Milan-Roma Preview: Last Party

Roma have so few trophies, but they do have a legend: Francesco Totti, King of Rome. And as the saying goes, “No Totti, No Party.” This week it was announced that Totti, one of the last bandiere and a living legend, will be retiring at the end of this season and will be taking on the role of Technical Director for the club. Therefore, this will be his last appearance as a player at the San Siro, the last party.

All hail the King of Rome

Everyone is caught up in Milan’s campaign for the Europa League and Roma’s desperate plea to hold onto second place, with Napoli only one point behind them now. But for me, the end of the career of such a Roma and Italy legend will be far more important in the long run and should be celebrated now. Granted, it has not been an ideal season for the 40 year old. He got only one start so far, despite often being decisive as a super sub. His throne has been the bench, and that is hard enough to watch for any player, let alone for Roma's greatest icon.

The King is not the only royalty who will be at the San Siro, as the Little Pharaoh will also be there. But they might not feel like royalty after their 3-1 Derby loss last week. For that massive psychological blow, Spaletti lined up Szczesny; Fazio, Manolas, Emerson, Rüdiger, De Rossi, Nainggolan, Strootman, Dzeko, El Shaarawy, and Salah. Fazio is questionable for our match as of this writing, and Florenzi is obviously out due to his longterm injury. But Spaletti will be missing two players due to suspension: Strootman and Rüdiger. It was really kind of Strootman to leave the diving to Deulofeu for this match.

Whatever with royalty, Deulofeu will have the stage all to himself, at least when it comes to the diving

Montella will be missing his Tank to suspension, as Kucka got himself sent off in the dying seconds of the Crotone match. He will also still be missing Abate, Bonaventura, and Antonelli to injury. But perhaps our biggest missing piece will be our own Roma import, Romagnoli, who is still not fit. Well, that and our mentality.

Montella noticed this week that the mentality suffered since the closing, but I wonder if he’s been paying attention to the last five years? His magic that he weaved with the mentality of our squad couldn’t last forever. Although my theory is that when they found out that Yonghong Li was only worth €500m, mentally they checked out. I know I did.

Party crasher

But at least Milan weren’t given a "funeral" this week by their bitter rivals. Roma also have mentality problems, they just have a much, much better squad. Milan have the ability to surprise, and Roma have the uncanny ability to choke, so really it will be a game that could be decided by who sucks less. For me, though, I hope we get to see the King of Rome one last time. He may not be the brightest of footballers, but he’s one of the classiest and undeniably talented. He's hilarious, too, and also has the ability to laugh at himself. Whatever the outcome of the match, whatever the table says afterward, I would just like to see Totti play one last time at the San Siro. One last party.

This post inspired by the music of XTC’s “King for a Day”

Milan vs. Roma

Sunday, May 7 • 20:45 CST (2:45pm EDT)

This match will be shown LIVE on RAI and BeInSports in the U.S.

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