Inter-ness + Viola: Honors Even
(Cesare: "EX-PLAYERS RULE."
Beppe: "Word, my man.")
All I really have to say here is that all the sad, sad "journalists" who were talking about these two team conspiring to trade points across the matches this week really need to apologize to everyone. Not that they will, but isn't it a nice thought? Fiorentina were impeccably organized and, as they tend to do again Big Teams, played well, taking advantage of their early goal to take away Inter's space by playing with 10, sometimes 11 men behind the ball. Inter, meanwhile, after a good first 10 minutes, looked to lack concentration and were rarely threatening from open play; their goals, as they usually do, came a)through Wes' brain and feet, and b)sorta on the counter. Inter had far more possession, but that was mostly because Fiorentina were content to sit in and soak up what little pressure they mustered. To me, a draw seemed a pretty fair result.
Fiorentina 2-2 Inter [highlights|Gazzetta pagelle|Viola ratings table]
Scorers: Keirrison 11, Milito 75, Eto'o 81, Kroldrup 82.
Fiorentina: 1 Frey; 25 Comotto, 14 Natali, 2 Kroldrup, 23 Pasqual (16 Felipe 50); 28 Bolatti, 24 Santana (29 De Silvestri 65), 18 Montolivo, 19 Gobbi; 8 Jovetic, 39 Keirrison (11 Gilardino 60).
Inter: 12 Julio Cesar; 13 Maicon, 6 Lucio, 25 Samuel, 26 Chivu (45 Balotelli 46); 4 J.Zanetti, 19 Cambiasso (7 Quaresma 87); 27 Pandev (11 Muntari 71), 10 Sneijder; 9 Eto'o, 22 Milito.
ADV looks like he needs a drink. And a haircut.
Seriously, the dude does not look well.
Corvino, on the other hand, looks awesome, but that's as reliable as the sun coming up, really.
... What? How do those two even know one another? And why does sniffing Jose make ADV look so much happier?
While ADV was touching Jose, Beppe and Cesare were off together, reminiscing about the good old days when they used to kick one another on the pitch. &hearts
And Mario, as usual, was being frantically stalked by the photo guys.
Dunno about the guys with the cameras, but Mario, not surprisingly, found the whole thing spectacularly boring.
This is how bored he was: He agreed to look, for the 1000th time, at pictures of Sulley's kids.
Then, finally, something happened: They got to go change! Hurrah!
Awwwwwwww! Granted, the photo guys were probably expect him to grow horns rather than bond with his Azzurrini buddy, but these pictures almost make the stalking worth it.
Look everyone -- Cesare's turtleneck is gone! WOO HOO!!!1!
Even he approves of finally coming to his senses.
Hopefully it's gone forever, but that might be a bit much to ask.
While Cesare posed for the photo guys, his players were mingling with the enemy. Or, at least, Orlandoni (?) was mingling eagerly with his players.
Photo guys: "OMG OMG It's Jose!" *squeeeeee*
Jose, not surprisingly, gratified them by getting his pose on.
Pimpin ain't easy, but you know Special is going to give it a shot.
I mean, dude was looking extra-good yesterday, wasn't he?
The suit was, as Ruby would say, fabbity (definition #4, ok?), the scarf is nice, and he shaved. Well done, Special!
Not that he's still not going to pout up a storm, of course, no matter how well his outfit is working out.
... Is he trying to make himself cry? Thinking about his dead puppy?
Tifosi: *ignore the pregame nonsense and engage in important flag-waving*
And telling Seb they love him above (almost) any other.
The Inter fans, meanwhile, seemed quite crowded in the away fans corral. Is that because you accidentally set some seats on fire, people? HMMMM?
Tifosi: "Look, it's Matrix! BOO. BOOOOOOO!"
Amidst the din from the fans and the frenzied clicking of shutters, Gila and Marco went out for a little stroll.
And, eventually, huddled with their teammates, once Monty finally turned up.
(Sammy thought it looked sort of fun.)
This is so much easier to organize when one team wins. I have no idea what to do with a draw, and apologize in advance for the chaos.
So, we'll start with keepers.
Seb did good -- he had no chance on either goal, and handled the pressure of the first 10 minutes well.
And he killed Goran's brain by screaming in his ear. Tricky!
JC, on the other hand, had another worryingly struggle day.
He did make a good save on Gila (which no one saw, because the cameras were on Santana's woe), but other than that he was not impressive.
Remember him spilling that ball at DDR's feel against Roma? Well it happened again yesterday, but happily Monty was facing the wrong way and couldn't score.
More on the goals later, but the fault for the second one definitely heavily involved him. *pat, pat*
Onto the right backs! (See what I'm doing here? I need order, I'm sorry. Just try to tolerate it.)
Fan sites ripped Maicon right and left, while Corriere made him Inter's MOTM. WTF?
I don't remember him really doing anything defensively, but he did push forward sort of threateningly, and also assisted on Milito's goal.
Comotto, believe it or not, was AWESOME -- I'm pretty sure he's never gotten multiple sevens from pagelle people since he's been in Florence.
He played a perfect pass in for Keirrison's goal, defended well, and was always a threat when he got forward. \o/
One of the Inter fan sites said Chivu made him look like Dani Alves, but that fan site is fooling itself, ok? That was ALL COMOTTO.
Lucio, meanwhile, was a complete maniac yesterday. (Or, as Gazzetta put, it "quasi subito Psycho." LOL.)
In the second half he stepped up and won a ton of balls, but then he'd push forward and ... give them away. Lather, rinse, repeat.
He also tried to kiss the referee, and was in the culpable throngs on Keirrison's goal. Best forgotten, for real.
Walter, on the other hand, did his best to offer some stability to Inter's back line.
Comotto nutted him on Keirrison's goal which had to sting his pride, but he was alright apart from that.
He had a big block on Jojo, and dominated Keirrison in the air, from what I can remember.
At the other end, Natali was his usual, laconic self in the middle of the back.
He did well against world-class strikers, but right now it's hard to focus on anything but what appears to be a torso!tattoo. Have mercy.
Chivu was inserted into the lineup just before the game, when Deki hurt himself in warmups.
And he had a really, really difficult time in his 45 minutes on the pitch.
He couldn't stop either Santana or Comotto and, just to cap a miserable day off, got a card and will be suspended for Juve. *carefully pats his hat*
Mario replaced Chivu at half and Javi moved to left back while Mario was arguing with the ref.
He did well -- woke the game up a bit, worked hard, and forced a tactical chance out of Cesare within about five minutes of arriving.
Despite appearances to the contrary, he didn't get a card, didn't fall down too much, and played with intelligence and patience.
(We'll just ignore the issue of his hair, he's beyond help there.)
In addition to motoring around the midfield and helping keep the ball, he also assisted on Sammy's goal with a first-time cross after Wes found him on the counter.
On the other side Pasqual got the start at left back and caused the TV guys all kinds of confusion, because they showed Gobbi every time he did something wrong.
Pasqual fouled Mario every time he came at him and was already on a card, so Cesare replaced him with Felipe, who ended up struggling a lot.
Cesare: "Did both Inter's goals just come from that side? DOH."
As he tends to be when Inter struggle, Cuchu was calm and did what he could to help with the sorting out.
Uh oh. That's his 'Lucio is getting up to some shit' face. He made that alot yesterday.
Opposite Cuchu on DM duty was his fellow Argie, who played probably his best match since arriving in Italy.
He said after that match that he didn't expect to play, so maybe Cesare should surprise him with the news every week.
It's the first time he's ever looking confident and proactive, rather than confused, and desperately trying to react to what other people do. Well done, Bolatti.
Argie the zillionth spent 45 minutes with Cuchu and Bolatti, and 45 at left back.
His thighs were huge, and he and LDS took some cool-as-shit pictures.
This non-Argie was in the midfield, too, doing circus tricks with Maicon.
He did good. In recent matches against Inter, he's struggled to find space, but yesterday he played very simple, and to use the best sports cliche ever, let the game come to him.
In addition to finding Comotto for Kierrison's goal, he also put Jojo in alone later, and made countless other incisive passes.
Gazzetta said he was the best player on the pitch, and it's a pleasure to watch him when he's like that -- he just takes what he's given, and always makes the right decision.
Goran was, as usual, out on the wing.
He had another tough day, but it was a bad kind of tough.
Rather than struggling to make the right decisions, he just wasn't involved the match at all, the poor dude.
And, to make matters worse, Muntari replaced him with like 20 minutes and immediately made more of an impact than Goran had. (He did get a postgame kiss from LDS, though. That's something.)
Gobbi was on the wing for Fiorentina. He mostly worked hard, and laughed when Pasqual fouled people.
Wes was in his usual spot for Inter, tucked into the middle of everything.
When he wasn't sticking his butt out, in the first half he was pulled out left a lot, presumably in an effort to unbalance Fiorentina's defense.
In the second, though, he moved back inside, and starting running things a bit more -- both Inter goals game from him getting the ball forward and wide for crosses.
Out on the right for Fiorentina, Mario Alberto was awesome.
And, in cooperation with Comotto, made Chivu's day Very Bad Indeed.
His Agrie tricks and pace (?!) got him into all sorts of space down the touchline, and into threatening positions over and over again.
(Of course, he is still Santana, so he did manage to put his best chance straight up in the air, which I think he did against Inter last time they played Inter, too.)
According to some language's Wikipedia entry on him, when Santana first came to Italy, he lived with Javi and his family for a while.
Because, you know. Javi is the default den mother to all Argies in Italy.
(They used to do this all the time when they lived together.)
With about 25 minutes left, Cesare said "NEEDS MORE TONGUE!"
So he sent LDS on for Mario Alberto.
Like he do, Jojo started in the hole for Fiorentina.
He was good. He's always good. (Ignore Gazzetta, that guy is nuts.)
He wasn't spectacular, like we sometimes expect him to be, but that's mostly because Fiorentina played with 10 behind the ball the whole match, and he was defending.
When he was able to get forward, he made some good passes to open things up, and had a few chances himself.
One on of his chances, he was about to tee JC up when Walter came flying across and blocked his shot.
His other best one came out of a perfect pass from Monty, which put him in all alone.
Unfortunately for the people in purple, Jojo chose that moment to channel Santana and he, yes, put it straight up in the air. DOH.
And now, before the goals, we have to take a break for Jose.
Cos he did a lot of posing, and it'd be a crying shame for it all to go to waste. So he says, anyway.
Jose: *glower, stalk, mutter*
Jose: "THIS IS SPARTA!"
IRC and Matrix: *are not impressed*
Jose: *puts on his best Rodney Dangerfield indignation pose*
(For Inter fans, this might actually have been the best part of the match, particularly when he applauded the fans and waved on his way back to the bench. LOL SPECIAL.)
Righto. Scorers/failures.
No one can confirm this apart from my apartment walls, but as soon as I saw that Keirrison was starting, I knew he would score, just because he's usually so useless.
Though, in the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit I thought he'd get a brace, so I was only half right.
In light of his general lack of involvement in the matches he plays, at least one Viola fan site is already floating the P-word.
Yes, that's right: He's the Brazilian Pippo.
Superficially, at least, you gotta admit there's something to it -- he basically doesn't touch the ball or bother anyone, but then he appears and finished with aplomb.
Really, all he needs to do is start going offside more often, then the comparison will really take flight. (Well, that and score a few zillion more goals, but there's time for that.)
His goal came at the end of a lovely Fiorentina move.
Monty got the ball and considered and considered and considered.
Then, just before he tipped over, he made a perfect pass to Comotto on the right touchline.
And Comotto played it through Walter's legs to the onside Keirrison, who had nothing to do but just touch the ball into the goal.
Superfrenchie was stoked.
And Comotto got all sorts of love as a result of his pass.
(Man, it's like someone read my list of People Comotto Ought to Touch and made it happen. Thank you, higher power.)
TBH, Keirrison sort of sucks at prancing, still.
All he wants to do is take off his shirt, no matter the situation, but thankfully he repressed that urge this time.
Then he went to see the fans, and ran into Felipe and Jojo while he was there.
That, it turns out, he liked quite a lot.
That private love-in wasn't enough, however. He need more. More!
(He had no idea who he wanted to hug, but he correctly assumed that someone would turn up if he went to the bench.)
Then he did a little fly-by of Cesare, like he does this scoring thing all the time, yo.
When there was no one left to hug him, he resorted to JC for some love.
Keirrison: *drowns in adrenaline*
Meanwhile, Diego and Lucio were blowing their noses to get rid of the smell of failure.
LUCIO NEED SNAUSAGE.
Chivu, meanwhile, decides his hat is the problem.
(The the referee made him put it back on, and RUINED EVERYTHING.)
Gila replaced Keirrison with about 30 minutes left, btw.
Keirrison: *is still buzzing like crazy*
For his entire half-hour on the pitch, Gila stayed in this pose.
No lie!
Inter, eventually, did get that goal back.
As these things usually are, it was through Milito.
This despite the fact that he's having a terrible time right now, and is either hitting the post or missing with chances he's used to finishing.
The man looks exhausted and desperately needs a rest, but with important matches every three days, he never gets even a day off.
It might be about time to give him one, though.
Cos right now, he's so frustrated he's liable to do something spectacularly stupid, like pick a fight with Lucio, or touch Javi's hair.
Even with the lack of sharpness, though, he managed to finished one of his chances.
Wes swung the ball out to Maicon on the right and Maicon, for once, took it first time and played in a perfect cross.
It just eluded Sammy, Krol, and Natali, and was easy for Milito to touch across the line.
Celebration was minimal at best -- he just went and got the ball and sprinted back for the restart.
Yep, that's how Mario celebrates. Back to work, everyone.
Briefly, Inter even managed to go ahead, through that other new striker they have.
Honestly, I don't remember much that Sammy did, apart from scoring.
He did make a couple very good passes in the first half, I remember that -- Maicon joined the crowd and put the chance Sammy made for him straight up in the air.
He spent the match running like he always does, but Comotto did a nice job containing him, mostly, aided by a very crowded final third of the pitch.
He still got a goal, though, the one time he managed to get really central.
Wes swung the ball out wide the Mario and, like Maicon had on Diego's goal, Mario put it in first-time.
Sammy, somehow, used his thigh on purpose, and put the ball past Seb.
Seb was so displeased.
Sammy did a quick, very efficient prance that ended at Mario.
Mario, who then suffered the great horror of being simultaneous hugged by Wes and Sammy. What a difficult life he leads.
Walter got in on the celebrating too, just because. He had no idea how short-lived it would all be.
He really should have known, though, because Krol, the vegetarian, goal-scoring monster was lurking.
Fiorentina won a corner from the restart after Sammy's goal, and things immediately went terribly wrong for Inter.
The corner came in and JC came for it without calling anyone off, so Mario headed the ball, JC landed on top of Gila, and Cuchu and Javi were left guarding the goal.
Javi's solution, rather improbably, was to shout for offside, though he and Cuchu were both between Krol and the goal, and not anywhere near enough in the way.
ADV: "Oh I say. Hurrah!"
Unlike Keirrison, Krol scores all the time, and has his prance down pat.
(It's hard to tell from the highlights, but I'm pretty sure he was making dinosaur noises at this point.)
I mean, check him out -- he's even got the run-backward-to-tease-your-would-be-glompers element included.
Not too shabby for a central defender, that.
(Eventually, he stopped running away.)
And LDS turned up to jump on top of everyone, like he do.
Aw, look at Felipe, trying to glomp. AW!
Gila couldn't really get in on the hug because he was stuck in his modifield T Rex pose, but he broke out of it briefly for a little high-five.
Meanwhile, Inter were discussing the fail.
And passing the buck.
While Cuchu lamented the fact that people still refuse to do EXACTLY WHAT HE TELL THEM AT ALL TIMES. Cos he definitely told Krol to miss that ball.
JC was so bummed after the match, it's hard to even be mad at him.
Poor dude.
Cesare looked sad himself, but then he always looks sad.
Jose: "See you in like 72 hours, then?"
Cesare: "Yessir."
Cesare: "Oh, and thanks for bringing my shoes back, btw."
Buy-bye, everyone. See you in a few days. (Notice Cuchu, still raging angry over there on the side.)
Up next is, oh yeah, EXACTLY THE SAME THING. On Tuesday, this time. No new injuries during the match for either team, and Fiorentina hope to have Vargas back, and Sex Machine could be back for Fiorentina, as well. (I've got travel and meetings and stuff next week, so that spam is going to be late. I'll get it up as soon as I can, though.)