, overplayed AS Roma. (and I've said elsewhere just how much the Lazio fans hate Lotitio. They boycotted a game or two last season and have since called for his head on a plate. Literally) I also think the inital penalties were heavy handed, but that they needed to be. Indeed it was a smart move, considering all the money the respective teams are throwing at pricey lawyers. It was almost a given that some if not all the penalties would be lessened. We can argue about how much of that is due to Berlusca's influence, but at least all teams were treated somewhat the same (ie Milan didn't get off scot free while the others get penalized). And from the outside it might seem like this isn't being pursued with a whole lot of vigor, but dear christ it's practically the only thing on tv. On most major newspapers, it knocked the "UN officials bombed" right down below the fold. More later - my ride to the beach is here ;)
posted by romakimmy at 10:55 AM on July 26, 2006
The typical Italian and diving comments are getting rather old, boys. I think I'd rightfully get my ass handed to me if I mentioned 'hooligans' every time I uttered 'English' here or some other equally as banal prejudice - Surely the conversation can rise above preconcieved stereotypes? So... This is hardly getting away with something. Presumably the initial harsher penalties were set in the knowledge of the likelihood of them being reduced on appeal. Yes. That's how the legal system tends to work here. You go to court, lose your case, and appeal in the hopes that you win or are given a lesser penalty. Not too different from the good old US of A, really. Nobody is getting away with anything - all the individuals involved are barred for [FOO] amount of time in anything even remotly resembling footie. You could argue that they all should be banned for life (and I'd agree with you) but I think that course of action would be more likely to have complete overturn of sentencing for the so called bit players. I still think Milan is getting off too lightly, but who really wants to fuck with Berlusconi? He's been bitching that it's all politically motivated (re: Milan only, unless the soundbite is better for him to include Lazio & Fiorentina) - nobody wants to give him more ammo, so to speak, with the current government hanging on a precarious high wire. The other new penatlies are much more in line with the old punishment fitting the crime cliche. The inital penalties were, I feel, to show that nobody was going to get off scott free just because (or most especially because) we won the World Cup. So tell me again how Serie A isn't like, say, telenovelas or pro wrestling? Because the players aren't in on the fixing. Not one Italian player was indicted in this trial. It was refs and squad presidents/managers, and a handfull of rotten apples at that. Remeber that Italy gave the world Pier-fucking-liugi Collina, one of the most universally acclaimed refs in recent history. Players may have suspected or heard rumblings of RefGate, but they didn't go into a game and play all "la-di-da who gives a fuck 'cause I know what's going to happen" because if they did, they'd get their asses handed to them on a plate by fans. I'm mostly upset at the mass exodus of Italian players (and Cappello!) going overseas . It's not over by far, and while Milan, Lazio, & Fiorentina remain in A, only the former might have the money to pick up some of the players floating around. lazio's been in finacial straits for about 2 years and Fiorentina has been trying to rebuild funds since climbing back up from C1. Inter might be able to get one, max two and that's about it. None of the other squads have a huge budget for already established mega talent; they tend to cultivate in their own backyards.
posted by romakimmy at 07:28 AM on July 26, 2006
*waits for urall to gracefully accept yerfatma's apology so she can hang the "THIS PISSING CONTEST IS OVER" sign on the thread*
posted by romakimmy at 10:30 AM on July 22, 2006
The idea that the Italians are the only trashtalkers in the final, let alone in the world cup is farcical. Thank you Mr. Bismarck. We may never find out what it was that Matterazzi said to Zidane to incur the headbutt, but, there will always be a cloud of "what-if's" hanging over the Italian victory. Because it was just Zidane vs. Materazzi on the field, right? Italy dominated the first half, France the second.It could have gone either way.
posted by romakimmy at 07:18 AM on July 21, 2006
It's late so I'll leave you with Google's translation of La Repubblica's by the minute report on reactions. It's only vaguely comprehensable, but it's making me laugh for the minute. Lazio fans have called for Lotito's head on a plate. Ha.
posted by romakimmy at 03:27 PM on July 14, 2006
I heard Canavarro (*sob*) to Arsenal. Talk about your journalistic games of telephone...
posted by romakimmy at 03:06 PM on July 14, 2006
There was a rumour about Buffon signing with Milan (which was a pretty stupid rumor, really) but, yeah, I doubt Juve will have anybody left. Maybe Del Piero and really tiny chance Nedved, who's said he'd stay if he doesn't retire. I'd bet Toni will leave Fiorentina as well, Oddo & Perruzzi might stay with Lazio. Also Lippi has already left the Azzurri, replaced by Roberto Donadoni, who was fired from Livorno this year.
posted by romakimmy at 02:51 PM on July 14, 2006
Kinhosa with my nick, Kildo with my RL name. The former sounds like a rejected 80's Wayne's World insult, the later like my own personal sex toy. Fun though. Edit: If I use my name & my SO's last name I get Kito, which is way cooler.ufez, don't read into that; I was just trying to get a better result. honest.
posted by romakimmy at 02:33 PM on July 14, 2006
I can't find an English link yet, but: Juventus: Serie B with 30 point penalty, last place in 2005/2006 season Milan: Serie A with 15 point penalty, no European cups Fiorentina: Serie B with 12 point penalty Lazio: Serie B with 7 point penalty The teams have 3 days to appeal. One of Berlusconi's henchmen (the Mediaset president Fedele Confalonieri) has predictably said that Milan's inclusion/sentence is politcally motivated. Both Berlusconi and Confalonieri have been named in yet another trial for fiscal fraud, money laudering, and other fun stuff.
posted by romakimmy at 02:17 PM on July 14, 2006
pps- actually, what I'd really like to see happen? Moggi & other team officals thrown in the clink. Then Pierluigi Collina beats the everliving shit out of the indicted refs on national TV.
posted by romakimmy at 09:25 AM on July 14, 2006
Milan got kicked a little harder than they should have Eh, mebbee not. IIRC, there's been some more damning stuff put forward for Milan lately, according to the nightly news. I don't remember enough details to Google as I was sort of distracted by that shiny gold cup thing ;) Berlusconi's calling for the individuals involved to be punished and not the team/fans. I'm torn on this sentiment; on one hand why should the teams (and I mean players here) be punished for the actions of their higher ups. On the other hand, Berlusconi's the one saying it and ooo God do I hate to agree with that man. He's been complaining about the speed of the trial/process as well. It has gone through remarkabley fast for the italian judicial system (so as not to incur an exclusion of Italy by FIFA), yet I'm sure there will be appeals and such. Again, rather ironic that he's the one complaining as the trials he's been personally involved in take a glacial era to go through and he changes the laws in the meantime in his favour. Sooo glad he's out of the PM office. The speed of the process does leave me wondering who hasn't been caught yet. I think Lazio's getting off a bit harsh as only their (dickhead of a ) president Lotito was named. Lazio fans have hated that guy since the get go. Fiorentina have two named, but it's also a shame as they worked their way up from C1 not too long ago - to go back down again is a major blow for the Viola fans. The big kicker about calciopoly/Moggiopoly is that with relegation, alot of the Italian talent looks as if it will go by-bye (as in outside the boot), which for me is the real suckage in this whole weinerschnitzel. Moggi sucks. May he burn on the 9th level of hell along with the rest of the traitors for screwing over my beloved Juve. ps - Trivia: Moggi used to work the ticket window in a rinky dink train station outside of Rome and managed to get his state pension by the age of forty.
posted by romakimmy at 09:09 AM on July 14, 2006
Frustrating? Occasional? Sounds like somebody needs to refine their technique. Yes, well, to further the shitty metaphor - even when it's bad, it's good. Maybe I should just stop digging the hole deeper now
posted by romakimmy at 09:45 AM on July 06, 2006
is there something my darling sister forgot to tell me during the drunken (well, me) post-semifinale phone conversation the other night? note to self: check email 1st, Me/SpoFi 2nd. Mwah! Love you crazy kids. And as far as I'm concerned, TBH, footie is a total metaphor for sex. Long periods of (frustrating fore) play with an occasional (or even multiple) shot to the sweet spot. :D
posted by romakimmy at 06:24 AM on July 06, 2006
she who may as well go ahead and crown herself my sis-in-law *arches eyebrow* is there something my darling sister forgot to tell me during the drunken (well, me) post-semifinale phone conversation the other night? And IIRC, my SO got you to pledge allegiance to AS Roma (*gags a little*), but like you say, things are a bit foggy. I'm only slightly conflicted. Zidane (post WC 98) and the Azzurri (Euro 2000) are what got me hooked on footie in the first place. While I'd love to see Zidane go out in high style, the Azzurri are the first team that caused me to literally feel sick after the Euro 2000 loss. And Tuesday's game was a classic example of why I love the Azzurri - 115 minutes of nail biting and moaning culminating in (two!) orgasmic goals. I just don't feel the same about the French team - Zidane is a god and Ribery has been somewhat of a revelation, but Henry et co.? Meh. In sum: Vendetta 2006!
posted by romakimmy at 05:15 AM on July 06, 2006
Implication accepted. Like I said, I'm usually the first with the nasty humor but making fun of Pessotto is like making fun of mother Theresa... *looks at arsenal of tastless jokes* ...maybe that's a bad analogy... ;)
posted by romakimmy at 01:13 PM on June 30, 2006
exan, I'm usually the first with a nasty black humor joke so I can't quite put my finger on why I find that comment so offensive. It's like my brain is saying "Laugh" and my funny bone is in full rebellion. Maybe because Pessotto was one of the few non-melodramtic players and therefore least likely to dive. He was one of those mythical good guys - solid, loyal, tranquil, and got the job done with no diva antics to be spoken of. I think it speaks volumes of a man's character when 4 of his ex-teammates immediately hop on a plane in the middle of the World Cup to be by his side. So I guess my reaction is due to who it is - there are many people in this world who probably deserve to be kicked when they're down. Pessotto's not one of them though.
posted by romakimmy at 03:45 AM on June 29, 2006
What will happen to the allocation of UEFA/CL places, I wonder? This is why the investigation is going at such a rapid pace (for Italy) - FIFA has said either the Federcalcio gets its shit together & re-classifies the Scudetto or else the UEFA/CL places stand as is with the 4 teams under investigation. Thus, we're seeing more allegations come out that might not be penalised. Last week De Santis told investigators to poke around Ancelotti some more but the case has already been sent to court. AFAIK, any revelations about Ancelotti thus will go unpunished, at least for this go around. Or that's how the SO explained it (badly) to me. The inner workings of Italian Red Tape: Judiciary Branch are a complete mystery to me Now that's fucking chutzpah. Yes. Now when Milan gets penalised, watch for Berlusconi to blame the entire scandal on the Left.
posted by romakimmy at 04:07 AM on June 27, 2006
redsnare & anyone else who's interested in the Italy bribing scandal: they have named names (predictable ie moggi & the lot) but nothing about the squads' penalties yet. i think they are delaying until after the WC games for tonight are done, maybe even tommorrow seeing as they already delayed the announcement once. berlusconi's already said that "it's impossible for Milan to be penalised for a crime they didn't commit." you may picture me rolling my eyes here.
posted by romakimmy at 03:09 PM on June 22, 2006
I was following CZE-ITA; was the Ghana-USA ref horrendously shiteous? 'cause +4 and +5 minutes of overtime plus the highlight clips Sky was showing did not show him in a favorable light at all. The commenators were appalled. I'm a bit sad for Nedved, if this is indeed his last game. He's one of my favourites and he had a few blistering attacks on Buffon today. Had one of his teammate not been an overfouling idjit and get sent off, I think we would have seen a tie today. In realted news, the Federcalcio should be announcing the penalites of Juve, Milan, Fiorentina & Lazio for the ref bribing scandal within the hour...
posted by romakimmy at 11:49 AM on June 22, 2006
Team USA severely disappointed me; the impression that they gave was amateruish to put it politely (less politely - my grandmother can pass better than that.) Italy - The first goal was orgasmic, not just because it was a beautiful kick from Pirlo (and nice ducking by Gilardino), but because you could almost feel the entire nation exhale and think "Ok, we can put calciopoly behind us" Of course come the second half, some mutterings of "Porco dio, they're making us bite our nails over Ghana?!" could be heard. Italian fans - "Yes we won but [insert lateset tempest in a teapot here]." Ghana played very well and I was left wondering why Appiah didn't play like that with Juve. For Italy-USA I hope the former doesn't rest on their laurels and the latter pick up the pace a bit.
posted by romakimmy at 06:11 AM on June 13, 2006
Never fear Texan, I've been biting the nails over my crisis of "Go USA/Forza Azzurri" since the group draws were announced. And I really enjoyed your comment about Richardon footie in the other thread, Texan, as I am a tranplanted Yankee from Plano. Was planning to comment as such until I was distracted by something small and shiny... On preview: pretty bloody handy defenders. Nesta & Cannavaro - my favorite pair of defenders and not just because they are pretty, pretty eye candy. Only hope the former is able to play tonight or Friday. Totti I fear still has a little way to go to be on par with his previous form; Del Piero either drives me batshitinsane or makes me cheer wildly depending on which side of the bed he woke up on. Keep an eye out for Toni - he was the lead scorer this season. De Rossi is also one of those up & coming youngsters to watch.
posted by romakimmy at 10:25 AM on June 12, 2006
If you're gonna slag off catenaccio, at least get your facts right. The primary goal is 1-0 at the beginning of every game, followed by 84 minutes of defense and a tying goal by the opposition at the 90'th :D
One must consider the final result. - Machiavelli
Guy de Parnesse: How do you recork a bottle of champagne? Girl de Parnesse: I don't know. Ask the ItaliansJust a wee bit of pre-game self depreciation. Forza Azzurri!
posted by romakimmy at 08:30 AM on June 12, 2006
All I know is win or lose I'll be telling people I'm Canadian when I go to Italy later this month... Not neccessary. Really. :D unless you're looking to avoid discussion of politics...
posted by romakimmy at 10:40 AM on June 06, 2006
No sweat squealy - I'm American and thus know squat about footie ;) Here's to Germany & the Dutch making a swift exit (the former for playing like, well, Germans and the latter if only for the fact thet their jerseys give me a fucking migrane...)
posted by romakimmy at 05:13 AM on June 05, 2006
squealy, my poorly written point was about how Texan's second link was selectively mistranslated in a puffed-up, chest pounding way by a group of bloody bigoted asswipes, not to highlight some stupid estimate about how many English fans are possible hooligans. In any case, estimating half of X number of fans as hooligans smacks of a bit of 'scare tactics' propaganda to me. That said, La Repubblica is one of the more respected papers here, if a bit on the leftish-side of things. In the English speaking press, I've seen quite a few of their articles misquoted or mistranslated in (what is my guess) the interest of 'punching up' an article and usually ends up being a game of journalistic Telephone.
posted by romakimmy at 06:41 AM on June 03, 2006
This is the article from La Repubblica (in Italian, natch) that I can find that remotely resembles the 'article' mentioned in the second link. I can't find the Yahoo article linked there, though. The Repubblica article is about the pan-European meeting of about 70 neo-nazi ultras. Of the 10 which are Italians, two are Laziale, two are Romanisti, and the rest are from Verona, Trieste,and Ascoli. The only direct quote from an Italian is from a Veronese spouting the usual bullshit about "this will kill the shitty blacks & jews" after a round of nazi chanting. Turks are mentioned as a prime target, but not as a direct quote from an Italian neo-fasctista. Funnily enough, the second link forget to include the French neo-nazis also mentioned in the Repubblica article. The tens of thousands is pulled from the section of the article speaking about diecimila tifosi inglesi (almeno la metà, secondo le stime di Scotland Yard, sono hooligans) [...10,000 English fans (at least half of which , according tothe estimates Scotland Yard, are hooligans.] Overall, the original Repubblica article is one of those 'undercover journalist dramatic exposeès' that gets mistranslated or perverted with selective (mis)translation. if I remember correctly, Italian hooligans who have been caught also give up the passport and also their right to travel outside Italy for a period of time. How that's enforced I have no idea.
posted by romakimmy at 07:40 AM on June 02, 2006
BAD TIMING... That's due to the sorting for next year's UEFA Cups. IIRC, either the investigation concludes with the appropriate relegations within the next couple of days or else UEFA proceeds with the standings as of now.
posted by romakimmy at 09:13 AM on May 22, 2006
Will this affect the Italian national team at all? Remains to be seen. Lippi is scheduled for an interview this Friday and I believe they interviewed his son yesterday as well as Alessandro Nesta and someone else who's name escapes me at the moment. This scandal is huge: it is currently eclipsing Prodi's new government in terms of news coverage. I think last night's report said that Moggi made an average of 400+ calls from his cell phone a day. That said, Berlusconi is a media whore who loves to cry victim; as his governement exunts stage right he'll cry foul at the drop of a hat (bit surprised he didn't find a way to blame the left for this one, really...). A tally of the suspect games featured on muckracking program Strisica la Notizia last night showed that Milian profited from shitty/rigged reffing almost as much as Juve. As a juventina I say f*ck Moggi. And in terms of this year's scudetto, the first half of the season Juve was tops; the second half made me rip my hair out in frustration. Roma, a squad I detest, deserved mad props for a record breaking winning streak and playing most of the second half of the season with no attackers and the same 11 players game after game.
posted by romakimmy at 06:18 AM on May 18, 2006
No, can't say that I have. I became a rapid footie fan these past years living in Rome and subsquently learned everything I know about the sport (and still learning) in Italian. I'm still not sure what the proper English terminology for rimessa laterale is. :-)
posted by romakimmy at 03:08 PM on May 29, 2003
being coined at the San Siro by Roma fans a couple of years ago! One of the fews reasons AS Roma fans get on my tits. I'd even prefer to hear the commentary in Italian rather than that dork. I dunno about that wc200. We must have heard references to silver goals & golden goals (right terms in English?) every 10 seconds for the entire game.
posted by romakimmy at 12:19 PM on May 29, 2003
I don't know what kind of drugs he's taking, but hell I want some. Considering the other Milan games I've seen this season, Shevchenko was on crack tonight, at least during the first half. And Davids always gives me the impression that he's breakdancing with the ball.
posted by romakimmy at 07:31 PM on May 28, 2003
Calcio is the only sport that can make me snivel like the girl that I am. Dammit.
posted by romakimmy at 05:35 PM on May 28, 2003
Northern Italy dominance, I'd guess. The southern mezzogiorno region isn't overly fond of the north and vice versa. Forza Juve! I am *so* jealous of Brettski.
posted by romakimmy at 07:17 PM on May 27, 2003
Slightly better explanation of catenaccio, though "security chain" is closer than "door bolt", etymologically spekaing. (catena-->> "chain")
posted by romakimmy at 02:23 PM on May 26, 2003
I refuse to make a solid prediction on the final - porta sfiga* That said, my beloved Juve played extremely well against Real Madrid to advance. That half of the semi bracket was a pair of nail biters whatever your squad allegiance - truly spectacular games. But - no Nedved this time around. The Milan-Inter half, though, was less exciting. Inter played like crap; less so the return game, but still not well enough to advance. But Milan finished 3 ponts behind Inter in the scudetto, losing 4-2 to a relegated Piacenza the last day. As for the decrying of catenaccio, the away leg saw Juve employing it to some extent and Inter - fuck, I think I saw Milan's defense for maybe two minutes the entire first half. But the return games were much more exciting. It'll be a tough call either way. *'tis baaaaaad luck
posted by romakimmy at 11:50 AM on May 26, 2003
But who's got more style? In the never ending war for "Who is *the* team for the city of Rome?", I vote SS Lazio. At least when they won the scudetto, their fans didn't go crazy painting every building, street, monument, water fountain, and fire hydrant with the team colors. Showing such disrespect for the Eternal City automatically disqualifies you, in my book. And I'm a Juve fan.
posted by romakimmy at 01:57 PM on December 04, 2002
Real Madrid vs. Roma 0-1 (Totti in the 27') Damnit.
posted by romakimmy at 02:46 PM on October 30, 2002
Forza Roma, Sempre! Verme siete e verme rimanete. Il tricolore non cancella l'odore. ;-P Bag Man, was that the derby where Negro f***ed up and made an autogol? He's still getting hissed at by the laziale for that one.
posted by romakimmy at 01:00 PM on October 28, 2002
Mm. Sorry, should have mentioned that my weblog loads horrendously slow as I'm on a free host. Anywho, direct links to Saturday's and today's posts: Il Derby Il Derby-Pt. II Yes, gli Azzurri are the National Squad. Inter and Milan are looking *very* strong this year; Lazio will need to really pull themselves together to win the scudetto. I, of course, am hoping for a second consecutive victory for Juve. As for how I managed to live here, that's another story entirely and one that's not completely finished ;-)
posted by romakimmy at 12:31 PM on October 28, 2002
I'm an american girl who's been living in Roma for over 4 years now. I'm actually a Juve fan (when I first began to follow calcio, Zidane was awe inspiring to watch. When he left for Real Madrid, it was too late to switch loyalties ;-) I root first of all for gli Azzurri, followed by Juve, then Lazio. AS Roma and their fans, as a rule, tend to chafe my hide. Castroman's goal that game was amazing. Mancini should have brought him out sooner yesterday (I'm fond of the little guy) Am writing my blog update right now, and it should be up later tonight. Check my profile for the link. (It'd be up sooner, but I *do* have to get some work done.) Roma merda/ alè alè alè/ Roma merda alè! ;-)
posted by romakimmy at 10:06 AM on October 28, 2002
Barcelona are European Champions
On a side note, I wonder if any English fans got stabbed in the ass today.
From what I saw on the news late last night, 2. Both done by Barca fans, one in the thigh, the other I don't remember.
Considering the amount of back n' forth chanting (some of it rather nasty) passing under my window all day yesterday and mass drunkenness despite the alcohol ban, I was expecting worse.
Good game, and I always love seeing the smirk get wiped off C.Ronaldo's poncy face. :D