Juve Spam
(Everyone, meet superhero!Artur.)
Even though only a point has come out of them, that's two matches in a row -- against good teams, and without Monty, Frenchie, Mutu and Jojo -- featuring a lot of fight and toughness from La Viola, which is exciting progress indeed. The boys in purple were determined and incredibly organized and, though, they couldn't quite hold out and get the clean sheet, Sinisa must be very pleased indeed -- they've come a long way from the lifeless lumps who played the first couple months of the season. Oh, and Artur is amazing, Camporese is fantastic, and JMV just might be back.
Juventus 1-1 Fiorentina [highlights|pagelle: Gazzetta, CF|ratings table]
Marcatori: 4' autorete Motta (J), 37' st Pepe (J)
Espulsi: Felipe (F)
Juventus: Storari; Motta (36' st Lanzafame), Bonucci, Chiellini, Grosso; Krasic, Felipe Melo, Aquilani (13' st Pepe), Marchisio; Quagliarella, Del Piero (13' st Iaquinta).
Fiorentina: Boruc; Comotto, Camporese (24' st Felipe), Gamberini, Pasqual; D'Agostino, Donadel; Santana, Ljajic (20' st Marchionni), Vargas; Gilardino (11' st Babacar).
For the second away game in a row, a Della Valle showed up.
I wonder if Sini feels supported, or watched.
He doesn't see sure, either.
So he decided to just sit around, posing pensively.
Oh! And reminiscing about the old Lazio days with Nedved.
And having a Serb!bonding session.
(Adem and Vlada would have been there, too, but Adem was playing video games, and Vlada tripped and fell on his way to chat.)
Ah, good. Got the security blanket scarf on -- that's much better.
Of Blacks: Neither Laziale nor Serbian.
BORING.
Artur: NOT BORING AT ALL.
He. Was. AWESOME. Made at least three outrageous saves, including two back-to-back, late in the second half.
He hurt his shoulder making the last one, which probably hampered his ability to get to Pepe's free kick, but still. Applause, applause, applause.
This match was sort of a big deal to Comotto, what with him being a former Torino captain and all.
Look at him, helping out his teammates and everything!
He had a good first half, an OK second one, and didn't bite off his tongue, so it was, generally, a success.
(A small flaw in his game was committing the foul that led to Juve's goal, though I'm not sure what he could have done to avoid that -- Pepe played the ball, ran into him, and fell over.)
Caporese got his first career Serie A start, and was immediately up against ADP. No problem, says Michele.
As against Zlatan, he played simple and smart, and really had a great match.
All the pagelle I've seen mention how calm he is, and that he plays like a vetern, not a kid who has played two whole matches in Serie A.
Gazzetta went so far as to make him their MOTM which, while it seems slightly excessive, is certainly a great tribute to the boy's ability.
And it's certainly true that things went significantly south in the back the moment he went off.
Stupid, stupid cramps. Poor kid was so frustrated he had to leave, but hopefully he'll be ready to go next weekend.
The problems with Camporese's craps were twofold: One, he was gone. Two, Felipe was there in his place.
Felipe, whose first act was to get turned and used ridiculously by Iaquinta.
TBH, it looked like he was just as scared as we were. Rather than yelling at his TV, though, Felipe handled it by panicking and just kicking Vince whenever the ball came anywhere near them.
Which, inevitably, ended this way. Not, to say the least, his best moment, particularly after telling Gazzetta that Viola fans will learn he really is a great player. Poor, poor inept man.
Playing next to Camporese, Gambero was full of tranquility.
Tranquility, and surprisingly long legs.
When dozens of opposing players were hurling themselves at him, he was pleasingly calm.
Even when Gio tried to bicycle kick him in the head, Gambero held fast and resisted the impulse to run away screaming.
In the end, even Juve were impressed. Well, either that, or they were gawking at his tiny, pointed head. Let's just assume it's the former, shall we?
Out on the left, Pasqual had a very good match.
In attack he was mostly useless, but defensively he and JMV worked together flawlessly, and completely took Krasic out of the game. Not many teams can say that.
Donadel, as usual, was tremendous.
Where on earth would this team be without his intelligence and badassery? Seriously. Give this man an extension, FFS.
Not only did he play great in front of the defense and help shut down both Aquilani and Krasic, but he also played centerback after Felipe was sent off, and did that well, too.
And, even with all that going on, he still found time to judge ADP for judging his hair.
D'Agostino was hanging out with Donadel.
He impressed Grosso a lot.
This team is so different when D'Agostino's on the pitch, it's unbelievable. His presence makes them both more dangerous going forward and much more composed in possession.
And, also, more expressive in the presence of ADP.
They sort of look like a human, multi-car accident. (Not surprisingly, everyone came through it just fine.)
Santana got another start out on the right wing.
His focus seemed to be mostly defensive, and he did that well enough.
Going forward, he was back to his usual self, putting good chances to score 1000 miles over the bar, then looking both unsurprised and suicidal. &hearts
Adem was in his usual place, in behind Gila and, though there are no pictures of him, he did fine. Nothing amazing, but he worked and was involved.
Look, everyone, it's Gila!
He's got a panty on his head!
He got that when Motta headed the crap out of the back of his head. Frankly, it was a miracle all that happened was a cut.
Disappointingly, for most of the pictures he's panty-free.
It be much better if, when Gio was jumping on his head, Gila had a panty on it to match Gio's plaster. But no. No sense of drama from the photo guys.
As usual in a match like this, service to him was limited. But, also as usual, he worked his tail off, and fought for everything that came near him.
And he defended well, winning back the ball from ADP after giving it away.
This despite the great injustice he's forced to confront on a daily basis.
Less than an hour into the match, though, he pulled up with a hamstring problem and had to go off. NOES.
Sinisa: "Oh, lawd. Well, there's only one thing to do."
Sinisa: "RELEASE THE BABACAR!"
Baba: "Wait, what?"
He went on without warming up at all, and it took him a while to get going. He did fine, but was rarely a real danger. And, the one time he was, he slipped. DOH.
He did, however, do his job on both ends of the pitch -- he was first to the ball on a defensive corner -- so Sinisa will be pleased with that.
So, JMV.
You know how, all season, he's either been hurt, or crap?
THOSE DAYS, MY FRIENDS, ARE GONE! Or at least they were yesterday.
He was just a straight-up beast yesterday on both ends of the pitch, esp in the first half. Defensively, he didn't give Krasic a sniff, and offensively he was unstoppable.
It got the to point where Gio decided his best hope was just trying to deafen him, since nothing else was working.
Inside five minutes, he'd opened the scoring (with a whole lot of help from his hapless pal Motta).
Vargas claims he played the ball in hoping it'd get deflected, but odds seem good it was actually just a powerful cross.
Whatever his intention, though, it went in off Motta, putting La Viola into the early lead.
He was all "Yay! Yay! Don't touch me. Yay!"
(The no touching thing didn't last very long, though, not with Gila around. As if Gila would miss the chance to huge one of the few non-relatives who can make him smile.)
Aw, Camporese. He's not sure what to do around a lot of excited adults. And, also, is worried Santana's going to hit him in the nose by accident.
Camporese: *throws caution to the wind and jumps in*
... Only the have the hug break up just as he arrives. Doh!
Santana: *is getting a little freaked out by the intensity of Gila's squee, and resorted to pretending to have to pull up his socks to escape his grasp*
Adem: "Hey, could you put a word in for me? I've not scored in a while, and-"
D'Agostino: "ZIP IT. Let them man commune in peace."
Yes, that's right: Vargas has a bouncer for his prayers. Just in case there was any question about how big of a deal he really is.
Yep. Still chatting.
Chatting and chatting and chatting some more.
Unfortunately, he didn't pray quite enough, cos after sustained pressure in the second half, Juve drew level on a great, late free kick from Pepe. Woes.
After the match, Sinisa did his usual hugging of everyone in sight, even those he's never met before.
Who is that with Donadel? Was Lanzafame wearing blue boots? Cos there's no way Bonucci's hair grew that fast, or that he suddenly got short.
There is apparently a Coppa match against Reggina in two days. Two days! I guess we should expect to see a lot of babies, and maybe a Vlada in goal.