Even at La Scala Del Calcio, it’s not over till the Fat Lady sings. Or is it?

If last week the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium in Milan had provided the setting for even the most reserved of Serie a enthusiasts to get a little excited about their league, this week’s Sunday night installment at the San Siro served up as much of an enthralling spectacle albeit with an ominous, sobering twist. And wouldn’t you just know it, like anything with a twist, I guess, it could have been all so different.

For while the last seven days one could have been forgiven for getting all dizzy about a Slimmer Ron, a Duck and using KAPARO like it’s really a word, the next seven could have easily been devoted to stout veteran Couto, the glory of Gasbarroni and more importantly a first Inter loss of the current campaign. As it was 1-2 down with three minutes left, Ibra happened. Again. Tucking in a penalty to equalize and then dispatching a Julio Cruz cross from the right with his annoyingly typical flourish for a 3-2 finish. Cruz and Ibrahimovic. The Argentine and Swede have been perennial
party poopers this year for anyone else who dared to dream and just like big, fat, laughing bullies kicking down the sand castle you spent hours working on, they went and did it again.

If Parma were hoping at the beginning of the evening, they were positively hopping at the end of it. The penalty was harsh. Fernando Couto making a goal line clearance first with his head but ultimately with his arm as replays subsequently showed. Parma looked good however and when they’ve calmed down they will be able to take a lot from their efforts. Couto and Rossi were impressive at the back, Dessena and Cigarini in midfield were a throwback to the Ranieri-inspired rise to safety that Parma enjoyed in the latter part of last season. Gasbarroni too is a burgeoning talent and looked like he was going to be the hero there for a while after his splendid free kick put Parma 2-1 ahead. He did waste a couple of late counter attacks that seem very important now in retrospect, but with the gloriously unpredictable Reginaldo, workhorse Corradi and now comrade Cristiano Lucarelli back from the cold (literally, he has just joined from Shakhtar Donetsk) in attack – they should have enough to stay safe this time also.

Good to see Lucarelli back in Serie a, one of the league’s enduring characters and good to see another Sunday night cracker in Serie a, but if seven days ago was a precious glimpse into the future of Italian football, this week was a potent reminder of who rules the roost for now.

In any event, here’s to the second half of the season.

-Ross Howard

Like a duck in a thunderstorm

Give Alexandre Pato credit. He has said all the right things, he has impressed all the right people and tomorrow he’ll be introducing himself to the rossoneri faithful after almost 5 months in the shadows. The kid, likened to a young Ronaldo when he was at Cruzeiro (listen to our interviews, you’ll hear the most interesting comments), one who will score 30 goals by this June.Let’s take a step back folks. The kid is no saviour. Yet.<br>Alexandre Rodrigues da Silva from Pato Branco (that’s why he’s got the nickname) has played 26 times for Brazilian club Internacional of Porto Alegre.

Inter. . . how ironic and, yes as usual, like that broken toy that talks aloud when nobody even touched him, Inter honcho Massimo Moratti said yet again, “Pato? We could’ve had him too!” Well, Pato scored 5 goals at the South American Youth Championships to help qualify Brazil for the Olympics. He helped Inter to the Brazilian Sub-20 Championship, the Recopa Sudamericana, and led them to the 2006 Fifa Club World Cup title beating the European champs Barcelona: a game that he was taken off in if memory serves me correct, and one that he had little to measure himself by.

Still, the kid can play. He’s a phenomenal talent and the sort of player that the Milanistas have been craving for, dying for as they’ve seen one talented South American player after another travel across the courtyard to the nerazzurri side of town.Calm down folks. He just barely turned 18. Kaka was two years older than Ducky when he reached Milano in 2003, and didn’t crack the starting lineup until a month later. Ricky started off slow, playing comfortably in a five man midfield just behind Shevchenko as a trequartista and alongside Pirlo, Gattusso and the like. Alex won’t have that luxury.

Sure, he’ll have Kaka and whatever the club can squeeze out of O Fenomeno, but this isn’t your older brother’s Milan (let alone your dad’s). He’ll do well. He might even score that brace that he predicted against Napoli tomorrow, but he can’t do it alone. There is no midseason Brazilian miracle for Milan this year, unless it also come with the names Lucio, Ronaldinho, Amauri and Dida attached.Well, maybe not Dida.

Merry Christmas

I’m sorry if it offends anyone, I was going to say Happy Holidays but I’ve always felt odd saying it, as if I was an outsider, but you know what, too bad. Last week was Hanukkah and next week will be Kwanzaa and the next time you know it’ll be Ramadan or Easter 0r Passover and I’m always conscious of my friend’s celebrations, and sometimes I’ll be honest that I’m going through the motions with my own, but this year I’m holding on for dear life. I’d tell you what my life is like, but it’d sound too much like a telenovela and you wouldn’t believe me. Needless to say if I had a truck and/or a dog, I’d sound like a Country and Western song.

But, even so I’m a spiritual person, a Catholic if you want to get me to open up some, my grandparents were from Salamanca, my allegiances are in Barcelona if you want a football context. RCD Espanyol yes, but if you look at our neighbors Barca : there’s a red and white cross on their badge. There’s a cross on the AC Milan badge, and the Parma shirt and there are at least 11 clubs in the top flight of Italy who have some sort of Christian symbolism to their heritage. No matter where you look, you are going to find a badge, a kit, or a flag that offends someone.

I’m aware of history, and the Crusades that split the world in two more than a thousand years ago, but the symbols that our football clubs are using, are cheap imitations, just shadows of their original meaning. Does anyone but a Milanista know that the cross on Milan’s badge and Inter’s shirt is NOT the St. George’s cross on the England shirt, but the crest of St. Ambrose who was the patron saint and first bishop of Milan? Does it matter that the same cross is on the royal seal of the Kingdom of Aragon in Spain that once ruled over parts of Spain and Italy?

Nah, I don’t care either. Frankly, what happened 500 to 1,000 or more years ago has little to do with what is happening today. These ancient images that people toss around have developed new contexts, new meanings, and in this case have more to do with the fact that Inter Milan beat a Turkish football team on the field, than what happened on a battlefield in Palestine in the 12th century. The Nerazzurri wore a slightly modified emblem of the city crest, one large red cross on a white background, and one particularly irate fan, a lawyer in fact, is suing the club for damages and one thousand years of social distress leading back to the Crusades. What he’s really angry with is the loss on the field, or else he wouldn’t be suing to get the result overturned.

I’m no fan of the past history of my Church, let alone the recent history, but no terrestrial institution is without fault. We could look at the socio-political and religious significance of the Fenerbahce crest, the Besiktas slogan, or the Galatasaray colors, and how they would be offensive to a Christian or a Jew, and yes I did research them, but it’s not important.

The cross, the crescent, the shield, the badge: all of these symbols have a Christian or Muslim or Jewish origin. Actually they were all symbols of pagan religions from centuries before monotheism, they were adapted to suit the needs of the new religion, and they have all changed over time. They will ALL offend someone at sometime or another. No one said this life would be freely inoffensive. Deal with it.
Merry Christmas.

Jesus belongs to Kaka’

Our friend Sheridan Bird recently wrote a great article on Ricky Kaka’, check it out here; great we’ll wait, and when you get back we can start the post all over again.

Now, I wouldn’t say this is a direct response to that article, but it did get me thinking. There is a dearth of talent in Serie A, a league that in my lifetime had the likes of Maradona, Ronaldo, Vieri, Baggio, Del Piero, Totti, Gullit, Van Basten and a slew of others in their prime, and the cupboard does look bare, especially for the sort of young talent that is inspirational and charismatic.

Other leagues have them, those young players that are known by one name, C.Ronaldo or Cesc in England and Robinho or Messi in Spain; in fact Barcelona is loaded to the gills with the sort of inspirational young talent, from Krkic to Gio Dos Santos, not to mention their older counterparts Xavi and Iniesta.

Why then is the Serie A in such dire straights? Is Kaka’ the only one, and as Sheridan says, what of Serie A if Milan fail to qualify for the Champions League and Ricky takes a Spanish holiday?

I wouldn’t worry too much. You could resort to the “It’s cyclical, everything that’s down, comes back up again”, but it goes deeper than that. The big clubs, the ones that don’t rebuild but just reload, all have transition periods where older players are led off to pasture, like Beckham leaving and ultimately giving his place to a lanky kid from Madeira, or Viera forced out so that a cheeky genius from Barcelona could find his place in North London. Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United have found their talismanic young players. Thierry Henry and Patrick Viera had to leave so that Robin Van Persie and Cesc Fabregas could shine. Paul Scholes and Ruud Van Nistelrooj made way for Rooney and Ronaldo, and Ronaldinho and Raul have seen their respective clubs look to younger talismans. Barcelona and Real Madrid have both begun the process of pushing out the dead weight to make way for their home-grown or imported gems.

In contrast, Italian clubs like Juve, Roma, Inter and Milan have all been reluctant historically to give their youngsters the keys to the Ferrari. Look at the case of Yoann Gourcuff of Milan. Highly respected at Rennes, and starting to draw attention for France, he plays in cup matches and in injury time for the rossoneri. What gives?

Which World Cup winner do you replace in that side? Pirlo or Gattuso are irreplaceable, even Seedorf is still productive, and even Ambrosini and Brochi have their place; all parts of a well oiled machinie. Things will change however. There will come a time that the shadow of Totti, Del Piero, Inzaghi, or Pirlo won’t hide the brilliance of the younger generation.

Italians like Lavezzi from Napoli, Rosina from Torino, Pazzini and Montolivo in Firenze, De Rossi and Aquilani in Rome, and Palladino and Nocerino at Juve, all will one day be the focal points for their teams. South Americans like Alexandre Pato, Ever Banega, Falcao Garcia, and many others, have already shown interest in leaving for Europe. With places at the big clubs in England and Spain taken by their slightly older brethren, will the next generation of great and inspirational players go to Italy first? One can only hope.