In the preview post, I described Sassuolo as our
kryptonite. But I also begged the question: Are Milan players superheroes?
If we were superheroes, Sassuolo
would have power over us, like they have in the past. And although the ultimate
Milan kryptonite, Berardi, did score on us, Sassuolo’s kryptonite still didn’t
have enough power over us to defeat us this time. So, no surprise, I guess
we’re not superheroes.
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| If only they played as intensely as they celebrated, there might be more to celebrate |
If you looked at the way the team played, especially in the
first half, you would think that they were both underwater and being affected
by kryptonite. And considering that Consigli was sent off in the 29th for taking
down Bacca, leaving Sassuolo on ten men for 60 minutes, you would absolutely
hope that Milan were under the influence of something with the way they played.
Despite Bacca’s clinical penalty in the 31st that put Milan up 1-0, it was
difficult to tell which team was down a man. There was a special deal where you
could go to the Serie A site and buy autographed jerseys of the Milan players
during this match, essentially selling our shirts. Which was interesting,
because it definitely seemed like these were players for hire… only they
weren’t worried about getting paid.
Their performance was predicted by the Curva Sud, who put up
banners at the beginning of the match, including “A coach who with words is a
great sergeant, but on the pitch and locker room has changed nothing.” Or the
ones calling Galliani a “plucked” condor, or declaring that “nobody can save
us.” I say predicted, but fans worldwide know what to expect based on the past
three years of performances. Besides, Mihajlovic has changed one thing: he’s
willing to play the young players. Like giving Donnarumma his first Serie A
start at the tender age of 16 years and 8 months old, only 34 days older than
Paolo Maldini was when he played his first match for Milan. He is also the 2nd
youngest goalie ever to play in Serie A, 50 days older than Gianluca
Pacchiarotti when he started for Pescara in 1980. So see? There is some faith
in youth. That has changed. Just obviously not enough change yet for the fans,
or Silvio Berlusconi, who has told every microphone he can find this week that
he spent €150m on this team this year. Don’t know how else to say it, Silvio,
but that’s just poor business on your part.
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| "This situation is embarrassing, there is no one who can save us." |
In the second half, Milan might have had some realization
that they had the man advantage, I’m not sure. I mean we had Montolivo and
Cerci on the pitch, I don’t know if they count as men in the first place. But
in the 53rd, Berardi took a free kick that seemed to affect them somehow, as he
scored on the young keeper’s debut to equalize, despite his team being on ten
men. 1-1 all. Ouch.
I think Mihajlovic decided to wake them up with a sub after
that, as he brought our second of only two available strikers on for Poli, who
had been entirely ineffective anyway. Even Cerci tried harder after that, and
some people say he had an okay game. I disagree wholeheartedly, especially when
you consider his postmatch comments about taking on defenders one on one being
his mission on the pitch. Unless his mission was also to be dispossessed every
single time by said defenders and put in crosses to the advertising boards,
then I don’t feel he was successful at all.
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| Okay, maybe he's a superhero |
We also had Montolivo firing off a few of his pointless LRS™
(long range shots,) and generally lulling the team into complacency. And
Romagnoli, who I think may be some kind of a killer, trying to take out Defrel
with a shin to the face with a high kick. He’s a little disturbingly
indifferent when he fouls someone, I’m a little frightened, to be honest. We
also saw a lot of shots – 21 in all – many of which went over the crossbar, so
it’s clear that these guys are training with Kevin Prince Boateng again.
Especially when only three of those were on goal (counting the penalty,) it is
clear that this Milan is not improving at all at finishing.
But one player finished and finished well. After the
introduction of Bertolacci, who came on for the also ineffective Kuco today,
Adriano headed a corner kick in with laser precision in the 86th for the win.
2-1 Milan. I’m sure he just wanted to prove me wrong after I said he might not
work well in the 4-3-3, but whatever the reason, his celebratory roar expressed
what a lot of us jaded and demoralized Milan fans were feeling at taking the
lead back so near the end of the game. And even more so when the final whistle
blew and we had actually achieved all three points. Especially with that awful
performance.
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| Gamewinner |
To be perfectly honest, the best performance of the night
was Rocchi, who only gave out one red and four yellows in this match. I think
that might be a record low for him. Also hats off to the Curva Sud, who despite
their protests early on, cheered for and applauded the players during the game,
like Mihajlovic had asked them to. Cerci especially was appreciative of their
applause, as no one had done that for him in a long time (and with good reason.)
But despite the fans being appreciative, Silvio Berlusconi paid a visit to the
Sassuolo locker room to commend them and their coach (or was he vetting the
coach and players?) Someone also made the mistake of allowing Balotelli and
Menez to sit together in the stands, resulting in much laughter and smiles
throughout the match. I thought Balotelli was only allowed to do that when he
scores. Put the man in jail.
The bottom line is we are definitely not superheroes. This
team is so average, it’s nauseating, or at least their efforts are average. It
was so hard to stomach at 7am my time. But at least it was three points, which
bumped us up to 10th from 13th, and kept Allegri’s Juventus below us, as they
should be. Now we have just a couple of days to turn around and prepare for
Chievo on Wednesday, who also sit one point behind us and will want revenge
after being bested by Napoli today. But today’s performance showed us that nothing’s
changed, and also that we’re not superheroes. And that you don’t have
to be superheroes or even play respectably to get three points.
This post inspired by the music of
Danny Elfman
Our next match is
Milan vs. Chievo
Wednesday, October 28 • 20:45 CET (3:45pm EDT)*
*Note the time difference due to European Daylight Savings Time change