I talked about it in my previous
post, but Allegri is quick to blame the youth when things go wrong. After
complaining about it again postmatch yesterday, for some reason, he lined up a
brilliant young side today. Only his plan backfired. They played much, much
better than the other lineups we’ve seen so far in these friendlies. That’s
right, a starting lineup with six players 20 or younger, and a total average
squad age of 22.8 played well together, linking up and creating chances, much
prettier football than we’ve seen otherwise. It wasn’t perfect by any means,
but it sure was refreshing. In fact if feels as if we found the fountain of
youth.
 |
| Our fountain of youth? |
Now then, our young ones really impressed, especially up
front. Niang, El Shaarawy, and Petagna each challenged Sao Paulo’s keeper,
Denis. And they worked well together while doing it. Petagna even hit the crossbar in the 41st. But it was the sub, Primavera
forward Kingsley Boateng who scored the only goal of the game in the 52nd.
Boateng was assisted beautifully by Urby Emanuelson, who
absolutely shone in his natural role as a left back. So a combination of
experience and youth for the win… huh. Who knew? Meanwhile, Poli and Cristante
did well enough, barring a sloppy tackle or two by Cristante and the yellow
card in the 60th for Poli. Nocerino was okay, but he didn’t have a memorable
performance one way or the other.
 |
| Vergara: some scary moments, but a lot more promising moments, too. Not bad for a kid. |
The rest of the defense was a little questionable. Zaccardo
ran a lot and made crosses to no one, but did little else. Pacifico had some
good moments and some not good moments, as did Vergara. However Vergara’s good
moments were a little more exciting, despite the errors. He looks like he might
just be the real deal.
Amelia’s performance was incredibly impressive. Someone
wants a new club, I think, or at least to keep his second spot. In fact, he was
even named the player of the match. He had a number of great saves, and kept a
clean sheet. That in and of itself says a lot about his performance. But the performance of the squad overall was just drastically improved from yesterday, and the main difference is that Allegri actually added more youth.
 |
| Kingsley Boateng was the decider on the night. |
So I must say, Bravo Allegri! Like your hairstyle, you tried
something new and it really worked for you. Now let’s see if we can trust in
youth a little more often. I mean, this was just a friendly, not even a
European side. But it’s nice to know we have some options. And I think the
bigger key was finding the right balance of players. Always looking at that
midfield, this one had the perfect combination of pace, creativity, and
defensive capabilities (but not too much so.) Maybe having an average squad age
of 22.8 is not realistic for Serie A matches, and especially Champions League
matches. But we know we have a lot of talent and depth to pull from in our
youth. And maybe just a little more time, a little more trust… maybe it will
pay off. Instead of blaming our losses on our young players, why not embrace
our youth? It paid off today. Maybe it will pay off in the future, even in much
smaller quantities. Certainly this match felt like we’d finally discovered the
fountain of youth.
This post inspired by the music of the Smiths’ “This Night Has Opened My
Eyes”
Our next match is the
Guinness International Champions Cup Round 2
Milan vs. Chelsea
Sunday, August 4 • 6:30pm EDT