For those of us in an inopportune timezone, watching this
at, say, 3:30am, this match added insult to injury. For those who typically
watch Milan at that kind of time, this must have been a massive waste of a
decent match time for once. For all Milan fans worldwide, it had to be an epic
fail. While some fans felt that the win was only a matter of the scoreline,
others of us knew this
was gonna be ugly. Still, I’m not sure anyone anticipated just how
much. So instead of celebrating a third consecutive win, we were put into place
by our feeder club, while Galliani scouted for the January mercato. In essence,
we were blanked.
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| Not even this level of beastliness could save us from ourselves |
It didn’t take long for Milan’s demise. Three dangerous
consecutive Genoa free kicks in the 6th, 8th, and finally in the 10th, and it
was just a matter of time. So Dzemaili’s kick did the trick, to put Genoa up
1-0. That’s all it took.
The rest of the match, officiated by the ever-blundering
Tagliavento, was just a series of whistles and fouls, with some epic fails
added for good measure. It is difficult to put this kind of match into words,
so let’s look at some numbers: There were ten cards in all, including a second
yellow/red/sending off for Milan. Milan were whistled for 29 fouls, while Genoa
had a mere 24. That’s like as many followers as Cristiano Ronaldo will get
during the time you spend reading this. And those were just the ones that were
whistled. Genoa were permitted 53% possession, although if you’re counting
wasted possession by Milan, then of course, Genoa’s possession is much higher.
Milan had chances – twelve shots, with three on goal, one more each than Genoa.
But those are just the numbers.
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| Even Montolivo was impressed by Romagnoli's brute strength |
The cards for Milan were Bonaventura in the 11th, Romagnoli
in the 17th, then Romagnoli again in the 42nd for an elbow to the face. That
left Milan to play on ten men for the rest of the match, or what you might call
The Allegri Advantage™. On the down
side, it was De Jong who was sacrificed in the 45th. On the up side, Mihajlovic
put his trust in the young Ely to come on in Romagnoli’s place. I love that
even with a sinking ship kind of game, he still trusts our young players.
The second half, Milan played a little better, having the
advantage of being on only ten men. Also, if their faces coming out onto the
pitch after the half are any indication, of having been completely reamed by
Mihajlovic at the half (and deservedly so.) Additionally, Tagliavento carded
Calabria in the 55th, but then realized it was Genoa’s turn for the cards in
the second half, giving them their 4 yellows between the 59th and the 88th. He
still couldn’t resist giving Milan a couple of more cards, though, in the 83rd
to Adriano and then in the 90th, to Bertolacci.
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| Anyone but Honda, they said, and yet Bonaventura was also crippled by the trequartista position... maybe it's the system? |
Another positive is that the fans who believed all of the
media and pundit criticism of Balotelli are finally coming around to see how
powerful and dominating he can be. Not enough to make up for the collective
fails of the rest of his team, but enough to finally get the haters to consider
him as a human being. Also, we missed Bacca’s speed and cunning, he didn’t come
on until the final 20 minutes.
So not a lot of positives, not in a match like this. I’m
still waiting to see who is still standing after the brutalizing that Genoa
dished out. Or who complains to management about Mihajlovic, especially after
Montolivo was subbed off in the 75th. How dare
he?!! That substitution gave me the most hope of anything, and at 3:30am that’s
not saying much. But maybe we needed this game to have Mihajlovic re-think the
midfield, as he did say he didn’t care for them lobbing the ball up the pitch,
he wants them to pass and keep possession. Or maybe I’m still too tired from
getting up so early, who knows? All I know is that it was more painful to watch
than to get up so early, and I really love my sleep. Milan were simply blanked.
This post inspired by The Smiths’ “Asleep”
Our next match is
Milan vs. Napoli
Sunday, October 4 • 20:45 CEST (2:45pm EDT)
Speaking of blanked, unless there is more consistent and sustained interest in the comment section over the next 1-2 weeks, the comments will be closed indefinitely. They are here for you, will you take advantage of them?