Flachi and his way to exult after scoring

It has already happened in the past, and now it's again: Francesco Flachi, Sampdoria forward, has been tested positive for benzoilecgonine, a cocaine metabolite, after Sampdoria-Inter of 28yh of Jannuary, when the Genoans lost 0-2. Today is cocaine, like in 1996: at that time he had been even blamed for international drugs traffic by public prosecutor in Rome, in particular between Rome and Colombia. For Flachi there's been no peace this year, as he has already expiated a 2 months ban for illegal betting, together with his former teammate, Morris Carrozzieri (we talked about this ban here)

"The Anti-doping CONI commission -we read in a handout- on Federation of sport doctors suggestion, after advising the Federation involved, has established a case of positiveness. Rome laboratory has found, in his first sample analyzed, presence of Benzoilecgonina (metabolite of cocaine) for Francesco Flachi".
After Calciopoli, match-fixing and betting scandals, riots in Catania and games played behind closed doors, today another page in the Italian football 'black book'. World Cup's win is already a distant memory...

Inter 0, Sampdoria 0. The news is that, after a long time, Inter tonight did not win. Last draw was in Munich (Bayern-Inter, Champions League 1-1 on December 5th) . The bad news -for its opponents- is that this was a second leg of Coppa Italia semi-final, and in the first leg Inter won 3-0 in Genoa. So, for the third year the team lead by Roberto Mancini will face AS Roma that yesterday won against Milan 3-1. In the last two years Inter took the cup away, and in case of another win, it would be a record.

Tonight Inter could enter the scene with its second team, only Burdisso that usually is in “Inter 1” played tonight but just because he cannot play for the main match of the season, the third Inter-Roma of five: he is disqualified. Even 17 y.o. midfielder Francesco Bolzoni could play his first game with black and blue jersey, and also other Under 20 players like Bonucci, Maaroufi and Fautario were part of the match. There’s not so much to say about the game, except the good return of Alvaro Recoba in the final part.

At the end, we just heard Luis Figo talk again of his transfer to Saudi Arabian Al Ittihad, with a little bit of polemic statement against Mancini (“I stay here until the end of the season because Moratti asked me, I didn’t talk to the coach). Oh, we just thought that Figo leaves Inter to earn a mass of money! Mancini as well was asked about his contract, and of course he took a couple of minutes to him to say…nothing about it. At the end we think he’ll stay at Inter.

So, Inter-Roma is National cup final, but it’s also next Sunday’s match. San Siro will be full of people, last time was for the Supercup and Inter won 4-3 after being 0-3 in first half. And just Figo scored the decisive goal, that time. It’s even pointless to say that Inter could write the words “The End” for this Serie A, but Roma yesterday showed they can make it. And what about Inter tonight? Well, none of the eleven footballers we’ll see on the ground next Sunday played tonight.

Let’s stay in Milan, but on the other side: on Friday there is Ronaldo’s introduction to journalists, in a general state of coldness. No AC Milan fans went to the training centre to say “welcome” to him, and also in San Siro his old fans of Inter ignored him and went light with him. Let’s see if he’ll give to his new fans emotions and delight them. At the moment he’s still injured and in bad shape. The Rossoneri are really unlucky: today we knew that Dida has a shoulder ligament injury, he’ll be back in the middle of March: Ancelotti is forced to utilize newcomer Marco Storari, former Messina goalie, without experience in big clubs and in main competitions. And he will have to play in Champions League…oh, what a bad season for AC Milan!

It’s a good Coppa Italia edition, as we have four top teams qualified for the semi-finals. This evening in Genoa, Sampdoria and Inter Milan played their first of three matches in a week (next Sunday for Serie A day 21, and Thursday February 1st the semi-final second leg), and the Blucerchiati play with their best team. On the contrary, Mancini prefers to give a day-off to Ibra, Adriano, Maicon, Materazzi, Maxwell, Cambiasso, Vieira.

The difference between the two teams is anyway big, just consider that if Ibra and Adriano are at home, this means that forward is Hernan Crespo. And the game goes quickly to the expected direction. After Sampdoria players claim a penalty kick for a deflection with the hand by Cordoba, at 10’ a free kick by Luis Figo goes towards the far goal post: Nicolas Burdisso is the quickest and his header is lethal for Samp’s goalie.

Sampdoria tries to react, but the only thing they can do are some far shots that cannot give problems to Toldo (JC has still a bad backache). Inter on the contrary tries to come close to Zotti’s goal, and it’s again a header by an Argentinean, this time Hernan Crespo, that gives a satisfaction to Mancini. And again Luis Figo is the assist man, with his left foot. Crespo jumps above Accardi: 24 minutes, 0-2.

At half time, coach Novellino replaces Bonazzoli with Zenoni. At 3’, Inter with Crespo is close to third goal, then Sampdoria has some good chances with Quagliarella and Flachi. But it’s again Inter that scores: Figo (and who else?) beats a right-wing corner and Burdisso’s header, this time Zotti gets a hand to it but cannot save. 56 minutes, 0-3.

Well, among all records that Inter is breaking this season, there’s a defender as top scorer in a competition: this is Nicolas Burdisso, four goals in this Coppa Italia. And it’s even normal, in a team that scores a lot of goals in dead ball situations. It’s just a pity that Figo is leaving Inter, after this match where he gave 3 assists to his team-mates. Sampdoria just want to avoid a worst result, we just note the entry of young defender Bastrini and, on Inter’s side, the come-back of Julio Cruz “el jardinero”, and the entry of Belgian midfielder Maaroufi and Greek striker Choutos.

Next Thursday in San Siro in Milan, Nerazzurri probably will gain their third consecutive Coppa Italia final, while Sampdoria will try to stop Inter’s ride on Sunday night, in a Serie A match. Tomorrow, at 9,15 PM (CET) always in San Siro, AC Milan and AS Roma will fight for the other semi-final, and the result of the match will be -we’re sure- more difficult to forecast than this evening’s one.

Tonight in Serie A, Catania beat Empoli 2-1. The encounter was originally scheduled to be played back on December 16, but bad weather in the Sicilian city forced the game to be postponed. Now Catania is fourth with 29 pts., just one more that Empoli itself.

Here is first goal pic, from www.inter.it: