UCL Final - Milan vs. Liverpool... Athens, May 23rd

Originally Posted by Giovanni

The only reason i'm afraid of Liverpool is Benitez. He studied with Sacchi and he's a coach of Italian school..i think he took a degree in football coaching in Coverciano too, the temple of Italian coaching school.

He's knows strategy, and he knows italian football. But if Milan plays a la Milan we have nothing to be afraid.

Giovanni glad to see someone if not many more has caught on to Benitez's style. It is downright carbon copy of how Italian teams in Europe used to and still play.Maybe not Milan. Just a quick flashback if you watched Liverpool vs Barca at Anfield, there were stretches in the game for about 8-10 minutes when Liverpool had all their field players in their own half. There are plenty of examples, Barca game is the only one I could think of.
Liverpool look to kill the flow of the oppositon and strictly capitalise on mistakes. They do not put much emphasis on creativity and possession.
Benitez's Liverpool plays a reinvented catennacio in Europe and that is why everybody lauds him as some genius in the European game. And another thing, why haven't people (esp' the press) caught on to somewhat negative tactics? Granted he has had his fair share of success but I find it hard to validate the genius label on him. My concern for the final is Mascherano, he is probably Rafa's most astute buy since his tenure in Liverpool, and probably Liverpool's best player next to Gerard.
Javier is a destroyer and his presence on the field on May 23 could hamper our march to the title.

By the way Giovanni, I was watching a clip where Rino scored and the comentator was screaming in Italian, il vento de lione. My spelling is probably seriously off but I wanted to know what that means. I figure lione is lion.

Originally Posted by Rosso6

By the way Giovanni, I was watching a clip where Rino scored and the comentator was screaming in Italian, il vento de lione. My spelling is probably seriously off but I wanted to know what that means. I figure lione is lion.

The wind of the Lion, vento = wind

Originally Posted by Pireloke

The wind of the Lion, vento = wind

Grazie Pireloke

Originally Posted by Nadir

which means, TRADITIONALLY, we have worn white in all the finals we have played. I hope we wear white again!

I don't know about 1958.
we won in 1963 (white)
we won in 1969 (red and black)
we won in 1989 (white)
we won in 1990 (white)
we lost in 1993 (red and black)
we won in 1994 (white)
we lost in 1995 (white)
we won in 2003 (white)
we lost in 2005 (white)
??? 2007 ???

however, Liverpool's all final appearance in red, they won;
if they wore white, they lost.

we decided to challenge that in 2005, unfortunately we lost, so 1995 and 2005 were two years that we lost in white.

i think it makes some sense from Liverpool's perspective in 2005, as they are a young team, and young teams are usually more subject to outer environment. for example, milan might not care so much, but had we played Man United at SS first then OT, it might not be as smooth. when their morale is up, it is hard to cope with. that's my opinion. Gerrard mentioned the same thing in 2005, he said 'red' helped their team a lot when they were in difficulty.

so i hope and I am sure that we will wear red and black this time, as we are the "home" team.

Originally Posted by Xudong

I don't know about 1958.
we won in 1963 (white)
we won in 1969 (red and black)
we won in 1989 (white)
we won in 1990 (white)
we lost in 1993 (red and black)
we won in 1994 (white)
we lost in 1995 (white)
we won in 2003 (white)
we lost in 2005 (white)
??? 2007 ???

however, Liverpool's all final appearance in red, they won;
if they wore white, they lost.

we decided to challenge that in 2005, unfortunately we lost, so 1995 and 2005 were two years that we lost in white.

i think it makes some sense from Liverpool's perspective in 2005, as they are a young team, and young teams are usually more subject to outer environment. for example, milan might not care so much, but had we played Man United at SS first then OT, it might not be as smooth. when their morale is up, it is hard to cope with. that's my opinion. Gerrard mentioned the same thing in 2005, he said 'red' helped their team a lot when they were in difficulty.

so i hope and I am sure that we will wear red and black this time, as we are the "home" team.

good analysis. Honestly the colour of the shirt has no bearing. Milan could have been wearing black with pink polka-dots and clown hats and would have still lost.

Originally Posted by Nadir

good analysis. Honestly the colour of the shirt has no bearing. Milan could have been wearing black with pink polka-dots and clown hats and would have still lost.

exactly my point too. for an experienced team like us, that petty little things won't matter much. but teams like liverpool (especially two years ago) could really use some "help" from that. but I could be wrong. all I want is a Milan win. I don't care how doggy the goals would be, if any.

Clown hats wouldn't have helped our heading ...

Uniforms and other "minor" appearance details do have an impact on the performance as it alters the way players perceive themselves...

An example I can not forget is the 1998 Romania NT in France WC... they were playing well until they all decided to dye their hair blonde...

the look ridiculous, felt ridiculous and played ridiculous...

where they heavier? weaker? shorter? NO... but they turned around expecting to see a player like they visualized him in their mind, and found a weird looking version of him...

Liverpool's away kit is yellow this year and their third is white + green this year.

More importantly will the full curva be there? and the rest of the Milan Supporters?

@Tony: if you look more closely, only a few (5?) 'survives' in the starting eleven selectino at Liverpool after the 2005 victory. Milan has 7.

I'm not sure if this stats say anything, but if you are talking about experiences in the CL, Liverpool has still a long way to catch up.

Instead, I think Milan has the edge because exactly of their technical skills and expeiences, two factors that stand out and account for why Milan is in the final for 3 times within 5 seasons.

I picked Milan to lose against Bayern Munich, so I was suprised they came out of that. Now that they've gotten by ManU, it seems like no one can stop them, of course their going to be playing agaisnt another team that's extremly hot in Europe.

I say Kaka' gets another, and the defense holds strong again.
2-0 Milan

By the way, who do you guys think Ancelotti will plug in up top? Pippo or Gila?

Originally Posted by BigHouse90

I picked Milan to lose against Bayern Munich, so I was suprised they came out of that. Now that they've gotten by ManU, it seems like no one can stop them, of course their going to be playing agaisnt another team that's extremly hot in Europe.

what kind of fan picks their own team to lose against anyone? i don't care who we play against, i pick them to whip them everytime.


I think i found the perfect song to accent the big final:

Back in the Saddle - Aerosmith.

"I'm BAAAAAAAAAAAACK ....
I'm BAAAAAAAAACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN!!"

Originally Posted by Nadir

what kind of fan picks their own team to lose against anyone? i don't care who we play against, i pick them to whip them everytime.

I guess I'm a little more down to earth then. I'm not going to be a homer and pick my favorite team, if it's a stupid poll on the internet, I say Milan. But talking with my friends, or on forums, I'm going to state my real opinion. Doesnt mean I was hoping to be right.

In my opinion, Liverpool is much stronger than 2 years ago, and we are slightly weaker. But we are still stronger than them at this moment. We can win. And all I want is a win. If we win, Maldini will stay and he will have the chance to win the Toyota Cup for the first time as captain. I know he would enjoy that. He has mentioned it in a few occasions.