haha.. alright, now that the "get gila of the field" moment is out the way... lets hope he does better next half... although besides that "stumbling over the ball" bit end of first half... he did pretty well.. that flick was bound to end up at the back of the net if it wasnt for a ridiculous save by frey..
gila was unlucky not to score earlier, then has a nice lay-off from a pirlo chip right on kaka's boot, so i thought "yeah, alright, gila might do something today." then right before ht, ambro takes it away from liverani, passes to gila, who fumbles it around, then tries to pass it back and instead falls down. midfield is classy, possession edge is 60-40 at ht. we have created the more dangerous chances and could easily be up 2-0, but hopefully we continue to come out and play well in this second half. three points going into the international break would be huge. 1-0 kaka 27'
Milan is incredible. Gattuso was destroying Gobbi on that wing. It's going to be hard for Fiorentina to win
yeah, i think gila is having a pretty decent game... and even the best players make atleast a couple of mistakes in the game, so im gonna let that stumble slide.. we better win.. im missing class for this.. (well like i needed another excuse) its starting up again..
This substitution doesn't make much sense to me. Ambrosini was having an awesome game, and has been creating numerous opportunities. Why replace him now with Emerson is beyond me. UNless of course Ancelotti is thinking about holding for a tie, but that wouldn't seem like something that Ancelotti would do
Well, it seems to me that we will have many of these games ahead of us - playing tired against tough teams. However, we will need to step up and players like Ronaldo and Gourcuff will need to step up. Tough game and a draw it is. Why in the hell did Jankulowski take the last kick, why not Seedorf or Kaka or Pirlo?
he was exhausted. it was nothing more than a fatigue decision. had a lot of possession again, drew a lot of corners, and had some dangerous moves, but when we broke down, the younger more fresh fiorentina killed us on the counter, and could have easily scored another, then again, we should have scored some more too. oh well, a draw isn't bad. we knew that fiorentina would have the fresher legs, and they are a quality side with a good coach. now let's get ronaldo ready. i hate this playing with 10 and half men ish, where every other game the strikers play like crap. this wasn't gila's worst performance, but it still wasn't good enough. inzaghi also didn't play well, but we had our chances, just got to take them. also, kaka had an uncharacteristically loose match. then he lost his cool, which is also not usual out of him. also, he was visibly frustrated with gila at times, of course that is understandable. this was a quote from another thread, but i wil address it here. gourcuff should have come on. i understand emerson for ambrosini, as ambro was really starting to lag, but the last 15 minutes, kaka and seedorf you could tell were feeling that game friday in there legs, and one should have come off for gourcuff. ancelotti has to start trusting the bench. personally, I would have rather he not subbed off oddo, and used the third sub for gourcuff, but oh well, water on the bridge now, as they say.
Not a bad game to watch; 1-1 was the right scoreline and I thought Mutu and Seedorf had really nice individuals games. But one sour note: I didn't like Gattuso at all this game. There was not a single occasion where Rino cleanly dispossessed a Fiorentina player, instead he was breaking up promising plays exclusively through fouls (mostly on Mutu). He should have been booked in the first half for his poor tackling. He was also caught in possession several times giving the ball to the Viola. This is not the Gattuso of the World Cup in Germany. Vain, egoistical, and overbearing, he seems also to have lost the humility that made him such a useful player in the past years. Gattuso needs to remember that he doesn't have great talent and that he's only as good as his last game. When he's really on form, he's always breaking up plays and re-starting the offense and interacting well with Pirlo. But today's game was not a good one for him. And Milan will need him to pick it up. They also need Ronaldo, and soon, to be their star striker.
yeah, gattuso should have been booked earlier. i love the guy, but come on, how many fouls can you commit without a caution. i think i counted 6, and he only went in the book after arguing with the ref. also, for some reason he and ambrosini really had trouble keeping their footing, and a couple of times, when they tried to clear they slipped. maybe it had rained in milan as night, cause the pitch looked to be in good shape. edit: milan-fiorentina 03/09/2007 Dida 6.5 - Ancora non del tutto convincente sulle uscite, ma si esalta sulle conclusioni da distanza ravvicinata di Pazzini. Troppi alti e bassi per un portiere della sua caratura. Kaladze 6 - Nel primo tempo non cede un millimetro agli avversari, poi si concede qualche sbavatura di troppo. Jankulovski 5 - Un buon avvio, ma si spegne subito. Nella ripresa crolla fisicamente: si perde Mutu in occasione del gol della Fiorentina e spreca alcune buone chance in attacco. Nesta 6.5 - Ottime chiusure difensive su Pazzini prima e su Vieri poi. Cafu 6 - Mezz`ora in campo per far rifiatare Oddo. Non sfigura. Oddo 6 - Molto avanzato sulla destra, vince `ai punti` il duello con Pasqual. Emerson s.v. - In campo solo negli ultimi minuti. Ambrosini 6.5 - Gara da vero capitano. Si propone in attacco con costanza e crea buone palle-gol, mal sfruttate dai compagni. Pirlo 6.5 - In certi casi sembra predicare nel deserto: costretto a fare il doppio lavoro non si tira indietro, cercando di tenere alta la squadra. Seedorf 5 - Match abulico da parte dell`olandese. Non entra nel vivo della gara e spreca malamente le poche occasioni che si procura. Gattuso 6 - Stoicamente in campo nonostante i mille acciacchi, non tira mai indietro la gamba. Sfiora l`ammonizione gia` nella ripresa per i troppi falli fatti, il giallo lo prende nella ripresa per proteste. Kaka` 6 - Ancelotti lo schiera in una posizione troppo avanzata per lui e il brasiliano soffre un ruolo che non gli compete. Sprazzi di genialita` e un gol su rigore, ma da un futuro Pallone d`Oro ci si aspetta sempre di piu`. Gilardino 5.5 - Cerca in tutti i modi di rendersi pericoloso, ma non e` fortunato. Il pubblico di sicuro non lo aiuta fischiandolo per ogni minimo errore. Inzaghi 5.5 - Non fa molto meglio di Gilardino mangiandosi un gol clamoroso; non in giornata di grazia. datasport.it
This is the type of game where we needed to score 2 or 3 goals early because you knew the legs would eventually go in the second half. And they did. Our midfield was playing as well as they could with everybody keeping the ball(with the exception of Gila). But when all our attacks culminate in the ball ricocheting off Gila's shin it's all worthless possession. We desperately need Ronaldo in this squad. He would have turned some of the balls Gila lost into genuine scoring opportunities. And since a lot of people(myself included) seem to praise Nesta when he is dominating it's only fair to point out when he throws in a stinker. And he was clearly getting out run by Mutu during the whole second half. We are very lucky to only concede 1 goal.
Ya, I noticed Gattuso's often overly-agressive and somewhat careless play as well. We all know that Gattuso made himself famous based on his intensity and agressive style, but in today's match it seemed as though he was more reckless than anything else. In the first half alone he had anywhere between 4-6 fouls, yet fortunately for him and Milan the ref was pretty lax on the bookings. Definitely not one of Gattuso's best outtings though. I'm really impressed by Fiorentina this year though. Their defense seems to be pretty solid, although they let the Milan forwards squeek by a few times, but overall they seemed pretty strong. They weren't particularly good in the midfield, but they still did a great job at feeding the ball to their forwards (particularly when Semioli came on), and although Pazzini and Vieri did very little in this match, Mutu was a constant menace for the Milan backline all game!
It pains me to say this, but a draw was a fair result. Fiorentina made the most of their limited possession. The Rossoneri wasted too many chances and lots of sloppy passing. I love Rino, but he was wildly tacking all over the place. And this is coming from someone who REALLY doesn't care for Mutu, at all. Kaka and Gila had some nice touches in the 1st half. Pippo couldn't get anything going when he came on. Thought Seedorf played well. Jankulowski was totally beaten by Mutu to give up the header in the back of the net. Really wish Pirlo or someone else took the last FK. I had, Fiorentina, before the season started, as a UEFA Cup spot side. They should not be taken lightly and maybe Milano thought they would keep getting QUALITY chances the entire match; that really wasn't the case. FORZA ROSSONERI!
Dude, im with you. Jan is NOT the man for FK. I was shocked The Puma came on instead of Gourcuff. I thought Milan needed an injection of offense, not more defense.
I suppose the angle might have slightly favoured a left footed player, but it can't have been by much. It could have been too near the goal to get it over the wall and then down again for a right footed player, but I was suprised when Pirlo didn't take it though.
Gila's plummet from rising star to scrub has to be one of the most frustrating things I've had to endure for all last year; and now its looking to be this year as well. Milan's striker situation at the moment is just simply woeful.