Marco Mercoledi

No, this is not a Champions League week.  That's next week.  This is an International Break week, with WCQs for some and friendlies for everyone else.  Italy played the Oranje on Saturday in a game that was not nearly as interesting as it should have been.  They play Sweden later today, which should be interesting because ....  never mind.  He's DeadToMe so what do I care?

One cool thing about friendlies is that there is nothing at stake so Il Mister will sometimes use the matches as opportunities to try out experimental lineups, which means that he calls up people he might not ordinarily call up.  Like Marco.  see what I did there?  I got to the point.  One would like to believe that Marco is getting a genuine opportunity to prove himself to Il Mister so he can get a call up to the big show next summer.  Il Mister, however, is a rigid idiot who already knows who he is going to call up and nothing that happens in the meantime is going to change his mind even if it should no matter how hard Gigi tries to talk sense into him behind the scenes.

Ahem.  Marco.

Here he is fixin to take a strike on goal against Liverpool FC in Champions League earlier this year.  He plays for the Viola.  Viola and The Reds are in Group E along with Hungarian underdogs Debrecen and the French national diving team Olympique Lyon.  There are two games left, with three points available per game, the top two teams in the group advance to the knockout stage, and the table looks like this:

Froggies:  10 pts
Viola:       9 pts
Reds:        4 pts
Debrecen:  0 pts (sad but true)

The Man likes a lot of football teams, but his absolute favorite is The Reds.  Bunny likes The Reds more than any other stupid English Premiere League team, but she likes Viola more.  She likes Marco and she likes JuanManuelVargas and she likes Seb Frey and she likes Comotto and Gamberini and Dainelli and she kind of likes Alberto Gilardino and his perma-gloom and  she finds all the drama of Adi Mutu very entertaining.

So there's that.  Also, it is nearing time for UEFA to re-run its coefficients to determine how many Champions League slots are allotted to each league and the conventional wisdom is that Italy will lose one of its four slots to the Bundesliga (!!!!!) if the Italian teams underperform in Champions League this year.  I have no idea how UEFA's coefficient system works, but I do know that UEFA's coefficient system seeded AC Milan higher that Inter Milan this year, and Bayern Munich higher than Wolfsburg, and Sevilla higher than Real Madrid.  Clearly, UEFA's coefficient system is fucked and cannot be trusted.  Ergo, Italian teams must do well in Champions League this year.  And that's another reason for Dirtbunny to prefer Viola over The Reds.

Have you done your math yet?  For The Reds to advance, they must win both of their remaining matches AND Viola must lose both of their remaining matches. 

Let's pause while you consider the implications of that, and I'll learn you on the remaining Group E schedule:

Nov. 24:  Debrecen v Liverpool; Viola v the frogs

Dec. 9:    Liverpool v Viola; the frogs v Debrecen


On November 24, Dirtbunny will be rooting for The Reds and Viola.  The Man will be rooting for The Reds and the frogs.  The Frogs.  The Frogs to beat Viola at Viola.

On December 9, Dirtbunny will be rooting for Viola and the Hungarian Underdogs.  The Man will be rooting for The Reds and the Hungarian Underdogs.

My cyberfriends are shocked and horrified that The Man and I actually watch matches together when we have comepting rooting interests, and we do pretty well once he acknowledges the obvious superiority of my preferences, but we have never faced a situation like this before.  I dunno.  We certainly agree that Lisandro is evil (even though he is an Argie and we generally like Argies), but how can I live with someone who wants Lisandro and his ilk to beat my Viola?