AC Milan 3 – 0 Manchester United

Ok, so I was wrong. I completely underestimated AC Milan. But, in all fairness they had a pretty deceiving season. I feel that since they were penalized in Serie A, they barely focused on winning the title and concentrated their efforts on the Champions League and in doing so I assumed their team was not playing at the level they were capable of. They not only beat Man U, they beat them by 3 goals, and shut them out. Kaka is amazing. He brings alot of momentum to the pitch and pushes and pushes until he lands a strike. At times he almost looks clumsy on the field for some reason, but the ball always seems to fall at his feet and then in the back of the net.

AC Milan’s first goal was scored in the 11th minute by their wonderboy Kaka.

AC Milan 1 – 0 Man Utd – Kaka
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United looked out of it from the kickoff and I began to fear for the worse when I saw that shot go in. Milan had been pushing hard very early and seemed to control most of the play. Even after AC drew first blood, Manchester didn’t seem to wake up with the fury that we are so used to seeing them do. They just seemed to play the ball up to Milan’s 18, there would be a scramble, the ball would pop out, and it would either get pushed all the way back to van der Sar or Milan would take it for a run usually finishing with a shot or a dangerously close encounter with the United defense who seemed to be having trouble keeping themselves upright with the pounding rain. That’s when Seedorf put in the second.

AC Milan 2 – 0 Man Utd – Seedorf
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It’s not in the replay, but Vidic and Heinze were messing around in the back, which they shouldn’t have been doing, when Vidic slipped and the ball squirted out to Pirlo. After a chip into the box, Seedorf survived a tackle by Vidic and almost replicated Kaka’s strike. Vidic should not have played anyway. He was deemed fit but it was his first game back from breaking his collar bone. It was clear he could not keep up with Kaka as the Brazilian scorched him up and down the pitch for 90 minutes.

I thought Manchester might be able to recover with a point and possibly get lucky in overtime or even win a penalty shoot out, but their forwards just had not been given enough opportunities. When Rooney did find the ball at his feet he seemed to be swarmed by defenders and unable to even get a pass off to someone in shooting position. Cristiano Ronaldo also had a frustrating performance. Ronaldo found himself in front of goal a few times but had no luck in finding the net. Two of his attempts were stopped short by Milan defenders, making Dida’s job rather easy.

Gilardino was subbed in for Inzaghi and not shortly after he found himself on a break away against van der Sar.

AC Milan 3 – 0 Man Utd – Gilardino
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So AC Milan will move on to Athens, and Manchester United will head home to jolly old England. Kind of upsetting in my opinion. I was pulling for Man U, especially since AC had been found guilty of fixing matches last season in Serie A but apparently Milan really were the better team.

A Much Needed Update

It’s been a while since I updated but I’ve been busy with school and some real life issues that maybe I’ll get into later. But tonight I’m going to talk about football, or what I used to refer to as ’soccer’.

Last week Chelsea and Liverpool faced off in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final. As I predicted, Chelsea came out on top and only threw me into a deeper state of depression as Arsenal battled for an indifferent fourth place in the English Premiership and one of my most hated clubs soared to a surefire spot in the finals. Today, Liverpool crushed Jose Mourinho’s dreams and expectations as the Reds tied up the series at 1-1 and finished off Chelsea in penalty kicks, 4-1. Mourinho is still claiming Chelsea is the “better team”. Sadly, I have to agree with Jose but I find it amusing that Liverpool is on their way to Athens and Chelsea is headed back to the EPL to fall short of Manchester United if statistics prove to be true.

Liverpool 1 – 0 Chelsea – Agger
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Liverpool vs Chelsea – Penalties
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Speaking of Manchester United, they faced off with AC Milan in the opposite end of the Champions League semi-finals and came out on top 3-2 at Old Trafford. As an Inter Milan supporter, and somewhat of a Man U fan, it was my natural tendency to pray for AC’s downfall and even with Kaka’s stellar performance, they fell short. Rooney ended the match in the 89th minute with a precision strike to the bottom right corner, beating Dida.

Tomorrow, Manchester United head to San Siro in search of their place in Athens. I’m going to have to go with my gut on this one and give the win to Manchester once again. They have played amazing this season and their goal scoring is unmatched. They embarassed Roma in a 7-1 defeat which just demonstrated the superiority of English football in today’s game. I think Rooney and Ronaldo, with their newly founded appreciation for one another, will lead the way for their side once again and finish with enough grace to send them in Liverpool’s direction.

As for the outcome of that match, I’ll report on it when the time comes.

In other news, Arsenal hosted Fulham FC at Emirates Stadium this past Sunday and although coming out on top 3-1, just squeaked by in the final minutes. Julio Baptista led off the Gunners in the early minutes of the game with a nicely placed header from a nice chip from Emanuel Adebayor. Baptista had the chance to finish the game multiple times after his first goal, but failed miserably. Many speculate he will be gone over the summer and his performance on Sunday has basically solidified that, despite his early goal. Jen Lehmann made an absolutely amature mistake around the 76th minute by charging the 18 yard box to punch out a loose ball, only dropping it at the feet of a Fulham winger to lob a shot over his head and into the back of the net. When I saw that goal I honestly thought Fulham would score again and Arsenal would blow yet another win. But, Cesc Fabregas made a nice through ball to Adebayor and the Togo striker maneuvered around one defender and bent a shot into the lower right putting Arsenal ahead yet again. Ade’s winner was then followed by Gilberto’s penalty kick right before the end of regular time.

This Sunday, Arsenal meets Chelsea. This game is definitely critical for the Blues, because they are still in search of the EPL title and I’m sure they will come out hard after their unexpected loss to Liverpool. It would be nice to see Arsenal take this from Chelsea and bring a nice clean finish to this season that was fairly disastrous for the Gunners.

AS Roma at Old Trafford: It’s Gonna Be Bloody

This match is going to be ridiculous. A week ago the Red Devils were in Rome, where their fans were brutally beat down by the Roma Police, not to mention, Manchester lost 2-1. Now Roma, standing tall in second place in Serie A behind the powerhouse Inter, are in England. There have already been reports of fighting and rioting outside Old Trafford.

Roma: 2, Man. Utd.: 1 – Roma Police: 4000, Man. Utd.: Fans 0

Manchester United and AS Roma faced off in the Champion’s league yesterday which resulted in a 2-1 win for Roma. This was a pretty big upset in my opinion but not the biggest news that came out of the match.

There has been alot of violence in European soccer lately, especially in Italy with the recent death of a poiliceman in a Sampdoria and Catania match. I’m sure that this has contributed to a tension that Italian police are experiencing nationwide, but what happened yesterday was pure insanity.

According to ESPNsoccernet,

“While the Roma supporters were able to hurl missiles into the visiting section of the stadium and charge towards the perspex barrier following Taddei’s goal with impunity, United fans doing exactly the same thing in response were met with extreme force.”

Apparently Roma police flooded into the visitors section of the stadium and began delivering a vicious beatdown to any Manchester United supporter that stood in their path. There have even been reports of police beating unconcious and subdued fans, while also ripping cameras away from anyone who looked to be recording or photographing the incident.

Manchester United have condemned the attacks and are expecting something to be done about the incident, especially since the attacks have been deemed as “indiscriminate beatings to United supporters”.

On the other hand, Italian Football Federation president Giancarlo Abete has praised the policeman and said:

“The English press speak of heavy handed police? We owe gratitude to our law enforcers and I don’t believe those who try to make games safe can be crucified in this manner.”

I understand that the police need to protect themselves but I’m not so sure that they handled this one as elegantly as Abete is making it seem.

Real Madrid Are the Yankees of Soccer

May I add, to the tenth power.

Ramon Calderon, Madrid’s owner, is ridiculous. Just this season Madrid jumped on Fabio Cannavaro after they saw his stellar performance in the 2006 World Cup and Juventus was demoted to Serie B. Now, he’s talking about getting Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United), Kaka (AC Milan), and Christoph Metzelder (Borussia Dortmund). That would be like the Yankees getting Alex Rodriquez, Johnny Damon, and Randy Johnson in the same year.

Ronaldo is still in contract negotiations with Manchester United, and from what I know, they still want him, and he still wants to stay. But, it has been rumored that he is not 100% happy at Old Trafford. I’m not a huge Manchester United supporter, but I would like to see Cristiano remain with the club and see what happens there in the next few years. If he does decide to leave, I really would not want to see him in Madrid. It just seems like a waste. He’s an amazing player and going to Madrid would just be throwing him in the mix of an all-star team.

As for Kaka, I feel the same way. AC Milan just picked up Ronaldo (Brazilian Ronaldo, not Cristiano for those of you who don’t follow football too closely) and I would like to see Kaka and Ronaldo come together and perform in Milan, despite the fact that I am an Inter fan. I feel like ever since the scandal that took place in the Italian Serie A, the Italian league has suffered from complacency and apathy. AC was docked 15 points at the beginning of the season, basically stunting any chances they had to have a successful season, and rightfully so, but next year is another year and it will be nice to see Serie A with some more competitiveness to it.

I don’t know too much about Christoph Metzelder, but what I have come to understand is that he is apparently a pretty dominant defender in the German Bundes Liga. Metzelder intends to leave the German league but the last place I would like to see his talent is Madrid. They are the Yankees on a much greater scale, an international scale. When I look at Real Madrid and watch them play, there is not much of a team feel to their style of play. Just like the Yankees, they look like a hand picked team of pedigree athletes, and just like the Yankees, they aren’t playing to their potential on paper as they sit 5 points behind Ronaldinho and Barcelona.

Maybe before it’s too late, Ramon Calderon should talk to George Steinbrenner and see where buying up any talent he sees has gotten him.

Chelsea vs. Tottenham: Amazng Shevchenko Goal, Lampard Dodges a Punch

Chelsea faced off against Tottenham yesterday and the game was in Tottenham’s favor going into the second half. They had quite a few nice opportunities and I had Chelsea where they wanted them, until Andriy Shevchenko pulled this out:

Amazing. To be able to bend a shot that way and place it perfectly in the top left upright is not easy.

After the game, a fan rushed the field and took a swing (a pretty pathetic one) at Frank Lampard. You’ll see Lampard dodge the punch and the rest of the Chelsea squad stomp the fan out, starting with Didier Drogba. If you are going to try to sucker punch someone, make sure you hit them.

Assault at the Coliseum

The Rangers and Islanders faced off tonight and what started off as a good game ended in a brutal assault.

According to HockeyFights.com

“Hollweg laid Simon into the boards hard. Whether or not that hit was legal will probably be something that’s debated for a long time to come. What came after that, Simon getting up and catching Hollweg in the face with his stick, won’t be.”

When you watch the video, you’ll see the hit and the baseball swing with a hockey stick. That had to hurt. Not only do I think Simon should be suspended for the rest of the year, but I also feel that Hollweg should press charges if he wants to.

If you want a better look at the hit, go here: http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/recap?gameId=270308012

Hockey is getting ridiculous. I feel like they have been condoning fights in order to get ratings up but this is just out of hand. They are going to need to edit the rule books for this one.

Maybe they’ve seen one too many trailers for 300.

Inter & Valencia: Ends in 2nd Draw and Another Fight

Internazionale and Valencia faced off today for the second time in a UEFA cup match. The first time these two clubs met, it ended in a draw, as did this match. This is upsetting enough for me because this will not put Inter through to the next round. But, this match also ended in another embarassing “brawl”. At the end of the match, tempers started to flare and David Navarro, of Valencia, stormed the pitch and sucker punched Nicolas Burdisso of Inter, breaking his nose. Now, for those of you who don’t know, I am a huge Inter fan, but, anyone who watches the clips would clearly side with Inter.

You can see the whole thing happen in that clip, but if you missed the sucker punch on Burdisso, you can get a better look here:

Navarro, in his nice grey jumpsuit, takes a swing at Burdisso, while it looks like the Inter player is either tangled up with someone else or may even be trying to break up another scuffle. Over at the somewhat manly nerd, my friend is deeming all soccer players as “pussies”. If you watch that clip, it obviously does not portray soccer players as anything else, but I feel it is my duty to attempt to convince you otherwise. Obviously, what Navarro did is easily and justly classified as a pussy move, but I feel that Inter held their own in this situation and both sides should not be easily stereotyped.

After Navarro sucker punches Burdisso, he doesn’t hesitate to run, and to me it looks like Zanetti and Maicon of Inter attempt to chase him down to no avail (unfortunately). I wish Adriano had been on the pitch because he probably would have caught Navarro and given him the serious ass kicking that he deserves. Anyway, Navarro ran to his locker room in an attempt to hide from the furious Italian club and Inter followed but was stopped by the stadium’s security force. If it had come down to it, I think Inter would have literally killed Navarro. Not only did he punch one of their teammates in the face, but he ran away as soon as he did it; the ultimate pussy move.

As I said, I am not saying that Navarro did not act like a coward whatsoever, I just want to make it clear that Inter wouldv’e handled business if they had the chance.

Roberto Mancini, head coach of Inter, had this to say:

I didn’t see anything because I was the first person on my way back to the dressing room. The boys told me what had happened after. Now I have seen the footage, I can say that the Valencia player is a coward. There’s nothing else you can say about someone who throws a punch like that then runs away.

Clearly, no one is considering this incident anything else that cowardly.

Arsenal & Chelsea Brawl

I know I haven’t posted much this week. I have an exam tomorrow and it is going to be pretty tough so I’ve been spending alot of time studying. But, I thought this was worth mentioning for those of you who don’t follow European football as closely as I do.

Arsenal and Chelsea faced off in the Carling Cup final this past Sunday with Chelsea coming out victorious in a 2 to 1 win. The result didn’t surprise most but the game itself was great. Arsenal, a very young team, played amazing against the veteran Chelsea line-up. The game was a nail-biter until the final goal from Didier Drogba.

What happened at the end of the match was a bit disappointing. John Terry, Chelsea’s captain, was accidently kicked in the head and knocked unconcious by Abou Diaby of Arsenal. I’m not quite sure what happened after that but a semi-brawl ensued. The camera angles aren’t great but apparently there were some punches thrown and FA is handing out some stiff punishments for those involved.

The penalties are as follows:

Arsenal
Emmanuel Eboue: 3 match ban
Kolo Toure: 3 match ban
Emmanuel Adebayor: 3 match ban

Chelsea
Mikel John Obi: 1 match ban

Also:

Both Arsenal and Chelsea have also been charged with failing to ensure their players and/or officials conducted themselves in an orderly fashion and/or refraining from provocative and/or violent behaviour.

SoccerNet.espn.go.com

Here are the videos:

Buffalo vs. Ottawa: Gang Wars on Ice

When I was between the ages of 5 and 12, hockey was my game. I still remember seeing my first ever hockey game on TV between the New York Rangers and the New Jersey Devils, and asking my dad who he was rooting for. Being from New York, he told me to root for the blue team, the Rangers. I started playing ice hockey about a year later after becoming completely obsessed with the sport which I then played for about three years until it became too expensive for my family. I then turned to roller hockey for a few years. After a few seasons of roller hockey, I got burnt out of the sport and almost completely forgot about it until recently.

I’ve been following hockey recently and I know that there have been some major changes made to the game since the strike two years ago. The ‘acceptance’ of fighting is one of those changes and fighting on the ice has apparently become an everyday occurrence. I’m pretty sure I see a nice scuffle on ESPN Sports Center at least twice a day.

But last night was absolutely insane.

Chris Neil of the Ottawa Senators drills Chris Drury of the Buffalo Sabres a late hit. Drury gets sent down quick, his helmet comes off and there is some blood spilled. Drew Stafford steps in and him and Neil start exchanging punches.

Buffalo’s coach doesn’t like what he sees happening to Drury and sends out five thugs onto the ice. You can see at the face off, the Sabre’s have no intentions of going after the puck:

What the hell is going on? The goalies are fighting? No one has seen that since like the 1970’s. This has to be the biggest brawl in sports since that pussy Varitek from the Boston Red Sox tried to fight Alex Rodriguez, sparking the Yankees-Red Sox brawl.