Last, but hopefully not least... A slow start to my day on the Left Coast of the world, so I was in media silence until I could watch the match on my PVR.
To start: Forza Juve!!
This really is a thrilling and a proud moment to be a juventino this season. A big win away at an archrival who recently notched up there against our only loss of the season.
But another thing... maybe I've been watching a lot of boring calcio, and of course I have my biases about the outcome of the match, but this was honestly one of the most entertaining Serie A matches I've seen in quite a while. It really lived up to its billing as game of the week. It's matches like this that prove the vitality and excitement that Serie A is capable of living up to.
And as much as I lament the underappreciation of good defensive football among fans, this match was filled with a lot of end-to-end play with attacks that often ran the full length of the pitch. Given this match and the mid-week Coppa against the Viola, I have to ask, "What gives?" We seem to play a different, more open, more creative brand of football against the Viola. Maybe Capello is just trying to underscore his (I think unwarranted) criticism of the Viola as a sort of
catenaccio with Toni thrown on top whenever the ball comes the other direction.
I was really encouraged by some of the best creativity I've seen us put together up front this season. My only major criticism is that we seemed to lack just that last bit of finishing to convert a few more of the many chances we made. This was a match where that was true on both sides... this could have been a 4-3 game if not for the missed finishing, crossbars, and generally good goalkeeping on either side.
I felt we dominated possession in the first half, and the 1-1 scoreline at the half was only a reflection of the number of opportunities we couldn't convert. And while we looked lethargic for much of the second half, I'm terribly encouraged to see us survive a few scares (a few too many to my liking in this match, IMO) and still have the fortitude to crank out the victory and three points in the end.
And the della Valle
fratelli. I love the fact that they seem to be very hands-on with the game, attend every match on the edge of the stands, and really get into it. I think this is generally good for Italian football. But at a number of this points during this match they had the dirge-like demeanor as if attending a funeral. In my imagination, they were busy watching the match, thinking, "This sucks. We're going to have to sell a hell of a lot more women's shoes and handbags to compete with these guys for the Scudetto."
Ratings:
Abbiati - 7. Say what you will, I feel that he has exactly what Gigi says he doesn't yet: a good sense for a fit with the team, an awareness of his teammates, and a good sense for the ball in play. Abbiati was sharp. He was on the ball exactly when and where he needed to be -- even if he got a lot of help from the post today. And he closed down on loose balls as well as I've seen him yet in bianconeri stripes.
Zambro - 6.5. Good game, though I still have this feeling like we're being shortchanged of his skills some as long as he is at RB. One of the things I really liked about this match was the play between he and Camo at the right, though. The two of them showed some pretty coordinated teamwork in running picks and dribbling around Viola defenders. It was like he and Camo were playing basketball at times.
Thuram - 7.5. Rock solid. And we needed it against the much taller, physical Toni. He was very smart in his play, IMO, not trying to physically outmatch his opponents (hey, he's no spring chicken) when he could outsmart them with positioning, using teammates to shield the ball, etc. And when he had to be physical, he darted his big toe in the play for the sweet tackle. Probably my MOM. You hold the
capocannoniere to zero goals and no assists, you're doing something right.
Canna - 6. Generally pretty solid. Got in a few silly altercations. But wasn't called on as much as Thuram.
Chiellini - 5.5. A couple of his downfield passes were nice, which is more than the usual ZERO. I think Capello left him in, despite his spotty play, because a) we don't have many other good options and b) always good to have a player motivated to show off in front of their former team.
Camo - 7. Camo is back! :cheesy: A couple of poor fouls. But he laid in some good crosses and played with a good physical awareness of where his teammates were on the pitch. He showed better senses at finding the open man, and he closed down when he needed to defensively on the other end. And I
love seeing him take the open shot as on that sweetly placed final game-winner. Super bonus points for the air guitar goal celebration with the corner flag.
Emerson - 7. The destroyer. He broke up a lot as usual and was again our strongest midfielder on the pitch. Some nice moves in pushing the ball forward on interceptions.
Vieria - 6. He hasn't been quite the same force he was to start the season, but overall I liked his presence out there today. Some of his long ball passes have terrific accuracy and show great down-the-field thinking, as when he caught Zlatan breaking downfield in the assist on our first goal.
Nedved - 6. He opened the match strong, IMO, with some good crossing and play in the first 5-10 minutes, but then faded. His second half was better. The good news: today was one of those matches where he didn't look like he was playing hurt, which he sometimes does.
Trezeguet - 6.5. I was disappointed by a couple of his finishes. But he was perfect on his goal, and his header assist to Camo to win the game was genius when we needed it.
Zlatan - 7. I was tempted to give him lower marks because his finishing was always so frustratingly off by a hair at the final moments when we needed it for the extra goal. But he was very aggressive in jumping the Viola defensive line to the punch, and he wreaked a lot of havoc out there. I think his chaos contributed a lot in secondary ways. Would be my MOM if he was more accurate on some of his finishing skills, though.
Capello - 6.5. This was not the shut-them-down conservatism we're used to seeing from Cap. I think he could have made some key substitutions when we started to languish a bit in the second half. But we did not play our usual game, and IMO, we did it well. Some luck, sure, but a win away at the Viola is a task no one else has been able to achieve this season (let alone a draw!).
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