Serie A Week 8: Milan - Roma (18/10/09)

Guys, a win is a win....3 points when I expected 1 or none is welcome, most appreciated, and quite timely.

We leap up the table, while denying a rival previously above us valuable points...indeed, even building morale as we look to the mid-week tussle in the UCL.

Hopefully we will have escaped injury, and won't miss any key players through suspension for that match.

As for Ambrosini's red, I hope we protest his card. He was one of the few players to not disappoint in today's game.

why didnt Stoari play?

Originally Posted by pirlofanusa

why didnt Stoari play?

Apparently he got injured, they still haven't said anything about how long he'll be out, if he'll be out, yet.

Just watched Maestro21's (Best channel on youtube!!! )Pato/Ronaldinho video, and I have to say there's some pretty cool stuff in there.

I know alot of people don't think Ronaldinho has anything to do in Milan, and really it is deserved on Ronnie's part, but really, I can't help but feel excited to watch him play. Some times it's aggrivating, but the thing is that sometimes he just does something amazing like today. That goal today was amazing. I bet no other player in the world could give an assist like that. First he slips away from two Roma players, and then immediately spots Pato and gives him a perfect pass over 50'ish meters... Not to mention Pato's finish of the whole thing.

Great stuff. Now let's hope the players have some air left for Real Madrid so it doesn't turn out like we all fear.

Finally, a day to be proud for a Milan fan. It's been a while since we fought like that and pushed on til we got the win. I thought it was a completely deserved win. Nobody here has mentioned the fact that we hit the post twice and had a goal line clearance. Sometimes it's just down to luck and we really havent had our fair share.

As for formations, I quite liked the 4-4-2 in the first half. My only complaint would've been our fullbacks---esp Zambrotta who were completely atrocious---lacked pace, crossing ability, and can never track back on time once possession is lost. Otherwise, Pato looked great as an all out striker, some of his dribbles reminded me of the real Ronaldo (yes, the fat one ).

Second half 4-3-3 also looked decent. With Pato and Dinho out wide, we really spread out the Roma defense and made more room in the middle. With a couple of good, pacy wide players this team can really make a difference.

Originally Posted by pirlofanusa

why didnt Stoari play?

I heard that he had flu.

A win, yeah, lets see what the team can do against Real.

Originally Posted by rt9

Pato looked great as an all out striker, some of his dribbles reminded me of the real Ronaldo (yes, the fat one ).

yeah i noticed that on seedorf`s lost ball, he dribbled the way ronaldo does

I did not watch the game, but from some of the comments I read on a Chinese forum, it seemed like Seedorf is being booed every time he touched the ball. Is that the case, if so, GREAT JOB SAN SIRO MILAN FANS.

Maybe one of the worst performances of Milan in first half ... we were simply horrible and would have deserved to concede 2 or 3 goals, we were lucky.

Some people mentionned we hit the post twice, actually, we hit it once only as Seedorf was offside when Doni pushed the ball on his post ...

The 4-4-2 of the first half was useless as everything we tempted was easy to predict (pass on the right, pass on the left, etc, but never forward, and we were never dangerous).

The second half was totally different: Thiago Silva came back like a hero, Ronaldinho finally managed to do something (after many many many balls lost ... anyway, for me, it's not a great performance from him even with a goal and a decisive pass, I mean, he didn't manage to dribble players, tried many times to dribble when he had 4-5 opponents around him and lost the ball to many times even in second half), and Pato was just ... Pato, the others send balls forward, and it's Pato who has to always run to take the ball.

The 4-3-3 formation from the second half isn't very good too: Pato is too much on the right of the middle line instead of trying to be more forward (just behind Inzaghi). Same for Ronaldinho, he showed his current weakness on one occasion of the second half: our team took the ball, Ronaldinho passed to Pato and didn't follow the guys whereas even Seedorf ran to go with Pato (and it's Seedorf who tried to finish this occasion) ...

Nesta was decent/good (not more), Oddo was a joke during all the game, and we also saw the ghost of Zambrotta yesterday ...

Oh and I forgot, there is a clear penalty not given to Menez, and the one we had was ... umh ... let's say that I understand why Roma players protested so much !!

It will be a totally different game against Real as they will not hesitate to keep the ball ... and when you see how Menez and co managed to dribble into our side of the pitch until they can shoot, I'm a bit afraid that highways will be also opened for Kaka' ...

I am glad we ve finally got a breather. I couldnt watch the entire match coz of my lousy cable connection. I would like to know if Milan displayed a better perfomance compared to the first half coz as far as i had seen the game, Milan were not that great not including the slip fom Thiago. Thiago s always been a first team player for me and superstars have made mistakes too, so its not a big thing according to me. But Seedorf and Zambrotta, people of such caliber and experience, when they tend to loose the ball so cheaply it makes u feel disgusted and even more when they dont even attempt to get the ball back. And come on we are playing on home turf and we are struggling. A win is a win-true, but every time i sit down to watch Milan play i am just hoping.

Oh yes and i forgot, Roma played without Totti and thats pretty much like playing with 10 men coz i wud not like to think of the havoc that he would have created had he been playing. I am saying this simply coz we couldnt handle Menez, Vucinic, De rossi and co. and my comments are based on our first half performance as thats how far i watched the game. Thats why i would like to know if our performance in the second half was anything but ordinary.

Originally Posted by Xudong

I see that there is your signature again, with a even bigger font this time. Don't make it disappear again.

Heh. I had a moment of weakness. But I did actually have it up a few days before the Roma game.

Originally Posted by GeoTav

Maybe one of the worst performances of Milan in first half ... we were simply horrible and would have deserved to concede 2 or 3 goals, we were lucky.

Some people mentionned we hit the post twice, actually, we hit it once only as Seedorf was offside when Doni pushed the ball on his post ...

The 4-4-2 of the first half was useless as everything we tempted was easy to predict (pass on the right, pass on the left, etc, but never forward, and we were never dangerous).

The second half was totally different: Thiago Silva came back like a hero, Ronaldinho finally managed to do something (after many many many balls lost ... anyway, for me, it's not a great performance from him even with a goal and a decisive pass, I mean, he didn't manage to dribble players, tried many times to dribble when he had 4-5 opponents around him and lost the ball to many times even in second half), and Pato was just ... Pato, the others send balls forward, and it's Pato who has to always run to take the ball.

The 4-3-3 formation from the second half isn't very good too: Pato is too much on the right of the middle line instead of trying to be more forward (just behind Inzaghi). Same for Ronaldinho, he showed his current weakness on one occasion of the second half: our team took the ball, Ronaldinho passed to Pato and didn't follow the guys whereas even Seedorf ran to go with Pato (and it's Seedorf who tried to finish this occasion) ...

Nesta was decent/good (not more), Oddo was a joke during all the game, and we also saw the ghost of Zambrotta yesterday ...

Oh and I forgot, there is a clear penalty not given to Menez, and the one we had was ... umh ... let's say that I understand why Roma players protested so much !!

It will be a totally different game against Real as they will not hesitate to keep the ball ... and when you see how Menez and co managed to dribble into our side of the pitch until they can shoot, I'm a bit afraid that highways will be also opened for Kaka' ...

maybe you are right about some if the stuff you said, but give the guys a break: they have been playing horribly since the start of the season and none of us imagined we could win yesterday...and going down to a that kind of goal after 3 minutes makes the win even more important...not for the 3 points as much as for the moral...we were not excellent but we did enough and for me that is more than i hoped for..i just hope they could build on that and keppe improving...

I didn't see the match other than the last 20 minutes. From what I've seen, the first half was a struggle and we suffered counter attacks, with Dida making some good saves. The penalty was certain for me, as Burdisso slid in and tangled Nesta's legs. I've not seen Roma's claim though.

As for Pato's goal, it reminded me of his goal against Napoli in his debut. Same movement, very similar pass and something I'd like to see him doing regularly when playing from wide areas.

In the last 20minutes we suffered, but shut out Roma well. Oddo struggled with Guberti, but the central pairing of Nesta and Thiago shone. Ambro was reckless though I was surprised he got red (though I think he had a yellow which makes it more understandable). During this time I was really impressed with Pato and Dinho. Dinho ran back a lot and worked hard (something I really appreciate) and Pato was clever on the ball, holding it and slowing the play down. He was also a constant threat and easily could have had another and set up a fourth.

Originally Posted by Warro Bantan

Guys, a win is a win....3 points when I expected 1 or none is welcome, most appreciated, and quite timely.

We leap up the table, while denying a rival previously above us valuable points...indeed, even building morale as we look to the mid-week tussle in the UCL.

Agreed. The determination of the team is laudable. So far this season I've seen us playing with neither creativity nor spirit. Surprisingly, the team showed both last night. I expected us to sunk lower after such a terrible mistake by Silva and the goal that followed. We suffered from the counter attacks, but slowly regain the confidence.

I really admired Dinho's work rate. I never thought I would say that again but we all know what he's capable of doing when he pours his heart into a game. He deservedly felt a bit disappointed when being taken out, and it's written in his face when the camera showed the moment he and Leo walked after the game was over.

Originally Posted by Warro Bantan

As for Ambrosini's red, I hope we protest his card. He was one of the few players to not disappoint in today's game.

Now, this is the part where I respectfully disagree. He did his part okay, but I think the way he got the first booking is stupid. The second one, though a bit harsh, is more understandable since we can't jump without moving both our hands for balance.

And this is one of our weaknesses IMO: committing unecessary foul that leads to being yellow-carded. Rino did it weeks ago when being shown the second YC after harsh tackle in the midfield sector. Flamini does it so often, getting booked early, that eventually stopping him from being as agrressive as he would like to be.

On the side notes, I just hope that Leo noticed how Oddo was blatantly the weak sector that Roma continued to exploit towards the end of the game. Anyway, I'm satisfied with both the result and the performance. When Pato scored, I must have waken the entire neighborhood with my holler. It's like being rewarded something that's been wrongfully withheld for a long, long time. And boy, does it feel soooo great!!