Serie A Week 17 - 19/1/03 (15.00) Milan 2 - 1 Piacenza Gurenko 52 (P), Pirlo pen 54 (M), Rivaldo 68 (M) Stadio San Siro Milan: Dida; Simic, Costacurta, Maldini, Kaladze; Ambrosini, Pirlo, Serginho (Seedorf 17); Rivaldo; Shevchenko (Tomasson 70), Inzaghi (Gattuso 89) Piacenza: Guadalben (Orlandoni 45); Cardone, Boselli, Mangone; Gurenko, Riccio (Ferrarese 72), Maresca, Di Francesco (Rinaldi 81), Tosto; De Cesare, Hubner Ref: De Santis Rivaldo finally justifies his hefty salary today with his brillient winning goal. This is what I expected from him when we signed him. He is a good passer but that isn't what made Galliani sign him. Goals. Goals. Goals. That is what we need from him and he came through for us today. Dida also came up huge today making some brillient saves to keep us in the game. Here are the match highlights: High Speed Low Speed Forza Milan!! Winter Champions!!
And to think, just a few days ago you were calling him a "bust." Although, I'll agree Rivaldo wasn't the spectacular player we'd hoped he be immediately, but to call him a bust would be harsh. Now JDT and the second stringers need to come up big versus Chievo if they want to continue to see playing time this season. I've really enjoyed watching Redondo's classy play and an old favorite in Leonardo.
I don't think Rivaldo was signed for goals, goals, goals. When has he ever been that type of player? I think he's there because beside scoring some goals, he can make things happen with the ball both with his passing and dribbling. It's guys like Pippo and Sheva are at Milan for their goals.
If you look at Rivaldo's career with Barca he was alway's at the top of the scorers chart in La Liga. For the most part he doesn't contribute much to a squad in the 90 minutes but he is capable of producing those moments of magic where he turns the game on it's head. For this reason I think Rivaldo needs to score goals to be considered successful. We have Pirlo, Seedorf, and Rui who are the creators on this team, we don't need Rivaldo to be creating but we need him to be scoring. When the time comes later in the year for the big Champions League matches I see Rivaldo playing further up top and not as much in midfield. I think Rui and Seedorf are locks to be playing in midfield and having Rivaldo there would clog up midfield too much. So he will have to score to keep his place in the starting eleven because we know Sheva and Pippo will get thier goals.