So our players wanted
to prove themselves, and in the first half, they truly did. Despite the
birthday boy (Antonini)’s missed opportunity in the opening minutes where he
displayed that fabulous Milan youth talent Milan has coveted and nurtured for
so long, others kept the Olimpia keeper, Valladaers, quite busy. The 10th minute
saw Robinho’s shot saved, then El Shaarawy, with lightning reflexes also immediately tested
the keeper. It was a test he passed… this time. Then in the 13th, as predicted
by our own fsun, Robinho got in the way of a great Nocerino shot. Since that
happened as predicted, apparently that will be Robinho’s newest trick this
season, so watch out.
Olimpia got a couple
of easy shots off in the first 15 minutes, too, but they were easily gathered
by Amelia, who probably could have been writing letters home, that’s how little
he had to do on the afternoon. But the true fireworks came in the 24th, when
Robinho took a shot from distance that bobbled a bit, but went in clean and
easy. 1-0 Milan.
Hugs all around |
The nightmares were
only beginning for the Olimpia defense, though, as Robinho, Nocerino, and El
Shaarawy were constantly being set up by Cassano and looking incredibly
dangerous. (The pitch was looking a little dangerous, too, with the synthetic
surface causing many to slip.) In fact, in the 36th, Cassano sent it to Robinho
to Nocerino for Nocerino’s first goal of the game. 2-0 Milan.
In the 40th saw
another great play strung together from Abate to Cassano to Nocerino, and the
keeper saved it, but appeared to be over the line. Had it been a competitive
match, Galliani would have had that picture on his phone. There was another one
earlier, too, that was a little bit tighter call, but did seem to cross the
line. Can you imagine it could have been 5-1? And I believe that would have
been 4 goals for Nocerino. Can’t believe people who don’t rate him, he’s simply
amazing. (I think it was because he was wearing Gattuso’s jersey now!) Anyway, it was just a friendly, so no big deal.
Montolivo decided to
earn a yellow in the 41st, probably because he was frustrated with the English
commentator who kept calling him “Montolivio.” But he wasn’t great on the
afternoon anyway, let’s just hope it was an off day. Nocerino slotted in his
2nd nice and easy by being in the right place at the right time on a cross by….
Abate!! 3-0 Milan. Their time together on the national team is already paying
off! (Did I mention Abate got an assist already?) The half finished with a shot from Caetano that finally gave Amelia
something to do, and he did it well.
Constant and Montolivo together having a tough time stopping Olimpia |
After such a strong
first half, it seemed like everyone really relaxed. Maybe they were reminded
that it was a friendly, and that they’ve got another one in 4 days against Real
Madrid. Allegri sent Mesbah and De Sciglio on for Antonini and Abate
respectively, with De Sciglio being more impressive. Then Montolivo went off for
Cristante, who was instantly more visible and active.
In the 63rd, Bonera
made a beautiful cross to Cassano, and Cassano’s resulting shot went just wide.
I mention this because as many of you know, I don’t have a lot of faith in our
vice-vice captain, so I promise to mention it when he does things that are
really good. It’s called positive reinforcement, and he specifically will need
tons of it this season to give us more performances like we saw vs. Barca last
season. Well, done Bonera!
The rest of the
substitutions were Amelia, Constant, Bonera, and Robinho off in the 65th, with
Pazzagli, Valoti, Iotti, and Urby replacing them. Then Ambrosini came on for Cassano
in the 76th and Prosenik came on for El Shaarawy in the 80th.
Completing the Brazilian dominance over Honduras today |
Both teams traded a
few shots in the second half, but the pace was much slower over all. Pazzagli
probably had as much or more to do than Amelia, and he only played 25 minutes.
And unfortunately, it was him that was beaten in the 72nd by Escalante’s goal,
3-1 Milan.
My stream was
terrible, my connection worse, so forgive if you saw something different, but these are a couple of observations that I
made with the blurry ants running around on a greenish screen: Acerbi was very
confident in the first half. I lost track of him in the 2nd half, which is not
necessarily good, but it’s also not bad. Very refreshing to see him step it up.
Robinho had a great game. Maybe it was because Brazil had also beaten Honduras in
the Olympics earlier, but he was fantastic. Cassano behind the strikers… he was
terrorizing to the Olimpia defense in setting up practically every shot on
goal. But I miss him scoring, too, and I love him as a seconda punta. But it
was an excellent thing for Allegri to try, now he’s got another weapon in our
relatively empty trequartista case.
This summer has been
so very emotional. So many have been concerned about the future of the club.
Many have pointed fingers and criticized others for not being “true
fans,” which is just silly. But I think it has mainly been the long-term future
that people have questioned, and rightly so. It is fine to question the
management’s decisions, it doesn’t make you any less of a fan. We all want the club to be the best. I cannot speak
for everyone, but I have always stood behind our boys, yes, even Bonera, and I
always will. If Berlusconi sells everyone and replaces them with 23 Oompa
Loompas, so long as they are wearing the Milan jersey, I’m in. But luckily,
these friendlies have shown us that our players are equally committed to the
jersey and they want our support. So even if nothing changes between now and
the end of the mercato, I say we rally behind our boys. They deserve it. Are
you in?
This post inspired by the music of the Cult
Our next friendly is
AC Milan vs. Real Madrid
Wednesday, August 8th • 8:00 pm EDT
Yankee Stadium, New York, NY, U.S.A.