Well that was fun. Horrible pitch, some bad challenges, and a few sketchy incidences. All in all, I think our guys did a good job away in Bergamo and deserved the three points here. Atalanta looked quite threatening after Vieri's goal but we managed to hold our back line nicely and regain some valuable possession. Ranieri got his Christmas present early as Juventus keep pace with Intermerda at the top of the table as the fat man rolls into town and we take a break for the holidays.
Anyone here think Amauri's heading ability alone is worth his +€20 million price tag? I mean the man is unstoppable in the air. The more Lippi watches, the more he'll realize what he stands to gain. Especially since Ranieri loves wing play and Marchionni and De Ceglie keep pumping in those accurate crosses. We can ride this strategy all year long... I feel like having some fish and chips all of a sudden. As alessio mentionned before, Marchionni is so great at making space for his crosses. Right foot or left, he'll bend it in.
Legro got on the score sheet too with a nice header off of a corner. Great form by our centre-back throwing his ass into it ahahaha. Del Piero got one too off of a nice low searching cross by Marchionni who, after I reviewed the tape, was unfortunately in an offside position after Momo slid in a dirty through-ball. Thankfully Amauri's header bailed us out though. Speaking of Momo, playing in Italy was a good move for him to grow his game. Look, he got nut-megged hard today for a great example of why it's so important that you stay on your feet in Italy. He'll need to keep this up or he'll always have his doubters.
Ahhh what else? Here's what I want for Christmas:
- Improved defending on set-pieces.
- More team discipline when we find ourselves stuck matching our opponent's style of play.
- A healthy squad to start the new year.
So now we wait until the eleventh of January until we play Siena to kick off the second half of the season. It goes Siena, Lazio, Fiorentina, Udinese. Boy how important was it that we went into this break on a high note? Terribly so I think. Last season our title hopes were lost as we began the first couple months of the new year flat-footed. Thirteen points in the first nine games in fact. This year we can't make the same mistake obviously. Ranieri needs to keep these guys in check over the break, maybe have a team Chris Cringle or something but then it's back to two-a-days dammit.
IERI... OGGI... DOMANI... SEMPRE JUVE!!!