News from around here (Calcio)

Like the MainStreamMedia, I use the term "news" loosely.  This news is from two weeks ago.


Number One

JuanManuel Vargas has recovered from his injury and has returned to the pitch for La Viola.  Even though he stole a PK from Jojo against the Donkeys on Sunday and then BLEW the PK, it is good to have him back.


Number Two

On April 18, Roma defeated Lazio in the Derby della Capitale, which was excellent news for a variety of reasons.  One reason is that we Hates Lazio.  Another is that this allowed Roma to take the lead over Il Diavolo's Personal Representative in Serie A Inter in the Scudetto race.  But there are other reasons.

Mirko got into it mano a mano with Radu. grrrrrrr!



Looooca played.

Loooca did not score on the pitch, but he did score with Mirko off the pitch after Mirko scored on the pitch.

 .....and he took off his shirt and celebrated with vice-captain DDR.

......and then he took off his underlayers as well. 



Although the roman (as in "from Rome") captain and roman vice captain started the match for Roma (see the difference?)  they spent the second half on the bench to rest up for the Coppa Italia     to avoid getting carded      to avoid getting injured     because they both played like ass     because the coach is a publicity hound who was hoping to attract attention by taking the roman captain and vice captain off the pitch during the roman derby    who the knows why?  This was surprising, because Roma probably cares more about beating Lazio than they do about any other match. 

This pretty much sums them up.   DDR is Rino-esque in his passion and his defending, but he is a much greater offensive threat.  He's absolutely in the prime of his abilities, and he is a unanimous shoo-in for gli Azzurri in a year when there are few unanimous shoo-ins.  Francesco Totti, on the other hand, is a gifted player who is starting to show his age.  It's a little different when he's on the pitch, but off the pitch, the expression on his face tells you pretty much everything you need to know about what is reputedly going on upstairs.

Totti retired from international play after the 2006 World Cup, but conventional wisdom sez that Idiot Il Mister Lippi will call him up anyway, at the expense of other gifted players, because Lippi has a thing for Beloved Heroes From Days of Yore and tends to overvalue experience without regard to a player's current form.  Everyone else has been doing to grunt work of qualifying, but Totti is likely to waltz right in, as they say (hence, "The Waltzer.")  I have an old swim team experience like that.  It sucks to be the one who put in all the work and then has to give up  her spot to The Waltzer.




Number Three

Juve sucks.  They lost to Inter on the Derby d'Italia on April 16.  This result was not a surprise, mind you, but there are ways and ways of losing.  Juve started out strong but then an idiot player who is now DeadToMe got a moronic red card.  Idiot Coach then made a classic tactical blunder by deciding to play for the nil-nil draw and going defensive, so he subbed out ADP for Poulsen (POULSEN!), which left  Juve with no attacking force whatsoever, and no hope of scoring a goal.  We are very unhappy about this.  There is a time to play for a draw, but when you're seventh in the table with four matches left and in danger of crashing out of Europe, that is not the time to play for a draw.  I despair.


Anyhoo, the match.

The Sex Machine tried to kill ADP, but failed

Lucio tried to kill ADP, but failed.  OK.  Not so much in this photo, but use your imagination.

Lucio got Samuel to come on over and help him try to kill ADP, but that didn't work.

Inter's captain is even older than ADP but this is not viewed as a problem.

.....but imaginary ADP in my head still loves me.

ADP:  You bet I do.



That and $2.49 will buy me a bottle of Pellegrino.




Number Four

I really like this photo of Pippo Inzaghi.