I don't care where Genoa is in the table. The last few seasons, you never know who Juventus is going to put on the pitch. Could be a herd of zebras, moving in concert against a common enemy. Could be a bunch of broken draft ponies painted black and white, each one trying his hardest not to get caught by the man from the glue factory. Again, with no Gigi, no Gio, and no ADP--and NO GROSSO! hahahahahaha--- who could know what would happen? Milan. Inter, Napoli, Lazio, and Roma all won this weekend, but Udinese lost, so Juve gained points on someone, anyway, AND they're mathematically guaranteed not to be relegated. Hot diggety.
This match started out grim. GRIM! The first bad sign was that LDN started Marcolino. Sure he had a decent enough match last weekend, but he's not exactly trustworthy back there on the right, is he? And then the scoring opened in minute 7 with an own goal.
I think Marcostorari is counting to ten before he rips someone's head off with those marvelous teeth of his.
It looked like it was Marcolino. The announcer thought it was Marcolino. It was entirely reasonable to assume it was Marcolino. It's not like he hasn't done this before. But. It was Leo.
Yeah. Mr. D and I settled in for the long haul.
Lord only knows what Tiger did to poor Barza to make him shriek in terror.
Aside from the *ahem* autogol, I found no reason to fault Leo's performance, but then I rarely do.
Ooh baby. Throw that elbow. Mm-hmm.
EYEBROWS!!!!!
Melo put in his usual hard-working shift.
Keepin' the bbz down and all that, just like he's paid to do.
Traore managed not to be broken while Grosso was suspended, so he started at left back.
Here's another look at those saggy socks which, oddly, do nothing for me here.
Traore also made an effort to keep the Stars of Tomorrow down.
Hee! I can't get over the fact that his shinguards say "Milos Krasic."
The hairz were there.
Milos faded in and out a bit, but for the most part he looked pretty good.
There's that kid again.
Actually, Juventus dominated the midfield, according to possession stats, although I thought they looked a little shaky at times. Captain Claudio and Aquilani both played quite well, if quietly.
So that's that. On to the fotogs' friends.
Juventus went in at the half down one to nothing. They pressed forward well and made some decent chances, but didn't finish.
Pepe showed flashes of greatness.
He's not actually great, but he can string together a great game and his work ethic cannot be questioned. Still, he wasn't finishing his chances.
Then came the second half. At minute 50, Aquilani fed Pepe with a nice cross, and Pepe's header took a deflection off Marco Rossi and went in the hole.
You can't tell from these photos, but it was scored as an own goal.
Pepe didn't care.
I iz the shitz!
Oh my sweet lord. I haven't seen a White Man's Overbite this severe since the last time Mr. D put the Rolling Stones on the CD player.
Silly boy.
Whew. Settle down. Take a deep breath.
So that was good, however the scorer counted it. Juve equalised. But then Antonio Floro Flores happened in minute 57 and Genoa pulled ahead. That blew.
Matri started up top.
He was not as effective as Pepe at first. Of course, part of the problem was that Eduardo, who has been utter shit all year, decided to have a great game between the sticks.
Still, he didn't give up. Work work work.
OMG. Albertino has Legolas ears. OK, then. Now I understand the hair.
Proof of Captain Claudio.
Sigh. Another miss.
But at last Albertino set him up good and he got one in the net to bring the zebes equal.
Matri was, um pleased....
...but not particularly RAWR and certainly not overjoyed.
I think this happened after Matri's goal.
Cripes. Loooca has done lost his mind.
Then Matri did his little thing, which is apparently some big fucking secret. Whatever.
*eyeroll*
You know what? At this point, a draw is just not good enough. However, ADP and Vincenzo are hurt, Martinez is.......erratic, and all that's left is Loooca, that Big Green-Eyed Gorilla of Love.
True to form, he swung those long limbs of his around all over the place.
It didn't look like he had anything. That said, there were two or three times where I stopped the match, rewound it, and made Mr. D listen to a soliloquy entitled "Amauri Could Never Have Made That Play."
Surprisingly enough, during one of his episodes of crazy thrashing around, he managed to poke out his right foot and knock the ball past Eduardo and into the goal.
It takes strength and balance to make a strike look that ugly and still get it to go in.
Yeah, Dario. He beat you.
There was a moment of "??" and then Loooca got his prance on.
WooHoo! (Yes, he did his ear thing.)
Albertino looks like he's getting ready to hammer a nail into Loooca's face.
Now Matri is happy.
Awww. Loooca's giving Matri a noogie. &hearts
Happy Boyz.
I'm not sure where these go, so they go here.
After about 10 more minutes of nail-biting, the final whistle blew and it was over. Juve had secured all three points, moving within 6 points of fourth on the table, and two points out of Europe.
And then the big jump.
The transfer rumors about Gigi leaving have gotten so bad that his agent has made a statement basically telling everyone to get a grip. Amusingly enough, ESPN chose to illustrate the story by running a photo of Gigi hanging out with the Azzurri rather than in bianconero.
Next match is Sunday, away to Fiorentina.
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