Idiot fans are everywhere. However, I will say this. One can look at sporting venues of a country to assess how civilized or violent that particular society is. Usually, countries where spectators are generally separated from participants by wire fences, moats, moats with alligators etc. are not ideal places for visiting fans.
Italian football is a real shame. Such a rich and colorful heritage, yet it's marred by the match fixing scandal of 2005-6 and the constant fan behavioral issues. Their last home CL game, Napoli fans threw rocks at the Marseille bus, shattering a window, fans of both sides threw flares onto the pitch, and other Napoli fans were stopped from bringing knives and other weapons into the stadium. Not to mention the Napoli fans destroying that pie shop in London during their visit. Unfortunately examples like the above are more the rule than the exception, and that's why I generally root for Italian teams to lose. I'm hoping both BVB and Arsenal win today. Juventus is already out, Napoli would follow, and if Ajax manage to pull out a win today, AC Milan would also be out. If the Italian authorities can ever figure out a way to fix these issues, then I'll return to being an Italy fan like I was in my younger, more naive days in the early 90s.
@blueguitar322 Another interesting stat is that serie A has piss poor attendance for a country with such a rich tradition of soccer. It is something like 22K per game. MLS averages 20K per game. I wonder if fans are as fed up with the crap in Italy as many neutral watchers of the game.
I've been off the grid quite a bit lately. Doubtful I'll get to watch us @NAPOLI live. But still wanted to show up to say... COYG!!! p.s. Anyone we know from BigSocccer going to be in attendance tonite? (If so, I wish them very safe passage)
I noticed this- half the lower seats on any given match are empty. Not sure was the people of Turin are doing on the average Saturday night, but it can't be as good as staring at this guy for 90 minutes.
wilshere, ramsey and walcott on the bench. sounds like it'll be flamini and arteta, with ozil, rosicky and carzola ahead of them.
Szczesny, Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs, Flamini, Rosicky, Arteta, Ozil, Cazorla, Giroud. Subs: Fabianski, Vermaelen, Bendtner, Monreal,Wilshere, Ramsey, Walcott. COYG!
Well said. When I was a kid, I grew up primarily on Italian football. 80's and early 90's were fantastic. Now, it's a second tier league. I don't feel bad. They made their bed years ago.
That's very interesting. Despite being in the minority here on this I love the pairing of Arteta and Flamini to hold and I am fascinated to see how the 3some of Rosicky, Ozil and Cazorla will work together -- will be very interesting to see Cazorla (presumably) on the right. That's putting our three best attacking passers in the game all together. Presumably, we intend to have possession. I would have sat Cazorla for Ramsey and brought Santi in at the 60th though I can certainly see the merits in this option as well (as many have asserted, Ramsey was not as his best in the last match perhaps due to fatigue and Wenger is in a much better position to judge this then we are). Moreover, although the two players are very different in how they accomplish it, they each bring a unique level of danger to the attack.
That's a strong team and I'm pretty optimistic. I'm thinking there are 3 key wildcards in MF: Rosicky (lack of starts/playing); Arteta (mistakes creeping in); Ozil (fatigue). Edit: Perhaps I should've said 4, and put Cazorla in the Arteta category. And I pray the Napoli fans behave themselves.
I wonder which of Cazorla or Rosicky will be playing on the right, because Jenkinson might need some cover. That's part of the reason I'm not surprised that Theo is starting on the bench. Dropping Ramsey is the most surprising part to me.
Anyone have that awesome hd feed thats been so consistent these last few CL matchdays? Thanks in advance.
I finally have time to go out for a game for the first time since match day one. Let's win this quick, rest Ozil and giroud, and get a little help from Marseilles just to top things off.
I assume he is speaking about the occasional calamitous misstep that Arteta has made on occasion such as the dispossession by Lukaku on Sunday that could have easily resulted in a goal as well as the red card a couple of weeks ago. While I would agree he does make some mistakes -- who doesn't? On the whole I think Arteta has been a solid and consistent holding midfielder with a very nice passing completion percentage. That said, no mistakes tonite would be nice...
Here I am thinking people in the US take sports too seriously... but these Ultras put that thought to shame.