AS Roma v Bari LIVE Italian Serie A Sunday, November 22, 2009 14:00 GMT, 09:00 ESTThe Italian
Serie A has several matches on Sunday, November 22, 2009 including Siena v Atalanta, Sampdoria v
Chievo, Livorno v Genoa, Roma v Bari, Napoli v Lazio, & Palermo v Catania. These matches will be
covered live on our other site, Free Live Sports TV, at the links below.
The International Break is a Welcome One for Top Squads
The 1-1 Inter-Roma draw this weekend highlighted the risk for top flight Serie A clubs
participating in international tournaments; Inter has played three matches this month already and
eight in the past 22 days.
Fairly good week for goals, as only one game finished 0-0 (Catania-Napoli, but ask Takayuki
Morimoto about that). The top scorer table is still wide open, as Di Natale started strong but now
has cooled off so he remains at 9, while Hamsik is second with 7 and that's impressive for a
midfielder.
Milan has really jumped up the table these past few weeks. After the horrible start where
everyone condemned the Rossoneri to a season of misery, Leonardo's squad has made a complete
turnaround, finally playing well and becoming contenders once again. They now find themselves 5
points behind leaders Inter and only 2 behind Juventus and saying the word Scudetto shouldn't be
met with laughter.
Despite the plethora of Champions League games available to me this week I flicked my sports
channel over to the game in Milan to see whether the Milanistas could re-create their spectacular
victory in the Bernabeu two weeks ago. And, despite their failure to upset the football betting
odds and re-enact their Madrid heroics following 90 scrappy but passionate minutes, there were
still signs that they have turned the corner.
A few nice goals this week, but nothing extraordinary. Giuseppe Mascara scored one of his
trademark wonder-goals, and Marco Borriello got back on the scoresheet with 2 goals (the second a
nice scissor kick) after almost a year. Diego Milito got back to his scoring ways as well after
being absent through injury, and Mirko Vucinic finally scored his first goal of the season.
Napoli won vs. Juventus in Torino for the first time since November 20, 1988, when Maradona's
Napoli won 5-3. Since then, there had been 11 wins and 5 ties, and Napoli hadn't scored in Torino
since March of 1998. This Napoli side has been rejuvenated under Walter Mazzarri, and they have
shown they have a never say die attitude that keeps them working for the full 90 minutes.
Although we are only 10 games into the season, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar is starting to look more and
more like a big flop. 15 million euro were spent on the Dutch striker, and even if he reaches 5
goals this season it would seem like a big achievement. Sure you can say that he needs time to
adapt to a new style of play, new language, new culture, but it's already November almost and we
still have not seen Huntelaar's name on the score sheet.
With the biggest game probably being at the Artemio Franchi between Fiorentina and
Napoli, Serie A did not present too much interest this weekend. However Sampdoria were hoping that
Inter would drop points to jump above them to the top the table. Juventus needed a change in
fortunes after not winning in four while AC Milan wanted to continue their two
game winning streak against Chievo.
I didn't put up a Weekend Round-up yesterday because I figured with the midweek round tomorrow,
it would be pointless to update everything twice. So we'll dive in straight to Goals of the Week.
Not as great as last week, but still some good goals, especially Daniele Mannini's one-time volley
vs.
The former Italy defender wasn't the only hero for Milan at Chievo, but the other one would have
been far harder to predict. Milan saved by Alessandro Nesta's brilliance and an unlikely helping hand. Click to continue reading...
One of Milan's prominent Uncle Dudes (from the Pippo Inzaghi gang),
Alessandro Nesta, scored a double against Chievo to help the Rossoneri win the
game 2-1 last night. Obviously, Borriello was too busy practising his model-like
poses upfront.
Inter, Sampdoria, Juventus, Palermo, Fiorentina and AC Milan all won this weekend to raise the
stakes for the mid-week matches: Genoa v. Fiorentina, Napoli v. AC Milan, Juventus v. Sampdoria,
and Inter V. Palermo (29th). Clear your schedule Wednesday and Thursday for some great
calcio.
A late brace by the most unlikely Alessandro Nesta assured Milan all three points in a highly
entertaining affair in Verona. Chievo took an early lead through Giampero Pinzi just seven minutes
into the match and despite Milan pushing hard in response for the equaliser, it took until the 81st
minute for Milan to restore [. Click to continue reading...
Is the Bernabeu triumph a sign of what we can expect from now on this season? Tomorrow nights clash
against the Chievo will answer this question to some degree. What we do know however is that Milan
will enter this clash with a new found confidence and unity that was missing in the earlier stages
[.. Click to continue reading...
This is going to be a good goals of the week post. There are many nice goals, and in particular
the goals from Stankovic and Dessena are awesome to watch. Goals after the jump.
Dejan Stankovic vs. Genoa Stankovic notices that Amelia makes an error on the clearance and moves
to the right, hitting the ball on the volley from way out and it sailed over Amelia and into the
net.
The picture on the left is the photo sequence of Dejan Stankovic's 54 meter long strike vs Genoa
on Saturday. Marco Amelia messed up his clearance, and Stankovic coordinated a beautiful volley
that sailed over Amelia and bounced into the net. Goals from midfield are always nice to look
at.
Sorry I didn't get up a weekend round-up yesterday, it was a really busy day. However I don't
want to disrupt the weekly order so I'll go straight to Goals of the Week. Last week was probably
the worst goals of the week post of all time. I think this week made up for it with some quality
strikes.
I'm just going to throw it out there: this might be the worst goals of the week post of all
time. Nothing spectacular at all this weekend, most goals were very plain and ordinary. Of the 18
goals scored this weekend, about 3 are top goal worthy. But let's see this week's goals of the week
(hoping that Giornata 7 brings us better ones):
Sampdoria are top of the table alone for the first time in 18 years. A week ago I wrote an
article saying that Sampdoria could be the surprise of the season, and right now that hypothesis is
still holding up. While it's almost impossible for them to win the scudetto and considering the
fact that Gigi Del Neri's teams usually suffer a drop in form after the winter break, they should
be challenging for a spot in Europe next season, whether that be Europa League or Champions League
that remains to be seen.
I always like to watch videos of bloopers, and this time I've found a Serie A blooper video from
the early 2000's. Always entertaining, and it includes a mistake from Buffon!! (how often do you
see those?)
Video after the jump.
And since we're on the topic of Buffon mistakes, here's another one I remember from a couple of
years ago:
Despite having a strong U-21 side, Italy's other youth national teams don't really have a
glorious history. All of Italy's youth focus is directed to the U-21 team, and you never hear
anything about the other sides. In addition, besides the U-21 team Italy's youth sides have never
really won anything, despite participating at many tournaments.
Lots of goals scored this week, with only one 0-0 draw (Napoli-Udinese) and many teams scoring
3+ goals. There were some nice ones this week. Goals after the jump.
Emanuel Rivas vs. Atalanta - The Bari midfielder scores a nice opening goal. Dribbles to the
center and unleashes a laser strike from around 20 yards out.
Here are the fixtures for the 2009/2010 Serie A season. Come back often for more updates about the
Italian Serie A league. It should be a great season. Wednesday, 23 September 2009 Atalanta v
Catania, 19:45 Bari v Cagliari, 19:45 Bologna v Livorno, 19:45 Fiorentina v Sampdoria, 19:45 Inter
Milan v Napoli, 19:45 Lazio v Parma, 19:45 Palermo OFF Roma, 19:45 Siena v Chievo, [. Click to continue reading...
