Milan were destroyed by Juventus, I’m not going to sugar
coat anything here. Once again, the disparity between a club that has been
shrewdly and carefully rebuilding since 2006-07 and now needs a moving van for
their trophies and this Milan was glaringly blatant. Despite needing a moving
van for the amount of cash we invested last summer, Milan are trying to repair
the sinkhole Berlusconi and Galliani made of this club. And so far, it’s going
about as well as this game did for us. Which is sad, because if had Milan managed the
upset, we would be qualified for the Europa League Group Stages right now, and
the team would be definitely coming to the U.S. this summer. But now we have to
play two games, two finals, to see where we end up on the table and if we can play in the ICC Tournament or not. So don’t pack
your bags yet.
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| Yeah that looks about right |
Surprisingly, Milan held 53% possession. And it’s not as if
we didn’t try, we had ten shots, with six on goal, forcing Buffon into some
pretty decent saves. And while all of the internet chatter is crucifying
Donnarumma for his two errors, no one is talking about his whopping eight
saves, some of them pretty amazing. It’s not as if he lost the game for us.
Benatia’s goal in the 56th was not assisted by Milan, and that’s all it would
have taken for Juve to take the trophy home.
Now Costa’s goal in the 61st was definitely an error from
Gigio, in his attempt to parry the shot, he sent it into the net. That made it
2-0 for Juve. Then Benatia poached a rebound in the 64th from Gigo’s failure to
save or clear it to make it 3-0. Ouch. But the icing on the cake was Kalinic’s
own goal in the 76th. His glancing header in an attempt to clear the ball
actually sent it into the back of the net to make it 4-0. It seems we found
something he is worse at than finishing: defending.
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| Twice as painful for him |
That the first half was our better half and virtually
nothing happened in the first half tells you much about the quality of the two teams. But nothing
says it louder than looking at the subs. Gattuso is down 2-0, and he fatefully brings on
Kalinic for Cutrone. A third goal conceded? Bring on Borini for Suso. And after
an own goal, the only thing you can do to make things worse is to sub on
Montolivo for Locatelli. It was like finishing eight vs. eleven with those
subs. Actually, with Kalinic scoring for Juve, it was more like seven vs.
twelve. And it’s not like Gattuso had much else to choose from, other than
Silva. Meanwhile, Allegri subbed on Bernardeschi, Higuain, and Marchisio. The
difference is shocking.
The one positive thing from this match was the Milan fans.
While Juve’s fans did a pretty good job of making concentric rings, Milan went “All In” with their coreo. It was the Joker with four aces and the Coppa Italia
trophy. The coreo was eerily prophetic, though. Juve did play four aces. But if Juve defeated us 4-0 on the pitch, then we beat them at least 12-0
in the coreo. I am so impressed with the number of fans at the stadiums this season,
and how much better behaved they are overall. Even the official Milan account
thanked the fans for their undying support this year. It’s really a shame that
Milan’s resources have been so poorly used for so long. We fans deserve a
better team.
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| The fans were All In. Too bad there aren't any trophies for coreo. |
The scoreline doesn’t tell the story of the game, it was
much closer than that in reality. But thanks to individual errors in the big
game, Milan’s Europa League future still lies in question. Of course, Juventus
absolutely deserved to win, and congrats to them for doing the double four
years in a row. But the 4-0 scoreline is a more accurate measure of the
difference between the owners and management of the two clubs, especially since
the 2007-08 season, than the effort our team put into the match. It also shows
how much more we need to do before we deserve an automatic Europa League berth.
So although my kids and I are desperately hoping Milan will make it here this
summer, the team still have to wait to pack their bags.
This post
inspired by the music of Liam Lynch’s “United States of Whatever”
Or next match is
Serie A Week 37
Atalanta vs. Milan
Sunday, May 13 •
18:00 CEST (12noon EDT)