One more transfer rumor

WE WILL TRY

8/25/2010 8:23:00 PM

Adriano Galliani has been speaking from Barcelona on the negotiations to bring Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Milan which are ongoing.

(In the photo: ADRIANO GALLIANI IN BARCELONA TODAY)

MILAN – Speaking to Milan Channel from Barcelona, Adriano Galliani takes stock of the situation on the meeting with Barcelona and the negotiations that are underway for Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

“Negotiations will continue tomorrow. Tomorrow at noon I have an appointment with the president of Barcelona. Let's see. The negotiations are very complex, very difficult, very expensive, but the relationship with Sandro Rosell is really good and he is very nice. The will of Barcelona is to sell the player to Milan, the availability of the player also like that. There is a lot of money to overcome and this is the difficulty.

“But I would point out that there are not any other moves being made by Milan. There is Borriello, there is Huntelaar. I often see in the papers that they are part of the transfer, but there is no truth in that. We are here to try to take Ibrahimovic to Milan, that’s all. There are other hypotheses on the table.

“I will not deceive anyone but I will not even say that we do it for sure. I will try and that’s why I am here, I do not move, even it means not going to Milan against Lecce on Sunday. I do all that is in my ability and capacity to try to bring this great champion to Milan. It is very difficult.

"What effect has made me to see Ibra at the stadium? The effect is as great as always, a great champion who has absolutely given his willingness to come to Milan. Now we must solve the problem.”

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)

Match report: Cagliari 2 - Milan 3

Above: Davide Astori right after scoring an own goal to put Milan ahead 3-2

• Goals scored: Borriello 7', Ragatzu 17', Huntelaar 19', Matri 32', Astori (own goal) 38'
• What happened: Five goals were scored in the first half. The last time these two teams met, seven goals were scored.
• What else happened: Both Inter and Roma won, so Milan are still in third place.
• Questions about this game: Was Huntelaar's goal from an even longer distance than the one Pirlo scored against Real Madrid in the Champions League?
• What this match teaches us: Neither team seems to be able to play defense.

Match report: Fiorentina 1 - Milan 2

• Goals scored: Gilardino 14', Huntelaar 81', Pato 90+2'
• What happened: Because this match had been rescheduled and conflicted with Champions League play, it was not shown on television. Milan were losing, but came back and won late. Milan are back in second place, four points behind Inter.

Match report: Milan 3 - Udinese 2

• Goals scored: Huntelaar 7', Pato 39', Floro Flores 45', Huntelaar 57', Di Natale 86'
• What happened: Milan kept scoring but also played sloppily, so they kept letting Udinese back in the match. I spent most of the match worrying about injuries.
• Milan players who could not play due to injury: Seedorf, Borriello, Antonini
• Milan players who returned today from injury: Nesta, Pato
• Milan players who had to leave early due to possible injury: Mancini, Thiago Silva (!)
• Milan players who appear to be quite rusty despite having scored a goal: Pato
• Milan player who made the pass that led to each of Milan's goals: Ronaldinho. The second one, a long pass down the middle of the field to Pato, was especially nice.
• Famous visitors to the San Siro to watch the match: Sir Alex Ferguson
• Strange sightings from today's match: Escorting the referees down the tunnel to the pitch were three men dressed as admirals/hotel doormen. (Sorry, no photo was available)
• What this match teaches us: Manchester United are coming on Tuesday.

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: Catania 0 - Milan 2

• Goals scored: Huntelaar 90+3', Huntelaar 90+5'
• What happened: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar signed with Milan back in August. He rarely played, however, and, when he did, it did not go well. Many people believed that the signing of Huntelaar was a complete waste of money. Today, Milan went to Catania and played a rather dull match. Ninety minutes went by without any real scoring chances for either team. Huntelaar came on as a late substitute and then scored two goals in injury time, his first two goals of the season.
• What this match teaches us: We like Huntelaar.

Above: Huntelaar celebrates after scoring.

Below: Huntelaar's teammates congratulate him after scoring.

Highlights are below:

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: 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.

Even more about Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

On August 6, 2009, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar spoke to the Milan Channel. Here are his words:

More about Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

The video below was taken when Milan's newest signing, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, still played for Ajax. Practicing with him is Luis Saurez.

AC Milan sign a new striker

All summer long AC Milan fans have been waiting to find out who the club would sign to replace the world famous player who just left. Rumors about Edin Dzeko and Luis Fabiano turned out not to be true, and, given Milan's disastrous pre-season form, many fans were quite worried. But, finally, today the club announced the signing of Klaas-Jan Huntelaar from Real Madrid.

For highlights, watch the video below. Huntelaar, it seems, is fond of bicycle kicks.