Serie A Superthread 2012/13

Seaneh

Front 3 looking like a fantastic fit so far.

Mario looking like he's played in this team for years!

what a strike!

Rekop dog

Silvio looking content up in the crowd. Haven't seen him looking that pleased in a while.

Jelle1880

You just knew he'd score. :pac:

G.K.

Is Montolivo really playing in defense and Bonera in midfield like ESPN Soccernet are suggesting? (Not watching myself)

Pinturicchio

G.K. wrote: »

Is Montolivo really playing in defense and Bonera in midfield like ESPN Soccernet are suggesting? (Not watching myself)

No.

Amelia
Abate Zapata Bonera Constant
Flamini Montolivo Nocerino
Niang Balotelli El Shaaraway

Seaneh

Bollocks.

Pinturicchio

Game on!

Seaneh

Pinturicchio wrote: »

Game on!

You shut your face :P

Pinturicchio

Domizzi is the most annoying player in Serie A. He never shuts up complaining and he kicked Del Piero in the head a few years ago.

edit: It was actually another ex-Napoli centre half Matteo Contini who stood on Del Piero's head. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daERlSTDo18

dor83

I can never understand why teams kick the ball out for stupid things like that, if it was a real injury the ref would stop it.

Seaneh

If that volly went it, jesus christ, what a goal it would have been.

Cienciano

dor83 wrote: »

I can never understand why teams kick the ball out for stupid things like that, if it was a real injury the ref would stop it.

Really annoys me too. Players go down injured knowing the opposition will kick it out to disrupt the attacking flow. And the attacking player knows this, but he still kicks it out

Red Crow

What a terrible decision

Pinturicchio

FFS

That didn't look like a foul.

Seaneh

Never a pen...

Red Crow

And as cool as you like Balo scores.

Seaneh

Like a fecking movie in fairness...

Rekop dog

He never misses pens. Heart

Seaneh

Only 3 points behind Lazio now.

Milan didn't deserve the win but **** it, I'll take it.

Should have sacored a few in the first half but Udine were very good.

Seans_Username

First look, awful decision. Replays confirm it. Never in a million years should that have been a peno. I don't like to celebrate a win like that but Milan should have finished that game off before the equaliser.

Giggsy11

That penalty decision was a joke.

Nuri Sahin

Shocking decision. Was never gonna miss from the spot though.

snowblind

Imagine the Italian press right now if that penalty had been given to Juve? It's pretty disgusting, just like the difference in the reactions of a bad call in a match between Juve and Milan as we've seen between last season and this one.

Then we get situations where refs in Juve matches are mortally afraid of giving decisions to Juve when even slightly hesitating. For example in the match vs Lazio, all the last three balls gone out of play were incorrectly called. In each case it looked like Lazio player had had the last touch, in each case the replay proved that right, without any doubt. This didn't change the game or anything, and I don't think there's any conspiracy, but I think it's very understandable that the press intimidation tactics have an effect on the refs working under high pressure.

MD1990

i'm very suspicious about that penalty award tbh
& i do want Milan to make 3rd

Pinturicchio

I'd say it was a genuine mistake to be honest. If it was fixed, why leave it until 3 or 4 minutes into stoppage time.

Having said that, if Juve were awarded a penalty in those circumstances, the world and his wife would be screaming from the rooftops about it.

Seaneh

Juve eat baby pandas and sell kittens into slavery.

That's why everyone hates them.

snowblind

Well of course a milanista would just joke about it. How about the integrity of the game? Oh yeah, why would you even consider any "integrity" with Berlusconi as your leader and icon.

I follow a certain Gazzetta journalist on twitter. He is generally insightful and level headed, providing interesting points on most Serie A topics. But when Juve get a decision, any decision, any match, incorrectly, he goes on for days with very provovative messages trying to whip up a controversy. Even when Milan gained advantage on his precious Inter through a dubious call last night he didn't really get agitated at all. But Juve, always in arms...

Seaneh

Oh noes, a ref made a bad call that favours Milan for once, time for the world to end.

snowblind

The way you use sarcasm as a defense mechanism just proves you don't have a point. What I was talking about was not one penalty call, but something that goes on throughout the years.

wadacrack

MD1990 wrote: »

i'm very suspicious about that penalty award tbh
& i do want Milan to make 3rd

what do u mean suspicious..it was balotellis debut he desreved a last min peno

Rekop dog

Of course it was potentially dodgy, it's Serie A, would be naive to completely rule it out. Part of the reason why teams are playing in front of empty stadiums, credibility of the league is hugely dubious.

mitosis

Rekop dog wrote: »

Of course it was potentially dodgy, it's Serie A, would be naive to completely rule it out. Part of the reason why teams are playing in front of empty stadiums, credibility of the league is hugely dubious.

Xenephobic shyte

Rekop dog

mitosis wrote: »

Xenephobic shyte

Care to explain why?

snowblind

They have done a lot in Italy lately to fix those issues, and even though the sports justice system is a mess (as seen in Conte's ban & how calciopoli was handled and the "statute of limitations" joke). I would say Italy isn't that bad at all, especially after the recent developments. But how could I know, and how do you know?

The whole Europe is going through a match fixing scandal (http://www.football-italia.net/30350/%E2%80%98380-football-games-fixed%E2%80%99-europol) - to somehow claim that Serie A doesn't have credibility when they were in fact in the forefront of getting into these match fixing issues is dubious at best. I mean, unless you have some actual proof of it and stuff.

Rekop dog

snowblind wrote: »

They have done a lot in Italy lately to fix those issues, and even though the sports justice system is a mess (as seen in Conte's ban & how calciopoli was handled and the "statute of limitations" joke). I would say Italy isn't that bad at all, especially after the recent developments. But how could I know, and how do you know?

The whole Europe is going through a match fixing scandal (http://www.football-italia.net/30350/%E2%80%98380-football-games-fixed%E2%80%99-europol) - to somehow claim that Serie A doesn't have credibility when they were in fact in the forefront of getting into these match fixing issues is dubious at best. I mean, unless you have some actual proof of it and stuff.

There's four teams in the league already this season who've been deducted points for match fixing, this is a seasonal regular occurance in Italy and even worse in the lower divisions. I'm sure its going on in other league's but that's irrelevant here, my only point was that it would be naive to dismiss anything that looks potentially dodgy due to the leagues reputation.

snowblind

Rekop dog wrote: »

There's four teams in the league already this season who've been deducted points for match fixing, this is a seasonal regular occurance in Italy and even worse in the lower divisions. I'm sure its going on in other league's but that's irrelevant here, my only point was that it would be naive to dismiss anything that looks potentially dodgy due to the leagues reputation.

So because the teams are actually penalized the league looks more dodgy than leagues where the teams have not been scrutinized to the same extent and/or penalized?

Maybe, just maybe, you found a reason why Italian league is NOT as corrupt as the reputation is, because the governing bodies are taking these things seriously.

Rekop dog

snowblind wrote: »

So because the teams are actually penalized the league looks more dodgy than leagues where the teams have not been scrutinized to the same extent and/or penalized?

Maybe, just maybe, you found a reason why Italian league is NOT as corrupt as the reputation is, because the governing bodies are taking these things seriously.

I cant go into any specific detail but based on suspicious betting activity its an absolute epidemic in Italy compared to elsewhere where you'd only have the occasional potentially dodgy trends. The lower divisions in Italy are beyond farcical. Only a tiny fraction of anything suspicious is ever penalised as you need a crazy amount of evidence to prove beyond doubt. Believe me its far more corrupt than its reputaion.

snowblind

Rekop dog wrote: »

I cant go into any specific detail but based on suspicious betting activity its an absolute epidemic in Italy compared to elsewhere where you'd only have the occasional potentially dodgy trends. The lower divisions in Italy are beyond farcical. Only a tiny fraction of anything suspicious is ever penalised as you need a crazy amount of evidence to prove beyond doubt. Believe me its far more corrupt than its reputaion.

Right, I can't say anything about the lower leagues really, the topic of the discussion was Serie A and that's what I'm talking about anyways. My opinion of Serie A stands, you seem to imply that you are somehow "in the know" but how would I know what that even means.

The link I posted earlier suggests that there is an epidemic in Europe. In Italy the epidemic has already been dealt with to some extent.

http://www.football-italia.net/30350/%E2%80%98380-football-games-fixed%E2%80%99-europol

snowblind

Info coming in about the 380 apparently fixed matches, only one was played in Italy. 70 in Germany. Epidemic.

Smithwicks Man

Just because they prosecute and investigate it more thoroughly in Italy doesn't mean that is widespread there and not happening anywhere else. By that logic, the league would be considered "better" if they just turned a blind eye to it.

Certified

AC Milan AND Serie A really need this......"And now let's go and watch the little black boy of the family, the crazy head," - AC Milan Vice president Paolo Berlusconi!
This follows the earlier attack on Balotelli by the AC Milan presindent Silvio Berusconi calling him a rotten apple. You just couldnt make it up!

grenache

snowblind wrote: »

Imagine the Italian press right now if that penalty had been given to Juve? It's pretty disgusting, just like the difference in the reactions of a bad call in a match between Juve and Milan .

Berlusconi owns half the Italian media. It's no wonder that there is, or at least appears to be, an anti-Juve bias in the national press.

snowblind

grenache wrote: »

Berlusconi owns half the Italian media. It's no wonder that there is, or at least appears to be, an anti-Juve bias in the national press.

Yep but it's also down to how the directors play the media. Like when Galliani ran straight to the media after the Napoli game last season and said "yes he did wrong and should get a 2 match ban" when the standard ban is 3 matches and everyone knows it. They were facing Juve in 3 matches, so you know. Ban was upheld of course, but this just shows how they're always playing the media, and the Mediaset empire is pretty co-operative, just like the Gazzetta etc are in Inter's case.

Juve have Tuttosport but the connection isn't as rigid between the team and the paper. Also Marotta and Conte have shown that they aren't always the best at dealing with the media anyways, like the stupid comments after the Genoa match show. But I'd still rather have a bit of naivety there than full blown cynicism. Lo Stile Juve still needs to prevail, however.

carlop

snowblind wrote: »

Yep but it's also down to how the directors play the media. Like when Galliani ran straight to the media after the Napoli game last season and said "yes he did wrong and should get a 2 match ban" when the standard ban is 3 matches and everyone knows it. They were facing Juve in 3 matches, so you know. Ban was upheld of course, but this just shows how they're always playing the media, and the Mediaset empire is pretty co-operative, just like the Gazzetta etc are in Inter's case.

Juve have Tuttosport but the connection isn't as rigid between the team and the paper. Also Marotta and Conte have shown that they aren't always the best at dealing with the media anyways, like the stupid comments after the Genoa match show. But I'd still rather have a bit of naivety there than full blown cynicism. Lo Stile Juve still needs to prevail, however.

I always got the impression Tuttosport showed a far clearer pro-Juve bias than Corriere or Gazzetta did for the Milan clubs.

snowblind

carlop wrote: »

I always got the impression Tuttosport showed a far clearer pro-Juve bias than Corriere or Gazzetta did for the Milan clubs.

They're all clearly biased, and there's nothing wrong with that as long as it is so obvious. I'm talking about press as a tool to influence FIGC decisions, creating disproportionate (and conspiracy theory-like) scandals whenever Juve benefit from a ref mistake and getting into the referees heads.

Seaneh

Lazio have signed Louis Saha on a free transfer.

His contract with Sunderland was terminated on January 31st so he was free to sign for anyone.

I think he's a decent signing for Lazio and good backup.

Smithwicks Man

Seaneh wrote: »

Lazio have signed Louis Saha on a free transfer.

His contract with Sunderland was terminated on January 31st so he was free to sign for anyone.

I think he's a decent signing for Lazio and good backup.

Not really a good signing from his point of view though. Openly racist fans, unspoken language, probably won't get much game time. Would've made more sense, from his point of view, to sign for a middling french time imo.

Rekop dog

Niang is frighteningly good for an 18 year old.

seriousfizz

Good win for Juve yesterday. Looking a bit more like their old self (partly, I would say, thanks to Giovinco's absence), although I'm not sure if it will be in time enough to get a result against Celtic in a few days.