Milan 1 Juventus 1

By: Gianfranco | May 11th, 2009

Oh the things I could say…

-Did Iaquinta push Flamini on his goal…sure…
-Did Favalli get a soft red…sure…
-Did Pato get pulled down in the box right before the red…sure…
-Funny how Milan and Juve draw after some dubious calls which is exactly what Inter needed…

Now if you are looking for me to elaborate on those points, than you haven’t learned anything from me in the past two years. I can fill you with cliches to bring my point home: “that’s why the ball is round”, “that’s why you play the game”, or “all these calls even out in the end”. As we have learned many times in the past, if you score the goals needed to win, than bad calls don’t do affect you. If you score goals nothing affects you, momentum is on your side and your opponents are buried, plain and simple.

What we should say is Milan didn’t play well enough to earn three points, but on the flip side neither did Juventus. It was a classic grudge match, hard fought, well challenged, and like last year’s nil-nil draw really lacked a player or players willing to push their team the extra mile. Kaka, Pato, and even Pippo were non influential. Seedorf was a mess, and Beckham was lost space, even Ronaldinho tried admirably hard to no avail. Where the defenses that good? Were midfielders that commanding? Nope on both fronts, it was two teams not able to create many quality chances and struggling to find rhythm or groove.

Credit to Ranieri for sticking to his guns and earning a very hard fought point. Cries for ADP and Gio at the start went by the wayside, as the lineup was bruising in an attempt to out muscle Milan. Carletto countered with Flamini’s pace at right back, Seedorf alonside Kaka, and Pippo up top, a lineup that has done well in the past weeks, but not on this day. As the game wore on Carletto tried to inject pace, but yet again Ranieri’s seemingly immovable object stood strong with Pato and Kaka being suffocated from any form of positive movements.

As I watched this game I descended into some strange fog, I was watching but not really enthralled, almost out of body, as I watched two teams really struggle for possession, but also for something else something more. Like two old prize fighters punching their way through a match more because than had to than because they wanted to win, an almost surreal feeling of two teams who had come into this game with very different circumstances, but both knowing and feeling that it was somehow some symbolic end. Even the ever calm Maldini seemed to be aware of this external force as he grabbed Chiellini by the neck, an outburst the likes of which I have never seen from our Captain.

Then moments later as Paolo helped up ADP and embraced him I almost felt as though the game was no longer as significant as the potential loss of two of Calcio’s greatest stars weighed heavily, and two teams on the threshold of a new beginnings. Granted Carletto may stay and Ranieri may go, but after Inter’s fourth straight scudetto, second if you really want to split hairs, both Milan and Juventus are in for change. It ended in a draw, but it ends in a far different circumstance…