Rant...and a video
I get two pages of soccer per week in my local newspaper. Two. One on Sunday, and one on Monday. If I'm lucky and look hard enough, I can also find some fixtures and match results on the Scoreboard page.
Which is why it saddens, frustrates and angers me to no end to find a third of a page dedicated to an article titled Coach Ancelotti walking Italian tightrope as AC Milan continues Serie A struggles, along with a big picture of Oliveira (why him?) in my newspaper. Basically, it's saying that the whole team is really awful (except Kaka, "but he can hardly be expected to do it alone") and that "it might be time for controversial owner Silvio Berlusconi to blow up this team and start over". Oh, and it also says, in no gentle way, that Milan should dispose of its "old men", such as Cafu, Favalli, Costacurta and (how dare they?!) Maldini.
Well excu-uuu-use me for defending my team, especially my beloved godly captain, till I die. I'm not saying that the criticism is unwarranted. I know that we've been doing rather absymally lately, I DON'T NEED REMINDING OF THAT! (Yes, this is utter hypocrisy from me...Why read the paper at all then?) And what?! Dispose of your players? *snorts* Geesh, that's a real smart way to instill team spirit, isn't it? You no do well, then bye-bye, you sold! What are they supposed to be...Chelsea? Okay, I admit that the Andrea, Gila et al. haven't been playing their best lately, but dammit, we have horrible lineups and really, shouldn't it be up to the coach to bring out the full potential in a player? And obviously something is very wrong and team spirit is down in the dumps of the Inferno, but I hardly think that dismissing your entire team is the right thing to do. As for Paolo...Okay, he's older now. But he's still a relatively fit player (when he's not injured...but no one is injury-prone like Sandro. *sigh*) and I don't care if he's old and slower, he's still better than most defenders out there and nobody could captain like him. I'll de damned if I don't defend God Maldini himself until my last breath. The team is full of talent, so please, goddamn stupid staff/management at Milan, please use what you've already got judiciously instead of talks of transfers and whatnot. I'm not opposed to getting Sheva back, but that's hardly the problem. Just...win. Please. Pleasepleaseplease. I can't take this kind of loosing streak. Empoli. Sampdoria. Who????
*clutches her team* Thank God that we're still doing well in UEFA.
Another cute Sheva video, where he talks about his life in (what else?) beautiful, sensual Italian:
Speaking of which...If anybody could link me to a vid of Sheva speaking Russian, I'd be eternally grateful. (Once I've finished drooling, that is.)