While Italian football provides excellent quality and entertainment on the pitch, we all know
that it equally provides excellent quality and entertainment off the pitch. The crazy owners, the
fights in the media between opposing managers and directors, the outbursts in press conferences,
and all that other great stuff that keeps us entertained during the week.
How great it was to have Serie A back after the winter break. I missed my weekly calcio fix.
Roma-Milan highlighted the return of Serie A. Both teams desperate for the 3 points, as Roma wanted
to inch closer to the top half of the table and Milan wanted to get closer to Juventus and
Inter.
After a day full of tension, Berlusconi announced late today that Kaka will be staying at Milan
and that he closed the deal himself. So Milan fans everywhere can now breathe a sigh of relief
(unless you were in favor of him leaving). We'll see what happens over the next few days though.
Regarding Serie A, we are now officially at the half-way point.
Funny sign caught in the stands this week. It says "To the Sheik, if you want Kaka now
you'll have to eat prunes." I thought that was pretty clever and funny. The midweek round
was supposed to be Milan and Juventus' chance to catch Inter as they had a difficult away tie in
Catania.
And so, with Serie A starting up again this weekend, the second half of the season begins
(although technically it begins January 25th when the girone di ritorno begins). I thought
it would be a good idea to give each team a grade for their efforts so far. Serie A has been very
interesting this season and has provided us with some top quality football to gaze our eyes
upon.
Inter defeated Sampdoria 1-0 to give themselves breathing room from Juventus. It was supposed to
be the game where we would see the geniuses of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Antonio Cassano do battle,
but unfortunately both players were unavailable for selection. The game wasn't pretty, but Jose
Mourinho's squad got the job done once again, grinding out a 1-0 victory from a goal from Adriano,
who seems to be reborn.
Here we have a video compilation which shows us the best goals of the first part of the Serie A
season. Some nice goals scored so far. Video after the jump.
(I highly recommend visiting the youtube page of the video and watching it in high quality.)
What do you think has been the best goal so far?
