man utd-roma at old trafford

+Why is Van der Sar the weak link in this United side, all of a sudden? Commentary all focused on his mistakes. Unfair. He’s no Buffon, but he’s worth the weight of the back line they’re fielding now in gold.

+Haha, de Rossi at the singing of the anthem. Badass. Wouldn’t want to get in his way.

+ Totti goes wide by a fraction. Pundits: “They are attacking.” Honey, please don’t believe everything you hear about Totti’s intelligence. Better still, believe EVERYTHING you hear about Spalletti’s. No-brainer, really, though. Roma need to score, there’s a defence to exploit and an attacking set-up to their advantage. If punditry brings up “defensive Italian football,” now …

+ … and what do you know, it does crop up. Chuckleheads. Richard Drew DLG’s new punching bag. Think little Gila needs a rest, at any rate.

+ Vucinic scrobbles a wide, wide shot. Definitely needs a shave. Maybe more practice, too. Erm, what just happened. Sorry, Heinze distractingly cute. No, worried about why Taddei isn’t up, though. No news on whether it’s injury or not, although we knew the worry existed a couple of evenings back.

+ Carrick goal. Doni, WTF? Carrick man of the future, though. Definite positive advert for United.

* muting channel to avoid commentators going orgasmic re: Carrick’s genius all the same*

+ Dammit, Roma, stop being so afraid of Cristiano Ronaldo. Do NOT give him space.

+ … who is this kid?????

+ Wow, we are watching a nightmare. This isn’t a real game, is it. It’s a game in which only ONE SIDE SEEMS TO HAVE A DEFENCE. AND A KEEPER.

+ Philosophical question: do we owe it to football to keep the telly on? Not about winning or losing, just about needing to catch up on sleep versus waiting out the occurrence of what now seems inevitable. Remember the first Milan derby of the season, when Inter was three up at halftime and ended at 4-3. Of course, that was because the Inter defence consisted of Materrazzi going nuts. Philosophical question #2: Materrazzi versus Rio Ferdinand. Who would win? Discuss.

+ Totters is balding. De Rossi is crazy. Have risen above the football. Damnit, Roma have lost focus completely. Never once saw them give away the ball in the Olimpico game the way they do now.

+ No. of Ronaldo wide shots so far: 3. No. of Ronaldo tantrums: 0. Is there something the camera is hiding from us?

+ Ronaldo goal. 4-0. You know, if we’d wanted to watch PSV-Liverpool we’d have switched on the telly tomorrow. Roma tifosi must feel like Serbia and Montenegro fans right now, watching that World Cup game against Argentina. Have they ever been this bad? Difficult to remember. This the side that pulled the rug from under a very decent Catania earlier this season with a 7-0 victory.

+ Totters free kick. Saved. Half-time.

+ … that Chelsea-Valencia game is the one we need to be watching. Unsurprised at all the fowling, this was always going to be a super-dirty game. That tackle on Sheva, though. Our ankles crunched in sympathy.

+ 5-0. See you in the morning, girls and boys.

t And that's 7-1 to United. Let's go home now.

taddei is a good dei

From our scribbled live reactions to last night's Roma-Man United game in Rome, starting around minute 15:


* The Olimpico looks * fantastic. * The pitch is way healthier than the San Siro's. (And Ten Sports didn't focus in the least on the crowd trouble, so all the Eisenstinian headshots of gorgeous well-dressed young Italians cheering their team on = FTW.) What an atmosphere. Have we ever seen Cristiano Ronaldo look more harried? Can't remember.

* Damn, but Man U are tight, even when they're screwed up. Van der Sar class act as ever, even without a ton of trouble from this game.

* Why does a set piece around the Roma goal inspire much less fear and loathing than one around a Milan goal? Brazil's #1 is Dida, not Alexander Doni. We like Doni. Capable enough. Hell, compared to Dida even Cristiano Doni'd look capable enough.

* SCHOLES SENT OFF! Well-deserved. Totts such a drama queen, though. And Chivu. Gotta love Italy.

* Spalletti's pate - cannot ... look ... at .. screen. Guh. Shiny.

* Can't imagine Roma pulling together with such a semblance of assurance if they'd gone a man down.

* Perrotta booked for simulation. Gotta kick Italy.



* The Taddei goal. SWEETNESS. Fine piece of work between Totti, Mancini and himself. All the better for Rio Ferdinand having one of his characteristic 'where am I and where is my packed lunch?' moments. Ten Sports commentators total wankers, though. Glad to have semi-public forum to be biased and partisan ourselves. Aren't getting paid for it, though, are we.

* Half-time. Think Man U's unfamiliarity with Roma really rattled them. Dreading Ferg's mythic powers, though: are they going to come out calm and composed and all figured out on how to beat Roma 6-1 in the next 45? Beyond cool if Man U came on with three strikers.

* Gary O'Reilly is cool. Half-time snapshot of Chelsea-Valencia at 0-1.

* HOLY FRACK, WHAT IS DAVID SILVA ON???

* Oooh, shiny tunnel. Olimpico rather obviously showing up as no poor cousin of football's La Scala up in Milan. Football better, too.

* Be still, beating heart, art thou feeling a wee bit sorry for the globally consistent booing of Cronaldo? Surprise us all the time. This is harsh, though, by any standards. Would hate to be in his slippy shoes.

* Roo and Ron let some of the class show. Good goal. Nesta would never have let it happen. Then again, Nesta would systematically chop his toes off before playing for Roma. Too bad, they could use ... ouch, wide shot on Man U goal from Daniele De Rosii. He's kind of sucking on and off. The wasted chances so uncharacteristic of Roma's usual big games. Totters being usual prickly selfish self. Give someone else the fracking free kick for once, man. Roma really need an alternative (read: better) dead ball specialist.

* GO VUCINIC! Spalletti, we <3 ur brane.

* Solskjaer yellow card. More pretty things in the Roma stands. Ole comes off, Fletcher comes on. Bye, Ole. Competent tonight, Fletcher?

* Have we ever seen worse attempts on goal than some of Roma's tonight, or is the tension just making us crabby?

* Cristiano, you little diver.

* OH GOD, LOUIS SAHA for Giggs. No, please, not more pace! OMG, imagine if it were Henrik Larsson.

* Rosi for Taddei. ... interesting? Defend, Roma, defend for the love of Maldini! Ah, Heinze yellow card. Crap tackle, crap diving. So that's what you do, is it, Rosi?

* WHISTLE. Roma 2-1 Manchester United. Football, we love you.

More later.

preview: roma-man united

Item: We only just realized that Sevilla are going to be in the Champions' League next year. Score. That team rocks louder than sixty-something superbands in the Wembley in the early nineties.

--

Ignoring the Bayern-Milan match tonight, as we have not our smelling salts to hand, we thought it was time to take a look at how things have been leading up to the Roma-Manchester United game, alternately touted as an easier go than even PSV-Liverpool and more exciting than Jagger and Richards in the same dress. We had the opportunity to catch Milan play Roma over the weekend and found it far more exciting than anything on offer from their opponents. Still, playing Blackburn will do that a a team, one expects (Don't say no, we're Arsenal fans).

Milan escaped, of course, borne on the successful return of the man who was once the other prince of Rome, Alessandro Nesta, and a blatant dive from the canny Ronaldo that earned Milan an Andrea Pirlo free kick which, surprisingly enough, was converted. By Gilardino.

... yeah.

Roma played their natural game, throwing everything forward and dazzling the rheumy eyes of their opponents. Punditry seems to believe that this will not be the case in the first leg of the QFs, to be played out in the Stadio Olimpico on Thursday night. Roma's strategy against Lyon involved them pulling off the ugly, gritty defensive style with equal aplomb before proceeding to demolish them in the away leg in France. Now this might work against Man U, in as much as anything ever works against what is undoubtedly Europe's best football team. It often pleases us to see how United succeeds so well in becoming greater than the sum of its parts, which is, alright, probably a necessary feat when your parts include such characters as Wayne Rooney and Gary Neville.

As always, one cannot help but mention Fergiemort, that red-nosed glue that manages to hold the baby Bentleys, and a lot of their older counterparts together (seriously, do you see why Henrik Larsson was a breath of fresh air to this man?) After he singled out Daniele de Rossi - who put in a very creditable performance in the Nazionale's win against Scotland last week - and Amantino Mancini for praise when asked about his opponents, Fergie aroused the wrath of the most easily miffed man in Serie A, the singular (and aren't we grateful for it!) Francesco Totti.

Although Sir Alex was grace itself on the subject of Roma's bandiere later in the week, calling him the "architect" of his side and key to everything United threw at Roma, the wrath of Totters, to whom the Guardian also paid glowing tribute earlier, was awakened enough for him to make yet another go at tickling his tonsils with his toes.

“I hope I will make him remember my name. They are planning to ‘cage’ me? My opponents have always tried to do this with me, maybe when I grow up I will work in a zoo, I am used to cages!” added the world champion.

We do believe we would love this man if we had woken up on the right side of bed the day we were made aware of his existence.

We know United is having serious problems in defence - with Nemanja Vidic out injured, the only man over there capable of so much as being noticed by an on-form Roma is the lovely Gabriel Heinze. Unless Rio Ferdinand takes something that makes him hesitant to pee into a cup after it's all over, we cannot see him pose much of a problem to Roma's centre-forwards. What will be interesting to see is how Roma's relatively inexperienced but tight back line will cope with United's own midfield.

The odds are atill stacked against the Italians, of course, simply because with all their problems, United are capable of putting the fear of Ferg into the hearts of braver men. We only hope that the contest is as worthy as we can make it.

Endnote: And because we can't but display our partisanship yet again, we will drop the first-person plural for the first time in living memory to say: Milan, tu sei tutta la vita mia.

heh.

Eat your heart out, Cristiano.

inter sizzle roma fizzle! sad but true.

Here's a good one: Channel 4's Football Italia gazes into its funky crystal ball. Serie A, 2006-07.

Have another gratuitous picture of Kaka. I'm not even all that fond of him, don't ask me why.




Also, why does everyone think Inter Milan with their bloated pool of talent is going to win this Scudetto? Out of curiosity. Has the most likely team EVER won a Serie A season?