What I have been listening to lately #39

Happy birthday, Johnny Cash (born February 26, 1932).

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: Bari 0 - Milan 2

I don't really have time for a full match report, but I will mention the following highlights-- Borriello's goal, his hug for coach Leonardo after scoring, Abbiati's penalty save, and the always excellent black road uniforms.

What I have been reading lately #45

Left Foot Forward: A Year in the Life of a Journeyman Footballer by Garry Nelson and Anthony Fowles

Garry Nelson played football in England for many, many years without ever reaching the Premiership (or, before that, the First Division). He played for a number of clubs, such as Southend United, Plymouth Argyle, Brighton & Hove Albion, and Charlton Athletic. He wrote this book during one of the very last years of his career, when he played for Charlton.

Below: Nelson is the player in red.

2010 Winter Olympics Update #1

The Vancouver Winter Olympics are not yet to the halfway point, and already lots of people are complaining about what a disaster they are turning out to be. Whether it is the warm weather, the death of a Georgian luger, Zamboni problems, or the confused starts to several biathlon events, it is easy to find things that are going wrong. And don't forget the ridiculously uncompetitive scores coming out of the women's hockey tournament.

Champions League update: Mind-boggling mistakes lead to mind-boggling goals

Porto 2 - Arsenal 1

Porto's first goal was nothing more than a single mistake by the goalkeeper, Lukasz Fabianski. Porto's second goal was a bit more complicated, because it involved multiple mistakes. Arsenal defender Sol Campbell's back pass to the keeper was picked up by Fabianski (one mistake), which resulted in an indirect free kick for Porto. Fabianski then handed the ball directly to the referee (yet another mistake) who allowed Porto to quickly restart the game and score.

Bayern Munich 2 - Fiorentina 1

In the Bayern Munich-Fiorentina match, the mistakes all belong to the referee and linesman. On Bayern Munich's first goal, the referee had called a penalty before the ball went in the net, so he disallowed the initial goal. Luckily for everyone involved, the subsequent penalty was made, so the score turned out 1-0 as it should have. Bayern Munich's second goal is even simpler-- the fault lies completely with the linesman, who failed to call Klose offside.

Match report: Milan 2 - Manchester United 3

Above: Wayne Rooney scores Manchester United's second goal

Below: Wayne Rooney scores Manchester United's third goal

• Goals scored: Ronaldinho 3', Scholes 36', Rooney 66', Rooney 74', Seedorf 85'
• What happened: Milan scored right off the bat on a deflected shot by Ronaldinho. For the next hour, Milan had many more chances to score but could not do so. Unfortunately, during that time, Manchester United scored a ridiculous goal. Between the 60th and 84th minutes, Milan went completely flat and allowed Manchester United to run all over them. Wayne Rooney scored two goals. Near the end, Seedorf scored an amazing goal on a back/side heel and Milan came back to life. They were unable to score again, however.
• What happened on Manchester United's first goal: The ball was crossed in to Paul Scholes in front of the net. He swung his foot at the ball and completely missed. The ball, however, struck his non-kicking, planted leg and rolled slowly into the corner of the net.
• What this match teaches us: In order to defeat Manchester United in the second leg at Old Trafford next month, Milan must either win by two or win 3-2 and then win the subsequent shoot-out.

Highlights are below:

In today's other match, Lyon beat Real Madrid 1-0. Highlights are below:

Late official announcement from AC Milan

TODAY IN MILAN: MANCHESTER UNITED

2/16/2010

MILAN - Very soon, at their training ground near the San Siro stadium, Manchester United will have lunch. In their hour-by-hour account of the Red Devils' day in Milan, the official site manutd.com refers of the stretching session held this morning after breakfast by Sir Alex Ferguson's team.

Great moments in World Cup history #4

2006 Round of 16: Portugal 1 - Holland 0

This match set a record for the number of red and yellow cards.

Champions League match preview: Milan versus Manchester United

AC Milan has made several official announcements in advance of tomorrow's match against Manchester United:

Back To List

THIAGO SILVA AND THE OTHERS: THE MEDICAL SITUATION

2/14/2010

MILANELLO - The medical situation: today Thiago Silva, whose conditions will be further evaluated tomorrow, will do a double training session. Marco Borriello remains in doubt for Tuesday's match against Manchester United and will undergo a check tomorrow. Also tomorrow morning Mancini will undergo an MRI scan to evaluate his quadriceps injury. On Tuesday, meanwhile, there will be a new ultrasound exam for Gianluca Zambrotta.

MILAN-MANCHESTER UTD: THE ROSSONERI'S CALLED-UP PLAYERS

2/15/2010

MILANELLO - These are the 21 called-up players of coach Leonard for tomorrow's clash against Manchester United: Abbiati, Dida, Abate, Antonini, Bonera, Favalli, Jankulovski, Kaladze, Nesta, Oddo, Thiago Silva, Ambrosini, Beckham, Flamini, Gattuso, Pirlo, Seedorf, Huntelaar, Inzaghi, Pato, Ronaldinho. Unavailable players: Borriello, Zambrotta.

In case you don't remember what happened the last time these two clubs met in the Champions League (videos one and two are from the first leg; three and four from the second leg)--

Match of the day: Napoli 0 - Inter 0

One of the more exciting nil-nil games I have ever seen. Inter are still in first place. Napoli are in fourth.

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.

What I have been listening to lately #38

What I have been listening to lately #37

Great moments in World Cup history #3

1994 Quarterfinal: Bulgaria 2 - Germany 1

Bulgarian superstar Hristo Stoichkov played on the great Barcelona squad of the early 1990s. He is best known, however, for this free kick, which helped knock the defending World Champion Germany out of the 1994 tournament. Bulgaria went on to lose to Italy in the semi-finals.

Note-- I believe that the man you can hear shouting before the kick is taken is Germany goalkeeper Bodo Illgner yelling at teammate Lothar Matthaus to move more to the left.

This will probably turn out to be the goal of the year

Back in December of 2009, Maynor Figueroa scored to help Wigan go ahead of Stoke 2-1. The final score was 2-2.

Great moments in World Cup history #2

1998 Argentina versus England

This game had everything-- Michael Owen's most famous goal, Argentina's clever goal off the free kick, Beckham's red card. Everybody knew about it and everybody watched it, even my wife at work, I think.

Great moments in World Cup history #1

In just a few months, we will all be watching the World Cup finals from South Africa. In preparation for this important event, Ape Canyon News Service will be featuring some of the most exciting moments from past World Cups.

Our first installment is from the group stage of the 1990 World Cup held in Italy. Germany were already through to the next round, but Colombia needed a win or tie to advance. Germany were leading late in the match when Freddy Rincon scored one of my all-time favorite goals in stoppage time. Later that day, I created a fish stew in his honor and called it Guisado para Freddy Rincon. I seem to recall sending the recipe to him care of the Colombian Embassy in Washington, DC. I am not sure, however, if he ever received it.

2009-2010 Serie A Update #3

Here are the latest Serie A standings. I believe they include all of today's matches.

2009/2010 Italian Serie A
CLUB	P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
Internazionale	22	16	4	2	29	52
AS Roma	23	13	5	5	12	44
AC Milan	22	12	6	4	14	42
Napoli	23	10	8	5	5	38
Palermo	23	10	7	6	5	37
Sampdoria	23	10	6	7	-1	36
Juventus	23	10	5	8	5	35
Genoa	23	10	5	8	0	35
Cagliari	22	9	5	8	5	32
Bari	23	8	8	7	5	32
Fiorentina	22	9	4	9	3	31
Chievo Verona	23	8	5	10	-1	29
Parma	22	8	5	9	-6	29
Bologna	23	6	7	10	-7	25
Udinese	22	6	6	10	-3	24
Catania	23	5	8	10	-7	23
Livorno	23	6	5	12	-16	23
Lazio	23	4	10	9	-7	22
Atalanta	23	5	5	13	-13	20
Siena	23	3	4	16	-22	13

Roma and Napoli have made some of the biggest moves up the table, while biggest drops appear to be by Juventus and Parma.

Abandoned Books and/or Movies #8

Malaria Dreams: An African Adventure (Large Print Edition)- Stuart Stevens

I originally read this book almost twenty years ago. It is about a guy who drives his friend's car across the Sahara desert.

Making the Grades: My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industry - Todd Farley

Todd Farley worked for a long time scoring standardized tests. Not surprisingly, there are a lot of inaccuracies, problems, and places for random weirdness in the scoring of standardized tests. This book probably would have been better as a long magazine article.

Driving Like Crazy - P.J. O'Rourke

The title is actually a lot longer than just three words. The book is also.

Vrooom!! Conversations with the Grand Prix Champions - Peter Manso. (No picture available)

This book was written in 1969, I believe. If you would like to learn more about Grand Prix racers and what they think about modern art, H. Rap Brown, and the Vietnam war, this is the book for you.

Match report: Bologna 0 - Milan 0

• Goals scored: None
• What happened: Milan controlled the ball for almost the entire game, passing it around to each other in the middle of the field. Ronaldinho hit the crossbar, Ambrosini hit right where the goal post meets the crossbar. Bologna occasionally counter-attacked. No one scored.
• Things I have never seen before: Milan wearing red shorts (see photo above); newly signed Mancini starting for Milan.
• Things I have not seen in a long time: Bonera back from injury.
• Milan players who did well today: Pirlo, Abate
• Milan players who basically did nothing worth mentioning today: Ronaldinho, Seedorf, Borriello
• Milan players who are still injured: Pato, Nesta
• Bizarre interruptions to the broadcast on Fox Soccer Channel: In the 81st minute, the broadcast signal abruptly changed to C-SPAN, where Senator John McCain was talking in a Senate committee room. Then it changed to the Emergency Alert System, on which Civil Authorities were broadcasting a Required Monthly Test. About one minute of the game was interrupted. I was hoping that Milan would score during that time, but they didn't.
• What this match teaches us: Sometimes scoring goals seems easy, and sometimes it doesn't.

There is really no point in posting highlights today.

What I have been listening to lately #36

Jo Jo's Jacket

What I have been listening to lately #35