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Serie A
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10-02-2014, 10:20 PM
By the way, I know it's early days, but Serie A is the best performing league in Europe this season according to the coefficients. And it's all down to the Europe League, the same competition responsible for dropping Italy to the 4th place in the coefficient ranking. Out of the 8 game played by Italian teams in the group stages, there have been 7 wins and 1 draw. The Europa League is where that 3rd position will be won back in a couple of years if it is.
10-03-2014, 03:51 AM
... and all four Italian teams in EL today won with clean sheets too. Impressive.
 They should continue to stink in Serie A and win in Europe. That would work the best to my liking. 
10-05-2014, 08:26 PM
don't know if anyone watched Juve-Roma but it was a great game today, while I'm now watching Fiorentina-Inter with the viola 2-0 up with great goals. I also saw half of Lazio and Sassuolo today which was another great game. A excellent weekend to watch Serie A
10-05-2014, 10:15 PM
So many calls all over Europe where the supposed foul is just outside of the box but then penalty is given. I am certain this season I have already seen more than last few years total. Not kidding.
10-05-2014, 10:17 PM
Juventus would get help from the referees when they were winning, when they were losing, when they played well, when they played like crap, when they were chasing for scudetto, when they were leading the second place team by 40 points. Not kidding; just disgusting.
10-06-2014, 04:29 AM
The top half of the table after 6 rounds:
Juventus 18 Roma 15 Sampdoria 14 Udinese 13 Milan 11 Verona 11 Napoli 10 Lazio 9 Fiorentina 9 Inter 8 Next matches: Fiorentina - Lazio Verona - Milan Torino - Udinese Inter - Napoli
I watched Juventus - Roma and Fiorentina - Inter today.
I agree that for some reason a lot of decisions go Juventus way every year. However, honestly today...the calls were so close that I needed multiple replays and still couldn't tell if the hand ball and the foul later on were in or out of the box. From what I know, the line is considered inside. I also couldn't tell if Maicon's handball was actually with his hand away from his body. If the ball was going to hit his face anyway then it's not a PK. But if he turned to the side and the ball hit his elbow then it is. Very hard for the referee to see. In any case, he didn't keep calm and was influenced by the Juventus players. He first called the handball and said FK outside of the box which was probably the correct decision. He should have then carded Maicon for leaving the white line before the kick was taken. I think he was going to do that but than Juventus players surrounded him and kept pointing at the white line he drew and that it was inside the box. He panicked and lost control as he didn't go with his gut and changed his mind. Regardless, I think the referee made some mistakes and was naive. He let the game get out of hand. On the other hand, Roma was really bad in the second half. They just dropped off in intensity. It looked like they had nothing in the tank. Fiorentina and Inter also played an exciting game. Babacar scored a screamer. Honestly, this was not a 3-0 game. Inter conceded on two shots from outside the area but didn't play all that bad. They made a ton of mistakes in the final third when in possession, and were punished by some wondeful Viola individual efforts. It's certainly getting bunched up in those 3rd to 7th/8th positions and I expect it to be like that for most of the season.
10-06-2014, 12:32 PM
Has anyone been following this spat on live TV between Sacchi (who's a pundit) and Allegri. It's pretty hilarious as they argued after the CL match and again after the Roma match. It's escalated rather quickly. What's interesting is that the pair also had issues (mostly outside of public view, but sometimes in public), while Allegri was at Milan. It was often reported Sacchi was saying to the management that Allegri wasn't the right guy to coach Milan.
On the matches I saw, I understand Roma's frustrations at the calls, but agree with nefremo that they were close and difficult calls to make, so I don't think it was a case of "helping" Juve. That said, Rocchi's officiating was atrocious and he lost control of the match, I was actually surprised there weren't more fights. On the game itself, it was more about the drama and end to end stuff than quality of play. Both teams were clearly feeling the pressure, but I think Juve showed more mental strength in the second half and less fear when they pressed high towards the end. I must say though, they were clearly ****ting themselves everytime Gervinho was near the ball, he was just taking on his opponents for fun. That said, he's an excellent player who just lacks the final touch to be considered one of the best in the world. Truth is though, while watching this match, I couldn't help but feel it was being played at a level above Milan at the moment. The Inter Fiorentina match was just good fun. Inter's inability to cope with the pace and technical qualities of the Fiorentina players was rather funny (though the goals were excellent), but again it was entertaining and played with a good competitive spirit. That said, this Inter doesn't impress me. Mazzari imo isn't a great coach and there's only a few players that look of real quality in this Inter side (namely Handanovic, Nagatomo when available, Kovacic and the mentally questionable attacking pair). I think Inter and Milan are of a similar level right now, with Milan imo potentially better. As mentioned yesterday, I also watch Lazio - Sassuolo which was really entertaining. Generally watching Serie A this weekend was extremely entertaining, with a decent level/quality of play on display. However, it was a weekend which also struck me as in every match, including Roma - Juve, lacked the tactical depth or quality defending which defined Italian football in the past. Not to say I didn't know this already (I've complained enough about it on the forums), but the conclusion I came to was that Italian football no longer has any real advantages over other nations. If you watch other top leagues, you'll see similar levels of tactical acumen and quality on display. It's not all doom and gloom, Italy has so much potential (despite being very critical of the state of Italian football, I watched 4 games over the weekend and felt it was a great weekend of football), but it's up to everyone involved in the sport to start moving away from the stagnation we've seen for a number of years now and start bringing in new ideas.
10-07-2014, 01:21 PM
10-07-2014, 04:30 PM
Quote:Carlo Tavecchio: Italian FA president banned for racist slurhttp://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/29525073 |
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