Inter the strongest, Catania the nice surprise, AS Roma the team playing best football, AC Milan the most unsatisfying. These are the results of a survey by a press agency that asked to almost all Serie A coaches their opinion on some questions about 2006.

In particular, they were asked to point out:
1) The strongest team, the nice and the bad surprise.
2) Which team played best football?
3) Players in the spotlight
4) In which percentage “Calciopoli” influenced this season?
5) Will new referees’ inexperience influence this season?

According to most of them Inter Milan is the strongest team, except five coaches that pointed out AS Roma, including Inter coach Roberto Mancini. Catania is a newcomer, but the Sicilians are now fighting for a Champions League spot and they still have to play the match vs Empoli, postponed for bad ground conditions. That’s why the majority of coaches consider Catania the team that did good beyond expectation.

On the contrary, AC Milan is the team that did worse than reasonable expectations, though Ancelotti didn’t give an answer to that (he knows AC Milan had a very bad first half, but everybody there is already in low spirits and he doesn’t want to make things worse). AC Parma’s Pioli honestly says his team was very bad. For almost all coaches AS Roma is the team showing best football (but Mancini says Lazio), while according to them there are two players in the spotlight: Quagliarella (UC Sampdoria) and elder forward Riganò, Messina.

Except for Mancini and Guidolin (Palermo), who don’t answer, Calciopoli scandal is influencing the season for more than 50%, especially because of Juventus’ absence and other teams’ penalization. Only one coach, Arrigoni (Livorno), says it was a real catastrophe just because fans are loosing their faith in football.

At the end, according to the totality of managers, referee’s inexperience won’t influence the season: maybe they can make mistakes, but they won’t privilege anybody in particular.
Please forgive us for all this little talk about nothing, but Serie A will restart only on January 13th! ;)

PS I wish a great 2007 to all Olè Olè guys!

Christmas is just round the corner, but the season is intense and players will join their families only this evening, after day 18 in Serie A. Kick off is at 3pm everywhere, so unusual in these years of pay-tv, and this has the taste of a time when people could only listen to the radio great speakers as Sandro Ciotti and Enrico Ameri. Then, at 6 pm, everybody was watching “90° minuto” on the TV, with the highlights of all the matches.

Really, we’re not so nostalgic, anyway we like to remember a way to live football in the past, especially from the media point of view. Recently, we also had a couple of books celebrating this legendary TV show, “Quando c’era 90° minuto” (Once upon a time 90° minuto) by Antonio Dipollina, and “Il meglio di 90° minuto” (The best of 90° minuto). The peculiarity was that highlights were not commented by Sport-Journalists, but by reporter of the local office of Italian public TV. Necessarily, they were also fans of the local team, and some times they were sending each other messages as if they were ultras or something similar.

After two decades, we look back with tenderness, and we’re conscious that -despite many people say they are disgusted by modern football- evolution and progress is always welcome. Personally, I am absolutely happy about media coverage of football events now, and it’s not because of the overdose of football on TV if we have less people going to the stadium. Maybe here in Italy we could improve stadiums architecture, making them similar to the English ones, while now they are uncomfortable and dangerous.

Ok, I was almost forgetting that this afternoon there is day 18 in Serie A. So, let’s say that new “Winter Champion” Inter would like to finish 2006 with a win, but Atalanta is a test-bed for Mancini’s boys, especially for the absence of Ibrahimovic, Materazzi, Samuel, Cordoba. 20 y.o. defender Marco Andreolli could be in the starting 11. Atalanta is a newcomer but they play a very good football. AS Roma faces Cagliari at home, AC Milan has Udinese away after doping scandal of its forward Marco Borriello, suspended by FIGC, waiting for counter analysis. Siena-Palermo, Reggina-Empoli, Fiorentina-Messina, Catania-Sampdoria, Ascoli-Chievo, Parma-Lazio and Livorno-Torino are the other matches.

Three games in a week, then the longest stop we’ve ever seen in serie A between Dec. 24th to Jan 14th. This evening we’re in the middle of the “Tour de Force”, with Inter Milan and AS Roma away for very dangerous matches. In particular, it won’t be easy for Inter at Stadio Olimpico in Rome. The Nerazzurri has a very bad tradition against SS Lazio, its “bete noir”. They lost twice a scudetto there at the very last game, in 1935 and 2002, with the same score: 4-2. Inter fans don’t forget Ronaldo seated on the bench after the substitution, sobbing like a baby, on that damned 5th of May.

Today it’s another Inter, not only for technical characteristics but also for its strength of mind. Even Adriano’s delay last Monday, when he didn’t show up in the morning training session, something that would have created a case last year, has been tolerated by coach Mancini. So, the Brazilian striker is in today’s match list. SS Lazio is in good shape, after its win in Rome derby the Biancocelesti drew in Livorno (but they deserved to win) and still want to confirm the tradition: last win at the Olimpico for Moratti’s team is dated March 3rd, 1996: 1-0 with an own goal by Alessandro Nesta. Will Inter invert the course? Mancini, former Lazio player and coach, hopes so.

Another “Stadio Olimpico”, this time in Turin, is the stage of the second most important match of day 17, Torino-AS Roma. The Turinese, after a bad beginning of season, has marked 13 points in last six games, drawing only with Milan away. Coach Zaccheroni is very experienced, and President Cairo did well leaving him at his place,even when everybody was asking his dismissal. Young star Alessandro Rosina is new idol for the Granata fans. It won’t be easy also for AS Roma, despite the good match Sunday night (4-0 to Palermo). By the way, for January transfers session the Giallorossi have signed Francesco Tavano, on loan from Valencia.

Elsewhere, Palermo can take its revenge, playing home against taillight Ascoli, AC Milan needs an important success facing outsider Catania (the Sicilian are fourth, fighting for UCL qualifying). Atalanta vs Udinese, Messina vs Parma, Chievo vs Reggina, Sampdoria vs Livorno, Empoli vs Siena (a Tuscany derby) and Cagliari vs Fiorentina complete day 17. We just hope this evening we won’t see all referees’ mistakes as last Sunday, when everybody (players, coaches, executives) made a scene for everything.

Living in Rome without being a fan of Roma or Lazio allows you to see things with neutral eyes. The very first time you meet someone, be sure he (or she) will ask you “Which football team do you support?”, and will behave towards you depending on your answer. Of course, if you are –for example- an Inter Milan or a Juventus fan, they will try to make you change your mind and –if you won’t- they’ll look at you with a little compassion, never involving you in football discussions. Except if you come from another part of Italy.

The week before the derby , everywhere you go you can hear people of any age, sex, classes talk about Totti’s ankle or Lazio coach Rossi saying he will dive into a famous fountain if his team wins.
AS Roma fans, as usual, claim they’re Rome first team, and say Lazio fans are “burini”, meaning they all come from the countryside in the surroundings of the capital, while “true Romans” are 100% yellow and red. On the contrary, Lazio fans are claiming they are the first team in Rome, as Lazio was founded in 1900, while AS Roma came out of the merger of three different football teams, in 1927. Well, this is just a sample of the way people live the moments before the most important match of the year.

Then, one hour before the kick-off, streets are empty: people are inside the Olympic Stadium or watching the game on TV, at home or in one of the many pubs in the city. The only voice you can hear is the TV commentator’s one, unless nothing important happens. But when someone scores, obviously people shout or curse.

Yesterday, it happened that SS Lazio won 3-0, and this is not usual. Consider that in 2000, when Lazio won the scudetto, they lost 4-1, and Roma scored its 4 goals in 25 minutes. So, you can imagine this morning in offices, pubs, supermarkets: you could see someone smiling and showing 3 fingers to an angry friend of his, and in some popular quarters small groups of old men shouting and arguing. Be sure that this goes on until April 29th, when AS Roma may have its revenge in the second derby of the season.

PS: last night coach Rossi really dived into the fountain, with 10°C…

Just two weeks ago, Serie A footballers Francesco Flachi (Sampdoria) and Moris Carrozzieri (Atalanta) played their first official match after a two months ban for illegal betting. Now, another scandal is throwing a shadow on Italian football, whose credibility has been weakened last summer by the biggest match-fixing scandal in its history.

Public prosecutors in Udine (North-East) are investigating 21 players and former players for illegal betting, some of them quite famous such as World Champion Vincenzo Iaquinta (Udinese), Australian goalie Zeljko Kalac and Czech defender Marek Jankulovski (Milan), and Palermo striker David Di Michele. The earthquake epicentre seems to be a special newsstand in Udine, where its owner –Armando Zamparo- keeps a personal computer and a fax: some of top bets came from there and passed through British agency Eurobet UK (but the agency managers say those bets were fake).

As some players bet on their own team’s matches (on February 2005 Di Michele bet on Udinese-Inter as he used to play with the “bianconeri”) , we might also have another case of match fixing. And everybody wants to know who’s behind the nickname “Valle Maria” that won 40.000 Euros betting 100.000 on Reggina-Bologna (1-1, 8th May 2005).

So, while we’re waiting for the results of Public prosecutors’ investigation, probe has been handed over to FIGC (Italian Football Association) prosecutors. Some of these players run the risk of being banned for one year, though most of illegal bets took place before November 2005, when FIGC introduced more severe penalties with a minimum ban of 18 months.

This is not the first time that happens: in 1980 a match fixing caused relegation to AC Milan, and elder people remember policemen handcuffing some players outside the stadiums after Serie A matches. Then, some other small scandals happened, until last summer’s match fixing known as “Calciopoli”.

Though footballers bet “from time immemorial”, we don’t want football to become something similar to wrestling, where nothing is true. And we don’t want it like if it was a big Palio, the ancient horse racing that happens twice a year in Siena (Tuscany), where corruption is legal. It’s more and more difficult to believe that football is a game, we understand it’s a big business, and that’s why we hope there will be heavy punishment to all those people that –if proven guilty- makes football a “dirty business”.

Looking at “Renzo Barbera” Stadium in Palermo, and all the streets around at about 7 pm, it was clear that Palermo-Inter would have been the main event in the long history of the “pink and black” team. Unfortunately for Palermo, the match was the most beautiful of the season, but Inter deserved the victory even more than it was at the end (2-1).

After Juventus' relegation, there are four teams that can compete with the Milanese in a single match: AS Roma, AC Milan, Fiorentina and Palermo. Well, it has been 12 points for the “nerazzurri” against them and – except for the derby - all matches were away. Tonight, in front of about 40,000 in attendance, with no empty seats and viewers in more than 180 countries watching the game on TV, Palermo was one of the starts in a spectacular “Sunday Night” match. Mancini made the surprising choice of playing Adriano ahead of Crespo. Cruz and Dacourt for Inter, and Biava and Di Michele for Palermo were injured, and among the Sicilians' starting 11 was the young defender Paolo Hernan Dellafiore, an Italo-Argentinean that Palermo signed last Summer, coming from Inter in exchange for Grosso.

After six minutes, Ibrahimovic shot from 30 meters and Palermo’s goalie Fontana (four years at Inter) made a big mistake, letting the ball pass under his hip: 1-0 for Inter. Palermo is suffering, and Inter have incredible ball possession, and then Adriano, after a chip pass from Ibra, comes very close to scoring the second goal, but his strike is out. Minute 45, a cross from the left, a header by Bresciano, and Amauri scores with a volley that hits the goal-post and goes in: 1-1. Maybe Materazzi could have been closer to the Brazilian striker, but his mistake is just a spot on his perfect first half. In the beginning of second half, the two scorers have to leave for an injury, Crespo and Caracciolo replace them. Adriano shows that, when he plays for the team and not for himself, he’s the valuable player we used to know. The problem is that, after his long absence, he cannot run for 90 minutes, but the injury of Ibra complicated Mancini’s plan.

Materazzi hits the same goal-post of Amauri, but he’s not as lucky as him and Corini saves on the line. An Inter counter-attack gives a new advantage to the “nerazzurri” at minute 60’ with French captain Vieira. Palermo is KO, but in the last five minutes Inter suffers and Caracciolo hits another goal-post, but it’s not enough and Inter wins. The MVP is Dejan Stankovic: a wall, not a midfielder!
Now the ranking says: Inter 33, Roma 29, Palermo 27.

Sampdoria-Roma in the name of Totti. The AS Roma captain runs twice with a thumb in his mouth (his way to exult for a goal after his baby’s birth) to celebrate his double to Sampdoria. The “blucerchati” just try to resist, but at halftime Roma is already ahead 3-1, with its leader in a very good shape. Final score is 4-2 for the “red and yellow” team. Everybody in “Ferraris Stadium” clapped to Totti’s second goal (a fantastic volley from the left), even Sampdoria fans: after today’s match the discussion about his refusal to play for Italian National Team is still open. In fact, Totti dedicated his two goals to Platini and Matarrese (Italian League Chairman) that recently criticized his choice. We think that – though National Team should not be refused by anybody - Totti has the right to say no, but at the same time coach Donadoni has the right not to call him once he’s ready. Anyway, now AS Roma is second in the Serie A rankings, and nobody could bet a single Euro for the final win of a third team which is not Inter Milan or Roma.

After the “Calciopoli” scandal, that sent Juventus to “Serie B” and gave an 8 point penalty to AC Milan, everybody claimed Inter Milan would be the team to win the Italian League. The overall opinion is that only AS Roma of World Champions Totti, De Rossi and Perrotta can cause problems to the “nerazzurri”, while all other teams will fight for third place.

On the contrary, after day 12 Inter is on the top with 9 wins and 3 draws, but on the second step of the podium we don’t find the Romans, but the “pink & black” jerseys of Palermo, just 3 points below Mancini’s team. Obviously “Renzo Barbera” Stadium is sold out for Palermo-Inter, the main game of day 13 scheduled for tomorrow, November 26th at 3pm (GMT +1): 850.000 Euros at the box office, a record for Palermo! Everybody is crazy, and the 37,000 seats capacity of the stadium won’t be enough to satisfy the huge amount of requests from the whole Sicily, and the rest of Southern Italy. No problem, it will be possible to follow the match live in two different pay TV Stations (Sky and Mediaset) and a couple of Web TVs.

Inter went through the “Final 16” of the Champions League last Wednesday, after winning a home match against Sporting Lisbon, while Palermo has been heavily defeated by Fenerbache, in a UEFA Cup match where its main players took a rest. Missing tomorrows match because of a "red card", just midfielder Fabio Simplicio played in Istanbul. Chairman Zamparini gave the media a very optimistic forecast: "Palermo will win 4-1" he said. On the other side, World Champion Fabio Grosso keeps a good memory of the two years spent in Sicily, but now he wants to win at Inter. By the way, the Milanese team, after being assigned the "Scudetto" by the Italian FA last July because of the relegation of Juventus, has quickly become the most hated one in the country, replacing the "black and white" of Turin. That's why everybody but the Inter fans root for Palermo tomorrow. Especially people around Juventus - like Del Piero - hope that finally the Sicilians will win the championship. Coach Guidolin says "thanks", but we bet he is not thinking of the “scudetto”, focusing just on the match vs. Inter. Will David defeat Goliath tomorrow? Let’s wait and see…