AC Milan injury update

Rino Gattuso, who has been out since Milan's first game of the season back in September, has been cleared by team doctors to resume training and could even play in a game sometime soon. Gattuso has been suffering from a condition known as Sixth Cranial Nerve Palsy which caused the muscles in his left eye to fail to function properly and resulted in double, triple, and even quadruple vision. Let's all hope that Rino will be back on the pitch for AC Milan sometime soon.

Below: A drawing of a person suffering from Sixth Cranial Nerve Palsy

Another nice goal by Seedorf and one by Gattuso

In case you missed this one--

April 16, 2011: Milan 3 - Sampdoria 0

Or this one--

March 5, 2011: Juventus 0 - Milan 1

World Cup Update #3: The group stage is over

Here are some important statistics from the group stage of the 2010 World Cup:

• Teams that won all three of their matches: Argentina, Netherlands
• Teams that lost all three of their matches: Cameroon, north Korea
• Teams that allowed no goals in the group stage: Uruguay, Portugal
• Teams that scored no goals in the group stage: Algeria, Honduras

• Most goals scored: Argentina, Portugal (7)
• Most goals allowed: north Korea (12)

• Milan players who have appeared at the World Cup: Zambrotta, Pirlo, Gattuso (Italy); Adiyiah (Ghana); Huntelaar (Netherlands); Onyewu (United States)
• Milan players who have scored at the World Cup: Huntelaar
• Milan players who have not appeared at the World Cup: Thiago Silva (Brazil)

Happy birthday to Rino Gattuso

Match report: Milan 5 - Genoa 2

• Goals scored: Sculli 25', Ronaldinho (penalty) 32', Thiago Silva 38', Borriello 48', Borriello 60', Huntelaar (penalty) 74', Suazo 79'
• What happened: Genoa scored first and last but still lost badly. Milan had three penalties-- Ronaldinho missed the first one, made the second, and Huntelaar made the last.
• Milan players who made their first appearances in a long time: Gattuso, Jankulovski, Beckham
• Milan players who were hit in the face: Nesta, Antonini, Ronaldinho
• Number of Milan penalties that were not deserved: Zero
• Why Huntelaar took the last penalty: Beckham and Ronaldinho were insisting that each other take it-- Ambrosini stepped in and gave the ball to Huntelaar. (At least that's how it looked to me). It is widely rumored that Huntelaar will be leaving Milan this month.
• Player of the game: Ambrosini-- he repeatedly charged the defenders in the box with the ball. He won the first two of Milan's penalty kicks.
• Nicest goal: Borriello's second-- a twisting bicycle kick that just snuck in at the post. (Replays showed that he was barely offside; however, the linesman missed the call.)
• My favorite goal: Thiago Silva's-- chaos in the box followed by a goal by a defender
• Who Milan play next: Juventus
• Milan players the announcer said were unable to play due to injury: Pato and Seedorf
• What this match teaches us: Take the ball and head toward the goal.

Above: Huntelaar takes his penalty kick.

Click here for highlights.

Match report: Udinese 1- Milan 0

• Goals scored: Di Natale 22'
• Milan's offense: Milan held the ball for much of the game, but they did not look close to scoring, especially for the first two-thirds. Pato and Inzaghi looked sluggish and unimaginative. When Ronaldinho and Huntelaar were brought on to replace the two starters, things became more exciting. But they still did not score.
• A word to describe the match: Brutal. It was surprising that no one was seriously hurt.
• Best impersonation of Gattuso: Flamini for getting two yellow cards in under 90 seconds. (See photo above)
• It is not nice to point fingers, but other players played badly also: Massimo Oddo spent most of the evening ruining the offside trap and single-handedly putting Udinese players on onside. Also, Gianluca Zambrotta does not appear to be able to kick the ball with his left foot.
• What this match teaches us: It may never be possible to figure out why this team can't score goals.

Match report: Milan 1 - Bologna 0

• Goals scored: Seedorf 75'
• Bologna's game plan: To send no players into Milan's half of the field; to play defense and only defense; to achieve a 0-0 draw.
• How Bologna's game plan worked: Quite well, except for one brief moment late in the second half when they actually sent players forward to try to score. Milan immediately scored on the counter-attack.
• Number of Milan players who hit the goal post: 2 (Pato and Inzaghi)
• Number of Milan players who found themselves with the ball, unmarked, eight feet away from goal with no goalie in sight but who managed to shoot the ball well over the crossbar: 1 (Gattuso)
• How Clarence Seedorf finally scored: Seedorf got the ball. He ran at the defender. Then he ran around the defender. After that, Seedorf ran at the goalie. Finally he kicked the ball past the goalie and into the net.
• Last time before today that Milan scored a goal in Serie A play: August 22, 2009
• Photo I wish I could find: Bologna's Nicola Mingazzini playing most of today's match with his head bandaged.
• What this match teaches us: Only the very young or the very old can score for Milan this season.

Match report: Milan 0 - Inter 4

Timeline of a disaster:

18'-- Gennaro Gattuso appears to have injured his leg but continues to play.

29'-- Thiago Motta scores for Inter (0-1).

35'-- Gattuso fouls Eto'o in the penalty area and is given a yellow card.

36'-- Milito scores the penalty kick for Inter (0-2).

38'-- Gattuso is too injured to go on and demands to be taken off. He continues to play while Seedorf takes his tracksuit off and gets ready to enter the game.

40'-- Gattuso fouls Wesley Sneijder and receives second yellow card. Gattuso is ejected and furiously throws his captain's armband to the ground.

45+'-- Maicon scores for Inter (0-3).

67'-- Stankovic scores for Inter (0-4).

90'-- Referee Nicola Rizzoli blows his whistle without allowing for any added time.

• What this match teaches us: Milan may not be very good this year.
• What else this match teaches us: It is quite possible that Gattuso is actually insane.

Below: Gattuso leaves the pitch after receiving the red card.

Below: Gattuso, from last season

Match report: Siena 1 - AC Milan 2

Milan started off their season today with a 2-1 victory in Siena. Here are the important statistics:

• Goals scored: Pato 29', Ghezzal 34', Pato 48'
• Goals scored by AC Milan which were correctly disallowed for offside: 1 (22'- Ronaldinho took a free kick and it wound up in the net. Either Pato deflected it with his head or obstructed the goalkeeper. In either event, he was offside.)
• Milan players unable to play due to suspensions from last season: 1 -- Huntelaar
• Surprising Milan starters: 1 -- Marco Storari (goalkeeper)
• Milan substitutions: Ambrosini replaced Gattuso early in the second half
• Number of Milan starters who appeared to be very tan: 11
• Number of Milan starters who still resemble actor Chevy Chase: 1 -- Marco Borriello (see photos below)

It might be hard to tell which one is which.

• Number of loud explosions : 0
• Number of Milan yellow cards: 1 -- Pato for dissent
• Number of amazing bicycle kicks that would have been goals except for great saves: 1 -- by Ronaldinho
• Number of Siena players with bloody noses: 1
• Number of Siena players with amusing names: 1 -- Reginaldo
• Number of excellent performances by Milan players that probably went unnoticed: 2 -- Flamini and Borriello (the latter especially on defense)
• Number of minutes played by Pippo Inzaghi: 0
• Number of times Inzaghi was called offside: 0
• Notable accomplishments: Milan managed to hold on to the lead for 45 whole minutes.
• Other notable aspects of the game: There was a lot of yelling, pushing and shoving after the final whistle.
• What this match teaches us: Pato might score a lot of goals this year.

For more information, click here.

Picture of the Day - Gattuso rides a bicycle

LOS ANGELES 19 LUGLIO: GATTUSO IN BICICLETTA

AC Milan were recently in Los Angeles to play a friendly against the LA Galaxy.

Picture of the Day

Source: Futbolita

Milan Players Dared Gattuso To Eat A Live Snail

According to goal.com and La Gazzeta dello Sport, Gennaro Gattuso was bet 500 euros each by 24 team mates that he would not eat a live snail. Gattuso, of course ate it, because "Wouldn't you do it, if they offered you 25,000 euros?" 

Read the entire article:

here

Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GATTUSO!!!!! :)

Gattuso's Family

Here is the most adorable picture. This is Gattuso, his daughter, and his wife. She is Scottish.

Here is a link to the Dolce and Gabbana AC Milan Family Book. It is VERY adorable. (Please ignore traitors- aka Gilardino). http://www.milanfamilybook.com/ Don't feel too bad for the guys at the end who appear without their families. They are not (all) lonely, because I know that at least a few of them are married. "Why," you ask, "do Kaka' and Pato not make appearances?" The answer- Kaka' has strict rules about which Dolce and Gabbana shoots he can appear in because of his contract with Armani or someone. Pato hadn't even been signed when these photos were taken.

Other notes:

Boriello has broken up with the girlfriend in the picture. She was cheating on him.

Maldini's wife is from Venezuala. She is an ex- model.

Please notice that the Maldini's picture is on a couch that resembles a throne.

Seedorf's wife (not pictured) is Brazilian.

Kalac is tall.

Random Pictures

Barack Obama... America's president to be. YAY!

This is the Spanish national football (soccer) team after winning Euro-2008. They lifted their ancient coach, Aragones, and bounced him up and down! Hehe!

This is AC Milan's owner, Silvio Berlusconi holding one of Milan's many trophies!

This picture is from this weekend's game, Arsenal v. Liverpool. This is just weird.

Best for last. This is from this weekend's game, Milan v. Udinese. Kaka' in one goal's celebration ran over to the injured Gattuso. He looks like he is wearing a towel as a scarf. They are so awesome!!!

P.S. Christmas is in 3 days. This will be Luca's first Christmas. (For those of you who don't know, Luca is Kaka's son, duh!)

Poor Pippo...

Super Pippo (Milan's Fillipo Inzaghi) has not been chosen by Donadoni (the Azzuri's coach) to represent Italy in Euro 2008. Meanwhile, Boriello, Di Natale, Del Piero, and Quagliarella were all picked. This means only Ambrosini, Gattuso, and Pirlo will represent (no Oddo- due to injury-, Bonera or Nesta at defence) AC Milan. The Italian team will be very Inter and Juventus dominated. Well, actually Milan has about the same amount as all the other teams. But still.