Match report: Italy 3 - Ukraine 0 (Quarterfinal 2006 World Cup)

• Goals scored: Zambrotta 6', Toni 59', Toni 69'
• What happened: Italy defeated Ukraine in the quarterfinals of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. They advanced to the semifinals against Germany.
• Players who appeared in the match and who had played at AC Milan during the previous season: Gattuso, Pirlo, Shevchenko
• Players who appeared in the match and who would later play for AC Milan: Zambrotta, Oddo
• Players who were on the bench for this match and who had played at AC Milan during the previous season: Inzaghi, Gilardino, Nesta
• Players who were on the bench for this match and who would later play for AC Milan: None
• Players who played in the match and who I wish played for Milan: Fabio Cannavaro
• Players whose brothers played in this match and who I wish played for Milan: Paolo Cannavaro
• Questions raised by this match: Was this Gianluca Zambrotta's greatest career moment?
• Who did I root for the first time I saw this match? Ukraine
• Things the ESPN announcers did that were annoying: Mispronounce many names ( "Zambratto," "Purrlo," "Cam-rone-a-nay-see," probably almost all of the Ukraine players' names)
• Injured former players/Juventus staff members whose recent scandal-related suicide attempts were frequently mentioned during the broadcast: Gianluca Pessotto
• Relatively amusing injuries to Italy players: Gattuso 14' (kneed in back), Gattuso 26' (wrist stomped on), Cannavaro 47' (hit in groin by ball after Ukraine player missed header), Buffon 50' (bumped head on goalpost making save)
• Words to describe most of the Ukraine players' hair: long, blond, stringy, Owen Wilson-like
• What this match teaches us: Why AC Milan insisted on acquiring Zambrotta (pictured at top) from Barcelona

Below: Ukraine captain and former Milan striker Andriy Shevchenko

Video highlights are below:

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

Milan have a new goalkeeper

A.C. MILAN OFFICIAL NOTE

6/23/2010

A.C. Milan communicate the acquisition of MARCO AMELIA from Genoa, with the right to claim the compartecipation, and the definitive sale of MARCO STORARI to FC Juventus.

The two photos above are of Marco Amelia. The photo below is of Marco Storari.

Match report: Milan 3 - Juventus 0

• Goals scored: Antonini 14', Ronaldinho 29', 67'
• What happened: Antonini scored the first goal of his AC Milan career. Ronaldinho scored two goals. The Juventus fans set off numerous explosions and sang derogatory songs and had to be warned over the public address system that play would be halted if they did not stop.
• Aggregate score of the two Milan-Juventus matches this season: 6-0 (Milan)
• Reasons why fans of both teams were unhappy: Juventus finished in seventh place and had a truly terrible season (for them). Milan did about as well as can be expected and finished in third. Milan fans are upset that the team has not spent more money to bring in top quality players in recent years and also that first year coach Leonardo (pictured above congratulating Antonini on his goal and pictured below being bid farewell by his team) is being forced out by Silvio Berlusconi. The fans repeatedly sang songs in honor of Leonardo until he acknowledged them with a wave.

Below: Milan fans with an enormous set of banners. The internet translates the bottom one as "President failed AWOL".

• Milan personnel who officially said goodbye at today's match: Leonardo and Favalli
• Milan personnel who may have played their last match for the team today: Dida, Inzaghi, Ronaldinho, and about a dozen others
• What this match teaches us: Milan's Serie A 2009-2010 season is over. This means that my daughter will soon be home from her (almost) year in Brazil.

Below are highlights:

Below you can watch the Milan players and staff force Leonardo to come out on the pitch for one last goodbye:

Maicon puts Inter back in first place

On Friday, Inter defeated Juventus 2-0, thus putting Inter (at least temporarily) back in first place in the Serie A standings. The winning goal was scored by Maicon, and is, unfortunately, worth a look.

Milan are still in third place, six points out. On the positive side, at least Juventus lost.

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.

Match report: Juventus 0 - Milan 3

Above-- Nesta celebrating his goal

Below-- Gattuso in action

• Goals scored: Nesta 29', Ronaldinho 72', Ronaldinho 88'
• What happened: Second place Milan beat third place Juventus in Torino. Despite the excellent result, the match was sort of boring.
• How the goals were scored: All three goals were from corner kicks, which apparently Juventus do not know how to defend anymore. Actually, to be fair, I am not sure how well Juventus defended on the last goal, because the pitch was completely obscured, either by fog or else smoke from the fire set by angry fans. (See photos below)
• What this match teaches us: Milan are the only team left who can catch Inter.

Highlights are below:

Match report: Zurich 1 - Milan 1

• Goals scored: Gajic 30', Ronaldinho 64' (penalty)
• What happened: Milan looked mediocre and were lucky to get a draw. Real Madrid beat Marseille 3-1, however, so Milan advance to the knockout round of the Champions League.
• Potentially bad news: Thiago Silva had to leave the game early with a calf injury.
• Startling news: Bayern Munich defeated Juventus. (See photo below) Bayern Munich advance and Juventus are out.
• What this match teaches us: Cristiano Ronaldo is not all bad-- his two goals for Real Madrid helped ensure that Milan advance to the next round.

More from yesterday's Serie A action

Yesterday when I posted the videos of Napoli fans and announcers watching their team play Juventus last year, I did not realize that Napoli was playing Juventus in Turin later that same day. A strange coincidence...and Napoli came from two goals down to beat Juventus 3-2.

Below: Datolo and Lavezzi celebrate a Napoli goal

In addition, I was able to find a photograph of Borriello's second goal against Parma yesterday. If you look carefully, you will notice that he scored with his left foot. In fact, both of his goals were scored with his left foot-- his far weaker foot, in my opinion.

2009-2010 Serie A Update #2

Prior to today's matches, here is the Serie A table:

2009/2010 Italian Serie A
CLUB	P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
Internazionale	10	8	1	1	17	25
Juventus	10	6	3	1	10	21
Sampdoria	10	6	2	2	5	20
Parma	10	5	2	3	0	17
AC Milan	10	4	4	2	-1	16
Genoa	10	5	1	4	-2	16
Palermo	10	4	3	3	1	15
Fiorentina	10	4	3	3	1	15
Bari	10	3	5	2	3	14
Chievo Verona	10	4	2	4	2	14
Udinese	10	4	2	4	0	14
Napoli	10	4	2	4	-2	14
Cagliari	10	4	1	5	-1	13
AS Roma	10	3	2	5	-2	11
Lazio	10	2	4	4	-4	10
Atalanta	10	2	3	5	-3	9
Bologna	10	2	3	5	-6	9
Livorno	10	2	3	5	-6	9
Catania	10	1	4	5	-5	7
Siena	10	1	2	7	-7	5
· Complete Table

Notice that, if Milan had held on and won last Wednesday's game at Napoli, they would now be in fourth place.

As an added bonus, here are a couple of videos. The first one appears to be one of a series in which we get to watch a group of men watching Napoli games on television. In the second, we get to watch an announcer calling the same game. Again, there appears to be an entire series of these videos. The match is Napoli-Juventus from last season, I believe.

2009-2010 Serie A Update #1

After four weeks, two teams have won all their games and are tied for the top spot with 12 points- Sampdoria and Juventus. They are tied on goal difference, but Sampdoria have more total goals, so they are technically the number one club.

At the other end of the table, Atalanta have lost all four matches and have a total of zero points. They have managed to score one goal, however.

As for Milan, they are tied with four other clubs with 7 points. The optimist says that they are tied for fifth place, but the pessimist notices that they are really in eighth place.

TeamMatchesHomeAwayGoals PtsGPWinsDrawsLossesWinsDrawsLossesWinsDrawsLossesGSGASampdoria124400200200103Juventus12440020020081Inter Milan10431011020092Genoa9430120010196Parma7421120001155Fiorentina7421120001144Lazio7421110111044Milan7421110111035Bari6413011002063Chievo6420210110164Roma6420210110188Udinese5412111001177Palermo4411211000234Napoli4411211000257Siena3410300210169Bologna2402201101114Livorno2402202000215Catania1401301100259Cagliari1401300201126Atalanta0400400200217

Milan 1 - Juventus 1

Milan tied Juventus 1-1 today, pretty much ending whatever incredibly remote chance there was that they could catch Inter and win this year's Scudetto.  The tie also means that Juventus still have their own (remote) chance of catching Milan for second place in Serie A.  Seedorf scored for Milan early in the second half, but then Iaquinta tied it up only a couple of minutes later.  The most important statistics are these, however:

• Number of loud explosions set off by the fans during the match: 6.
• Numbers of times Inzaghi was whistled for being offside: 4

Photo above: Paolo Maldini, right, playing his last match against Juventus before his retirement, chases Juventus' Amauri.

Hat Trick for Inzaghi

AC Milan defeated Atalanta 3-0 today in Serie A action.  Filippo Inzaghi (pictured above) scored all three goals.  Milan are currently in third place behind Inter and Juventus.