10 Things We Learned From Serie A This Weekend

By: chris | February 12th, 2008

David Di Michele and Aimo Diana hold grudges.

DDM was bounced from Sicily back in the summer and Diana was hurriedly shown the exit door during the January transfer window, much to the glee of Palermo fans. Diana struck back with an equalizer in the 60th minute to exact some revenge – matching his 07-08 Rosanero goal total in the process – and DDM slammed the door in their faces with a brace in the final 30. Voila, Palermo’s sloppy seconds beat up on the “first team”. Torino look increasingly like favorites to avoid the drop while…..

…….Palermo will probably be looking for a new coach soon.

Zampa and Guidolin may have an “understanding” or whatever, but Zampa would fire Jesus of Nazareth if he didn’t produce his desired results. New year stats:

Wins: 1
Losses: 5
Draws: 0
Differential: -7

All that remains before the Cagliari game this weekend is the dreaded vote of confidence. I’m sure Guidolin is already dusting off his not-all-that-dusty resume.

Milan is making next year’s Champions League.

You can pencil them into that 4th spot, maybe even the 3rd if Juventus starts to stumble. They’re still two points behind Fiorentina (with a game in hand), but Milan has at least begun to show that it can take three points regardless of performance. (But they need at least one teenager to win.)

At least one Zlatan in blue and black must score a goal each weekend.

This weekend’s Zlatan was Zlatan Muslimovic of Atalanta, who managed to score a couple of goals which could be considered just-this-side-of-beautiful. I’m sure nobody in Bergamo was complaining as the home team managed to take a mostly unexpected from la Viola and maintain their hunt for European action.

Marco Borriello wanted to mark his Azzurri debut with an encore.

And failed miserably. This video of the game against Livorno this weekend could also be considered a training reel on how to choke within 6 yards of the goal.

The football gods are being cruel to Cagliari fans.

Sure, 5 points in 3 games is a hell of an improvement versus the rest of the season; but two weeks in a row Cagliari has taken a lead – something which their fans haven’t enjoyed all that much this season – and proceeded to lose that lead a minute later. Add it to the fact that their win against Napoli came in injury time and it’s fair to say the gods don’t want to give fans any stretch of glee during the games.

Ighli Vannucchi knows free kicks.

Splendid. Simply splendid.

(The free kick was nice, too.)

A wave of intelligent substitutions ran through Serie A.

All the credit in the world goes to the gaffers of Italia this weekend. Six goals of 23 were scored by substitutes in Serie A, including two sensational subs in the form of Alberto Paloschi and Vincenzo Iaquinta. Paloschi scored on his first touch a whole 15 seconds after coming on, while Iaquinta waited just a little longer to strike a dagger into the hearts of his ex-teammates. Well done.

Ladies and gentleman, your 2008 European Championships Azzurri starting rightback.

The man’s head just knows how to find the back of the net, regardless of the angle. Not much more you can ask from an ancient RB moonlighting as a central defender.

Form your own conclusions.

As a fan of a team which isn’t from Argentina, it’s frustrating to watch Inter get an early Christmas every week. I can only imagine how the players feel after busting their asses week in, week out to see it go for naught at the hands of the referees. But I’ll say this: I have a hard time believing Inter are knowingly cheating. Nobody can be that stupid and certainly nobody could continue the trend while the masses become increasingly suspicious on a weekly basis. Is it impossible? Absolutely not. Is Inter really that arrogant? Maybe. Could a third party be involved? Sure.

What I find interesting is this: of the three most recent incidents, all have involved the wrongful input or silence from the linemen. The Couto ruling was ultimately made by the linesman, who was clearly in the wrong. The Vannucchi incident’s replays showed the linesman looking directly at a play identical to Couto’s, and after Pierluigi Collina stated this call was incorrect (not to mention likely sending out a memo or two), failed to overrule an incorrect call. The first goal against Catania on Sunday was blatantly offside, and yet the flag stayed down.

All three incidents were missed completely by the linesman. So either the quality of all officials needs to be upped significantly or we’re headed towards another tragic calcio story. Either way, calcio gets a little less exciting with each passing week, as the game is taken off the field and placed in the hands of the officials. It’s hard to be angry anymore, it’s just sad, really.