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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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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