Every fan supposedly has a breaking point, and likewise,
every fan’s stomach has a breaking point. That point where your stomach just
gets so nauseated by the football you are watching. For my stomach, I reached
the nauseating point again today. Not only was it midweek, and I was cursed
dealing with a terrible stream, but the overall play hurt my sensibilities and made me
physically ill. I know this sounds crazy, because that was our second win in a
row and we are now in eighth place in the table, but I would trade a loss with a decent
performance for that win today. Because then at least I wouldn’t be so sick to
my stomach.
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| The goal was certainly lovely |
The positives were that we won, we maintained a clean sheet
(barely, but we did,) and that Antonelli scored the game winner. That’s it. We
traded three points to watch Cerci run all over and be dispossessed or maybe
fire a wild shot or two, which has somehow raised some fans' confidence in him. We traded three points for 54% of some of the most
timid and tepid possession you could have without actually letting the other team have the ball.
We beat an average team who have been a little lucky this year and who played
poorly today as well, although at least they had the excuse of playing away. We
managed to escape with no cards, but lost Abate, who came off injured and was
subbed by De Sciglio in the 14th.
If Pirlo was the metronome, then Montolivo is like one of
those cheap carnival rides that just makes you throw up your cotton candy and caramel corn. And watching the
passing and gameplay of the rest of the midfield is enough to make even the
most seasoned sailor toss his cookies. Our defense held tight, I guess, but they
weren’t really tested, as Chievo only had four shots. Although credit to the
young Donnarumma, three of those shots were on goal, and he did have a spectacular
save or two.
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| Maybe these two wins will build the team's confidence, but you'll have to do more than that to earn the fan's confidence |
But why is Donnarumma even playing ahead of Diego Lopez? Why are Cerci and Montolivo
starting when we have much better players on the bench? Why did I race home from work
and frantically search for a stream just to watch another horrifyingly mediocre performance? Is Alex really the best person to be mentoring Romagnoli? Why did
it take us 24 shots, only four of those on goal, to score just one measly goal? This
doesn’t feel like a win, this just feels like I need to keep a bucket next to
my couch in order to watch Milan, or maybe take something for motion sickness
before I watch the next match.
But regardless of my stomach, it was three points. Three
very valuable points, and I shouldn’t begrudge that. And yet, I cannot
celebrate it, either, because the play is so painfully poor and it feels so very lucky to come out of the match with both the win and the clean sheet. But if it
boosts their confidence and heads us both toward the top of the table and
towards some actual football again, then a little vomiting is worth it, I
guess. I just want something resembling my Milan back again. This was a very
nauseating win.
This post inspired by the music of Joy
Division’s “Dead Souls”
Our next match is
Lazio vs. Milan
Sunday, November 1 • 20:45 CET (2:45pm EST)