Milan
were caught sleeping. Juve are the giants. To be honest I was going to use the
title “Sleeping with Giants” but that seemed like it could produce a lot of
unwanted searches. So through every fault of our own, Milan are out of the
Coppa Italia. And Juve are poised to win all the trophies. Again. No surprises
here, really, just disappointment. That and concern for an issue that is
becoming very, very disconcerting. Almost as disconcerting as sleeping with
giants.
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| A little something to be happy about |
For the
third straight match, Milan conceded two goals in the first 25 minutes. First
Torino. Then Napoli. Now Juventus. Why are we so slow and sleepy in the first
half? Are they smoking pot before the game? I mean in the 10th minute,
absolutely no one was marking Dybala. No one. Yet five Milan players turned and
watched as Donnarumma was left stranded yet again and Dybala had his choice of
places to score. 1-0 Juve. Did they all have the munchies? I know I was
definitely not stoned in the 21st when Pjanic took his exquisite free kick that
seemed to have its own homing beacon to curl perfectly over the wall and out of
the reach of Donnarumma. 2-0 Juve. There was nearly a third goal, too, in the
29th, when Khedira put Higuain’s rebound in the back of the night, but it was
called back for offside. Unbelievable. It seemed insurmountable, and on this
night, it was.
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| The only problem with young players is that they make more mistakes |
After
waking up and maybe sobering up a bit in the second half yet again, Bacca
pulled one back in the 53rd. An amazing goal from distance to make up for the
amazingly slow and poor first half. 2-1 Juve. Kucka was not only a tank, but
trying to channel his inner Messi throughout the match. And while many named
him their MOTM, he did foul Asamoah to give Pjanic the free kick opportunity
that was the winning goal. And probably should have been sent off in the 36th,
but for the mercy of an “Irratic” ref. Which goes to show you that this Milan
team were simply not up to the task this time around.
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| If it looks like a tank and plays like a tank, it must be a tank |
But Milan
weren’t the only ones not up to the task. Irrati never had control of this
match, and both teams swarmed him incessantly through excellent and not so
excellent calls. Irrati gave out ten
yellow cards. Ten. Including two to
Locatelli, who was sent off for the second one in the 54th (even if his first
card could have potentially been a straight red.) At one point, Irrati gave
four cards out in the space of six minutes. Is that a record? Milan would be
awarded six cards in all, and play the last 35 minutes on ten men. Is that
discipline issue back? Or are they just cranky from being woken up at halftime
again?
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| The new kid in town got all of ten minutes |
There
were stunning saves from Donnarumma, Deulofeu’s ten minute debut, Storari
talking to his Juve buddies, a three minute Honda sighting, and everything else you might expect in a game
like this. But no luck for Milan. And Juve absolutely deserved to win. When you
have a slumber party on the pitch for half or even more of the match, you deserve nothing. And that’s just what Milan left with. Nothing. Despite Juve having
only lost five matches this year, with two of those being losses to Milan, we couldn’t
quite pull off the third time. And now Juventus are unbeaten in 40 straight
home games, too. Ridiculous.
But I’m already over the Coppa Italia exit. There’s no shame in losing to Juve and we have much bigger issues to deal with. Like how to get our players to play from the whistle again. Montella had that, then he lost that. Just like it looks like he is losing some discipline again, between all of the cards, the ref swarming, and Bacca mixing it up with Juve players when Locatelli saw red. Those things are probably not exclusive, they are all linked, and after three games in a row, it can be officially called a problem. So let's try to look ahead to Sunday and Udinese and put the sleeping and the giants in the past.
But I’m already over the Coppa Italia exit. There’s no shame in losing to Juve and we have much bigger issues to deal with. Like how to get our players to play from the whistle again. Montella had that, then he lost that. Just like it looks like he is losing some discipline again, between all of the cards, the ref swarming, and Bacca mixing it up with Juve players when Locatelli saw red. Those things are probably not exclusive, they are all linked, and after three games in a row, it can be officially called a problem. So let's try to look ahead to Sunday and Udinese and put the sleeping and the giants in the past.
This post inspired
by the music of They Might Be Giants
Our next match is
Udinese vs. Milan
Sunday, January 29 •
15:00 CET (9am EST)