Coming into this match, everyone with a friend in journalism
or maybe just a Twitter account was criticizing Higuain and Milan for their
goalscoring droughts. Gattuso’s fate rested on this match, they said, and the
players all said they wanted to score for the Mister. But all of that senseless
babble missed the crucial key for Milan to score again: Fabio Borini.
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| Amidst all of the celebrations is the humble, incredibly fit Borini |
If you follow Milan closely, you’ll remember that the last
time Borini played in the league was a glorious 37 minutes in our 2-1 victory
over Parma, where he most notably received a yellow card. After that, we were
told that he was injured. But no one ever told us what his injury was, what his
prognosis was or when he would return. He did not appear on injury lists, he
simply disappeared. Was he abducted by aliens? Did Montolivo kidnap him in an
effort to get playing time as the 26th best player in the team? Did Lazio
Ultras put something in his food to make him ill so they could get that fourth
place back? Perhaps we’ll never know.
What we do know, however, is with him called back up into
the squad, the scoring began again. Well, kind of. Romagnoli forced a Gomis
save in the eighth minute, then put one past him in the ninth… but it was called
back for offside. Then Petagna, our former hulking young prospect, was giving
Romagnoli a very physical challenge when he sent a shot in that appears to have
deflected slightly toward goal by Romagnoli to make it 1-0 SPAL in the 13th
minute.
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| Castillejo empowered by Borini's mere presence |
That was not how Borini rolls, though. So Castillejo, not
known for his physicality, shoved the SPAL defender away and simply equalized
in the 16th minute in a goal that was perfectly onside, 1-1. There were notable
shots from Kessie, Bakayoko, and Calhanoglu in the first half that all went
just wide or over the bar, too. But this game was not to be like the four
goalless draws for Milan which preceded it, it wasn’t even going to end in a
draw. Because Borini.
The second half was getting scrappy, with cards flying and shots
being missed everywhere. Once again, Milan doubled the amount of shots – 22 in
all compared to SPAL’s 11 – but ended with the same amount on target: four
shots on target each. How did we win, then? One 6’5” difference was Gigio
Donnarumma, who came up with a massive save on Fares in stoppage time. But the
other difference is that Milan had Borini.
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| At least someone believed in Higuain |
The San Siro “fans” were whistling Higuain, who was visibly
frustrated and wanted to score more than all 48,000 of them combined. So
Gattuso, clearly emboldened by the presence of Borini’s incredibly fit physique
alone, sent on a double substitution of Cutrone and Calabria for the kill,
replacing the goalscoring Spaniard, Castillejo, and the injured veteran warrior,
Abate, in the 62nd minute. Even with such a bold move, SPAL were like deer in
the headlights to the Borini Effect™.
Not two minutes later, Higuain, finally unmarked in the box,
took the shot. 2-1 Borini… I mean Milan. Those same “fans” who were whistling
him just minutes earlier were now cheering him as he wiped away all of the goal
drought from his body. So immense is Borini’s mere presence in the stadium that
Abisso showed Zapata a yellow in the 73rd, apparently for getting fouled? It’s
impossible to say, the ref was clearly not thinking clearly. I can’t blame him.
Milan’s medical staff did reportedly say that Borini was the most fit Milan
player ever upon his arrival. Abisso is just a lowly ref, who could blame him
for getting so distracted?
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| It's no Dragon Ball Z celebration, but Borini makes that okay, too |
Suso apparently tried to bring Abisso back to reality in the
79th, but instead got a yellow card for dissent. Which is noteworthy, not only
because too many or our players have become too much like Gattuso and been
getting dumb yellows for dissent, but also because it cost him dearly ten
minutes later. Yes, in the 89th, Suso committed a dumb foul that was card-worthy,
but because of his big mouth, it became a red card. Milan were down to ten men.
Unless you count Borini, then we actually had a huge advantage over SPAL (but
don’t tell anyone.) And now we will be without Suso for the Supercoppa vs.
Juventus. Don’t worry, though, as long as we have Borini, we’ll be just fine.
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| Suso sacrificed himself for the greater good... Borini can play instead |
Speaking of Borini, he was subbed on in the 82nd in Gattuso’s
final masterstroke of the evening. I thought Gattuso was giving the fans a
chance to applaud Higuain one more time after so much controversy. But then I
realized: they weren’t cheering for the man who won us our first three points
in four league matches. They were cheering because they had been waiting for
Borini.
This post inspired by the music of AFI’s
“Perfect Fit”