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So don't blame Roma fans if they were willing to invest a little more in Sunday's match against Juve in the Stadio Olympico than, say, an equivalent tilt against Inter. For a team that is finally bold enough to set the Scudetto as a reasonable, if not expected, goal, the ability to take three points at home against Juve still stands as one of the most telling yardsticks. And, by that account, the 2-2 draw is exactly the kind of result that leads the rest of us to wonder if this season will turn out to be, like the match itself, nothing more than an entertaining diversion that leaves Roma partisans ultimately disappointed.
The knock on teams like Roma is always the mysterious and undefined lack of "killer instinct," something that apparently only shows up in big games (that I Lupi hadn't allowed a goal until Trezeguet's 16th-minute header Sunday is likely a distant memory in tomorrow's sports pages). While such sentiments may be nails on a chalkboard to the more analytically inclined, game's like Sunday's serve as the foxhole for an atheist; it just seemed that Juve was going to make something happen in the game's twilight. And, of course, more that thing happened: the officials took over, looking past blatant fouls and, without much in the way of explanation or justification (or much precedent), awarded Juve the late throw-in deep in Roma's territory after Cicinho apparently took to long to put the ball in play. That throw-in, of course, led to Iaquinta's equalizer in the 87th minute.
Perhaps it's facile to lay everything at the feet of the officials, and it's certainly true that Juve's luck was the product of design, or at least spirited play in the game's final 10 minutes. Ultimately, one becomes breathless trying to identify all of the ways winners keep winning, and frustrated by trying to figure out whether or not an emerging team has yet to achieve that status. It's early enough in the season to wait it out and see if my favorite nickname of the Roma side — La Magica — is fitting with respect to this campaign.
But one thing is clear after Sunday: Juve's still got it in them to beat any team in Italy, and perhaps any team in Europe, though they won't have a chance at the latter this season. And, in that respect, La Vecchia Signora has proven to be as stubborn in its ways as we expect of the elderly.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Serie A Sunday: Some things never change
Monday, September 17, 2007
The best of what's on TV, Sept 18-23
This week, in a word, is going to be absolutely bananas. Group play hath begun in earnest, though this week's slate offers up only two CL games that are a lock to be captivating. Nonetheless, for those of us without Setanta, it's our first opportunity to see the superteam that is Barça against the best side France has to offer, which alone is worth the cost of upgrading your cable package to include ESPN Deportes (which is stupidly available, at least in my area, only as a part of the Spanish package, and not the sports ... who wants to come over for some hot telenovela action?).
After the Champions League's opening salvo, it's on to a marquee Sunday offering from both the EPL and Serie A, with Juventus heading to the capital for a face-off against Roma, followed by Chelsea's trip to Old Trafford. Best part? Both should be over before the early NFL games, which means there's really no excuse for movement at all.
Real Madrid v. Werder Bremen
2:30 p.m., ESPN Deportes
Porto v. Liverpool
4:45 p.m., ESPN Deportes
Chelsea v. Rosenborg
7 p.m., ESPN Deportes
AC Milan v. Benfica
2 a.m., ESPN Deportes
Barcelona v. Lyon
2:30 p.m., ESPN Deportes
Sporting Lisbon v. Manchester United
2:30 p.m., ESPN2
Arsenal v. Sevilla
7 p.m., ESPN Deportes
Leave it to ESPN to totally botch its coverage in a day in which what's shaping up to be the game of the week — or, at the very least, the second-best — happens to come at the same time that David Beckham's Former Team Manchester United (did you know David Beckham played for Manchested United? He did! Now he plays in America! And he calls it "football!"). The decision to air Barça-Lyon on the main stage should have been a no-brainer, but alas we'll be treated to two hours of Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani beating up on their former mates. Barça, of course, is expected to cruise through its group — if not the entire tournament — but no team is capable of making domination so damn attractive. The nightcap should be as, if not more, compelling, with Arsenal and Sevilla facing off in the first week's most balanced and aesthetically pleasing match. The Gunners have been brilliant so far this season in EPL play, but play between the pipes is usually in the spotlight during international play, and that happens to be Arsenal's most glaring weakness. Sevilla is an up-and-coming side that appears ready to be to La Liga what Arsenal is to the EPL; a team that makes up for not having the financial clout of the league's upper-echelon by developing talent and employing a playing style that is both gorgeous and dizzying for the opposition. This is a football fan's football match.
Roma v. Dynamo Kyiv
2 a.m., ESPN Deportes
Fenerbahce v. Inter Milan
3 p.m., ESPN Deportes
Fans of Italian soccer should enjoy Thursday, as the two best bets to make the knockout stage from Serie A are featured in games in which they should roll. Of course, any time Inter's involved, you can count on some unforeseen drama, and Roma skipper Francesco Totti hasn't looked very sharp so far in league play.
Liverpool v. Birmingham City
9:45 a.m., Setanta
Arsenal v. Derby County
9:55 a.m., Fox Soccer Channel
The only thing notable about these mismatches is the fact that both Liverpool and Arsenal will be coming off mid-week Champions League tilts, which means both favorites will likely be playing with less than a full deck against overmatched competition. Does it mean an upset is likely in either case? No. But it's certainly more probable now than it would be in a regular week.
English Premier League
Fulham v. Manchester City
Noon, Fox Soccer Channel
Team America is on a little bit of an upswing, losing by only a goal to hard-charging Aston Villa two weeks ago, and forging a final-minute, 3-3 comeback draw against the foundering Spurs last week. Conveniently, Man City has cooled off considerably after a torrid start. While Fulham is still an undecided underdog, this writer has a feeling that the Cottagers are in good standing to deliver an upset in front of home fans. Screw it: I'll go ahead and call it 2-1 in Fulham's favor, with Yank Clint Dempsey bulging the old onion basket in the 86th minute.
La Liga
Barcelona v. Sevilla
4 p.m., GolTV
Sevilla gets its second opportunity to knock off one of the big boys in a week, this time in league play. Barça's construction, while potentially breathtaking, is also pretty volatile, as Frank Rijkaard struggles to find spots for four world-class attackers on one field without going too far outside the box in terms of scheme(though there's a decent chance that Eto'o will be out to injury, which should make things a little more clear-cut). Barça has only one win to show for its first three league efforts (against two draws), while Sevilla has dispatched both of its season-opening opponents in impressive fashion. Yeah, Barça features three of this decade's best players (Ronaldinho, Henry and Messi), but would it really be that much of an upset if Sevilla comes into Camp Nou and wins? I don't think so.
Roma v. Juventus
9 a.m., Fox Soccer Channel
Sunday starts off with a bang, as La Vecchia Signora invade the quaint town of Rome, Italy, for the first marquee matchup of the young season. Juve was looking like it hadn't missed a beat until getting stunned by Udinese in Week 3, Udinese! At home! With the shine off Juve's early start, this one's looking like Roma's to lose.
English Premier League
Manchester United v. Chelsea
11 a.m., Fox Soccer Channel
The nice thing about games like this is that there's nothing really left to say except: I'll be watching. Continue Reading
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Mid-Week Fixture: Cold-Hard Ka(ka)sh
For all its unquantifiable factors such as useful statistics to compare players, one thing is clear when it comes to success in the soccer — the more you spend, generally the better you do.
The Gazzetta della Sport, the daily bible for sport in the country, recently published a list of all player salaries in Serie A. AC Milan's Kaka is the highest-paid player, pulling in 6 million Euros (roughly US$8.34 million) a season, and Milan is the biggest spender out of all clubs, totalling 120 million Euros (US$168.8 million) in player salaries.
It shouldn't be much of a surprise that Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus are far and away the biggest spenders, at 120m, 110m and 97m total, respectively, but three things struck me from this report:
1. Italian soccer players don't make nearly as much money as I thought they did.
2. The gulf between the 3rd- and 4th-highest spenders is massive - Juventus spends nearly 40 million more than Roma.
3. Lazio wins the 2006-07 award for Biggest Bang for Their Euro, although the asterisk for that is about as big as the gulf between the spending of Juventus and Roma.
Historically, Italian soccer has been the land of the rich. The prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, used his TV ownership money to fund the great Milan teams of the last 20 years, while Fiat has been the financial muscle behind Juventus for decades. It clearly isn't widespread - most Italian clubs are barely fiscally solvent, even those in Serie A - but clubs like Inter Milan, Roma and Lazio have somehow found a way to keep up with the Big Two without being run into the ground by (too much) corrupt bookkeeping.
Despite being the destination for global footballers during the 1990s, Italian soccer started to decline, in money spent in the transfer market and the overall success of its clubs in Europe. This trend coincided with the rise of the English Premier League, whose NFL-like business model created a shift in worldwide popularity and television revenue. In 2007, the Premier League was the biggest spender in the transfer market and on player salaries, followed by Spain, Italy, Germany and France. All leagues have a giant gulf between the haves and have-nots, but in England, the television revenue is at least distributed evenly, giving everybody at least a reasonable shot; Clint Dempsey's winning goal for Fulham last year against Liverpool not only kept Fulham in the Premier League, it earned them tens of millions of pounds they wouldn't have gotten this year in the Coca-Cola Championship (England's second-tier). Clubs in Spain and Italy negotiate their own TV deals, meaning some clubs (Barcelona, Real Madrid) earn more than others.
Which is more important to club owners, pride and prestige or dollars and cents? Based on the influx of foreign owners in the Premier League, most of whom have or had little rooting interest in the teams themselves, it's clearly the latter. When owning an EPL team can create as much revenue as your typical American sports franchise, that trend surely won't go out of vogue anytime soon.
Back to Italy, I was surprised at how little, relatively, money the players made. Kaka probably makes less money than LA Dodger Luis Gonzalez, but he surely is the better player and more marketable throughout the world; the money Milan must make off him is staggering. Being a star in Europe, South America and Asia must have its financial rewards - I'm sure Kaka makes plenty of money from his Adidas contract - but he's still making a smaller salary than if he played for Real Madrid or Chelsea. No wonder both teams figured they could have signed him this summer.
Finally, the Lazio conundrum. They look to have made out like gangbusters in 2007, spending just 18 million Euros for a team that reached the lucrative Champions League group stages and being the flagship for more overt fascist propoganda. They certainly did; however, you must remember that the 2006 match-fixing scandal in Italy sent perennial powerhouse Juventus down to Serie B for a season and docked Milan eight points in Serie A. Lazio, meanwhile, were also punished in the scandal, but their original punishment of relegation was changed to an 11-point docking in Serie A to just a three-point one. They had a great season, finishing third, but you can't expect the team to match that result this time around, or for as long as they keep the purse strings tightened.
I (nearly) told you so
Last week, I had an (unfinished) post about how France's likelihood of securing a good result in Italy had heightened exponentially, simply because its coach, Raymond Domenach, was suspended for it.
My reasoning for the prediction was based on him making numerous dubious decisions during the World Cup and his inability to put together a strong team, despite a ridiculous amount of talent. And, as an avid astrologist, he distrusted Scorpios so much that he didn't include any of them in his team. It made sense that I didn't trust him, either.
This prediction proved fairly prophetic: France tied Italy in Milan 0-0 in what Diesel described as a "horrible" game (I was too busy going to another "horrible game, Michigan-Oregon, to watch). Five days later, Domenach returned to the sidelines and France promptly lost. At home. To Scotland.
As a Scorpio, I was well vindicated.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
The best of what's on TV, Sept 10-16
After a week off from league play for Euro Cup qualifiers, we're back in action. Let's get to the games!
France v. Scotland
2:55 p.m., Setanta
In what's already proven to be the most compelling qualifying group in the competition, this could be the best game yet. Les Bleus are all hot and bothered over the booing of their anthem prior to Saturday's scoreless draws against Italy, which was classless and rightfully condemned by the Italian players. It's ironic, though, that France is so concerned over sportsmanship and respect, what with the fact that France coach Raymond Domenech accused Italy of bribing referees in a 1999 U-21 match, and previous to that accused Scotland's ball boys of stalling in a 1-0 defeat last season. Yeah, France — particularly its jackass coach — really deserves respect from everyone. To boot, Thierry Henry — that's French for traitor — will be suspended after getting booked against the Azzuri. While I doubt the Scottish fans will start any international incidents, midfielder Alex McLeish for his part said he's ready to shove it up the Blues' derrieres, Wednesday, and to that the rest of the world says: Espérons!
David Beckham's Soccer USA
11 p.m., Fox Soccer Channel
Ha ha, just checking to make sure you were paying attention. Even Posh Spice won't watch this garbage.
Tottenham v. Arsenal
8:25 a.m., Fox Soccer Channel
Before the start of the season, it was fashionable to suggest that the Spurs would be supplanting Arsenal in the league's top four. One month into the season, the rivals find themselves on opposite ends of the table, with the Gunners tied with three other teams atop the league with 10 points through four matches, while Tottenham sits among the relegation crew with 4 points through five matches. Obviously, there's lots of season left, but one has the feeling that the Spurs absolutely must come away from this tilt with at least a point if they're going to have any legitimate claim as a contender. Meanwhile, all the clouds have cleared for the Gunners, who not only have started off the season with some inspired play, but also have the security of knowing that the "In Arsene We Trust" signs will be displayed in Emirates Stadium for another three seasons.
Premier League
Chelsea v. Blackburn
Noon, Fox Soccer Channel
In this space two weeks ago, I not-so-boldly claimed that I "knew" Chelsea would beat Aston Villa. Well, I was delightfully wrong, and The Villans picked up a new (albeit casual) fan with their exciting young nucleus of players. More importantly, however, it was proof that Chelsea is vulnerable right now despite being tied atop the league with 10 points. Frank Lampard's status is in flux after an apparent re-injury of his toe in England's 3-0 win over Israel, Saturday, the owner is still making a scene of his displeasure with the troops (this time by following up a half's worth of scowls with an early departure during the Blues' loss to Aston Villa), and poor Michael Ballack just can't understand why no one will talk to him. By the way, doesn't Steve Sidwell play for these guys now? The offseason transfer didn't even dress for the game against The Villans. One can't think of a better time for the Rovers to reverse their recent (lack of) success at Stamford Bridge.
Premier League
Portsmouth v. Liverpool
4:30 p.m., Setanta (Delay)
The hits just keep coming for Pompey, who will attempt to recover from a two-match skid against table-toppers Arsenal and Chelsea with a tilt against another league leader in the Reds. While it's nice that they'll at least be on home pitch for this one, Liverpool is looking like a beast right now, and Gerrard's inspired performance against Israel has cast aside any worries over his fitness.
Serie A
Siena v. AC Milan
4:30 p.m., Fox Soccer Channel
With FSC not yet announcing its third Serie A fixture for Sunday, this is shaping up to be the best of the lot from the Italian league. And that's only because Milan's playing; we'll not expect anything spectacular from pointless Siena, which appears well on its way to a season-long battle in relegation zone.
Manchester City v. Aston Villa
11 a.m., Fox Soccer Channel
While the Spurs-Gunners tilt is the catchiest of the weekend, this is the one with the most potential for drama. Both sides are early surprises, with the Sven-tastic Citizens sitting just one point out of the league lead despite a 0-1 loss to Blackburn in their last fixtures, and the Villans coming off the aforementioned upset of Chelsea.
Continue Reading
Sunday, August 26, 2007
The Best of What's on TV, Aug 27-Sept 2
With all the European Leagues in full swing, it'll be a jam-packed weekend of EPL and Serie A fixtures on Fox Soccer. Nothing really worth watching in La Liga this week, but there is an appearance by Spain's Sevilla in Friday's UEFA Super Cup tilt. If you don't have a ton of room on the DVR, go ahead and delete those episodes of Ken Burns' Jazz you've been sitting on for the last six months, because you're going to need the space.
UEFA Champions League (3rd Qualifying Round, 2nd Leg)
Last year's runner-up is walking the razor's edge against the upstart French side, going into this match with a tie after an unimpressive 1-0 victory in the Liverpool home leg. Sure, it's almost unfathomable that the Reds will actually end up on the losing side of the ledger to a team that's enjoying it's first go-round in the Champions League — that's ever — but stranger things have happened. On the bright side, it appears Rafa Benitez's vendetta against Peter Crouch only applies to domestic matches; the robot-dancing phenom played all 90 minutes against Toulouse in the first leg, contributing the assist in the game's lone goal.
UEFA Super Cup
AC Milan v. Sevilla
2:30 p.m., Fox Soccer Channel
In one of the stranger hardware games of each season, UEFA Cup champs Sevilla will take on Champions League victors Milan in what could be a surprisingly good game, if recent history is to be taken at face value. Sevilla's going for a second-straight Super Cup after last season's 6-3 drubbing of Barca, so there's reason to believe that any effort by the Rossoneri to hold back will be met with some pretty fierce resistance.
Premier League
Fulham v. Tottenham Hotspur
9:55 a.m., Fox Soccer Channel
It's Team America vs. Team Sleeper, as everyone's favorite pick to upset the usual gridlock in the top four of the EPL gets an opportunity to take out some rocky-start aggression on a side that appears well on its way to relegation. But the silver lining here is the opportunity to see former USMNT keeper Kasey Keller back between the pipes, and fellow Yank Clint Dempsey continue to prove that he should have been starting all along for the foundering Cottagers. If Dempsey scores another goal this week, he should be a lock to appear in another rap video, shortly.
Premier League
Liverpool v. Derby County
9:55 a.m., Setanta
It's pronounced "Darby," guys. I can't stress that enough.
Premier League
Manchester United v. Sunderland
Noon, Fox Soccer Channel
I don't know about you, but I'm taking Man U's one-point lead in the standings over Sunderland as evidence that this one will be a thriller. That's not completely in jest, either: The Devils have scored exactly one goal through three games, and they'll be without Ronaldo (suspension) and Rooney, who's apparently trying to convince everyone he can play with a broken foot. Yes, Man-U should roll, but let's not assume the season-opening slump is over until it's actually over. Oh, and this game also marks the return of former Manchester United captain Roy Keane to Old Trafford, this time as Sunderland's manager. Can he pull one over on Fergie?
Serie A
Empoli v. Inter Milan
2:25 p.m., Fox Soccer Channel
OK, it's probably a little early to say Inter's "slumping," but the season-opening draw against Udinese was baffling, considering last year's Scudetto winner went to great lengths to get even better in the offseason. Inter usually reserves its swan-dives for European competition, so expect the Nerazzuri to actually show up. That said, Empoli's a plucky squad that's looking to prove a point after a UEFA Cup berth, and Inter just received news that stopper Marco Materazzi will be out for at least a couple of months after a leg injury suffered in a friendly/humiliating loss to Hungary last week. Materazzi said the injury was "fate," and a sign that he was not meant to slander any of the French players' sisters in the Sept. 8 Euro Cup qualifier. Il Dio, truly, works in mysterious ways.
Arsenal v. Portsmouth
8 a.m., Setanta
The good news for the Gooners is that Pompey hasn't won a road fixture since before this writer was a footie fan (OK, not really). More good news for Arsenal is that L.A.H. (Life After Henry) hasn't turned out to be all that bad, thanks in large part to the early-season exploits of Fabregas and Van Persie. The good news for Pompey? They were a goalkeeper error away from a 0-0 draw against Chelsea last week, though I'm sure Mourinho would tell you the only reason the Blues didn't score another goal was because he wanted them to work on passing within the box.
Serie A
Roma v. Siena
9 a.m., Fox Soccer Channel
I'm not going to lie: This game will be an absolute beat-down. But it should be a pretty beat-down; have I mentioned that Roma plays the most beautiful football in the world right now? Fawning aside, the Giallorossi have two fairly easy fixtures left before a tone-setting tilt against Juventus on Sept. 23, and Francesco Totti did not look match-fit in the opener; these next two matches will be a much-needed opportunity for the Roma skipper to get his legs back before the real competition arrives.
Premier League
Aston Villa v. Chelsea
11 a.m., Fox Soccer Channel
Chelsea has 10 points through four games. Aston Villa has four, and that includes a win over a feckless Fulham squad. I only know two things: 1) Chelsea will win; 2) It will be closer than you think. Don't ask me to justify that statement; I just know it will be the case.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Welcome back, you old bags
in a country where all anyone talks about is soccer."
- Serie A President Antonio Matarrese
The 2006-07 season was worse than anyone could have expected, in just about every sense imaginable, for Serie A. To say Italian Soccer was "shamed" would be an understatement; a league that already suffers from an inferiority complex thanks to sharing a continent with juggernauts like the Premier League and La Liga was made to look ridiculous last season. The match-fixing scandal that sent down Juventus and led to point reductions for four other teams reinforced the notion abroad that Serie A was a relatively lawless league, as did the mid-season Sicilian derby riot in Catania, which resulted in the death of police officer, a suspension of matches for more than a week, and half the remaining league games being played behind closed doors. That kind of negative publicity — make that outright embarrassment — will likely have the effect of a talent drain on the league, as players with free transfers decide that perhaps they'd rather ply their trade somewhere a little less unstable.
It's difficult to play the hypothetical game, but it's not a stretch to say that had those two events not taken place, 2006-07 could have been a banner year for Serie A. Inter put up a season for the ages, and while it's easy to say that Juve's absence made it less credible, it's not a stretch to believe that the nerazurri would have lapped the field no matter what (though a poor showing in the Champions League took some lustre out of the season). Milan further augmented its position in European football with a rousing march to the Champions League title, and Roma's trip to the semifinals — mostly on the strength of Golden Boot winner Francesco Totti — was no small feat either. Even better, that it was those two particular teams, who play the most attractive football Italy has to offer, succeeding on the international stage took the wind out of the sails of critics who trot out the same, tired crap about Italian soccer being the aesthetic equivalent of a molasses waterfall.
That said, it just wasn't the same without Juve, the Yankees of Italian soccer. Beyond the fact that anything that happened last season comes with a qualification ("Yeah, but that was the year Juventus was beating up on the Riminis of the world"), the TV schedule was noticeably absent of watchable games. And one game into the new season, The Old Lady put together a game that served notice to the rest of league, featuring a four-goal flurry in the final 20 minutes of its game against relegation-bound Livorno en route to a 5-1 victory. Yes, this team isn't of the same class as the 2005-6 squad, thanks to the post-penalty defections of a handful of the team's best players, but it's a team good enough to earn a Champions League berth and be considered one of the four teams with a legitimate shot at the Scudetto.
It's trendy to say this could be one of the greatest seasons in Serie A's recent history. Inter is perhaps even more frightening this season, after picking up Roma standout left back Christian Chivu and forward David Suazo. Milan is what it always is, a world-class side that will have a full season with Ronaldo up front. Roma has put together a side capable both of playing the country's prettiest football, and of making a sustained run at the title, picking up a half-dozen players in the transfer market to flank Totti. And Juve is, well, Juve.
But it goes beyond the possibility that this could be a season for the ages; it's safe to say that a season for the ages is needed if Serie A is to continued being mentioned in the same breath as its peers to the east. Continue Reading
